Blog #3 Punctuation, by Julie White

Little Monsters.

Jazzlyn came into my office today. A precocious 3-year-old, she's accompanied her mother to the chiropractors office so often this summer that she owns the place. She walked over and climbed on my lap and started coloring. It wouldn't be so bad except that I'm the front desk receptionist. I thoroughly enjoy these visits. However, at times she gets in the way. At times she wears out her welcome. I have no one to blame but myself. I have created a little monster dressed in a pink, tumbling outfit and pony tails.

Many mistakes in punctuation can wear out its welcome. Repeat offenders can be so

distracting that it's difficult to follow the story line. Left unattended, sentence structure

problems can become little monsters.

My 11th “secret to writing well” is avoiding run-on sentences. Webster dictionary defines it as, “a sentence containing two or more clauses not connected by the correct

conjunction or punctuation.” Or in other words, “a sentence formed from two or more

sentences improperly joined.”

Incorrect: Boo wanted to color monsters but her mother said no.

Correct: Boo wanted to color scary punctuation monsters, but her mother said no.

Every now and then even seasoned news groups like CNN, can make punctuation errors. Earlier today I read on Facebook some negative comments made from an apparent word choice error. 

  

The problem stems over the word pore vs. pour. I also thought they misspelled the word until I checked the dictionary. In the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the word pore is defined as: pored; poring, (intransitive verb.)

1 :to gaze intently

2 :to read or study attentively -usually used with   over

3 :to reflect or meditate steadily

Unlike the phrase “pour milk over my cereal, which is clearly the wrong word meaning for the article, the word pore is used correctly. Punctuation is riddled with challenges and rules to follow that help the reader understand the message. In time, I hope we can also learn to avoid little punctuation monsters before they get out of hand.