Friends, followers, lurkers, lend me your ears… Okay so I thought I’d do a short rant – I mean, post, on grammar. The kind you might find on Twitter or on Facebook. Mostly Facebook, I guess, because you probably wouldn’t squander one of your 140 characters on an incorrect punctuation mark, or on any punctuation mark for that matter. No, I’m not talking about shortening you to u or a missed period. That’s fine. It’s social media. I’m talking about the people you may or may not be Friends with who go out of their way to try and make it look like they’re grammar experts. The ones that try so hard and fail so miserably. It’s not misspelled words. We all make mistakes. I’m talking about the posts that think they’re so clever with their 50 word sentences broken up with semicolons instead of commas and periods. Semicolons. Professionals find rare occasions for them in NOVELS. Do you really think you need five in one sentence? The sad thing is, these people must think they do. Otherwise, why use one at all? Basically, what I guess I’m trying to say is don’t use semicolons on Facebook or Twitter because it makes you look a like a jerk*. End rant - er - post.
*My apologies to anyone who has used one correctly. Please continue to do so.
Semicolons were always viewed in my mind as being on a fence. they are neither comma nor colon. but both. Normally used (by me) when I really cannot decide which to use. Mostly I don't use anything at all and try and make a new sentance.
ReplyDeleteI think they have their purpose, but one must use them sparingly. I don't have a problem with them as a rule, it just seems silly to go out of your way to use one on facebook or twitter, sites known far and wide for their lack of grammar. I'm like you though, I usually just try to rearrange the sentence so that I don't need one.
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