Get That Punctuation. Right

It's always good to know some readers are paying attention to the finer points. This reader of China Daily complains, correctly, about the incorrect punctuation in quotes.

! ".?-:

National Punctuation Day is coming up next week. Copy editors and grammarians everywhere will be celebrating, no doubt.


From The Advocate:

By JUDITH FAIRWEATHER

Wednesday, Sept. 24, will mark the fifth anniversary of a day that warms this old copy editor's heart: National Punctuation Day.

Yup, it's another one of those odd holidays, like Grandparents Day (a conspiracy on the part of the greeting card industry to get us to buy more cards) or Bunker Hill Day (a Massachusetts state holiday that gives state workers another day off even though no one else gets to stay home).

But this one is different.

Five years ago, National Punctuation Day was created by former journalist Jeff Rubin. According to the Web site nationalpunctuationday.com, "what started as a clever idea to remind corporations and professional people of the importance of proper punctuation has turned into an everyday mission to help school children learn the punctuation skills they need to be successful in life."

Of all the holidays that could have been created, this one is one of the most needed. People today don't seem to know grammar and punctuation rules. Is the casual style of e-mail correspondence to blame? Or maybe we should point the finger at the new language of text messaging. As assistant editor of The Advocate, I have become its de facto copy editor. From what I have seen, we need to resurrect "Schoolhouse Rock," but this time place it during the morning and evening news rather than during Saturday morning cartoons.