Speech On Funny Punctuation Mistakes

In the day where technology is thriving, and the communication through email and text messages are now the common norm, there has been a steady decline and absence on the use of proper punctuation. The slow disappearance of punctuation standards, like commas and apostrophes, indicate the need for change towards the written world. Lynne Truss considers herself a stickler for punctuation, and her book, Eats, Shoots and Leaves addresses the minority of those who regard themselves as punctuation "sticklers" as well. Through the use of humor, figurative language such as relatable analogies and real life anecdotes, Lynne Truss creates a call to action for all the fellow punctuation sticklers: embrace proper punctuation, and require zero tolerance for those who use it incorrectly.

The result verified that there is evidence of a decline in grammar scores based on the number of abbreviations in their sent and received text messages (Swayne and Messer). In other words, the word abbreviations and punctuation short-cuts that famously used in text messaging can alter individuals’ ability to recognize and apply proper spelling, grammar and punctuation techniques in writing and daily life communication. If the uses of abbreviations are not controlled from the beginning, both sender and receiver of text messaging will be associated with how poorly they will perform on the test based on the level of standard literacy they have.

How often do we as employees consider our use or misuse of grammar, spelling and punctuation in the workplace? Proper usage of grammar, spelling, and punctuation results in the use of Standard English. Standard English is known as the correct form of the English language. Is our misuse of Standard English in our workplace reflecting negatively upon us? Brad Hoover, the CEO of Grammarly, says, “Companies looking to hire top talent should consider grammar as one predictor of a candidate’s aptitude and success.” (Hoover). Many people may find the use of non-standard grammar trivial however, this is not the case in a professional atmosphere. Non-Standard English in the workplace provides no benefit to either the employee or employer and has only negative consequences. The use of non-standard English in the workplace will negatively affect our communication, image, chance for promotions and even our pay in the workplace.

The apostrophe is used in many words to (ex you’re, they’re, they’ll, etc). The apostrophe was first used in the 16th century. The Greek work means “turning away”, otherwise known as omission and elision. The apostrophe, in classic texts, was used to mark dropped letters. That changed in the 17th century when they were used before the “s” in a singular possessive. The same thing happened in the 18th , when it was used for plural possessives. The apostrophe is used for singular possessives, quantity and time, dates, omission of letters, and plurals of words and

It is essential to use correct punctuation to enable the communication to be readable and easy to understand. Punctuation is used in writing to separate sentences and clarify meaning. An error in punctuation can convey an inaccurate meaning to the one intended.

--looks for inconsistencies, eg. proper nouns spelled two different ways. (Always use spell-check to help locate such inconsistencies.)

them correctly. Stephen King, the author of On Writing and many other novels, uses these a lot

there is no need or use of this punctuation. This style is very apparent in this quote as the man

Society today is quick to judge and state what is wrong and what is acceptable by the public. While some differences between Spelling Matters and Use Your Own Words are obvious, the similarities are relevant. Anne Trubek says that perhaps it is time to change or alter grammar rules to match the current generation and culture. We should advance our guidelines about what is proper and improper along with what is happening right now with the language. While Mikita Brottman says, “bad spelling can be a godsend—a way of weeding out those who are thoughtless and inattentive to detail” (p. 219).

To incorporate the quotation smoothly into the sentence, writers can use what is called an

For example, yelling at your phone or computer when it is not working properly or even when you are replying to a text or an email and you say what you are typing out loud. These are all types of apostrophe we probably use almost everyday. Apostrophe is also used all throughout the media as well, in several songs, movies, and tv shows.

Abbreviations such as lol (laugh out loud), brb (be right back), and ttyl (talk to you later) are commonly used when texting, yet are not really shown in formal writing. Students reported that text speaking formal writing. “Other students use these abbreviations and other speak text in their writing, but catches their mistakes quickly”. (Cullington 364). Supporting her research Cullington asked participants to complete questionnaires’’… the research hypothesized that texting and the use of abbreviations would have a negative impact on students. However, the results did not support their hypothesis. (Cullington 369).

Errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation can leave a negative impression on your reader. You are the one who decides whether that impression will be positive or negative.

Another quality a writer should have in his or her paper is giving examples or things that the readers would find useful and use it themselves. In William Zinsser’s “The Act of Writing: One Man’s Method”  he gives a lot of information on writing a paper and how to improve my writing skills. He talks about “editing, cutting and revising” (166). The one that I use the most, after learning from him, is the bracket method. He says that, “The brackets might surround the little qualifiers… sentence that… repeats what the previous sentence…”(167). I use the brackets idea and it makes my essay a little better. It really helps me to see what I had already said in the other sentence, so I can change the sentence or delete it. Another writer that gives out good information is Lewis Thomas. In “Notes on Punctuation”, Thomas talks about all kinds of punctuation. He gives information on the parenthesis, semicolon, colon, dash, comma, exclamation and quotation marks. Before I read his essay I didn’t know what or how to use a

These are used to point out the person(s) or thing(s) being referred to. These forms are as follows: