National Punctuation Day is fast approaching; do you have your assignment yet?
What, you haven’t been eagerly awaiting Sept. 24? That is the day when Jeff Rubin reminds us that “a semicolon is not a surgical procedure,” and urges us to freely toss around punctuation marks.
A past challenge celebrated the 2012 presidential election:
“Write one paragraph with a maximum of three sentences using the following 13 punctuation marks to explain which should be the official punctuation mark of the President of the United States:”
apostrophe, brackets, colon, comma, dash, ellipsis, exclamation point, hyphen, parentheses, period, question mark, quotation mark and semicolon.
Entrants could use a punctuation mark more than once, and there was no word limit. Multiple entries were permitted, and the winner(s) were told they would receive a box of punctuation goodies, including a National Punctuation Day t-shirt. No word on who won and why, but you could always check with Jeff at National Punctuation Day headquarters, at Jeff@NationalPunctuationDay.com.
Related reading:
A terrific entry in the 2011 contest, relating colours to punctuation marks
My own haiku for the 2010 contest, which sadly did not win
The exclamation point should be the President’s punctuation mark; don’t you agree? Some [punctuation denouncers] say, “There are many reasons why exclamation points are bad: time-consuming to type…unpleasing to read, but others claim despite these downsides, they also show power.” Now, the presidential candidate (be it Harris or Trump) who embraces the exclamation point as their official punctuation mark will be the one that gets my vote!
What an interesting comment. I see you’re responding to Jeff’s invitation, but I don’t think an exclamation point shows “power.” It usually shows “enthusiasm,” or sometimes OVER enthusiasm. Also what’s time-consuming about typing an exclamation?