Pedants unite in praise of the semicolon
Calvin posted this on Mar 7th 2008 at 17:12 under Comment, Education, Rant, Writing
I spotted this over on Maryrose Lyons’s Brightspark blog; it’s an article on the New York Times website highlighting use of the much neglected semicolon. The New York City Transit public service placard, which extols the virtues of not leaving your newspaper behind when get off the trains, says simply:
“Please put it in a trash can; that’s good news for everyone.”
It’s great to see the rarely used little punctuation mark getting such a prominent airing, though I doubt the exposure will trigger an explosion in usage among New York commuters, more’s the pity.
I was amused to see that the article had been amended. It seems the New York Times originally left out the crucial comma (shock, horror) in the punctuation of the book title “Eats, shoots & leaves” by self-proclaimed punctuation pedant Lynn Truss.
Just goes to show, punctuation is something even the best in the business can (and do) get wrong.
Technorati Tags: punctuation,semicolon,brightspark consulting,Lynn Truss,pedant
