290........................................

.......................rules from writers.   Here is a simple sample!:

5   Keep your exclamation points ­under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.

Bringing writing to life............................

Victor Borge......................................Phonetic Punctuation

Is it just me..................................

....................or would the preceding "opening paragraph" benefit from a few more periods and a few less commas?  Just wondering.

HOW ON EARTH DID I MISS THIS??????

YESTERDAY WAS INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY!  MY APOLOGIES FOR NOT BRINGING IT TO YOUR ATTENTION SOONER.  PLEASE FORGIVE ME.

I cant believe I missed it......................

National Apostrophe Day was August 16th!

To belatedly celebrate, take this handy apostrophe quiz.   Miss Francis would be disappointed (or maybe surprised I didn't miss more) that I got two wrong.  Oh well.

Thanks Mark

The Comma........................

As a public service to all you Grammarians out there, I am suggesting you read this essay at McSweeney's.   Opening salvo is here:

1. If nothing else, one ought to know how to treat a comma. Abandonment or abuse of the comma muddles discourse, and this lack of respect is akin to neglect, to a lack of appreciation, to an unreasonable rejection of the very foundation of all worthy human interactions.

Semicolons.............................

Being intimidated by never having figured out the proper use the semicolon is on the list of things that turned a potential English major into a History major.  In the spirit of life-time learning, your assignment is to join me in reading up on them - here.  There will not be a test.