September 24 is National Punctuation Day!
Send an ode to your favorite punctuation mark to [email protected]. The week of the 24th, we’ll feature the best entries as the tip-of-day in the Grammar Girl e-mail newsletter, and one entry may be chosen to be the Grammar Girl podcast on September 24. Subscribe to the Grammar Girl newsletter at the QDT website and the podcast at iTunes (link opens the Grammar Girl iTunes page).
Entries shorter than 200 words will be considered for the newsletter.
600- to 700-word entries will be considered for the podcast.
Multiple entries are allowed, and “ode” is just a guideline. As long as the piece is about punctuation, it can take any form. Please do not send attachments. Paste your text or image into the body of the e-mail.
The deadline is September 21 and there is no minimum word count. We will contact you if your entry is chosen to be featured in the newsletter or podcast.
I can’t wait to read your entries!
[UPDATE: I didn’t properly think through the word counts for the contest. They are just guidelines. It’s not as if we wouldn’t consider a 400-word entry or an 800-word entry, it’s just that newsletter tips tend to be 100-200 words, and the podcasts tend to be 600-700 words. Please use common sense and don’t send something that is ridiculously long.]
Title: Proudly Punctuated
“Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?”
Allow me to explain my appreciation:
Looking so lovely, hanging in the midst of three traumas –
its identity depends on its proper location.
It separates, punctuates, & holds a series without the drama;
a tiny figure that holds nothing but my admiration.
If you ask me, the semicolon is underrated.
Perhaps my opinion is a bit dated,
But when you’re writing frantically,
Thoughts sprouting botanically-
Your mind is a lush jungle;
a period is just so fungal.
It leaves too much time between;
connections are severed by mundane routine.
That is what mildews the thoughts;
and makes for writing that simply rots.
This is the reason;
I find the semicolon so apparently pleasin’-
It’s a tool of pure genius;
it links the heterogeneous.
A period cannot do that.
It is a rather homogeneous flower.
Scented sweetly, but with little power.
Too long a pause invites the mold.
Preventing the jungle from revealing true gold.
The semicolon is underrated;
my opinion cannot be overstated.