~How do I punctuate thee? Let me count the ways.
2005-01-11 - 11:44 a.m.

This book on punctuation that I'm reading, Eats, Shoots and Leaves has, not surprisingly, got me thinking about punctuation!

After reading not quite the whole section on colons and semicolons, I finally, naturally, inserted a semicolon into my writing. Did you notice it at the end of my last entry?? Of course, I have attempted to use semicolons before, basing their use more on what I've observed of others using semicolons and a vague sense of what to do with them; now I can use them much more confidently, as I have just demonstrated! The cool thing is that I'm not using them on purpose; they just seem to flow. OK, that last one I possibly mightn't have used if I hadn't been thinking about them. I realise what the author Lynne Truss meant when she said that semicolons are addictive! Especially as I've only been using them for a little over a paragraph and I'm already in love with them. I realise that my natural train of thought lends itself to semicolons. I've also realised, however, that I don't enjoy reading semicolons very much, so will endeavour not to get too carried away. I almost used a colon as well!

However, that was not really my main pondering focus for the day. I was actually just going to talk about punctuation and grammar in general, in relation to my online writing. Lynne Truss attributes a large amount of the diminishing of grammar, particularly punctuation, to the technology and the internet. She sees it, if I may paraphrase somewhat, as a medium without any kind of proofreader, such as a grammer check in Word or an editor for a book or article. It lends itself to a faster, lazier way of typing.

Of course, all this is true to an extent. When using my mobile, I often omit punctuation that is uneccesary to the meaning of my message if I'm pressed for time and/or space. I also use weird abbreviations in text messages and in chats. That being said, I also am pretty pedantic about including full stops in my text messages; I may often forget a capital at the start of a chat message, but I generally include all of the correct spelling and punctuation, barring a few common abbreviations (e.g. LOL - and, for that matter, e.g. is an accepted abbreviation in formal writing, so it's hardly unconventional).

When it comes to my journal, I made the decision right near the start to mostly type out everything properly. This means that I use all the correct punctuation to the best of my knowledge and awakeness, I construct grammatically correct sentences and paragraphs that explain things properly. I have never liked the style of journalling that says "Rose is so annoying. After what she did to me today, I'm never going to speak to her again!" Basically, nobody knows what the journaller is talking about so they may as well not write, at least not online where the whole point is that other people may want to share in your thoughts and experiences. I have been through phases of wanting to write like Bridget Jones, not being bothered with capitals, or other less conventional stylistic affectations. I've never held myself to a set of self-imposed writing rules to the detriment of freely expressing what is passing through my head. if i am feeling like typing like this omygod then i damnwell will! Except I usually don't.

I don't enjoy reading things that are ungrammatical. I don't even enjoy reading things where people have made innocent typos or, in their writing haste, have mixed up the grammar of sentences slightly. I don't mean that I snub these people if, otherwise, they can be relied upon to write well, but I find it less pleasant to read.

I find that reading things on the computer is physically harder, and therefore more mentally tiring, than on paper. The convention of leaving big gaps between paragraphs is undoubtedly more common purely for the ease of reading things online. On a piece of paper, I think I'd expect every new paragraph divided by a blank line to be the start of a whole new topic or section. It therefore seems to me that an effort to ensure correct grammar and punctuation in online writing is perhaps even more essential than on paper, as online readers need their reading to be as smooth and easy as possible.

Which isn't to say that I really begrudge those journallists who choose a less-than-grammatical style their right to freely express themselves in the manner that suits them, it just means that I generally don't like it, wish they wouldn't and choose not to read them.