SmithWriting Blog

Next in our series on the proper use of punctuation marks is that curved couplet, parentheses (who doesn’t love this digression-inducing duo?).

Following are some of the most common things that should be put in parentheses:

Information that is not essential to a sentence

Anyone who loves dark chocolate (myself included) was thrilled to learn of its health benefits.

A word or phrase that clarifies an ambiguous pronoun

John and Andy enjoyed their summer vacations.

“He (Andy) traveled to visit his family,” she explained.

A word or phrase that translates technical and obscure terms

The man was diagnosed with glioblastoma (brain tumor).

Nicknames

Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson

Location

She writes for the Auburn (Mass.) News.

A note on punctuation

If the copy in parentheses appears within a sentence: Do not use a capital letter or period to punctuate that copy, even if the copy is a complete sentence. However, feel free to use a question mark or exclamation point when appropriate.

See the first sentence of this post for an example.

If the copy in parentheses is written as a separate sentence: Punctuate it as if it were a separate sentence.

The couple traveled to Hawaii to celebrate their 25th anniversary. (You may recall that they went there on their honeymoon.)

See also:

• Read this post about exclamation points!
• The colon: an unappreciated mark with an unfortunate name
• Save the apostrophes!

Filed by rebecca at 12:19 pm under Grammar guide
17 Comments

Did you see “30 Rock” last night?

As always, Judah Friedlander’s character, Frank (a writer), was sporting a clever trucker cap.

The hat, which read “SPELING EXPIRT,” made me laugh out loud.

My husband promptly looked at me and said, “I’m getting you that hat.” I honestly hope he does because I think it’s awesome.

The hat shows that even we writers—the self-proclaimed “expirts” of all things grammar and spelling—can make a mistake every now and again.

And not only that, we’ve got a great sense of humor—and fabulous fashion sense.

Filed by rebecca at 9:14 am under Copywriting, Grammar guide
No Comments

Next in our series on punctuation marks is the colon.

This unsung duo of dots has a myriad of uses. Beyond simply indicating the time of day, the colon has many more essential—some might say exciting—duties. You see, colons are used to introduce content that explains the previous sentence. In a way, they fill us with anticipation and make us ask ourselves, “What’s coming next?”

Some of the most common uses for the colon:

to introduce a series

My garden is blooming with many spring flowers: tulips, daffodils, hyacinth, and grape hyacinth.

to introduce long quotes

(basically any quote longer than a sentence)

to introduce an explanation

The Red Sox drive me crazy: Last year they win the World Series, this year they’re swept by the Devil Rays.

to introduce a definition

(see the title of this post)

for emphasis

I have only two passions in life: grammar and chocolate.

in a business letter greeting

Dear Mr. Jones:

for time of day

7:30 p.m.

to separate biblical chapter and verse numbers

1 Corinthians 13:13

Important note: You should only capitalize the first word after a colon if it’s the start of a complete sentence (like this one).

I had many a pun ready to use in this post, but I decided to keep it clean and present only the straight poop about the colon (groan) … OK, I used the word “duties,” but that was not deliberate.

Filed by rebecca at 8:57 am under Grammar guide
4 Comments

Take heart, America. A new band of superheroes has emerged.

No, they’re not rescuing damsels in distress or foiling the evil plans of villains. The Typo Eradication Advancement League (TEAL) is doing something much more important: They’re fixing typos.

Armed with markers and whiteout, these intrepid warriors are dedicated to “a more perfectly spelling union.”

Doesn’t that sound beautiful?

Led by the fearless Jeff Deck, TEAL is a group of young professionals that is traversing the country to find typographical errors in public places and—here’s the best part—fix them.

If they made action figures, I’d buy them. (Do you think they wear teal-colored tights?)

For more about TEAL’s noble mission, visit their Web site and blog.

Filed by rebecca at 2:51 pm under Grammar guide
2 Comments

When it comes to using exclamation points, people have very strong opinions. I suppose that’s not surprising, considering the fact that the purpose of an exclamation point is to imply very strong feelings.

On one side of the argument, there are the pro-pointers. Take Elaine from Seinfeld: She likes exclamation points so much that she actually broke up with a boyfriend because he didn’t put an exclamation point on a note that she thought deserved one.

Then there are the anti-pointers: A good example of these folks is the band formerly known as Panic! At The Disco. For those of you who haven’t heard the news, they recently dropped the exclamation point from their name. Guess they got tired of justifying it to grammar-obsessed fans.

According to the AP Stylebook, exclamation points should really only be used to convey such intense feelings as astonishment, fear, and rage—in other words, genuine exclamations. Other uses include: emphatic commands (like this post’s title), irony (Anyone can get into Harvard (!)), and ambiguity (“Get out of here!” means something very different than “Get out of here.”).

Personally, I’m an anti-pointer. Sure, I believe that exclamation points have their place, but when they’re overused, they lose their emphasis and the content suffers. I’m sure Elaine’s ex-boyfriend would agree with me.

Which side do you fall on?

Filed by rebecca at 7:36 am under Grammar guide
4 Comments

“The little apostrophe deserves our protection. It is indeed a threatened species!”

- John Richards, chairman of the Apostrophe Protection Society

Much like the panda, snow leopard, and polar bear, the apostrophe is considered an endangered species. It even has its own protection society.

This abused, ignored, and oft-misunderstood punctuation mark is well on its way to extinction unless we all do our share to protect it for future generations.

The first step is education.

Among other things, apostrophes are mainly used for forming possessives and indicating missing letters or numbers.

For example:

Rebecca’s love for apostrophes knows no bounds. (Rebecca possesses love)

Don’t ever doubt her love for apostrophes. (The apostrophe in “don’t” indicates the missing “o” in the phrase “Do not”)

However, it is incorrect to write the following:

Apostrophe’s are my favorite punctuation marks. (Apostrophe does not possess anything in this sentence; therefore the symbol is not needed)

The sentence should read: Apostrophes are my favorite punctuation marks.

Its a fact that apostrophes are awesome. (Here, an apostrophe is needed to indicate the missing letter “i” in the phase “It is”)

The sentence should read: It’s a fact that apostrophes are awesome.

Now that you know some of the correct ways to use these precious marks, grab your red pen and spread the word.

Together, we can save the apostrophes! (… or is it apostrophe’s?)

Filed by rebecca at 6:32 am under Grammar guide
1 Comment

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always been a little perplexed by the Caps Lock key on my computer’s keyboard. I understand its purpose—to allow a user to type multiple capital letters without having to hold down the oh-so-heavy Shift key—but its relevance is beyond me.

Who’s typing that many sequential capital letters? With the advent of content management systems and cascading style sheets, do we really need the Caps Lock key anymore? Couldn’t that space on the keyboard be put to better use, say with a Finish My Document For Me key?

According to usability experts, text written in all capital letters slows down a user’s reading speed. On the Web, readers tend to gloss over all-caps sections of text and ignore the content—the complete opposite effect of what the Caps Lock-pressing author intended.

And I think we’ll all agree that when we receive a text message, IM, or email in all caps, we get the sneaking suspicion that the sender is SHOUTING AT US.

Well, apparently I’m not alone in my disdain for the Caps Lock key. In fact, there are organized groups of people out there who are lobbying for its removal from standard keyboards.

CAPSoff.org calls the key “ludicrous” and has an open letter to keyboard manufacturers on its site. anticAPSLOCK.com founder Linus McCabe refers to the key in question as a “bug” and, together with CAPSoff, has declared war on Caps Lock. There are all sorts of online tools and instructions for disabling the Caps Lock key. And some radicals have gone so far as to physically remove it from their keyboard.

In time, I believe the antiCapsLockers will win out and the Caps Lock key will go the way of the floppy disk drive. Until then, keep that left pinky under control and use caution with your capital letters. PLEASE.

Filed by rebecca at 7:22 am under Copywriting, Grammar guide
6 Comments