Death of punctuation…

Photo Credit: Roger Kirby via sxc.hu

At the risk of angering John McWhorter I’m going to proclaim that the sky is indeed falling.  The proper use of punctuation is a dying art.  More generally, it sometimes seems like ANY use of punctuation is a dying art.  I have to confess that I don’t punctuate my text messages 100% of the time, but I’m pretty close.  Maybe I’m a bit old fashioned, but I like people to know when one thought ends and another begins.

Let's take another look at that previous paragraph

• at the risk of angering john mcwhorter im going to proclaim that the sky is indeed falling the proper use of punctuation is a dying art more generally it sometimes seems like any use of punctuation is a dying art i have to confess that i dont punctuate my text messages 100% of the time but im pretty close maybe im a bit old fashioned but i like people to know when one thought ends and another begins

Now, I didn’t do anything to the first paragraph when I re-copied it other than change everything to lowercase letters and remove all of the punctuation.  I don’t know about you, but my original version is more aesthetically pleasing.  It doesn’t seem like one continuous idea like the second version does.

Don’t get me wrong, I think McWhorter is absolutely right that kids today are learning two different languages, the language of true written word, and the language of speech and shorthand communication.  This dual fluency is fantastic.  I just don’t want us to lose the beauty and grace of the written word as it was originally intended to be used.

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