Punctually illiterate?

[KillerMuffin]

Punctuation seems to be a problem doesn't it? Who knows exactly what proper punctuation is, besides the guys who write High school English texts? Who really cared about it? There were much more important things to worry about, like passing the drivers license test.

Here is a hint, if you have difficulties with figuring out exactly where to stick a comma, then read your text out loud conversationally. Where ever you have a natural pause in speaking, then a piece of punctuation probably goes there. Try it.

For those of us more prissily perfectionistic, then there are manuals...

 

[Gus]

Punctually ? illiterate

Punctuation seems to be a problem doesn't it? ...For those of us more prissily perfectionistic, then there are manuals...

I was under the impression that 'Punctually' refered to time, KM. Was it posted in error?

Gus

 

[KillerMuffin]

I've perverted the language. Drat and damnation. Warped it into a way it wasn't intended to be used. You turn punctuation into an adverb. Punctuationally is irritating.

It is merely a title, as well as a private joke which need not be explained. This was merely in response to a request that I received, nothing more, nothing less.

 

[Aranian]

There's an orginization that sits around and does nothing but decide which rules of the English language need changing from month to month. I think they're called the MLA or something like that. They're probably funded by the textbook companies so that they can make $70-120 per student per semester because the old textbooks are "out of date". Frankly I can't imagine a more meaningless job. Thank God I'm not an english major...

 

[Whispersecret]

Prissy and Proud of It

I cared about proper punctuation, and I still do. Of course, I'm a teacher, so there you go! If you're writing stories to post on Literotica, then there are a couple of reasons why you should care about your punctuation and spelling.

First, I'm sure you don't want to look like an idiot. As unfair and politically incorrect as it is, many people will look at you and/or your writing in a more negative light if your story has several errors. It might not be "right," but that's just the way it is.

Second, proper punctuation and spelling helps the reader enjoy your story more, and that's the whole point, isn't it? I don't mind seeing an occasional misspelled word in a story, because everyone makes mistakes. But if my understanding of the story is constantly impeded by the author saying "organism" every time he meant "orgasm," along with numerous other errors, then my experience reading his story isn't going to be the best it can be. I have to keep stopping to think, "What did he mean?" instead of just smoothly reading and enjoying the story.

Literotica has a cadre of Volunteer Editors eager to help you edit your work. Take advantage of that.

As for rules changing...as time goes by, more hyphenated words become actual compound words. With the lightning-quick onrush of technology, new words are added, like "online" and "email." (Or is it e-mail?) But really, the rules of the English language don't really change all that much. The use of periods, commas, semi-colons, quotation marks, apostrophes, etc., is standard and hasn't changed much, as far as I know.

 

[Gus]

It is merely a title, as well as a private joke which need not be explained. This was merely in response to a request that I received, nothing more, nothing less.

Have I come out of this as the bad guy, trampling all over a personal thread.
Was this actually meant for private consumption by 'he/she/they-in-the-know'?
Were we not intended to see, respond, take any notice at all?

I believed that this was a public board and that any post, other than one designated to a particular person, were inviting some interaction. I would have thought that e-mail was better suited to your purpose.

Gus.

 

[KillerMuffin]

Meeanhamnida

You know, someone really needs to shut me up when my mouth runs away with me. *sigh* Its stupid. I'm getting rid of this post cause it has absolutely no redeeming value.

Never darlin, I've spent too much time in the Ozarks and picked up the accent. I know I have an accent because I spend a lot of time recording and screaming and rerecording my voice for those audio thingys. I don't hear the stupid thing, unless I record my voice. I am aware that I slur my consonants and draw out my vowels. I am aware that I say Missippi not Mississippi. Just do one little thing, record your own voice and like it. An impossible task. From Alaska, spent a whopping 4 years there. I've spent about 10 years in the Ozarks, but I really hate to admit that. Maybe by trying to get rid of it, I've aggravated it.

To clarify, y'all means different things in different places. In some places y'all means more than two people. In the region I picked it up at, y'all is singular. All y'all is plural. Additionally, it's drawled until its nearly two syllables. They've always spelled it ya'll where I picked it up, dunno why. And yeah... the only reason to go fishin is to drink beer with the wife. Yes Never love, one of my relatives has died immediately after saying, "Hey all ya'll!! Watch this!"

Whispersecret love, I was never offended by a word you have to say. I may not like it, but you are very correct.

And finally to Gus. You have my sincerest most abject apologies. I behaved horribly, rather like a 5 year old told NO. There is no excuse for such a reaction as I displayed, merely meanness and spite. I have the misfortune of having both and not enough sense to not use them. Once again I have broken my set in stone rule of always giving the other party the benefit of the doubt. I am very sorry, I wish I can undo what I have said, but, unfortunately, I can't. All I can do is try to behave appropriately in the future.

To explain punctually illiterate. I edit for this wonderfully talented writer who has the same problem I do. We are both punctually challenged, we just can't seem to make it anywhere on time. It is something about ourselves that we have in common and often laugh about. She has a wonderful way with words, but has so much trouble with punctuation.

I gave her that piece of advice and it seems to have helped a lot more than restating the actual rules (which I would have to get from a text and Whispersecret knows 10 million times better anyway). She thought that other people would benefit from it and requested I put it on the board.

[Edited by KillerMuffin on 09-12-2000 at 06:51 AM]

 

[Samuari]

You are sooo BAD, gril! Bye the way, did my stories generate this thread? I need all the help I can get.

 

[Whispersecret]

KillerMuffin, let me preface this by saying that I appreciate your presence on the board. I enjoy reading your contributions.

Now, I'm not sure if your last post was in reply to Gus and me, or just Gus. You addressed him in the first paragraph, and from then on, you used "y'all." Now, I'm not from the South, but I have a very good friend who is, and she told me that "y'all" is only used to refer to two or more people, which surprised me, because I thought it was just a substitute for the word "you" no matter what. So, I'm confused as to whether I ought to consider myself included in that mild rant. <smiles>

On reading your posts and my reply, I can see where you might have thought I was criticizing you. I definitely never intended to! I should have stated that I agreed with your suggestion, which is a great way to find where the commas belong. As a teacher, I tell school-aged children that same thing. It helps until they are taught the real rules. (Of course, the early reader sometimes doesn't put pauses in the right place! )

When I said, "First, you don't want to look like an idiot." I didn't mean YOU specifically, KillerMuffin. I meant "you," as in "anyone." I was trying to ADD to your thread in the same educational vein that you started.

For the record, I had no problem with the title of the thread. To be honest, I didn't catch the mistake! (How embarrassing!) I just skimmed it and my brain assumed you meant "something to do with punctuation."

I don't think Gus was all up in arms either. My interpretation of it is that he thought the whole thread was a private joke, when it was really just the title. An honest mistake. I don't think he was trying to be sarcastic. I could be wrong, but I think he honestly thought your entire post was a private joke.

So, I apologize for coming across as "an asinine, anal retentive, condescending, overweening, holier-than-thou possessor of all knowledge twit." I may BE one, but I try to hide it most of the time.

 

[Never]

People are posting in this of all boards. Interesting, an odd and unfamiliar happens and I have the joy of witnessing it. Ahhh, Killer, you'll draw blood with that tongue of yours. I've two thoughts streaming around in this bone box of mine and as there's hardly room for one I think I'll let them loose.

One, accents. Killer, can you really hear your accent when you speak or do you just know you have one? People sometimes remark on my accent and yet I've never been able to hear it and no one seems to be able to describe it so me. (I think it's more the result of a perpetual cold than anything else.)
Nope, I'm not done. What accent do you have? I've notice you informing people that you're not from the south, that you're from Alaska. I didn't know there was an 'Alaskan' accent.
I have two jobs currently and one of them is taking orders by phone at a catalog company. I spend eight hours listening to people from across the country and I'm becoming fascinated with the various dialects, accents, and pronunciations I hear. (What is the difference between a dialect and an accent, anyhow?)
I'm trying to think of this as 'diversity' and not a pain in the ass, that's somewhat difficult when you have to ask someone to repeat what they said for the fifth type because you can't understand them. There's no way to say that without insulting them.
Now that I've let this post wander, what was my second thought?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It seems to be hiding now, I'll post again when I remember.

 

[Gus]

I seemed to have caused some confusion. It was not my intention.
I am English and have little knowledge of US accents and possibly US English but I most certainly didn't want to get into a discussion about whether there was something US English in "Punctually illiterate?", hence I asked if the original title was a mistake.

BTW the advice contained in the post was spot-on. I use almost, if not the exact same words myself as a method of instruction. It is also so obviously a good method that I didn't think that it needed any support.

I was then absolutly confused by KM's 1st reply, especially the tone that I perceived. To judge from the second reply my perception was correct.

Since KM will not be reading this she will probably never know that I meant her no offence. I wonder whether I should tell her under another name?

Gus.

 

[KillerMuffin]

Gus,

I apologize for all those things that I said. It was very bad of me and I had not right to do it. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone... well, I'll be last in line. I am truly sorry.

Muff the Twit

Whispersecret,

I apologize to you too, even though none of it was directed at you. I don't think you even know how to be condescending.

Never darlin, I believe that to you, I have an accent, to Gus, who is from England, I have a different dialect.

 

[R Nitelight]

I never have a problem with.punctuation

 

[Whispersecret]

Period.

 

[Whispersecret]

Oh, I certainly know how to be condescending. I've been that many times here before, and it's something I struggle with all the time. Still, glad to know I wasn't in this particular case.

 

[Guest]

puncuation period

"I cared about proper punctuation, and I still do. Of course, I'm a teacher, so there you go! If you're writing stories to post on Literotica, then there are a couple of reasons why you should care about your punctuation and spelling"

and yada yada yada......

Not meaning to downplay your specifics, but puncuation is not only for literotica. It is very important for any kind of writing, and I don't understand why you would even think of pulling this media out for speculation. I'm here to improve my writing skills, INCLUDING puncutation. Puncuation is an important aspect of learning how to express emotion, which is the most difficult thing to do with the written word (IMHO).

- Moon

 

[Whispersecret]

Re: puncuation period

Not meaning to downplay your specifics, but puncuation is not only for literotica. It is very important for any kind of writing, and I don't understand why you would even think of pulling this media out for speculation. I'm here to improve my writing skills, INCLUDING puncutation. Puncuation is an important aspect of learning how to express emotion, which is the most difficult thing to do with the written word (IMHO).

- Moon

I agree completely. Punctuation is important wheneveryou're writing something anyone else but you is going to read. However, I specifically brought up erotic writing because most of the people accessing this part of the bulletin board are interested in writing erotica for this site. I know for a fact that some people are of this mindset: "Oh, it's only porn. It doesn't matter and nobody really cares if I spell everything right..." Which just isn't true.

If you're looking to improve your writing skills, I'd suggest hooking up with other writers in a critique group or taking a class. That's what's helped me. Oh! And, of course, write, write, write!

Best of luck.

 

[Samuari]

Re: Meeanhamnida

You know, someone really needs to shut me up when my mouth runs away with me. *sigh* Its stupid. I'm getting rid of this post cause it has absolutely no redeeming value.

[Edited by KillerMuffin on 09-12-2000 at 06:51 AM]

I printed a hard copy of it. Muffie, what's it worth to keep it dead?

 

[KillerMuffin]

You know, someone really needs to shut me up when my mouth runs away with me. *sigh* Its stupid. I'm getting rid of this post cause it has absolutely no redeeming value.

[Edited by KillerMuffin on 09-12-2000 at 06:51 AM]

I printed a hard copy of it. Muffie, what's it worth to keep it dead?

Hmmm, I don't know. Whats in it?

 

[Samuari]

You know, someone really needs to shut me up when my mouth runs away with me. *sigh* Its stupid. I'm getting rid of this post cause it has absolutely no redeeming value.

[Edited by KillerMuffin on 09-12-2000 at 06:51 AM]

I printed a hard copy of it. Muffie, what's it worth to keep it dead?

Hmmm, I don't know. Whats in it?

I could post it and then EVERYBODY would know!

 

[Gus]

Enough already

You're getting to be a sad,sad man Sam but I assume that you jest. If it's not a jest, add a few more 'sads'.

As the Duke of Wellington once said "Publish and be damned"

This thread is hereby ended, the principals involved are reconciled and satisfied.

No further posts will be made by anyone of any standing.

Gus

 

[Samuari]

OK! OK! I'm sorry Muffie knows that I would never ever, ever, do anything to hurt her in any way, (besides she knows where all the bodies are buried, see the Batman thread) but I know when I'm licked (oh, do it again, please!) so I'm not cuming again, at least not here!

 

[Never]

I'm sitting while I make this post..

 

[gordito]

agree with WhisperSecret

I agree with Prissy and Proud of it.

I had an English prof. in college seperated the content and the punctuation and the content. Both held equal value. Good punctuation is kind of like wearing a dead rose on your lapel with a 500 dollar suit. It's small thing but it sure does stick out.

Thanks for the motivation.