Grammar Moves: Shaping Who You Are by Lawrence Weinstein and Thomas Finn has a copyright date of 2011. Here's the start of the Introduction:
"If you had to choose a punctuation mark as a symbol of yourself, which mark would it be?
"Are you a person who's inquisitive? Curious about other people? About life in general? Then maybe a question mark would be a good choice.
"Are you someone who takes chances, who's a doer, who craves excitement? That sounds like an exclamation point.
"Or perhaps you're steadfast and deliberate in your approach to life. You like things orderly and on an even keel. You might dub yourself Ms. or Mr. Period" (page 1).
Oh, I have no doubt which punctuation mark represents me! Years ago I was so impressed with Robert Fulghum's thinking in his book
Uh-Oh: Some Observations from Both Sides of the Refrigerator Door (1991). He calls a semicolon a "sign of continuing possibility" and ends the book with -- what else? -- a semicolon;
(Yes, just like that.)
This book --
Grammar Moves -- doesn't get to me (the semicolon, me, get it?) until Chapter 11. Hey, guess what it says about semicolons: "Grammar for Being Diplomatic."
 |
| Semicolon earrings |
"Not only does the semicolon have multiple functions, but those functions also seem contradictory in nature; it can be both a divider and a uniter. ... The semicolon acts a lot like we do. We, too, divide or unite, depending on the context in which we find ourselves. Sometimes, for example, we need to keep people apart; sometimes we need to bring them together."
Yes! A semicolon represents me. Which punctuation mark would you pick?
Grammar Moves: Shaping Who You Are by Lawrence Weinstein and Thomas Finn has a copyright date of 2011. Here's the start of the Introduction:
Exclamation point for me.
ReplyDeleteYes, Madge, it's you!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a question mark. I'm always asking questions, seeking and exploring.
ReplyDeleteGreat question, Bonnie. Hmmm...I'm not sure. Maybe the question mark because I'm so curious. Maybe the ellipsis because there is more to me than what you see? :-)
ReplyDeleteJune, you definitely are a seeker and an explorer -- and the best wildlife photographer I know.
ReplyDeleteBeth, I love your definition of yourself as an ellipsis: "because there is more to me than what you see." That's so perfect! I hope to know more and more about you over the years to come.
At school today, I was waiting outside an office at Chattanooga State to talk to a professor. She had a number of cartoons posted on and around her door, including this one (that I simply HAD to copy). Four people sitting in a circle:
ReplyDelete"And always remember that it is the gritty colon itself, not the half-baked semicolon, that wields the power to confound even the most erudite minds."
So maybe I (as semicolon) am really sort of half-baked.