My word processor changes the form of dashes to something longer sometimes – becomes —. I change it back sometimes. I’m obsessed by punctuation. I bought and read a book on the semi-colon, and love using Oxford commas. This article on Mental Floss outlines the dash or hyphen, the en-dash, and the em-dash (both named …
This Mental Floss article on thirteen archaic terms for burn-out caught my attention. For some reason. If I have to pick a favourite it’d be “Overcark” an “obsolete term from the 14th century means “overwork.” According to the OED, it was created by combining the word over with the word cark, meaning “that which burdens …
Punctuation is a tool to bring a sense of pace to the reader’s experience. An invitation to pause and reflect, without demanding a halt. An invitation to move forward, to gather speed, to accumulate an understanding as an idea is being expressed. As written communication is more and more composed on screens for instant transmission …
Learning rules of grammar and punctuation do not provide an infallible capacity to understand what the composer of a text meant when they wrote it. (This is so for those who study texts which originally had no punctuation at all) These guides and markers can provide help and insight, but not absolute mastery. Also, knowing …
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