Annoying Punctuation

[kojabu]

Someone I receive emails from a lot uses ellipses way too much and in rather incorrect ways.

May I pick your brains for a moment? . . .

This one is the worst:

It's hard to believe that QP is in 3 days and that Slope Day is next week?!?! . . .

I don't even understand why the ?!?! was necessary at the end. Everytime I get an email from him with ellipses I want to cry.  

[Jonathon]

Ellipses do seem to be pretty popular with people who don't know how to punctuate. Usually they're just used in place of every thing else, including commas, dashes, colons, and periods, but I'm not sure I've ever seen them used after sentence-final punctuation like that. In other words: yeah, that would drive me nuts.

[rivka]

Let's all sing!

[kojabu]

o_O

Though the dancing punctuation is amusing.  

[rivka]

A better use of excess ellipsage

[kojabu]

That was awesome!  

[rivka]

Victor Borge is pretty awesome.

[Tante Shvester]

I once saw him in concert, years ago, and he did that punctuation shtick.  Cracked me the heck up!

The other thing that I see people use -- instead of proper punctuation -- and in lieu of the ellipses -- is the dash.  My boss -- she sends me emails -- with the dash in just about every sentence.

Maybe she's thinking -- I'll just dash off an email to Esther -- she likes emails!

[Porter]

Ellipses do seem to be pretty popular with people who don't know how to punctuate.

The other thing that I see people use -- instead of proper punctuation -- and in lieu of the ellipses -- is the dash.

I am guilty on both counts.

[Amilia]

Ditto.  I guess it's a good thing I lurk more than post. . . .

[Jonathon]

Ellipses do seem to be pretty popular with people who don't know how to punctuate.

The other thing that I see people use -- instead of proper punctuation -- and in lieu of the ellipses -- is the dash.

I am guilty on both counts.

I have never noticed these problems in your writing, Porter. Nor yours, Amilia (though admittedly I don't have much to go off of).

[rain]

So, what good are these...?

[Jonathon]

They typically indicate speech that is faltering or trailing off. In quotations, they indicate that something has been omitted. If you're using ellipses to string endless clauses together, you're doing it wrong. If you can get away without using them, you probably should. I'd say that ellipses should be used even more sparingly than semicolons.

[Tante Shvester]

Jonathon, do you think that I overuse semicolons?  I admit to a fondness for them. ;)

[Brinestone]

I love semicolons (and parentheses) too; I tend to use them more often than I probably should.

[Tante Shvester]

Do you like the semicolon-parentheses combo?

;-)

[Porter]

I use them a lot more when I'm joking around.

[Jonathon]

Jonathon, do you think that I overuse semicolons?  I admit to a fondness for them.

Punctuation overuse is very hard to define. I think it becomes annoying when it draws too much attention to itself instead of simply serving as a guide to the reader. But opinions on when it crosses that line will naturally vary. Maybe someone out there thinks you're a semicolon abuser; I certainly don't.

By the way, my weakness is dashes and parentheses.

[Porter]

I actually use semicolons a lot when programming, but it's pretty much required in C++.

[Jonathon]

That's a whole nother sort of syntax.

[Porter]

Yup.

[rivka]

By the way, my weakness is dashes and parentheses.

You and me both.

[Zalmoxis]

<--- Also wishes to confess to dash and parens [and brackets!] overuse.

[Porter]

I enjoy using parens.  For informal writing, such as on forums, it's extremely handy.

[JT]

I like any method of setting of parts of sentences.  Dashes and parentheses and semicolons -- all will work.

My speech is filled with parenthetical asides, and I've consciously decided to try and make my forum posts mimic my speech patterns (and vice versa, to a certain extent).