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Punctuation's Most Wanted
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Published: 2008-01-03 06:52:22 +0000 UTC; Views: 55651; Favourites: 2340; Downloads: 1554
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Description
(Bloody hell, what category does this thing belong in?)So ~BrookeTheVampire asks, "...a page dedicated to use of punctuation would help out. I still have trouble sometimes with colons and semicolons, and it's always nice for someone to be able to find that out all in one spot!"
Well, BrookeTheVampire, ask and ye shall receive! This is the Punctuation Gang's Most Wanted list, all your favorite evil punctuation on one handy reference poster!
The display version above is designed to be viewed on-screen; however, there is also a downloadable "full" version , designed to be appropriate for printing at poster-size.
If you're having trouble with punctuation, this is (hopefully) a handy answer to your questions.
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Comments: 295
WHOA! This is absolutely hilarious! And witty, too!
I'm getting the urge to print this and show it to my English teacher on Monday.
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Ahh I love this! It made me laugh out loud a few times. (:
In your explanation of the colon, you used a conjunction after a semicolon, which is incorrect.
Sorry if someone mentioned this already.
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Actually, that's legal: It's rarer than some forms you may see, but it's not prohibited. Any independent clause may legally begin with a conjunction, and a semicolon joins any two loosely-conceptually-related independent clauses by removing the terminating punctuation of the former, lowering the case of the first letter of the latter, and inserting itself between them.
There is, however, a misplaced comma in the explanation for Semicolon
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Ohdam.
Well I fell stupid. Sorry about that. D:
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Wow... this is amazing!
It'll be really helpful some time around summer, when I temporarily forget anything that involves school! XD
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Absolutely, pure genius - I just love it; it reminds me of all the spelling mistakes I've made in my SMS [Short Message Service] messages.
At work we have a hard-core correspondent who is always after us for poor punctuation: "Don't you idiots know the difference between commas and periods?" If you don't mind, I'll print this out & put it on her desk/wall.
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This is seriously awesome. I'm an English Mejor and I see people butchering these rules all the damn time. But, I am a bit guilty of that myself. Thank you so much for this.
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Ah, does American punctuation differ from its English counterpart?
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There are slight differences in nomenclature, but the rules themselves are nearly identical, with very few exceptions: I may call it a "period" and you may call it a "full stop," but we both use it the same way.
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I just noticed the difference between the usage of the quotation marks- single quotes- and the inverted commas - the double quotes.
In countries that used Bristish English, the single quotes are used to quote text, and the double quotes are used to show direct speech.
Please excuse me while I act like a grammar geek.
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I can learn! 
Congrats on winning the DD!!!
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And that my friend is the one reason why i will pass my english quiz today. XD;
your a life saver.
Well done, quirky, and informative!
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This is amazing. My English teacher would love this!
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Oh, the creativity!
Period makes me think of an executioner - "Your sentence is done."
Umm... period does have a relative... or three, rather... I just can't seem to recall his/their name(s)... it starts with an 'e'... generally used to indicate an extended pause... hmm...
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I'm guilty of associating with parentheticals and dash.
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CLEVER!! I'll be printing this out, as soon I can. Also, watch out for Period's cousin and closest friend, Ellipsis... Ellipses are way overused, and I admit my guilt in some such crimes! An insta-
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Very cool.
I wonder about Ampersand's "doing jobs too small for And", though. It doesn't just mean "and", after all. Ampersand comes from "and per se and", which basically means that it functions similarly to an "and" but gives more weight to the first item, beyond the item's privilege of being placed first.
In your example of Binney & Smith Co., Binney is the more prominent member of the two, perhaps because he founded the company and Smith came later, and it is the ampersand that tells us this. Binney and Smith Co. would put them on equal ground, but Binney has the luck of having his name first.
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LOL i love this
they're making a new punctuation mark though. its used to emphasize sarcasm in writing and its just a spiral thingy
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XD
that's hilarious
i gotta find a way to show that to my english teacher.
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Epic <3
I WISH I saw these punctuation marks in all of these places >_>
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Poster. Make one. Get boatloads of money from English Teachers.
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Both highly amusing and informative!
I liked the film noir/detective story feel. XD
Awesome work.
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This is just pure gold for any writer. Although I'm not one, this is quite a handy reference to keep! Thanks for sharing such a humorous poster for correct punctuation! ;]
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I am going to have to show this to my English Major mother, and I shall report what she says about it, if you want to hear it.
If not, then I shall keep the answer to myself. Hella entertaining, I think.
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Hey, now i can study for my english test!
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wonderful! this would really help people, but I did see an error in #7 Apostrophe regarding possessives. s' and 's I believe.
I was wondering if i could have your permission to show this to my English teacher. She's a grammar nut and I'm positive she would get a kick out of this. May I?
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Ingenious way of making grammar more interesting!
Next should be a list of missing punctuation marks, what with people typing in e-speak all the time.
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love it. this could help a lot of people. it could even be useful in the classroom.
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You ought to be a teacher. This would be such a great classroom poster.
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This is simply genious: it's both humorous and informative. Instant fave!
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My Latin and English teacher would love this! Useful and hilarious! I loved the nicknames lololol.
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AAAHHHH I LOVE THIS
Would it be okay if I printed this out and showed it to my school's Creative Writing Club, as well as my English class? The world needs more of pointers like these.
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Eh, American, or American-style, punctuation is quite wrong. (Notice that the full stop comes after the closing parenthesis).
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my best friend needs this - I'm sending it to her right now!
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This is a very helpful and funny way to spread knowledge of Punctuation's cronies. Thank you for the lovely tutorial on proper use of punctuation. I'm definitely showing this to my English teacher.
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This is them most I have ever learned about grammar! For some reason my school district decided that learning how to punctuate a sentence correctly was unimportant. I think I will always have issues with grammar, but this is definitely something that I can look to when I need help, thank you for making this. ^_^
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Even though I knew most, if not all, the information given already due to being a complete and utter English junkie, this is still very funny and informative! Instant
Now we just need some for other parts of grammar... >_> I would probably start fangirling if more of these were made.
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