You might deserve the “punctuation” merit badge if you know:
- when to use a semicolon
- how to indicate dialogue within dialogue
- the difference between a hyphen, an en dash, and an em dash
- what an interrobang is
- how to punctuate James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher
Actually, maybe it’s best if you skip that last one. Just typing it makes me dizzy. How do things like that get Wikipedia articles in the first place [insert interrobang here]
This is part of the merit badges for writers series, and may be posted on your site or blog. Have you earned this badge? Will you never earn it? Tell us why in the comments.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotation_mark#Quotations_and_speech
2 Comments
So not getting this one as I suck at Punctuation. But for those of you who can, I am not jealous at ALL.
I think I know how to use semicolons; they’re not so bad. And I often say to people, “My English teacher was a stickler for properly nested dialog. She always said, ‘Know your quotation marks!’”* Punctuation can be tricky though. Do you suppose seventy-five percent of all people — or perhaps just all writers — use hyphens where they meant to use something else? Maybe it’s more like 50–60%.
Seriously, though, I struggle with punctuation, so I don’t think I’m going to take this one. Which is too bad because what could be cuter than your parenthetical interrobang?!
Okay, and I’m not even touching that last one. Ow.
*This isn’t even a little bit true. (Or maybe it is: I never paid enough attention in English class to know what the teacher was saying.)
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