Category: Punctuation
-
The F Words: Italics
Italics are a form of typography in which the letters usually slant to the right. In serif fonts such as Palatino, for example, there are slight changes in some of the letters. Notice that the italic lower-case a is different in the italic version. In sans serif fonts such as Helvetica or Arial, the italic…
-
Emily Dickinson
The very first Emily Dickinson poem I encountered was in a book of poetry for children. My mother gave it to me when I was in second or third grade. In among poems by Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear, there was this one: I’m Nobody! Who are you?Are you — Nobody — Too?Then there’s a…
-
Punctuation Marks: 1
At some point in my third-grade year, I realized that I loved punctuation — it helped me make clear the meaning of whatever I was writing. All those little marks (!, ?, -, —, and ,) were like codes that others could read. And only those who understood the code could understand the sentence! I…
-
Goodbye Hyphen, Hello Confusion
I love punctuation marks. Not just the inventiveness behind them (squiggles, slants, dashes, dots), but the way they work. Punctuation marks help the reader know what the writer of a sentence is trying to say. So I’m very sad to see the fading-away of the hyphen as a mark that helps the reader understand the…