Back in 2010, a number of us stated which was our favourite punctuation mark, expressed in the form of discreet enthusiasm right up to the point of offering to marry said mark. It would be interesting to know if we have remained faithful or if new favourites have slipped in - five years is a long time in a literary relationship ... (And yes, I still like to put a space between the last letter and the ellipsis, even though I know it will be taken at copy edit stage ...) And, just to add some new flavours to the spice rack, I give you (courtesy of Mental Floss UK website) -
13 Little-Known Punctuation Marks We Should Be Using
(Click on the image to see it bigger.)
So, what do you think? Any of these tickle your fancy - fill a gap - do what nothing else quite can? Or do you have new punctuation marks of your own to offer the world? Let us know! (And I mean that sincerely.)
Joan Lennon's website.
Joan Lennon's blog.
Silver Skin.
These are brilliant! I'm reading this at 04.41 so I feel a bit too tired to think of how to use them properly here - but I shall definitely try some in future messages to my teenagers!!! I am very conscious that I rely rather too much on the exclamation mark so I'll end with a thoughtful...
ReplyDeleteBrilliant! Can see me spending way too much time working out how to type those backward question marks.
ReplyDeleteThanks Joan ;)
I like the doubt point. I can see I'd use that a LOT!
ReplyDeleteI think a mark indicating irony would be useful.
ReplyDeleteJulie, here's some characters to copy and paste.
ReplyDelete‽⸮؟⁂
The percontation point doesn't seem to exist in any fonts I've tried. The character given for the irony mark is actually the Arabic Question Mark. So it isn't guaranteed to be a curvy one and the cursor does odd things around it.
One mark that doesn't get any love these days is :— for lists of things, each on a new line.
I think my favourite mark though is the Combining Diæ̈resis.
I'm still happily married to the semi-colon after all these years. Was it really so long ago?
ReplyDelete