Chris Pirillo » punctuation

Punctuation Abuse is on the Rise

Chris Pirillo — Tue, 10 May 2011 12:07:48 +0000

It’s a well-known fact that I tend to become a tad upset when people do not obey the rules of PUGS. Blame the English teacher in me. Point the finger at my upbringing. Taunt me if you will, but it drives me completely batshit crazy to see the lack of proper punctuation floating around these days. I swear it’s becoming an epidemic! Spend five minutes reading any blog, Twitter stream, or Facebook Wall and you’ll understand where I’m coming from. It’s enough to make me reach for the unboxing juice… even when I’m not opening anything!

Whether you’re trying to save time or hoping to come across as cute or funny, it’s not working. Intentionally spelling words incorrectly makes you look like an idiot. Adding extra letters isn’t “cool,” it’s just plain silly. Attempting to be l33t is so 2009, dude. Knock it off! Take the extra time to spell words correctly and add in those commas or periods.

How is anyone ever going to take you seriously if they cannot figure out what the heck you’re trying to say? Sadly, it’s not only teenagers I see doing this on a regular basis. There are many adults out there who are just as guilty. I actually read a blog post a few hours ago that might have been phenomenal if it wasn’t full of run-on sentences and words spelled incorrectly. This post was written by someone I respect under normal circumstances. Glancing quickly through other pages on his site, I was saddened to learn that this happens regularly. Apparently, he doesn’t think enough of his readers (YOU!) to take the time to get things right.

I’m not perfect. I make mistakes occasionally – even with my PUGS. The key is that I don’t do it on purpose. I also don’t do it often. I spend those extra few moments to check through my work. I fix up any errors I may come across, and go back to correct anything that is pointed out to me later on. Maintaining a professional image is important to me. I would hope it is to you, as well.

For those of you who are sticking your tongue out at me right now due to the fact that you’re only fifteen, you need to pay attention. You aren’t a business person yet, no. You likely aren’t worried about how professional you appear. It’s also quite probable that you haven’t yet realized that your digital footprint will follow you for the rest of your life. You read that right: the rest of your life. Just a few years from now, you’ll want to get into a great college. One look at your Twitter stream may get you turned down pretty fast, young grasshoppers.

Be mindful of what you’re doing. It only takes a few seconds to type out a word the right way. It takes even less time to add in some punctuation. Doing these small things can boost people’s perception of you in a very big way.

Punctuation Abuse is on the Rise

This is a Sentence

Chris Pirillo — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 11:47:40 +0000

This is a Sentence

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How difficult is it really to speak and write properly? Why is it that so many people cannot manage this simple task? Do they not pay attention in school? Are they too lazy to care how they come across to others?

A sentence begins with a capital letter. It also ends in some type of punctuation mark. If you’re going to bother to write something, at least know how to correctly form a sentence. Otherwise – stop bothering me.

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This is a Sentence

Are Punctuation, Usage, Grammar and Spelling Important?

Chris Pirillo — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 08:13:08 +0000

Are Punctuation, Usage, Grammar and Spelling Important?

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PUGS is my acronym for the words punctuation, usage, grammar and spelling. Just because I have a degree in English Education doesn’t mean everyone else does. If you have any trouble with any of these things, there is a website that can help you. All of these things, in relation to the way you communicate online, are important. If you don’t have a firm grasp on any of these, how do you expect to be taken seriously? Imagine, you get an email from someone who sounds like a third-grader. You can’t help but wondering how that person got hired. That’s how people look at others who cannot communicate well in written form. Luckily, there is Spellcheck ready to help.

Spellchecker is an online spelling, grammar and thesaurus tool. It’s so simple, a third-grader would actually be able to use it, and benefit from it. Simply type or paste your text into the box, and click the “Spell Check” button. A new box will pop open with your words inside. You can now choose from one of three options: Spellcheck, Grammar and Thesaurus. The Spellcheck tab will highlight in bold red any words that you have spelled incorrectly. There will be an area under your text showing suggested replacements for the wrongly spelled word.

The next tab is the Grammar tab. Once you click on that, anything they consider to be improper use of grammar will be highlighted with blue underlined text. Again, there will be suggested replacements underneath. Clicking the Thesaurus tab will again highlight you in blue underlined words, and give you suggestions for other words you can use instead. That is very helpful, and makes it much faster to determine when you’re using any particular word too much.

The next time you write for your job, your blog, or even in an email… consider using Spellcheck.

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Are Punctuation, Usage, Grammar and Spelling Important?