Resident Punctuation Nazi
This is a copy of a mail I just sent to someone higher up in the ranks of coding on the Two Towers MUD regarding Quality Control bits about colon usage. And I feel the need to share it with you all.
In bit 7 of Pelargir QC, you say:
its obvious use, the doormat is very clean: you guess it must have
:->;
The uncorrected version was correct, and Lynne Truss's book "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" agrees with me here. Colons, as well as indicating a list (as in: this example) can also indicate two full sentences that are connected. Here is what she has to say about it:
"As well as the 'Yes!' type colon, there is the 'Ah' type, when the colon reminds us there is probably more to the initial statement than has met the eye:
I loved Opal Fruits as a child: no one else did...
You can do it: and you will do it...
A classic use of the colon is as a kind fulcrum between two antithetical or oppositional statements:
Man proposes: God disposes.
... So colons introduce the part of a sentence that exemplifies, restates, elaborates, undermines, explains or balances the preceding part." (pages 119-120)
So, in the bit example,
"Despite its obvious use, the doormat is very clean: you guess it must have been washed very recently,"
the colon is indicating that the next part of the sentence will explain or elaborate the previous part. ("The doormat is very clean." Why? "You guess it must have been washed very recently.")
I'm not going to go through all the bits about colons, but I'm very careful about how I punctuate and feel confident that my usage of colons is correct. Now, if you want to make the argument that most people don't know about all the ways colons can be used and sentences should be reworded or reworked so that the punctuation use is easily understood by everyone, that's valid. But your statement in bit 33 where you say that "at last! The proper use of :" is unwarranted.
Yours Grammatically,
Nienor, Resident Punctuation Nazi ;p
In bit 7 of Pelargir QC, you say:
its obvious use, the doormat is very clean: you guess it must have
:->;
The uncorrected version was correct, and Lynne Truss's book "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" agrees with me here. Colons, as well as indicating a list (as in: this example) can also indicate two full sentences that are connected. Here is what she has to say about it:
"As well as the 'Yes!' type colon, there is the 'Ah' type, when the colon reminds us there is probably more to the initial statement than has met the eye:
I loved Opal Fruits as a child: no one else did...
You can do it: and you will do it...
A classic use of the colon is as a kind fulcrum between two antithetical or oppositional statements:
Man proposes: God disposes.
... So colons introduce the part of a sentence that exemplifies, restates, elaborates, undermines, explains or balances the preceding part." (pages 119-120)
So, in the bit example,
"Despite its obvious use, the doormat is very clean: you guess it must have been washed very recently,"
the colon is indicating that the next part of the sentence will explain or elaborate the previous part. ("The doormat is very clean." Why? "You guess it must have been washed very recently.")
I'm not going to go through all the bits about colons, but I'm very careful about how I punctuate and feel confident that my usage of colons is correct. Now, if you want to make the argument that most people don't know about all the ways colons can be used and sentences should be reworded or reworked so that the punctuation use is easily understood by everyone, that's valid. But your statement in bit 33 where you say that "at last! The proper use of :" is unwarranted.
Yours Grammatically,
Nienor, Resident Punctuation Nazi ;p