National Punctuation Day is a celebration of punctuation that occurs each year on September 24. Founded by Jeff Rubin in 2004, National Punctuation Day simply promotes the correct usage of punctuation.

 

“Let’s eat grandma” implies something more cannibal than command without the comma. 

 

“Let’s eat, grandma” is an entirely different sentence. 

 

The advent of technology has turned an entire generation into shorthand secretaries. Acronyms abound and punctuation has become obsolete. Text messages are akin to rebus puzzles, where decoding skills are a must. 

 

I’m still old school. My sentences have proper punctuation and I’m a firm believer in the Oxford comma. Forget current grammar rules: a series of three or more events must have a comma after all but the last one. 

 

I also love a semicolon. It links related phrases as cause and effect without superfluous words. I often have a word count; I carefully cut conjunctions. 

 

I found punctuation to be beneficial in math as well last week. I was celebrating my 55th birthday (those numbers get bigger and bigger each year) and I had a brainstorm! What if mathematical symbols were as important to numbers as punctuation was to words? I decided to insert a simple + between the two digits of my birthday. 

 

 

Forget getting older. This was technically my 10th birthday. I celebrated accordingly and in true pre-teen style with a Frog and Toad tee and pink pigtails. What a difference a symbol can make!

 

Happy Punctuation Day! 

 

Jeanni Ritchie is a contributing journalist from Central Louisiana. She can be reached at jeanniritchie54@gmail.com.