Punctuation pooh-poohs

[cjsmith]

This? Is not grammatically correct.
Neither? Is this.
It makes prose? Sound whiny and ineffective.
When I do this? Somebody please kick my butt.

Almost every time I see an ellipsis... a comma would be better.
Commas indicate natural pauses in speaking... as this seems to be trying to do.
If it's meant to add emphasis... it's not working.
When I do this... somebody please kick my butt.

Comma splices are another one, each of these should be a sentence, it drives me crazy when I have to read it, I never know if the writer has a point in mind, in fact I usually start to figure they don't, I'm probably guilty of all three of these too sometimes, maybe I should have been a grade-school English teacher, this kind of thing really jumps out at me, when I do this somebody please kick my butt.

I feel better now.

Comments

[platypus]

I often write entries, then go back and remove most of the parentheses. It's generally an improvement. I do a lot of copyediting for other people, and I know when I'm writing in a non-standard way, but I often do it anyway in the name of conversational/informal writing. I just try not to let it go too far. I have a friend who uses... ellipses... at almost random points... in sentences... which drives... me... nuts.

I've never noticed any stylistic annoyances in your writing; I think anyone paying enough attention to think about whether they're overdoing it is probably keeping it under control.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

YES! I take out parentheses too! I use parentheses way too much. Perhaps it's reflective of the way I think: full of interconnections and side notes.

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

i sometimes refactor a parenthetical paragraph (whether actually parenthesised or merely comma delimited) into text and footnotes. this has the added advantage that footnotes are cool (because, y'know, pratchett uses them :)), and thus automatically lend a certain cachet to text

[cassidyrose.livejournal.com]

I am guilty of parentheses-overuse. It is definitely reflective of how I think.