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

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

This is one area where my early perfectionism has not abated. I can leave laundry in the dryer and later zap it again for fifteen minutes to get the wrinkles out; I'll eat the too-crispy cookie or the lumpy bread; I am okay with the fact that my hair will never in my entire life look good; but grammar and spelling will probably push my buttons until the day I die. :-)

I wonder what makes a person this way. There are people who clearly are and people who clearly aren't, and I don't know why.