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]

*wry smile* It's embarrassing when I don't know who does these things, so I don't know who might be offended when I post grammar peeves! :-)

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

My first thought was "OMG, she's talking about me! *LOL* *dies*" Because I read your post here almost immediately after reading your comment on my post. And then I looked at the timestamps. And laughed even harder. (Your post was 3? hours before your comment.)

Totally not offended, by the way. In the slightest. I have my own grammar peeves. *pets*

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I wrote my post way before I read your post. :-)