The em dash is a flexible bit of punctuation—and one of my favorites. You can use it in place of other punctuation. Ben Yagoda, author and professor of English at the University of Delaware, said in an opinion piece in The New York Times, “The Parenthetical Dash can stand in for a pair of commas or parentheses. The Pause Dash can take the place of a period, comma, semicolon—or nothing at all!”
Read More »Em Dash It All
Wouldn’t it be great if there was punctuation that both elicited excitement and disbelief? Today, people use a combination of a question mark and exclamation point (“?!”) to express this in informal writing. But back in the early 1960s, the interrobang (“‽”) had its moment of fame thanks to advertising executive Martin Speckter. In 1962 Speckter introduced the interrobang as a “typographically eloquent way in which to end a statement that expresses excited disbelief, asks a question in an excited manner, or proposes a rhetorical question.” Due to its popularity, some typewriters included an interrobang key.
Read More »Interrobang: Excitement and Disbelief Combined
Happy National Punctuation Day! Founded by Jeff Rubin, National Punctuation Day is celebrated in the United States and has been celebrated every year on September 24 for nearly a decade and a half. At Proof It, we’re going to celebrate the holiday by taking a brief look at the comma.
Read More »Taking a Pause: A Brief History of Commas