Bloody Well Write » National Punctuation Day http://www.bloodywellwrite.com language + usage Thu, 26 Aug 2010 05:11:10 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 National Punctuation Day® http://www.bloodywellwrite.com/2009/09/24/national-punctuation-day%c2%ae/ http://www.bloodywellwrite.com/2009/09/24/national-punctuation-day%c2%ae/#comments Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:39:23 +0000 bloodywellwrite http://bloodywellwrite.com/?p=678 Today is Thursday, September 24, 2009 — the sixth annual celebration of National Punctuation Day (NPD). Punctuation ensures that groups of words make more sense and take on more meaning than you can shake a stick at.

Hooray for punctuation!

In 2004, NPD was founded by Jeff Rubin, a former newspaper guy. In 1981, Rubin started The Newsletter Guy, a newsletter publishing firm. Rubin is also a public speaker, addressing effective writing and marketing techniques. I bet that he also addresses the importance of proper punctuation — but that’s just a guess.

Check out the official Web site. It offers some of the standard stuff (e.g., definitions of each punctuation mark, examples of punctuation gone awry, a resources section); most notable, perhaps, is the information concerning the baking contest. Send in two photos of your masterpiece — one of it going into the oven raw and one of it coming out, all warm and yummy — and you may win a bunch of non-edible NPD stuff. How cool is that?! Very, I say.

Doesn't a bake-off seem like a better idea?! (photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/adactio/3367193003)

Doesn't a bake-off seem like a better idea?! (photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/adactio/3367193003)

OK, stop messing around here and go bake something with meaning, such as a semicolon or em dash. You know you want to.

Happy trails!

SAK

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