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SECTION: GENERIC RANTS RANT TOPIC: PUNCTUATION WORD COUNT: 1040 WORDS
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RANDOM QUESTION, what has happened to our knowledge of punctuation these days? Have we become so stupid that we don't know how to use it anymore? Or are we too lazy to add it in nowadays? I swear, I see this issue on a daily sometimes and it makes me want to scream. You know what, let's forget about why people are neglecting punctuation and just get to the rant itself.
In the first rant of this section, which was grammar, it was discussed that many authors have chosen to neglect such a thing. Well, guess what? Punctuation is on that list too. There are many fanfictions where people have chosen to forget about it completely, which pretty much involves a boring story with no expression at all. I don't know about you guys, but it's pretty hard to know the expression a character is trying to convey without punctuation.
There are cases where punctuation is left out completely but you have the flip side of the equation which is that there are some writers out there who don't know how to use punctuation at all. I don't know if it's some sort of trick to get more views but I can't describe how annoying it is for me to read a story where either I don't know how a character is feeling or someone feels the need to put a comma after every word. Either way, both situations annoy me on the same level.
This is on the list of my pet peeves for writing. I can't deal with the excessive amount of cringing that I have to do when I look across books thinking that they're good only to slap my hand on my forehead repeatedly because I can't deal with the amount of improper use of punctuation.
Here is an example of what a typical punctuation-less book would look like without the proper use of punctuation:
Hi , my name is Alice , Pretty , Sparkles , Happy , Flowers , Coleman ! I am best friends with Harry Potter and Barry Allen , we are such close friends . Today , I am going away to a place called Camp Halfblood because I discovered that I am a demigod . I am a superhero who has all of the powers imaginable , I am the most power fullest witch in the world , and now I'm a demigod. " Bye Barry , bye Harry ! " I yell , as I wave goodbye to them . I am so nervous to go on my journey .
No. Absolutely not. The amount of times I've read fics where this is a thing makes me gag. WHY ARE YOU SPACING OUT THE PUNCTUATION AWAY FROM THE WORDS? Not only is it hard to read, but it doesn't look pretty. You might as well space out your words if you're going to be doing this when you write. If you think this makes your fic look aesthetic in any way I'm here to tell you one thing: you're wrong. That example above screams ugly in the worst way possible. The whole thing is a messy issue that has me shaking my head with utter despair.
If you do not understand what I mean, allow me to demonstrate what it means to space out a comma between two words:
" Hello I am Alice , what is your name ? "
Do you see that? Do you all see that comma that is smack dab in the middle like it's a word? That NOT acceptable. Everything bolded in that sentence is a recipe for disaster. If you can spot out what's wrong with this sentence I applaud you for doing so. If you do not realize the problem with this sentence, I suggest you look into it, if you wish for people to read your fics without criticizing you because trust me they are.
I swear this is one of the things I hate seeing THE MOST when I'm reading fanfics on this app. The amount of times I've seen people write like this is not only concerning, but c'mon! It isn't that hard to use punctuation correctly! This whole issue not only makes your book chaotic but disorganized and very hard to read! Is it that hard to look up how to use punctuation properly and put that into practice?
There is an order to write with punctuation. There is a system. Just use Grammarly (again, not a promotion by any means) if you need help with punctuation. It makes your writing look FUCKING AMAZING and not to mention, it shows that you know what you're doing. Let's be real here, if you think that the example I created is okay I'm going to have to stop you there.
For example, here is how fanfiction looks with proper punctuation:
The teenage girl pelted down the halls, her long blonde hair trailed behind her. "Amanda! Please! Wait up!" A teenage boy yelled as he chased after her. "Just go away!" The blonde girl yelled back.
Now doesn't that look better and is much easier to read than that other cringy example from above? I think it does. The sentence above looks nice, it looks readable and you can certainly tell who's who and who's saying what, just the key things that a reader needs to know about. It's not all spaced out and completely hard for readers to understand how the character is feeling, let alone trying to find the period to know when a damn sentence has ended.
In other words: please stop spacing out your punctuation away from your words. If you think you're a good writer and you're writing like this:
" Stop ! " She yelled .
Well, think again because you are dead-ass wrong my friend. No one wants to read a fic like that and not know when a paragraph ends or when someone is done talking. Please do us a favour and use punctuation CORRECTLY because it isn't that hard to change your ways right now and make a fic that actually won't make people assume you're a clown for not knowing where to put a comma or a period correctly.
