Punctuation and me, happy as can be

I love punctuation. Some people have a favorite sports team; I have a favorite punctuation mark. It's true. When I told this to the first English Composition class I taught at a local college, the students looked at me like I had sprouted a third ear in the middle of my forehead. To them, punctuation was something to dread, not something to swoon over.

I've heard rumors in the editing world that the current trend in writing is toward less and less punctuation. Even the Chicago Manual of Style, the be-all-end-all in the editing business, advises against using a comma after a short introductory phrase. Truth be told, I'm okay with that. Too many commas clutter a sentence. However, when my stepson told me that his sixth-grade teacher said the only comma rule the class needed to know was to use a comma when they would normally pause in a sentence, that I was not okay with.

I understand, though, why the teacher would want to simplify any punctuation rule she could. Punctuation is tricky, and there's really no easy way to learn to use it correctly except to practice. I've worked closely with punctuation for more than ten years now as an editor, and every day I have to look up some rule or another. I can handle the reality that comma splices are a fact of life. They actually help keep me in a job.

Still, I have to admit, when I see a flier announcing "car's for sale" or a billboard telling me to "stop in, and shop," I want to hang my head and cry. Fortunately, there are still some punctuation vigilantes out there, and we'll do our best to help future generations carry on the fine punctuation traditions of the English language.

By the way, in case you're curious, my favorite punctuation mark is the semicolon. Interestingly enough, I didn't learn about the proper placement of the semicolon until my freshman year of college, but that is perhaps a whole other story.