Sunday, October 11, 2015

PUNCTUATION AND ME

PUNCTUATION AND ME Punctuation is placing diacritical marks in writing so that readers might understand your sense. That placement process is governed by rules, particular to each such mark, whether : the comma, period, semicolon ; exclamation mark; colon; dash; parentheses; question mark; apostrophe; brackets or ellipsis. My fifth grade teacher , Ms. Lydia Brooks, once asked me about the punctuation of a given sentence in class. I told her that it "sounded" right. She then proceeded to tell me, to tell us , that rules not sound governs punctuation and that I must learn--we must learn--the rules of punctuation in order to write properly, elegantly. So, she gave us a dose of punctuation exercises that emphasized rules. I love, I am deeply indebted to Ms. Brooks. Knowing the rules enables one to break them freely, creatively, cleverly, for effect, for emphasis! Sounds engaged me early in punctuation . Later came sight and sound; then feel was added. Most recently, I have begun to taste too. So hearing, seeing, feeling, tasting, being aboard, smell only is lacking. Might it be that writing engages all of the senses? Might it be that smell too may join my panoply of punctuation tools and impulses?