Period. Dot. That's the end.

           When it comes to punctuation, I feel like we should all have a pretty clear understanding on how to use the period. If we’ve made it this far, we should right? Wrong! At least a little bit wrong. Yes, periods signify the ending to a sentence or thought, but many people (myself included) tend to mix up where they belong when quotations are involved. The easiest way for me to remember this exception is to picture the shape of the end quotation or the parenthesis. Both marks are rounded and look like a cap to a bottle, or sentence. It makes it easier to picture a bottle cap holding everything in, including the period.  When I figured this out I told my roommate, “it’s a great reminder for visual learners.”

Speaking of quotation marks, “did anyone else” see the “Friends” episode where “Joey” could not “understand” how to “correctly” use the  “air quotes?” If you didn’t see it, you basically just read it. The whole episode he struggled to understand when to correctly air-quote something. It was funny on TV, but not in real life.

Quotations are another simple part of punctuation that can sometimes be skipped over in lessons because it is just assumed they are understood. Unfortunately, they are frequently over-used or improperly used. I didn’t think of any visual cues for these, it’s just important to remember they are only used if you are writing down something that someone said exactly. Quotes can also break up the flow of reading if used excessively. Before directly quoting a person, take a look at what they said and ask yourself if it “is something that can be paraphrased?” As long as you still give the person credit for the idea, it is appropriate to remove quotations and paraphrase wordy or excessive sentences.

This semester I live in a building designated for the dancers in my program. While we have our own apartments, the shower situation is similar a dorm and five girls share each shower. Once a week management comes through and cleans but after a few weeks of girls leaving products in the shower, management posted the following note.

There are so many ways to correct this because it almost needs to be completely re-written.  I would fix it by saying something like:

Please take your items when you finish a shower. All remaining items will be removed. Thank you.