The Raggedy Writer

I try to write this blog using correct grammar, I try to punctuate the content in these posts using standard rules.  I do my best to write without too terribly many typos (even though they sneak in all the time.)  And I try not to be too dreadfully dull.

Typos seem to run amok in my writing, but since most days I "write and run," I can accept the ones that sneak in, it's the punctuation that bothers me the most.  For instance, should there have been a comma before "write and run" in the sentence above?  Should there have been one after the quotations and if so, should it have been inside or outside the quotation marks?

And terminal punctuation.  Does that give you fits too? For example, take the sentence: "let's meet at eight." Does the period go inside or outside the quotation?  I thought I knew the rule (it was dependent on the quotation: inside for stand-alone clauses, outside otherwise.)  And then I found out that rule was Brittish and that American rules were, "firmly established" in that punctuation was always inside the ending quotation mark.  Or wait, it was if the punctuation was a period of a comma.  If it was an exclamation mark or a question mark then the rule varied based on the sentence.

I thought I had it.  I thought I understood the rules and yet with more reading the situation turns out to be even more complicated.  I'm not giving up though.  So if you don't mind my grammatical and punctuational errors, (and my desire to use made up words like "punctuational,") then i'll keep writing, typos and all.

The Big Boy Update: My son came downstairs this morning, climbed onto the bed and told me, "i want chocolate cake for my birthday." Then he said, "is it Christmas already?"

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter asked for a paper towel at the restaurant the other day. She brought it back out to our table and then I realized what she wanted. She wanted me to tuck it into the back of her shirt to make a cape.  She wore that paper towel cape for almost an hour.