I’ve often been accused (with merit) of being wordy and verbose in my written communications.
Although I do believe I am an articulate writer, I agree that I sometimes get carried away in my attempts to “paint in every color of the rainbow.”
It’s just that I like sharing my thoughts on whatever it is that I happen to be writing about in such a way as to do justice to the various shades and hues which color my perceptions and form my opinions.
I tend to put this approach on full display when writing about my love for Regency Nursing and Postacute Centers.
I use soaring prose and rhetoric and creative styling in my syntax and punctuations.
I even figure out a way to maximize my use of a period!
For example; I’ll write, Regency Nursing Centers offer the very best in Senior Rehab, period!
Speaking of the period, Ben Crair writing for New Republic, recently pointed out how the period was always the humblest of punctuation marks. Recently, however, it’s started getting angry. He writes; “I’ve noticed it in my text messages and online chats, where people use the period not simply to conclude a sentence, but to announce “I am not happy about the sentence I just concluded.””
Say you find yourself limping to the finish of a wearing workday. You text your girlfriend: “I know we made a reservation for your bday tonight but wouldn’t it be more romantic if we ate in instead?” If she replies, we could do that Then you can ring up Papa John’s and order something special. But if she replies, we could do that. Then you should probably drink a cup of coffee: You’re either going out or you’re eating Papa John’s alone.
This is an unlikely heel turn in linguistics. In most written language, the period is a neutral way to mark a pause or complete a thought; but digital communications are turning it into something more aggressive. “Not long ago, my 17-year-old son noted that many of my texts to him seemed excessively assertive or even harsh, because I routinely used a period at the end,” Mark Liberman, a professor of linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania, reported. How and why did the period get so ticked off?
