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[Luffytubby]

I came across this site which advocates for the standardization of a new line of symbols to improve communication. I find them quite interesting: http://progressivepunctuation.com/

Do you ever find it difficult to articulate certain feelings, meanings, or tones in written communication? Ever had an email, text, or tweet completely misinterpreted?

It's not your fault! Nuances like sarcasm, certitude, and irony can be difficult to convey because of the gap between our expression in verbal language versus written language.
For centuries, authors and typographers developed new punctuation marks to help bridge the gap. But as the English language evolved, many of these marks were deemed extraneous and unorthodox, unable to find a permanent place in our writing.
Today, email, text messaging, and social media are the primary means of communication for most. In fact, texting is the most used form of communication for American adults under 50 (Gallup). What’s more, there are 3.7 billion email users worldwide who send and receive about 269 billion emails per day (Radicatti Group), and over 2.8 billion active social media users (Tracx). As citizens of the technology era, there is an undeniable need for optimal clarity in our writing.
Progressive Punctuation is a movement focused on effective written communication. By increasing awareness of unused punctuation marks, we hope to begin a discussion about the present and future states of our writing, and eventually integrate the marks into our language, ending misunderstandings and misinterpretations once and for all.

While I see the logic behind it, I do wonder with the way Emojis has infiltrated language recently, if something like this will even be seen as something useful. Do you think that new symbols would help communication be more on point?

 

[Wings 嫩翼翻せ]

As a learner of a pictographic language, I think this has good premise. It will help the speaker invoke more emotion within their writing, and people would mistake instances of sarcasm, snark, etc. much less often. I think situations that fit the latter would help in especially sensitive situations so there's less negativity in the atmosphere.

 

[God Enel]

I mean I understand some of them.. but when do you use an exclamation comma? What’s the point (doubt sign)

 

[EviLore]

Emoji exist already.

 

[Domisto]

Interrobang!?

swipe right

 

[Papa]

Emoji exist already.

How would you include an emoji in serious writing?

 

[Luffytubby]

What is so cool about Emojis is the unforeseen use of them. Nobody could have predicted that the Eggplant would be the universal symbol for penis. Maybe the potential of something like this comes from its unintended use.

 

[God Enel]

Nobody could have predicted that the Eggplant would be the universal symbol for penis.

I always used to describe mine.

 

[Grinchy]

I can't tell you how many times I've felt like I needed more friendly periods when I am writing. People always think my periods are hostile.

 

[Luffytubby]

I can't tell you how many times I've felt like I needed more friendly periods when I am writing. People always think my periods are hostile.

This is a big problem for me as well. I don't understand corporate emails. I think I come off as sounding very rude because I try to keep them short!

 

[Grinchy]

This is a big problem for me as well. I don't understand corporate emails. I think I come off as sounding very rude because I try to keep them short!

lol damn well I guess I could have used some sarcastic punctuation there

 

[Klondyke]

Wrong thread

 

[EviLore]

How would you include an emoji in serious writing?

You're going to include a "Snark Mark" in serious writing?

 

[Papa]

You're going to include a "Snark Mark" in serious writing?

Oh hell no. I wouldn't be caught dead using these punctuation marks, but I think the people proposing them are intending serious use.

 

[EviLore]

Oh hell no. I wouldn't be caught dead using these punctuation marks, but I think the people proposing them are intending serious use.

It would be a fine addition to Esperanto.

 

[Papa]

It would be a fine addition to Esperanto.

I'd never heard of that before so thanks for exposing me to something new.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Nope. I consider articulating "certain feelings, meanings, or tones in written communication" (including "nuances like sarcasm, certitude, and irony") a barrier to entry for higher conversation. If you have to use a symbol to tell me you're being ironic, you're a poor writer and you must think I'm an idiot.

 

[off duty ninja]

I don’t want to learn these anymore than I want to learn 100 pronouns. How much free time do these people think we have to learn all this useless shit.

It may be a trap. Interrobang sounds like something that will get you #metoo’d if your not careful.

 

[ZehDon]

Oh, someone's doing this joke again. I preferred the way Arj Barker told it.

 

[haxan7]

Nope.

I'm not sure if the author of this is 100% serious, but here are reasons I think adding all this punctuation is not realistic:

• Some people can barely handle using a period and a comma - let alone a semicolon. How the fuck are they expected to manage when there's over 10 more variables added to the equation.
• The keyboard would have to be drastically changed - or do they expect people to open a menu every time they close a sentence? My pinky and/or ringfinger can only stretch so far.

Maybe in a couple hundred years, we will revise our writing system. Maybe this stuff is ahead of its time. But I don't see it happening any time soon.

And finally, these examples are not so much "punctuation" as they are stand-ins for a period with a twist. Like EviLore said, they are basically emojis.

 

[Wings 嫩翼翻せ]

Nope.

I'm not sure if the author of this is 100% serious, but here are reasons I think adding all this punctuation is not realistic:

• Some people can barely handle using a period and a comma - let alone a semicolon. How the fuck are they expected to manage when there's over 10 more variables added to the equation.
• The keyboard would have to be drastically changed - or do they expect people to open a menu every time they close a sentence? My pinky and/or ringfinger can only stretch so far.

Maybe in a couple hundred years, we will revise our writing system. Maybe this stuff is ahead of its time. But I don't see it happening any time soon.

And finally, these examples are not so much "punctuation" as they are stand-ins for a period with a twist. Like EviLore said, they are basically emojis.

What would you think if we assumed the people were grammatically literate? Just curious.

 

[haxan7]

What would you think if we assumed the people were grammatically literate? Just curious.

I still don't like it.

I feel it unnecessarily complicates language, and that in itself has overtones of the intellectual elite (and educated people in general) trying to separate themselves from their inferiors. Almost like when "sophisticated" people at the end of the 19th century starting pronouncing a hard "g" at the end of words ending in -ing - which is still something we see today (you can look this up. It's a real thing. Before that, almost no one pronounced the G).

Also, some of the punctuation marks are just plain wrong grammatically, according to our current system. For example, the quote the site gives for the question-comma is really a run-on sentence:

It's true that some people would write "Well, what if there is no tomorrow, there wasn't one today." But this would be a sloppy use of English, according to the current established rules ("there wasn't one today" is a separate sentence from what comes before it. You can use a semicolon to combine them into one sentence). Adding a different punctuation mark tries to solve the problem of that inherently wrong sentence by adding an extra layer of complexity on top of it. I do write that way in emails and such - so I could see these punctuation marks being helpful in situations where you don't want to sound too formal, but would still want to clearly convey your meaning.

I didn't realize I was this opinionated on punctuation marks until now. I would say there's room to add new things, but it requires a lot of people to come to a common understanding of when and where they are appropriate, and what they actually mean/infer.

 

[Dr. Claus]

I don't see the point. This is just giving a crutch to people who cannot converse well. A good writer would be able to properly convey a rhetorical question or an ironic statement through the passages (for most, anyway). It would be more prudent to teach people to become more proficient than allow them needless tools that they can fall back on.

 

[Tesseract]

absolutely disgusting

 

[Torrent of Pork]

I would literally rather state my emotional state like an Elcor before learning a whole new set of punctuation marks. And no, it's not just so I could use [badassedly] on a regular basis.

 

[davepoobond]

I think it’s time to have more punctuation, but emojis are too, I don’t know, non-formal?

But a lot of those I don’t agree with for different reasons. Interrobang is the only absolutely sensible one.

 

[Punished Miku]

All that those specialized commas would do is encourage extreme run-on sentences. Just make it two sentences.

And the friendly period does not make what you wrote automatically friendly. Be friendly, and if you succeed in writing something nice the other person has to determine if it's friendly or not.

The rhetorical question mark, and the doubt question mark are completely pointless.

The authority and certitude marks are fascistic and unbelievably stupid.

The irony mark is the death of comedy itself.

The only one that seems to even slightly have a point is the interrobang, and I disqualify that for the pornographic sounding name.