#puncuation

[stygiansauce]

Hey gamers! I'm gonna give you an entire lesson on hyphens, Em dashes and En dashes via tumblr, right now.

Lets preface with this: Grammar has two modes of use.

Prescriptive: A set of rules that dictate how a language "should" be used.

Descriptive: How grammar/language is ACTUALLY used.

This is an important distinction for this lesson because I am going to start with a powerpoint that explains the rules/uses of hyphens and dashes. THEN after, we will talk about the rhetorical effects dashes have on readers and how authors can use them to their advantage. COOL lets begin.

The first thing you all need to know about hyphens and dashes is what they look like.

Please note how the EM dash is the longest, the EN is next, then the minus, and the hyphen. The sizing and name of these dashes was historically decided because Em dashes were the size of an M and an En was the size of an N.

This is wonky now considering typing and fonts and all that jazz, but the size still matters (haha).

These are how you type them! I am a google docs user, and the short cuts in docs are weird. You will want to go into Insert then go down to special characters. Type in the dash you need, and click it to insert.

Hyphens so these things! What is a modifier? It's a word that MODIFIES the noun. like a light rain, or a long drive. these are adjectives/adverbs (depending)

Hyphens can link two modifiers. They can also link compound nouns.

These are the things Em dashes do! If you take a gander through Margin of Error (Chapter 4 would be best because that's where I learned the special character function) you'll see all of these examples in action!

En dashes aren't as common as EM dashes or hyphens. These are used strictly in a prescriptive sense. From my knowledge there is no way to use these rhetorically. only for clarity and these are the three times you'll see them.

COOL! Now lets talk about how Em dashes are used rhetorically. What does an Em dash do to your writing? How does it effect a reader?

Emphasis Em dashes create pauses in speech. If I were talking to you and I wanted to pause-- or cut myself off, I could use either an elipses or an Em dash. Where an elipses is more of a trail off... the Em dash draws the readers eye. It makes the reader stop and look at what is around them.

THATS IT! Thats what it does! It's more emphasis than a comma or a parenthetical. You could in theory use a comma, but think of how much stress you want on something.

FOR EXAMPLE, in this line from Margin of Error.

With no Puncuation: “Ah well Grian and I weren’t really getting along at the time…” He trails off in a way that screams I’m done talking about this something he does a lot when talking about his family so Tango moves the conversation in a different direction.

With Commas: “Ah, well, Grian and I weren’t really getting along at the time…” He trails off in a way that screams I’m done talking about this, something he does a lot when talking about his family, so Tango moves the conversation in a different direction.

With Em dashes: “Ah—well, Grian and I weren’t really getting along at the time…” He trails off in a way that screams I’m done talking about this—something he does a lot when talking about his family—so Tango moves the conversation in a different direction.

Notice how it's different? The commas certainly do their job at making the reader pause. They help insert the phrase, but its not the same as the dashes. The dashes make the reader LOOK at what is between them. it becomes the focus of the sentence. We are no longer worries about what Jimmy's tone is, but that he uses it often when talkin about his family.

Look at this example with parenthesis too, and see how those change the effect.

With parenthesis: “Ah—well, Grian and I weren’t really getting along at the time…” He trails off in a way that screams I’m done talking about this (something he does a lot when talking about his family) so Tango moves the conversation in a different direction.

Seeeee? it makes a difference! The parenthesis make it more of a passive thought. Something for the reader to consider, but is overall not important to the story. This is why us authors sometimes hem and haw over grammar! I certainly think that Em dashes can be used based off vibes (I do this all the time) but now you know what its really doing for your reader! I want to look at one more example of this before we wrap up.

With no Puncuation: “Your eyes are pretty.” Jimmy says wistfully suddenly like he can’t hold it in any longer

With Commas: “Your eyes are pretty.” Jimmy says wistfully, suddenly, like he can’t hold it in any longer

With Em dashes: “Your eyes are pretty.” Jimmy says wistfully—suddenly—like he can’t hold it in any longer

With Parenthesis: “Your eyes are pretty.” Jimmy says wistfully (suddenly) like he can’t hold it in any longer.

TADA! You can now use hyphens, em dashes and en dashes!!! Thank you for coming to class. Your homework is to play around with these in your writing. I will accpet questions via the Ask box or the comments of this post. Happy writing nerds, go use your new toy.

xoxo Ms. Sauce

[phoenix]

They're ape-ostrophes.

“don🦍t believe anything your brain tells you after 9 pm” wrong. the prime time for decision making is when you🦍re sleep deprived

^example of what life would be like if we used gorillas instead of apostrophes

[lixies-favorite-cookie]

just a quick message to new blogs and or new people that don't know tumblr etiquette yet!

let me preface this by saying by no means this is supposed to be hateful, I'm just trying to educate those who might not know this

with that being said, typically, writers, artists, people who work hard for tumblr don't like blank blogs. by blank I mean no bio, no posts, no profile pic or customization at all. (at least for me and most of my fellow mutuals)

personally, i don't like it because A: I don't know if this is a real person or a bot and B: it feels shitty knowing I spend hours on something only for somebody to like it and not put enough effort to put a profile pic on there blog

but mostly it's the whole bot thing.

I get a lot of bots following me and liking my stuff, and I've resulted to blocking them because I want to know how many people actually read my stuff.

being a blank blog can result in unintentially being blocked because the user thinks you are a bot.

I was there for a long time as well, I had a completely blank blog for like 2 years before I even figured out I could customize my character so to speak, but now, doing this for almost a year, I realize how important it is to not have a blank blog.

not only does putting a little bit of effort to have a profile pic and a bio saying something simple like 22, not a bot!! can help your fellow tumblr creators very very much!!!

same goes for reblogging!! another thing I just want to add is the importance of reblogging with tags. if you dont know how to do this I actually have a tutorial on how to properly reblog a fic right here :)

at the end of the day, it's your blog and nobody can tell you what to do with it. soooo yeah :) hope that helped somebody idk I was just thinking about it today in class and now idk how to conclude this 😗🫰🏻

[alphabetcompletionist]

actually what sort of monster have i created. i'm discovering completionist blogs out in the wild now it's like my lab-grown species escaped and started outcompeting the native fauna. aren't you supposed to report back to me or at least to the taxonomist. it's madness

ABCDEFGHI KLMNOP RSTUVWXY

23/26

[bellspun]

OMG your Sthenelus is so beautiful!!! I am absolutely in love with him!!

You mentioned you had a lot to say about him and I would love to hear your thoughts if you want to share!!

OH boy now I'm nervous 🥲

Given my thoughts are more surrounded by what I think of him than of the character himself, it's a little unreliable! LOL

There's this screenshot I saved from I don't know when and I don't know where ( I just felt the need to share )

AGHAHHAG

Someone mentioned his mother's devotion, throwing herself onto her husband's funeral pyre, and how Sthenelus inherited his parent's traits (Evadne's loyalty and Capaneus's arrogance). Maybe I'm biased but I can see him being fiercely protective and fiercely dedicated to those he cares for. Which the clearcut answer includes Diomedes yesyes. Brotherhood!!

If Epigoni wasn't a lost epic, I think I'd have a total blast dissecting and analyzing his character 😭😭 There's so little written about him AND his family so most of what I cling to are his [very scarce] interactions with others

In any case, everything I do have to say about him has already been said! BUT! the burns he could've suffered potentially pulling Evadne from Capaneus AND how it could affect his day to day life is a topic I love to dabble in 🥲👍 Especially being Diomedes' charioteer, I can only imagine the tension put on them ( take my word for granted because it's been a hot minute since I've last read the Iliad! )

This is all I can pull from the top of my head but if I find anything more to say, I'll reblog!! There's a whole lot that has been brewing so it's all a jumbled mess in my mind at the moment LOL

Thank you for asking!

[two-entire-bits]

finished reading an essay by a person in my peer view group and I think I took psychic damage.

[sleepyraccoonartz]

I need the Doctor to find Rouge and I need them to go on silly little adventures together and I need them to be happy and get married or something on a planet in the middle of the galaxy and I need everything to be ok for them both if only for like 4 episodes

[donotwishonme]

snippet time!!

thank you @v7lgar who tagged me recently and @shoopsthereitis & @emlovessid who tagged me some time ago <33

have some post prank wolfstar

"It's just a prank, right. It backfired, but I'm fine he's fine. He was told... He promised not to tell anyone," Remus rambles trying to convince both himself and Sirius that everything will be fine, "we all make stupid decisions, pranks go wrong all the times. If only I had a galleon for every hour spent in detention. Smart people can make mistakes, Dumbledore for example, letting a werewolf into Hogwarts was a m—" "Don't say that," Sirius interrupts. "Just... will you promise me one thing," Remus turns to Sirius for the first time, the molten silver of his eyes surrounded by red spiderwebs of sorrow and regret, tears clinging on his dark lashes, but salty rivers are already tracing over his cheek. Remus feels guilty about Sirius feeling sad, he shouldn't, but his heart hurts looking at him like this. "Promise me you wont tell anyone ever again. You tried and this is what comes of it. It's not good for anyone involved." Sirius sniffles then murmurs, "I promise." He's never been so quiet before, Remus has never seen him so uneasy and out of sorts. His eyes flitting around the room not settling on anything and avoiding him as much as possible. He thinks, they both wish it could be undone. It never should have happened, Sirius shouldnt have told anyone, but Remus should have never been here in the first place. Given the chance, Sirius would do the last week over and Remus the last few years. All this pain could've been so easily avoided. He can forgive Sirius, because at the core he is to blame, only him.

[sweaterkittensahoy]

Reminder that A/B/O spelt without the / / is a slur against Aboriginal people, so please fucking use the / / if you're gonna abbreviate that way. Also, just using "omegaverse" removes any possible problems completely.

[enigmaue]

Fun fact: if you spam my inbox with the same massive wall of text (6+ paragraphs) more than five times in a short period, I'm likely going to block you.

[warrior-kitty]

there’s an npc in Hammerlocke that’ll trade me a togepi for a toxel but i couldn’t for the life of me find a godamn toxel i’ve tried looking all over in the wild area but i guess it needs certain weather conditions to spawn but i really want that fricken togepi so fuck it i’m just gonna breed a toxel for the sole purpose of getting rid of it setting up my toxtricity, Roxanne, with some machoke i found named Mike i hope she has a good time

[itsmiyamore]

updating this wip i wrote a long time ago to match my current writing style (replacing commas with em dashes everywhere)

[ask-olivervocaloid]

Congrats on your update.

Some thoughts about Oliver's new design (1/?)

[eternally-anomalous]

nre, are there any recipes that the scavengers have shared with you? if so, what are your favorites?

NRE: There are a few, yes, or rather theyve shown me the finished food and how they cook it, im not sure if i could recreate it like i would a recipe though

NRE: one of my favorites is fried noodlefly in popcorn oil, its a really ingenious thing to do, I certainly never would have thought about it, and it looks really tasty

NRE: sometimes they use that weird slime mold, the sparkly kind, to decorate more plain looking dishes when theres a feast or party, which in my opinion is really cool

NRE: scavengers are so cool...

[lifeinkinder]

Sweet girl is doing better, but by no means is she well. I talked to her mom last night and will check in again on Wednesday afternoon since she's supposed to head back to surgery that morning (also I scheduled therapy for myself because I was not doing well coming off little man's illness and then news of how badly sweet girl's OHS went so I should definitely check in before therapy just in case it's not good).

Little Man is doing wonderfully. He's eating like a champ - way better even than before he was sick. He's experimenting with solids - just purees and oatmeal until October. He HATES oatmeal at home, but he's loving it at school even though we're feeding the same brand and everything, the little poop head.

I thought Squish caught what Little Man had, but apparently, she just wanted to play hooky from school and spend a day with Titi because she spent the day with my sister and despite being miserable and having gross poo yesterday, she was 100% fine all day.

[thorninyourpaw]

blood

THIS IS THE FRANK KINK❗️ frank “pops boners from nosebleeds” thorninyourpaw baby i feel a lot about it