The New Punctuation

What ? There's a new punctuation ? Did something happen and I missed it ?

Got your attention !

Well, this is actually very humble, but I really felt it needed to be done. I've been using The New Punctuation for awhile now, and at this point it would be hard to go back.

The problem I noticed was that certain parts of our punctuation were getting squashed - so crowded and compressed they were getting hidden in the surrounding verbal landscape, and could even be missed. They were being deprived of their natural beauty and  dignity - even prevented from doing their job.

It felt like intimidation to me. It felt like discrimination and harassment. I had to do something, and I did. Here are the problems I noticed - and the changes I've made :

- An exclamation point crushed into the word it follows. I saw this! - and I've changed it to this !

- A question mark pressed into the last word of the question it follows. I saw this? - and I've turned it into this ?

- A semicolon pressed tightly against the last word of the phrase it follows. Such a lovely and important part of our punctuation - but you could miss it entirely. Instead of this; - I do this ;

- A colon oppressed in the same way as the semicolon and the rest. It's always been this: - but I'm doing this :

Just a single space between the word and the punctuation - but do you see the difference ? It's just a little more gracious. It lets the punctuation breathe.

There it is, my small flag I'm planting in the ground of our language. What do you think ? Will you be an early adapter ? If you want to join the movement, help me out by passing this further - Tweet it,  Facebook it, email it to a friend.

Free the Punctuation 4 ! Viva The New Punctuation ! Viva la Revolucion !