Don’t sweat punctuation…

Michelle Markowitz, co-author of Hey Ladies!: The Story of 8 Best Friends, 1 Year, and Way, Way Too Many Emails, a book about off-the-rails group messages, is quoted in the WaPo:

“We’re done fighting over capital letters and punctuation. Sorry, sticklers — this ship has sailed. A good text makes sense to its recipient, but that shouldn’t require consulting an SAT grammar workbook.” After years of reduced social contact, [Markowitz] is happy when someone reaches out, even if their style of texting is totally different from hers. Skipping the capitalization or leaving off a question mark doesn’t denote a lack of respect.

But, if you want to get your Facebook friends riled up, tell them punctuation in text messages is dead. Dead. You might find long forgotten friends suddenly chiming in. Like Kathy, in this public Facebook post:

Proper English diehards insist punctuation is absolutely necessary in text messages, unless you’re okay with Let’s Eat Grandma. They will punctuate, whether you like it or not. The younger generation chafes at this, considering periods and capitalization to be passive aggressive.

Lauren not passive aggressive. She leaves nothing to dispute about where she stands on proper texting in this public Facebook post:

What intrigues me is the use of informalities in Lauren’s post, such as “Fuck that,” the invented word “textlation,” the slang word “gonna” and abbreviated “combo.” Not only that, she really should have used a semicolon, not a comma in her sentence. So I don’t buy her use-proper-English outrage.

Why formal writing is frowned upon

To understand why younger generations view formal writing construction as passive aggressive, think of a parent using their son’s full name when issuing a stern ultimatum: “Timothy Clinton Greenbaum, come back here and clean your plate.” That’s how a period reads.

People gain and express social comfort through informal self-presentation, so acting or writing formally comes off as unsettling. Texting is viewed as casual banter, a rif, a slow or fast train of thoughts, and don’t you dare shout at me in all caps.

After all, if you send a text without a period, it appears in its own little bubble anyway, so why would you need to bother with a period? Just chill.

Nancy White, President and Editor at The Words Works and Distinguished professor of English at SUNY Adirondack, had a class discussion on this topic, and shares:

[Students] countered that no good thought is ever really finished so why the artifice of the period? Ultimately we realized that this no-periods-needed attitude is the result of texting itself, where a sentence is shot off into the void in its own little blue bubble, hence the period would be redundant. Kind of the way we boomers might use an exclamation point! And if you do that too often! You get really annoying! You can’t emphasize everything! Then you just start sounding ridiculous!

Of course, punctuation between sentences sent in one long text is acceptable. Or not. It depends. I often dictate my texts, so they may or may not have periods. I would have to actually say “period” or “question mark” when I dictate. My texts are often rife with spelling errors because of dictation, too.

Communication is fluid

For those who insist on punctuation in texts, “There’s a tendency for people to believe that the rules they learned in school are fixed and unchangeable and everything after that is a barbarism, but that’s not how society works,” says Gretchen McCulloch, linguist and author of Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language. She adds, “The fashions are different from when you were in school, words are different, and punctuation can be different, too.”

Language and forms of communication change over time. Standard punctuation in communication changes. And poets and novelists experiments with punctuation all the time! I have no doubt that when it comes to formal text, such as manuals, books, magazines and newspapers, punctuation rules will always apply.

In a text message to friends or family… not so much

it’s okay to let go

what’s most important is that we keep communicating

(See what I did there?)

For more, see: Texting etiquette 101 (WaPo) and No More Periods whenTexting. Period. (NYT)

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Linda K. Sienkiewicz is a writer, poet, and artist:
Multi-finalist award winning novel: In the Context of Love,
Picture book: Gordy and the Ghost Crab,
Poetry chapbook: Sleepwalker,

Linda’s social media links: LinkTree