this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2023
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The colon is underused as punctuation and overused as an intestinal organ (reddthat.com)
submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Check it: colons are incredibly useful for introducing new ideas or adding emphasis. And the way people talk on the internet could use significantly more clarity: you can ramble and ramble, and just talk about whatever, expand on your point, really beat that dead horse, and then take a short break. But using colons allows you to introduce an important new idea: they provide a clear separation between different thoughts.

Oh yeah, about the colon as intestinal organ: idk...stay away from Taco Bell unless you have some extra time

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[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This is an excellent post, thank you for blessing my feed with this discourse- I also really like using dashes!

Semicolons, dashes, commas, and colons are all great for breaking up and organizing words without implying to total pause that a period would. I find them perhaps especially useful since I write like I speak, making conveying cadence or pauses to break up run-on sentences particularly important for clarity

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

Yes! All those underused symbols are useful when you just get a train-of- thought going.