Punctuation infuriation

[Sput]

So I thought I'd start a thread to entice in the pedants! It always annoys me when people use double question marks, ESPECIALLY when they're for a statement that doesn't even need one. I always got the impression it makes the person asking the question (when it actually IS a question) look really pompous.

Know what I mean??

Anyway, what punctuation irritation do other metropollers get? Difficulty: No interrobangs.

[marksi]

Why don't people use colons or semi-colons any more?

[Malpass93]

Why don't people use colons or semi-colons any more?

For the following reasons: They are seen as slightly geeky; and many people do not know how to correctly use them.

Most people use them for emoticons/smileys.

[Gavin Scott]

Why don't people use colons or semi-colons any more?

There's no hyphen in semicolon, apparently.

I use them a lot.

[marksi]

I did not know that. But you're absolutely right.

Bill Bryson tells me that starting a sentence with the word "but" is perfectly ok despite the advice of many teachers.

[Nini]

But or and should never start a sentence and things cannot be simply good as it's a non-committal word or so my English teacher told me.

[eanok]

But or and should never start a sentence and things cannot be simply good as it's a non-committal word or so my English teacher told me.

However, I do see many people starting a sentence with but or and very often. Grammatical it's obviously incorrect but are they colloquially correct?

correction: grammatically. shame on me.

[Sput]

Grammatical it's obviously incorrect but are they colloquially correct?

Ooooooh you've made the classic forum mistake of a typo when you're talking about what's wrong with a bit of grammar! Thanks for playing though!

[Gavin Scott]

But or and should never start a sentence and things cannot be simply good as it's a non-committal word or so my English teacher told me.

However, I do see many people starting a sentence with but or and very often. Grammatical it's obviously incorrect but are they colloquially correct?

correction: grammatically. shame on me.

Welcome to the forum eanok

[Nini]

Grammatical it's obviously incorrect but are they colloquially correct?

Colloquially you're as right as long as your audience understands your message but grammatically it's apparently a big no-no and that teacher struck the fear of Satan/JM into my soul so I don't really want to fall foul of it even though I'm certain she's been dead for a decade at least.

Oh and welcome, it's great to have you with us. That avatar might need to be redone though.

[marksi]

From the Lynch Guide to Grammar and Style:

Contrary to what your high school English teacher told you, there's no reason not to begin a sentence with but or and; in fact, these words often make a sentence more forceful and graceful. They are almost always better than beginning with however or additionally. Beginning with but or and does make your writing less formal; — but worse things could happen to most writing than becoming less formal.

Note, though, that if you open with but or and, you usually don't need a comma: not "But, we did it anyway"; it's enough to say "But we did it anyway." The only time you need a comma after a sentence-opening conjunction is when you want to sneak a clause right between the conjunction and the rest of the sentence: "But, as you know, we did it anyway." [Entry revised 12 July 2005.]

I was taught to indent paragraphs. When was the last time you saw one?

My experience is that grammar and style are things which evolve very quickly, given how much the rules have changed since I was at school. Perhaps the explosion of email and text messaging are to blame for a large part of that.