How much do you bother to use : and ;?

[Mitera Nikkou]

There was a time when I abused these things, but now I just try to use them as often as I can (whether if I know if I'm using them right or not). ^_^;

<.<

>.>

The same goes for parenthesis.

Part of the reason why I do, is because I hardly come across other people using them and I like setting myself apart even if it's with ignorance. XD

[Mistress Guendolen]

I use them as the tenets of the English language requires of me. As a professional proofreader, I can do no less. And I'm one of the only people in my workplace who knows how to apply them correctly.... Especially the poor semi-colon. Nobody seems to know how to use one of those! It's extremely vexing.

[Mitera Nikkou]

I guess that means that I don't know how to use semi-colons either. But I try. Mwa-ha-ha!

[Raleigh]

I will frankly admit I avoid them since I can never quite remember the rules on their usage. Then again it is rare I have something that requires them anyway.

[Mistress Guendolen]

If it's any consolation, I haven't seen you mis-use one yet.... But then, perhaps I'm misremembering. I really only pay attention to such things on message boards if it's really glaring or excessive.

[Daffodil Aura]

The semi-colon gets used an awful lot ^^;;;;; <-- see what I mean. (^.~)

The colon, a bit less so, as it's only really useful in time and certain specific separations of phrases from the rest of the sentence - which can generally be handled better with a bit of reworking (the dash, and the parens, on the other hand, tend to get used a lot with me.... )

Of course, I tend to overuse punctuation - dashes, commas, parens, and elipses most prominently... My writing teachers always got mad at me for that. (Then again, for the most part, it's a matter of style... )

[Mistress Guendolen]

But you USE commas! THANK you! So many of the people where I wqork have comma-itis! I'm editing letters, and it's like, "Okay, come on, do't you realize that there need to be some PAUSES here?" And then they go and stick one in where it's completely random and, if read out loud, sounding unnatural in realistic human speech! So I thank you for allowing the comma to be heard!... **pauses and looks around** Okay, you people should have known better than to make a poll regarding punctuation with me around. Given my current employment path, it was bound to set me off....

[Mitera Nikkou]

I was actually thinking of you when I made it. ;p

I like punctuation. I try to use the stuff as much as I can. Thing is, I've been teaching myself for years by deciding if something sounds right (whether if it's from what I write or someone else's material that I'm reading from). So I often believe that my grammar in general is atrocious. ^_^;

[Mistress Guendolen]

Well, at least I have the honor of indirectly inspiring a poll. I must confess that I tend to play it by indirect knowledge rather than hard and fast rules. I usually have an overall good sense of when something looks right and when it doesn't; not in saying, oh this has to be this way because of grammatical rule number five hundred and three, but rather, oh, this needs to go there because my editorial instincts tell me so. This is what happens to you when you start writing at about the age of five or six.

[Mitera Nikkou]

I avoided writing most of my life. Well, as much as I could get away with. Writing in school, for me, was torture. Despite the lethargy and depression that I've fallen into for the last decade, I'm actually a hyperactive, mischievous thingy at heart. I was never meant to sit down and do an activity that required little energy and plenty of conscious thought. But it's one of the few mediums for expression in my current state, so... Dun-dun-dunnnn! U_U;

[Mistress Guendolen]

See, I've been a writer for as long as I can remember. So many of my favored pursuits have required sitting still for long periods of time.... Though getting really engrossed in writing can result in becoming quite tired. It's more of an emotional than a physical feeling, though.

[Mitera Nikkou]

I don't know why I write. I just know that I do and that it's not all that easy for me to do (because my mind often wanders if I write more than a sentence or two, and I lose my line of thought easily and have to remember it). I've only been writing for six or seven years now. Maybe I can PM you some of my earlier stuff so you can have a good laugh. XD I'm sure that I still have some old stuff somewhere...

[Mistress Guendolen]

Then you should pull a James Joyce and write stream of consciousness. Allow the lack of focus to work for you. I tried that style once in high school, and found it very difficult. When I write, I focus. If you meander when you write, you should use that to your advantage and make it your signature style.

[Anamnesis]

Yes. I, however, find stream of consciousness quite...unusable; The message is put across, but at the risk of misunderstanding.
However, I do believe Thoreau said that 'greatness is to be misunderstood (Or something to that effect),' so, there is hardly a usable argument to be found... o.o

[Mistress Guendolen]

Stream of conscious works at different levels depending on how it's handled. For instance, the version in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, I found to be quite readable. Odd, but not too hard to understand. There was cohesion, but with, well, forays into oddity. However, Ulysses, one of Joyce's last books, is considered by some people to be a horrific mess. Heck, supposedly in the last 100 or so pages, he uses no punctuation at all. That's what I call extreme of consciousness, and it would make my head hurt. But a lighter dose of it can work quite well, under the right circumstances.