Informal and relaxed use of punctuation marks?

Question

Hi. Would you please answer some questions about what I consider to be informal punctutation uses?

1.dash use:

Would you say a comma is necessary here? Why anyone wouldn't put a comma here? Do you think a complex or compound sentence can be used after a situation like this involving a dash?

Leave this on the board to act as an example -- or if you feel your students are high-level (a comma?) you can erase it.

2. What comes after "eg.":

Would you say a complex or compound sentence can be used after the abbreviation (is it an abbreviation?) "eg"?

He has a lot of options to choose from, eg, he could go his boss and ask for the leave of absence for two weeks, starting this coming Thursday.

3. Use of Ellipsis:

Would you use ellipsis in situations like this. How would you decide whether to start a new sentence or make something that follows the ellipsis a part of the previous sentence or not? When you are starting a new sentence, then an ellipsis plus a period, so four dots should be used - right? I think an ellipsis in this type of situations creates a triggering effect (if I am not mistaken) and that can be useful (I think).

Oh.... Let's think about it for a moment.

Great.... Let's think about it seriously for a moment

Come to think of it .... We haven't started making plans for the upcoming event yet. I think wee have to hurry up.

ake

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

Please clarify.

Are you asking why people write like this?
Or are you asking if it is acceptable?
Or are you asking what the standard and more carefully written versions should be?

Best wishes, Clive

Anonymous · Answer

Hi. I thought they were examples of the informal use of the previously mentioned punctuation marks and wonder if anything long, something like a complex or compound sentence in pattern and form, can be used as part of a sentence involving their uses. I think, if I am not mistaken, you advocate careful uses of those punctuation marks. That's the impression I got looking at your many excellent reponses you have given to me or to others over the years. But it is hard to disregard the use of those marks in fairly informal contexts as the examples seemed to be in when I see so much of those uses in informal communication contexts like emails these days and it was my intention to learn from you how to punctuate correctly or write correctly using those punctuation marks in sentences.

Clive · Answer

Hi,

1.dash use:

Would you say a comma is necessary here? Why anyone wouldn't put a comma here? Do you think a complex or compound sentence can be used after a situation like this involving a dash?

Leave this on the board to act as an example -- or if you feel your students are high-level (a comma?) you can erase it.

People seem to use dashes a lot these days in informal writing. They probably feel it is easier, or more expressive.
I wouldn't recomend it in formal writing, like a college essay or a business letter.

The writer probably just didn't think about putting a comma here, feeling that the overall meaning was simple and clear.

Your particular example is not well-written, in that the first part is an imperative and the second part is not. It would be better to use parallel structures.

If I didn't want to use the dash, I'd write this as
Leave this on the board to act as an example or, if you feel your students are high-level, erase it.

2. What comes after "eg.":

Would you say a complex or compound sentence can be used after the abbreviation (is it an abbreviation? Yes, it is. ) "eg"?

He has a lot of options to choose from, eg, he could go his boss and ask for the leave of absence for two weeks, starting this coming Thursday.

There's no reason why you should't do something like this, as long as you think the example remains easy for the reader to grasp.

In a formal college essay, I was taught not to use the abbreviation in this way. I'd write it thus.
He has a lot of options to choose from. For example, he could go his boss and ask for the leave of absence for two weeks, starting this coming Thursday.

3. Use of Ellipsis:

Would you use ellipsis in situations like this. How would you decide whether to start a new sentence or make something that follows the ellipsis a part of the previous sentence or not? When you are starting a new sentence, then an ellipsis plus a period, so four dots should be used - right? I think an ellipsis in this type of situations creates a triggering effect (if I am not mistaken) and that can be useful (I think).

Oh.... Let's think about it for a moment.

Great.... Let's think about it seriously for a moment

Come to think of it .. We haven't started making plans for the upcoming event yet. I think wee have to hurry up.

I don't see these as examples of ellipsis, because nothing seems to have been omitted. The purpose seems to be simply to indicate a pause. Perhaps you should also be looking at the possibility of using dashes, if you just want to indicate pauses?

I'm not the best person to ask for advice about dots and dashes, because I seldom use them. In general, it seems to me that there are not a lot of serious 'rules' about the use of these informal devices. People use them pretty casually, and just expect the reader to figure out the meaning. Usually, that's not difficult to do.

Best wishes, Clive

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you. Those were very good explanations. I was looking at my response to your query/question and wonder (wondered?) if we could go from past to present in a context like the one below is in.

My sentences:

Hi. I thought they were examples of the informal use of the previously mentioned punctuation marks and wonder if anything long, something like a complex or compound sentence in pattern and form, can be used as part of a sentence involving their uses

Copying them again. The part in past is underlined and the part in present is underlined too.

Hi. I thought they were examples of the informal use of the previously mentioned punctuation marks and wonder if anything long, something like a complex or compound sentence in pattern and form, can be used as part of a sentence involving their uses

Clive · Answer

Hi again,

I was looking at my response to your query/question and wonder (wondered?) if we could go from past to present in a context like the one below is in.
The part in past is underlined and the part in present is underlined too.

I thought they were examples of the informal use of the previously mentioned punctuation marks and wonder if anything long, something like a complex or compound sentence in pattern and form, can be used as part of a sentence involving their uses

This reads OK if you don't think much about it. But if you do, it doesn't seem quite right.
'I thought' here implies that you don't think so now. This past tense doesn't fit well with the present tense in the second part.

It would read better as
I think they are examples of the informal use of the previously mentioned punctuation marks and wonder if anything long, something like a complex or compound sentence in pattern and form, can be used as part of a sentence involving their uses

or
I thought they were examples of the informal use of the previously mentioned punctuation marks and wondered if anything long, something like a complex or compound sentence in pattern and form, could be used as part of a sentence involving their uses

Best wishes, Clive

Informal and relaxed use of punctuation marks?

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