Open Question about Punctuation

[TheBig3]

This is just an open question, I don't have any answers. Are you noticing that people, especially on-line, use line-breaks as punctuation?

Just a question because I think I caught myself donig it.

[333]

What are line breaks? Dashes?

[TheBig3]

no.

line breaks.

are seperations.

for seemingly no real point.

its mostly html decoration.

[Guybrush]

Originally Posted by 333

What are line breaks? Dashes?

This

is a line break.


Punctuation and english is a bit hard. I'm not sure the grammar rules for norwegian and english are the same. I can't remember ever covering punctuation in english classes. Are all these correct uses of commas?


"When I farted, Henry died."

"I am a person, and I like grapes."

"The dog, which was brown, smelled awful."

"The guy whose buttocks I waxed, fell in love with me."

"Boardtracker, a musicbanter tracking bot, is less boring than Erica."

"My favourite forum, the lounge, is full of crappy threads."

"RT, come here!"
"You go, girl!"
"Well, my boy?"
"No smoking in my office, please!"

"Poor people smell, Big3 said."

"Britney Spears is sexy, talented, highly sophisticated, bow-chicka-bowowish and full of spunk, according to Jackhammer."

[Freebase Dali]

Looks correct to me, Tore.

Regarding line breaks, I prefer to use them to separate different thoughts or replies that don't belong in the same "paragraph", for lack of a better word. When reading, it's easier to distinguish between blocks of main ideas that way and gives a sense that there's a transitional breath being taken between them, as you would in actual speaking.
Using line breaks after every sentence, however, seems excessive to me unless it's like only two sentences with an intended sense of space and pause between them.

Ultimately, I view line breaks as... breaks. It helps multiple ideas have their own space and allows for a more structured flow of paragraphs. The problem is that a lot of people don't use it to that advantage, so it just becomes pointless spaces.

[bubu]

They're not for punctuation, it's for the text format, it's easier to read text that isn't clumped up together.

It would be

very Weird

if people actually used line breaks as punctuation

Don't you think?

[Sansa Stark]

I do that
all the time.

[333]

Oh, OK. I get it now. I don't think it's necessarily considered as punctuation. I feel like a lot of posters do it for delivery effect, and I feel some do it out of habit. I find it quite annoying myself, but won't ignore a post of it's in line break format. Now, for your commas, Tore! I love grammar. Not claiming that I'm some expert. I just love writing in general.

Originally Posted by tore

"When I farted, Henry died."

"I am a person, and I like grapes."

"The dog, which was brown, smelled awful."

"Boardtracker, a musicbanter tracking bot, is less boring than Erica."

"My favourite forum, the lounge, is full of crappy threads."

"RT, come here!"
"You go, girl!"
"Well, my boy?"
"No smoking in my office, please!"

"Britney Spears is sexy, talented, highly sophisticated, bow-chicka-bowowish and full of spunk, according to Jackhammer."

These, I believe, are correct.

Originally Posted by tore

"The guy whose buttocks I waxed, fell in love with me."
"Poor people smell, Big3 said."

"The guy, whose buttocks I waxed, fell in love with me." OR "The guy whose buttocks I waxed fell in love with me."
This is a tricky one for me. I didn't know if I should have taken out your comma or add another comma after 'the guy'. Can anyone help?

"Poor people smell," Big3 said.
Your comma was in the right spot, but your closing quotation mark was not. Also, the alternatives of quotation and comma usage:

Big3 said, "Poor people smell."

"Poor people," Big3 said, "smell like trash."

"Poor people smell," Big3 said. "Do we beat them for it?"

Ah, you guys get the point.

[lucifer_sam]

Originally Posted by 333

"The guy, whose buttocks I waxed, fell in love with me." OR "The guy whose buttocks I waxed fell in love with me."
This is a tricky one for me. I didn't know if I should have taken out your comma or add another comma after 'the guy'. Can anyone help?

When in doubt, leave it out. Although I BELIEVE the former is the correct form; you need commas to set off the appositive from the rest of the sentence.

Also applies to lists of stuff where it precedes conjunctions -- the comma becomes superfluous.

[right-track]

Originally Posted by tore

This

is a line break.


Punctuation and english is a bit hard. I'm not sure the grammar rules for norwegian and english are the same. I can't remember ever covering punctuation in english classes. Are all these correct uses of commas?


"When I farted, Henry died."

"I am a person, and I like grapes."

"The dog, which was brown, smelled awful."

"The guy whose buttocks I waxed, fell in love with me."

"Boardtracker, a musicbanter tracking bot, is less boring than Erica."

"My favourite forum, the lounge, is full of crappy threads."

"RT, come here!"
"You go, girl!"
"Well, my boy?"
"No smoking in my office, please!"

"Poor people smell, Big3 said."

"Britney Spears is sexy, talented, highly sophisticated, bow-chicka-bowowish and full of spunk, according to Jackhammer."

Every bit of that is fine and correct Tore 10/10.
As I remember, it's not incorrect to omit the comma while using and.