What’s The Best Punctuation Mark?

Have you ever just sat there and wondered, “What’s the best punctuation mark?” This may be no surprise to many who know me, but, yes, I have wondered what the best punctuation mark is. My pick for best punctuation mark: the comma (,).

Why do I love commas? Well, I love introductory words and phrases in writing. Yes, if you you read through my blogs, I use many introductory words. Yup, I just used three in a row. Also, comma usage was drilled into my head in college when I did a project in grammar class about commas.

Many say I’m obsessed with commas. Yes, it’s true. My obsession starts to rear its ugly self when birthdays roll around. In a birthday card, you see, “Happy Birthday John!” Seems right, right? Well, yes, but, a comma is missing. “Happy Birthday” is addressing a person, and the person who is being addressed should be set off by a comma. So, it should say “Happy Birthday, John!”

Now, the reason I bring this up is not for therapy about my comma obsession, it’s because Woot.com recently asked its website visitors what’s the “Awesomest Punctuation Mark Ever“? And, although it wasn’t a comma that come in first, it was another pretty cool punctuation mark–the exclamation point (!) came in at the number one spot with 37.7 percent of the votes. Followed up by exclamation point was the semicolon (;) with 31.1 percent, the question mark (?) with 12.1 percent, “other” got 8.7 percent of the vote and the colon (:) got 5.6 percent.

But, wait, where is the comma in this poll? Well, my beloved comma came in dead-last in the poll. The last “awesomest” punctuation mark is the comma (,) with 4.9 percent of the vote. That’s OK, comma, I still think you are the number one “awesomest” no matter what anyone says.

To further delve into my comma obsession–while putting together this blog, I asked a few people what their favorite punctuation mark was. Well, they didn’t have an answer. I then replied with, “Do you know what my favorite punctuation mark is?” And, one of my co-workers said, “For Zach, there is no other punctuation mark but the comma.” So, it’s like a comma sickness at this point.

Is there a punctuation mark that you think is the “awesomest”?