Those little marks that use their influence

(The title of this post was taken from the punctuation song from the Electric Company in the 1970s.)

I think it was in seventh grade when I read "Flowers for Algernon." It's a story about Charlie who gets smart because of new, experimental drug treatment, but then reverts to his below-average intelligence and eventually dies. A real heartwarmer.

Sorry, perhaps I should have put "spoiler alert" first.

Anyway, one of my favorite parts of the book was when Charlie wrote in his journal, "Punctuation; is fun!?!" Or something like that. While he was getting smarter, he was learning about punctuation, but had not yet learned how to use it correctly.

We all have our grammatical and spelling pet peeves. Misuses of "they're, their," and "there," for example. One of mine is how the period and the question mark seem to be interchangeable in e-mails, particularly at work.

I get that it's just e-mail. I support people keying their message quickly for efficiency's sake, which might mean a little carelessness. It isn't a college theme paper, after all. I hope people afford me the same leniency in judging some of my blog posts.

I guess I've just seen it so often, and many times from the same offenders, that it just gets under my skin.

Do you know what I'm talking about. I don't know why they do it?

If reading the above two sentences bothered you, congratulations. If you didn't notice anything, you might be one of the "repeat offenders" of which I complain.