When my brother was in high school, he took a photography class that stretched his creativity. One of the assignments was to find objects that formed the letters A to Z. It was fascinating to see common items transformed into letter shapes.
I decided to do a quick repeat of this idea—but with punctuation. Here’s what I found:
Backslash \
Colon :
Dash –
Exclamation Point !
Period .
Question Mark ?
Going through this experiment reminded me that we can discover new angles on everyday objects. And, surprisingly, once I started, I could see punctuation patterns easily. Which also indicates to me that writer brains are always working! 😉
Reader question/task: What’s your favorite punctuation mark and why? Bonus: Look around you and report back if you find a punctuation mark in an object near you!
Wow! Jennifer! This is so creative and so fun! Just imagine two single banana facing each other (with the curving side facing the other curving side) – that would make a parenthesis. Maybe I can have this activity as a brain teaser with my students!
Mmm, that would be a tasty parenthesis! And I could see students having fun with this. 🙂
The pen on my desk could be an exclamation point.
Yay, because writing!
I’ve embraced the exclamation point in my Natalie McMasters Mysteries (She’s that kind of girl!), even putting it in the titles as a branding tool.
Tom, that’s genius.
!!!
That’s right! You’re all about cool titles–way to brand yourself!
Jennifer, this is brilliant! So fun! For today, I’m going to say the semicolon is my favorite punctuation mark because it means I can keep talking. Ha!
Haha! I actually love semicolons!
What a fun and creative exercise! Now I’m looking for punctuation marks, letters and numbers everywhere!
Yes! And it’s a great way to stretch our brains. 🙂
How fun is that?? Love it! Interrobang is my favorite. I don’t have an illustration, but I’ll be looking for something.
interrobang? What is that?
It’s a combination exclamation point (bang) and question mark. Right?! There’s an actual mark for it, but I’ve never seen it used. I don’t seem to be able to copy it here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interrobang
Honestly, I’ve never ever seen the mark, just the two punctuation symbols sequentially…
I’ve never seen it used in a book. I’ve just seen it…somewhere.
Learning something new every day! Would be a great Jeopardy! question. I was informed yesterday they’re hiring a writer. You need to do a test where you come up with categories/answers. Hmm… (I’m kidding.)
the hubbs is interested in the job, but he refuses to move to California. That would ne the perfect job for him, since that was his mental therapy after the coma.
Ooh, interrobang! That would be challenging to find!
I love this so much, Jen! I remember there was a poster of the alphabet via photographs of oddball things that was popular back in the ’70s when I was in college, and I loved staring at it so much.
One of the main reasons I love doing photography is that it makes us look at common objects familiar places in a new way.
Nice! If you can find an image of that poster, I’d love to see it.
I looked online, but couldn’t find it, alas.
🙁
There was a Gorey alphabet poster. Loved it.
Gonna look that one up!
I love the em dash, and I don’t care what anybody says! I’ve been rocking it for decades now, well before AI came around.
But can we talk about that pan? It is so cute!!
The em dash–one of my favorites!
I was very tempted to get that pan…found it at a pop-up Studio Ghibli store.
Me, too! No AI uses them more than I.
Ha!!
Semi colon because it indicates more to follow on the same topic; kind of like the way I speak and think. I see a long thin sand bottle a student gave me years ago and reminds me of an exclamation point. This was a good exercise this morning.
A sand bottle–that sounds lovely. 🙂
It is. I still have it, so many years later. I just can’t let it go.
It’s the ellipsis … that always intrigues me. More to come, it says in its own way.
Totally agree – what a great way to get our minds exercised.
Yes, and I always want to hear the more to come!
I should have used this in my classroom when I was teaching English to 10th graders. I focused on vocabulary, grammar and literature. But I did get them to do journals which I assigned topics for them to interpret in their own way. They wrote in them, drew in them (I had them use sketchbooks and they had 4 due a month) cut out magazine photos, took photos, etc. Some of them were great. When I taught art along with English, I had them write and illustrate children’s books. Some were good enough to publish if I had had the know how back in the late 1970s.
I loved journaling in English class! Wow, you must have had really talented students… I wonder if any of them became authors.
This is so cool. I never thought about it before – and now I won’t stop thinking about it!
Ha! Report back with any punctuation finds!
I have often wondered. The problem is that having taught for 38 1/2 years, I would not remember many of those names. I had to learn 150 names per year (sometimes per semester). And I usually did that in less that 2 weeks each time. Multiply that by the years and that is a lot to recognize. Though I probably would remember if I saw the name.
Oh my! I can barely remember the names of my relatives… 😄
Such a cool idea, Jen!! Sign me up for ellipses . . .
Love those ellipses!
Not sure I have a favorite punctuation mark. I was going to claim the clue I had on my screen for Jeopardy! had a punctuation mark in it, but it doesn’t!
Jen!!! This is so clever! Love it.
I have always loved the French term for question mark: “le point d’interrogation.”