13 Little-Known Punctuation Marks We Should Be Using

10/13/2012

We're Used to the Punctuation Marks Shown Below, but Have You Heard of an Asterism or an Interrobang?

Source: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/punctuation-marks.jpg

Because sometimes the periods, commas, colons, semi-colons, dashes, hyphens, apostrophes, question marks, exclamation points, quotation marks, brackets, parentheses, braces, and ellipses on the left just won’t do!

So some people have too much time on their hands! They've sat around and "invented" new punctuation marks for a whole bunch of different reasons! This article talks about 13 of them and the ways that you could use them in your writing. I'd love it if you could write a sentence or two in the comments that uses these weird punctuation marks! Since keyboards don't have the symbols, just write the name of the symbol in parentheses wherever it belongs in the sentence. Thanks (certitude point)

Read the full story here on "Mental Floss": http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/144712#ixzz29DpkATN2

Here is a similar story, if you'd like more punctuation marks: http://www.buzzfeed.com/expresident/13-punctuation-marks-that-you-never-knew-existed

Here is a link to a website with tons of punctuation marks and other symbols: http://copypastecharacter.com/punctuation

Create a new punctuation mark of your own. Use your writing skills to explain the symbol's appearance, and its purpose. Make sure I know how to use it and how to draw it. Good luck - be creative! :)

(Image Credit: http://www.chinesetimeschool.com/en-us/articles/chinese-punctuation-marks/)

49 Comments

Joey D.

10/16/2012 09:53:56 am

The Sadness Point

Used to make a sentence seem like it is something bad.

Looks like a period with a raindrop over it.

Joey D.

10/16/2012 10:09:06 am

see my blog for a pic at blog 8

PS. If you use a windows, you can actually incorporate these symbols into real things you can type!

Adrienne Crezo link

10/29/2012 02:45:33 pm

Hey there, Mr. Solarz and class! So glad this post was useful for you. I'm digging Joey's idea for a Sadness Point, but I am totally invested in bringing the asterism back. Change begins with youth, so see what you guys can do about that, okay? That'd be awesome.

Mr. Solarz link

10/29/2012 03:25:06 pm

Great idea! ⁂ I'll see what I can do!

(The kids will love your post - thanks!)

Amelia B.

10/30/2012 07:17:32 am

Nervous point.
A tilde with a circle around it.

Amelia B.

10/30/2012 07:19:25 am

I mean parentheses around it

Kelly B.

10/30/2012 07:18:05 am

I personally think that we should bring back the SarcMark because, I know how much I use sarcasm and I bet a lot of people do too!

Matt G.

10/30/2012 07:19:35 am

My new punctuation mark would be called the Happy Mark. You start with a colon and after that you add parentheses. It's purpose would be that write about something funny or happy and you can add that at the end to show how you feel about the part of the writing.

Michael B.

10/30/2012 07:19:53 am

Hi Mr. Solarz. It's Michael and I want to say that the Punctuation mark that I want to make up is a showing of the respect and there exitement. For example, The person was so happy that they jumped up and they thanked the person and they showed lots and lots of courage and respect in every single way that he could .

Corinne

10/30/2012 07:20:08 am

I would invent a mark to demonstrate distractedness while talking. Like if was reading a book while my brother was telling me something. You make it by a period, followed by an exclamation mark, followed by a question mark.

Ryan m.

10/30/2012 07:20:48 am

I think they should make a new punctuation called the amazed point. It looks like a question mark with Joey's sadness point on top!

Ryan M.

10/30/2012 09:00:59 am

This point would normally be used in in a interjection like 'Awwwwww' or 'wow' or even sometimes in a time of dialogue after you say a exclamatory phrase like 'I landed on the moon.'

Ryan R.

10/30/2012 07:20:48 am

The punctuation point is used when you trying not to sound guilty. It has a comma under a period.

SHANESHA

10/2/2013 06:44:29 am

SEMICOLON

Amelia B.

10/30/2012 07:20:55 am

(~)

Amelia B.

11/29/2022 02:21:51 pm

nice

Lily

10/30/2012 07:23:20 am

Pause point,
A hyphen and a period around it

-:. (pause point)

Erik M.

10/30/2012 07:23:38 am

The ooh point

It is a dash with the comma next to it .

Graham

10/30/2012 07:24:17 am

I like the ! and ? with , so you can continue the thought

Dakota S

10/30/2012 07:25:20 am

~}) it means that you are confused but smileling visit blog 24to see my post ~}) have you ever heard of wonder or skeleton creek? Skeleton creek is so scary have fun Joey is super happy whoo hooo

Taylor S.

10/30/2012 07:25:29 am

I think that there are some good punctuation marks to bring back. If I could make one that people used it would look like this-
++
And it would be called the "boom mark"! It would mean that somebody is saying something really loudly.
Example- " Go to your room!++"

Kelsie

10/30/2012 07:25:38 am

The Kelsie Point

A Colon and a law code.

It stands for crazy.

Katie H.

10/30/2012 07:25:48 am

I would invent a mark that would be called the triple exclamation mark it will have one center dot and three bold lines sticking out in three different directions. It will mean supper duper exciting stuff.

Jamie S

10/30/2012 07:25:56 am

I think that there should be a scared mark so if someone is scared no one will think that someone is ecxited.

Chris C.

10/30/2012 07:26:18 am

The creative mark

My mark would look like a winded up rubber band and a swiggley. Line under it

Erin F

10/30/2012 07:26:18 am

I think there should be a punctuation mark for mixed emotions so,a mark that is a question mark,an exclamation,a pierod, and a the love one mixed together! It might be really difficult to draw but I'm going to try!

Cool Epic Ian O.

10/30/2012 07:26:26 am

I think that there should be a bored point. It should be a period with a ₩ over it. It is used at the end of a quote (") that a person says. You would use it when you are bored. "awhh.₩" Yawned Ray.

Ian O.

10/30/2012 10:09:08 am

I take my Bored Point back because it is basicly a period. In that case, I thought of a good one ( atleast better than the bored point).
I like to call it or call them the "Tone Changers". They change the tone of a speakers tone. It will be easier to write because you would't have to write "shouted or whispered". If you would like a low, quiet tone, it would be a regular carrot ( carrot is this ^ for those who don't know what it is ) with a left way pointing carrot (It is like this <). For a louder tone, or a shout would be like this: the totally opposite of the "tamer" or this <^ ( P.S. the Tamer is the name of the mark that will make the speaker quiet.), so it would be a carrot with a right pointing arrow ( Should look like this: ^> ). I will call that mark (^>) the Riser because it raises the tone of the speaker. You put the Tamer or the Raiser before and after the speaker speaks, so it would be like this: "<^ I took the cookies<^." and "^> Jonny ^>".
You also would need to use the exclimation point too! If you want to use a "Tone Changer" as a question, it would be a left pointing Carrot plus a Carrot plus a right pointing Carrot ( like this <^>).
Here is an example, "<^> Did you mess up your room again <^>).
Hope you enjoyed!!!

Ian O.

10/30/2012 10:13:33 am

Sorry, You would NOT have to use any puncuation but a period!

Joey

10/30/2012 07:26:55 am

The Anger Point

It is a period with a tornado on top.

It is used for showing anger,
Iike "I am so mad at you[anger point]".

Rowan M.

10/30/2012 07:29:55 am

The nerve point. My quotation mark has a circle with little dots about the size of a period around it. It would be used to put after something that you are worried about.

Kelsie

10/30/2012 07:32:58 am

More on the kelsie point
The Kelsie Point is a point that means crazy. The reson it's The Kelsie Point, is because I'm crazy. If you know me, you know I'm crazy.

Griffin H.

10/30/2012 07:36:59 am

I think we should make a pumpkin Simble by pressing command shift tab this simple should be black around as the shape collar and triangle eyes and a triangle nose and a bumpy mouth. I want this to e only a bit bigger than the @ simbol.

Griffin H.

10/30/2012 08:21:01 am

And This should be used for greeting someone happy Halloween if you can't make command whatever to make it do however you want to be pressed to make this character and tell me how to do it

Brian B.

10/30/2012 09:08:58 am

My punctuation point is the F.A.D. point. It is the thing that you put at the end of sentence when someone is thinking or saying something hilarious. It would look like a circle but dashes are all around it. Also if it is really something that makes you practically die from laughing then you put one dot in the middle. I would probably use it in a sentence like "Oh my gosh dude, is that person a guy or girl!" Even though that is really offensive someone might just start cracking up with laughter.

Graham

10/31/2012 02:09:13 am

Mine would be a you end the story mark it's purpose would be to have the reader continue the story for a wile and would look like this ⇉⇉

Scout G.

10/31/2012 01:18:47 pm

The saddy point is a circle with two vertical lines going through it. This puncuation point means that someone is crying while talking. The saddy point goes before and after the sentence that your writing so that the person reading the sentence will know how to say it in their mind or in their head. This also, can help people visualize the sentence better.

Joey

11/5/2012 04:19:13 am

I think there should be a punctuation mark that would mean someone is persuading someone. It would look like a dot below a mirrored D.

Joey

11/5/2012 04:19:58 am

Another mark is an info mark. It looks like a circle with a dot under it.

Joey

11/5/2012 04:23:03 am

Sorry! It comes after a definition, and explanation, etc. Like: The panda is an animal [info mark].

Joey

11/5/2012 04:28:53 am

I also would like the voice-raiser mark. It would look like a gear and would have a letter in between. An H would mean happy, S sad, and A angry. I will soon have a list on my blog (8).

Dan Erricson

11/7/2012 07:44:37 am

This is so on my love list! It is great! I like to learn, and this is a great source!!

Paul Solarz link

11/8/2012 12:10:46 am

Thanks Dan!

Daniel K.

11/9/2012 09:01:30 am

I have never heard of the interrobang

Daniel K.

11/9/2012 09:05:57 am

(****)
The king point used to represent a panicking voice.

Joey D.

11/4/2013 08:57:04 am

Oh my gosh, I remember when I did this last year. I'm actually gonna try and gather all these and use them! This was so fun. . . I hope this year's students will do it!

Mr. Solarz link

11/4/2013 11:08:55 pm

Hi Joey -

I mentioned this to my students just a week ago - not sure if they want to do this one or not! I remember how much you got into it, though! I loved that - thanks!

By the way, your "Pennies for Oklahoma" jar is still in our room - if you stop by, please remind me to give it to you! :)

esther essel link

12/18/2013 01:13:00 pm

i love this page

god realised

1/6/2014 12:04:37 pm

Don't hijack persons searches.Hells are no joke.

13 Little-Known Punctuation Marks We Should Be Using

We're Used to the Punctuation Marks Shown Below, but Have You Heard of an Asterism or an Interrobang?

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