I guess as others have mentioned as I age I get more and more confused over most things in life spelling and punctuation being one, I do still feel a mild irritation when I see mistakes by others, but make more myself anyway, so it must be a leftover judging part of my mind that is pretty redundant these days.
I remember myself in childhood being advised by my teachers to make use of commas as we speak, not necessarily following specific grammar rules. Then after, and being in high school, I learned that commas and colons should be place into parenthesis, and this is the way I was asked to do it later in life doing freelance writing. Today, I have seen punctuation marks outside parenthesis in renowned sites including About.com and The New York Times, so I have given up and have returned to the basics; make use of them according to the inflection of my voice when reading out loud a given text.
I can recall being told something by an English teacher when I was about 11 or 12. He would refer to commas, semi-colons, colons and full stops as "1, 2, 3 and 4," these being the graduation of pauses. I quite liked that concept and have remembered it ever since.
...and another one, from the very same teacher. This was on the subject of punctuation and quotation marks. His phrase was "inside the box" and those of us with a love of football could remember that one easily.
Well, I am on an ipad and its touch screen and sometimes I dont touch it hard enough or I touch the letter next to it So I make many typos, also after awhile my finger hurts so I try to get by with typing as little as possible. Also, Im having trouble on this forum with my ipad in correcting mistakes....the word gets underlined in read but for some reason It takes a lot of effort to get back to that word to change it...so I wait and do it in "edit" I am getting frustrated though...and it only happens here for me. So...that is my excuse and I'm sticking to it.
Which Kansas City is the Royals stadium in? Answer: Kansas City, MO. Which Kansas city if the Royals stadium in? Answer: It's not in any Kansas city. It's in Missouri. One letter capitalized or not makes an entirely different question. One of the most recent riddles... In a farmer's pasture are 30 cows and 28 chickens. How many didn't? (That's the way the riddle is asked. Most will say, "What do you mean 'didn't'?" The answer is 10. Again, the English language and how it is used. You assumed it was 28 chickens. Instead, think of the riddle as: In a farmer's pasture are 30 cows and 20 ate chickens. How many didn't?
Who remembers "School House Rock" ? My son was tiny then but we loved it. Lolly, Lolly, Lolly get your adverbs here! Conjunction Junction, what's your function? There were many more.
All we're trying to do is communicate, Chrissy, and iPad don't make it easy. If I get your message, it''s good enough. Cheers.