National Punctuation Day: What It Is

September 24 is National Punctuation Day! Discover what this literary holiday is and how you can celebrate this grammar day in punctuating fashion.

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I often write about the correct rules of punctuation on KLWightman.com. Whether you follow my blog regularly or discovered my blog from an Internet search, chances are you have read at least one of my grammar blog posts too.

So it should come as no surprise that this week’s blog post is about a writing holiday all about punctuation.

That’s right—National Punctuation Day falls on September 24! For those not in the know, I encourage you to keep reading to learn what is National Punctuation Day and how you can celebrate this grammar-themed holiday.

What is National Punctuation Day?

We celebrate National Punctuation Day every year on September 24 to pay respect to our favorite punctuation marks. This day celebrates it all—from the comma and question mark to the ellipsis and interrobang. In short, National Punctuation Day promotes the proper use of punctuation in your writing—and calling it out when it’s misused.

Punctuation marks in English include:

• Period ( . )
• Comma ( , )
• Question mark ( ? )
• Exclamation mark ( ! )
• Colon ( : )
• Semi-colon ( ; )
• Single quotation marks ( ‘ ’ )
• Double quotation marks ( “ ” )
• Parentheses ( )
• Brackets [ ]
• Braces { }
• Hyphen ( – )
• En Dash ( – )
• Em Dash ( — )
• Ellipsis ( . . . )
• Apostrophe ( ’ )
• Slash ( / )
• Ampersand ( & )
• Interrobang ( ‽ )
• Asterisk ( * )
• At sign ( @ )
• Number sign ( # )
• Percent sign ( % )
• Underscore symbol ( _ )
• Dollar sign ($)

Who is Jeff Rubin?

We can thank Jeff Rubin for the existence of National Punctuation Day. He founded this day back in 2004 as a “celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotation marks, and other proper uses of periods, semicolons, and the ever-mysterious ellipsis.”

You could say he’s dedicated to the correct use of punctuation. He has been writing and designing more than 1,800 company newsletters since starting his newsletter publishing firm The Newsletter Guy in 1981. He has also taught newsletter writing and design at The Learning Annex in San Francisco and won awards for his newsletter and media work.

Nice work, Jeff!

He and his wife Norma promote proper punctuation awareness on their website: nationalpunctuationday.com.

How Can I Celebrate National Punctuation Day?

There are many ways that you can partake in this special literary holiday:

• Share your celebration on social media with #NationalPunctuationDay
• Play punctuation games
• Try inventing a punctuation mark
• Correctly use as many punctuation marks as you can in your writing
• Offer to proofread a friend’s writing to help them with their punctuation usage
• Thank a teacher or a mentor who helped you with your use of punctuation

For more ideas on how to participate in National Proofreading Day, visit nationalpunctuationday.com.

How do you plan to celebrate National Punctuation Day? Share your plans in the comments section below.