In a recent poll, most Americans say they “very often” use periods (72%) and capital letters (64%) in their writing. Less than 10% of people say they rarely use periods or capitals.
Here’s the rest of the breakdown:
3. Commas . . . 55% of people “very often” use them. 10% rarely do.
4. Contractions . . . 49% “very often” use them. 16% rarely do.
5. Question marks . . . 39% “very often” use them. 21% rarely do.
6. Quotation marks . . . 27% “very often” use them. 32% rarely do.
7. Exclamation points . . . 25% “very often” use them. 37% rarely do. (And as we all know, sisters-in-law use them all at once!!!!!!!)
8. Parentheses . . . 19% “very often” use them. 39% rarely do.
9. Hyphens . . . 16% “very often” use them. 48% rarely do.
10. Dashes . . . 15% “very often” use them. 50% rarely do.
11. Colons . . . 13% “very often” use them. 54% rarely do.
12. Semicolons . . . 11% “very often” use them. 57% rarely do.
Not surprisingly, self-described “good writers” are more likely to use the rarer forms of punctuation. But how many people are good writers?
71% of Americans claim to be “good” writers, including 24% who say they are “very good.” 18% say they’re “not very good.” 5% say they’re “not at all good.”
The #1 type of writing Americans do is: Text messages. Emails is second, followed by work documents . . . journal entries . . . non-fiction essays . . . poetry or songs . . . and fiction, including short stories and novels.
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