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"Way back in those scary days of high school biology, musty textbooks taught us that the human ovum is about the size of the period at the end of this sentence.\nThe statement highlighted that, in the absence of decent birth control, something very teeny could have a massive impact, eventually mushrooming into a 240-pound bro flailing his arms, hooting frequently and ordering unwanted Jager bombs for the whole table.\nLikewise, the actual period at the end of a sentence can have a huge impact \u2014 all punctuation marks can.\nSince commas, periods, et al. are the only hints you can give your reader about how he should hear your e-mail (or Facebook message or Match.com note) in his head, you best be sure you're giving accurate (and minimally offensive) stage directions every time your fingers hit the keyboard.\nTo be clear, we're not just talking about common grammar mistakes. Yes, as Lynne Truss and any literate, educated VIP will tell you, no decision-maker (or potential sig o.) is going to take you seriously if you can't figure out how to use a semicolon in your cover letter or flirtatious hello.\n(It's really not that hard; you're just separating two complete sentences that don't quite demand a full stop in-between. Here's that explanation again, with pictures and no big words.)\nBut we're skipping that, because there are tons of ancient but completely serviceable guides freely available to help you properly pepper your sentences.\nWhat we're really focusing on here are the subtle punctuation pockmarks \u2014 the typing quirks that leave the readers of your missives feeling quietly miffed or with a lower appraisal of your character.\nHere are three subtle slurs \u2014 let's call them \"mark misdeeds\" \u2014 that you need to watch out for like a particularly obsessive hawk.\nAnd so begins my Netiquette column \u2014 which I write with my Stuff Hipsters Hate co-blogger, Andrea Bartz \u2014 this week over at CNN.\n\nCheck out the column at CNN.com &gt;&gt;\nImage courtesy of iStockphoto, arcady_31"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2010/10/20/online-punctuation-lapses/>