Punctuation smackdown!

The problem with ellipses is that they tend to increase eccentricity :-)

I've replaced some of my ellipses with dashes, so I get that, but I think the dash is weak. Or, do I?

I use them as if I'm not ready to stop, could say more, but am implying more instead. And then I often go ahead and say more.

I probably ought to use them more sparingly myself, Andy. And you are right...they are used to indicate omissions in quotes.

Pausal applause for the loci of the foci.

When I first saw the question (before I read all the responses), I thought that the semicolon was the better choice. Now that I've read what everyone has to say, I still think that the semicolon is the better choice. (I'm not easily swayed.)

This is not a paper, this is a design project, I cant imagine why anyone would care what the "proper" punctuation is. In fact I almost certainly would not use any punctuation, I would do something like

WORK HARD/DREAM BIG

WORK HARD DREAM BIG

DO work hard horizontally and dream big diagonally so that it looks like a t.

I would be looking for design solutions not punctuation solutions.

I like hawkeye's solutions.

I realized the other day that both the comma and semi-colon would annoy me if I had to see them regularly - and as I recall, this is for the shower, so it might be seen a few times a day.

No punctuation would be less annoying than punctuation that just doesn't feel right. The grammar/punctuation doesn't matter (to me) as much as the feeling of it.

I see your point..

and raise it. What if, instead of punctuation, there was some other doodab in the middle, preferably simple to cut into tile (or whatever you do).

I'm still for a comma or a semicolon which I now like a shade more than comma, but am enjoying thinking about all the answers.

The layout has to be much more straightforward than that due to space. Each letter has to be a minimum of 7 tiles high, and 6 tiles wide (with the exception of "i"). The uppercase "W" and letters like "h" and "g" have to be 10 tiles high. The grout between the tiles will add about another 1.5" - 1" per letter. Then there's the space between the letters, so an extra half inch per letter or 1" -2" per word.

Since I only have a 43x40 space to work this into the words have to stacked on top of one another.

I tried working out about 5 different phrases before looking up Latin phrases to see if I could get one to work out better. I couldn't. Even with this phrase I had to switch to .5" tiles which left enough room for a boarder, should I choose to use one.

Trust me, I've looked at this design problem from a lot of different angles.

And I like things to be properly punctuated. That means there is a period at the end of line four which balances well with a punctuation mark at the end of line two.

Yeah, I'm leaning towards the semicolon. It's what I originally intended to use but I just wasn't absolutely positive that it was correct. I started doubting myself so I asked here just to make sure.

To me it seems like the correct punctuation for the way I'd like the phrase to read.

I would make each phrase a different color. That's emphasis enough that they are separate thoughts.

I want them to be connected thoughts, not separate thoughts.

I'm beginning to think the best way to make this momentous decision, Boom, would be by first considering the punctuation of this sentence:

How could I do it, without being anal?

Sorry to be so anal about something that will be permanently affixed to my wall.

(Shrug.)

I hope this is like kickstarter, that we get a reward for our investment.

When might we get a pic?

It'll probably be another month or more before it's installed but I'll be happy to post a photo when it's all done!

This turns out to be hard to photograph because of the tile's reflectiveness but here's a quick shot I took on my phone just to give you an idea of how it turned out:

Why is the M in 'dream' upper case?



Just askin'.

The "m" was really hard. I tried making a normal lower case m but it just looked really weird so I just went with this one.