The word "Like"
Posted: 17 Jul 2024, 07:59
When writing my book, "Full Circle" I struggled with the proper punctuation for narrative attributed to a teenage character who endlessly inserts the word "like" into her conversation - as so many teenagers and young people do today. I was uncertain as to whether or not to place a comma before the word, after it, or at all.
An internet search was of no use since there are essentially no rules that I could find.
I eventually decided not to punctuate around the word at all since its use in conversation is incorrect anyway, and most young people just barrel through the sentence with no significance to the improperly inserted word. For example, "I had like the greatest time today! Everyone was so like excited."
I would be interested in how other authors approach this matter.
An internet search was of no use since there are essentially no rules that I could find.
I eventually decided not to punctuate around the word at all since its use in conversation is incorrect anyway, and most young people just barrel through the sentence with no significance to the improperly inserted word. For example, "I had like the greatest time today! Everyone was so like excited."
I would be interested in how other authors approach this matter.