Watch Your Punctuation Today. Period.

If you're a stickler for the rules of proper grammar -- the subtle differences between the colon and semicolon, the singular possessive versus plural possessive, proper use of the ellipsis -- then whip out your party hat and red pen. Thursday is National Punctuation Day!

According to the National Punctuation Day Web site, the holiday is "A celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotes, and other proper uses of periods, semicolons, and the ever-mysterious ellipsis." Started in 2004 by former newspaper reporter Jeff Rubin, the holiday has garnered significant attention from the press. Over the past six years, the event has been celebrated by businesses, schools and people all over the world, and it's only expected to grow larger.

Rubin started the holiday to help educate folks about the proper use of punctuation marks, a skill that many adults and children sorely lack. To that end, Rubin and his wife also created Punctuation Playtime in 2006, a program involving activities, games, stories and songs to help elementary school kids learn about punctuation. So far, the act's been performed in 75 schools across the nation.

As for the actual National Punctuation Day, Rubin encourages folks to organize local events, share punctuation pet peeves with him, take photos of signs with improper punctuation and brush up on rules of grammar. And this year, proper punctuation aficionados can even enter the National Punctuation Day Baking Contest, a competition where folks can cook up a cookie, cake, bread, pastry or doughnut in the shape of their favorite punctuation mark.

So go ahead, take out the red pen and go to town marking up newspapers, books or e-mails that contain improper punctuation. We'll even let you comment on this post if you happen to catch any errors.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.