How Punctuation Can Improve Your English Writing (Part 1)

Image courtesy of Mark Morgan (CC Flickr)

Ever felt punctuation is just a set of decorative symbols that can be done away with? Well, think again!

 

A poorly punctuated sentence can severely distort meaning, thereby confusing the reader. Here’s a good example:

1. I had lunch with my parents, an architect and a Labrador.
2. I had lunch with my parents, an architect, and a Labrador.

 

What these two sentences mean are entirely different, the change in meaning caused by the presence or absence of a comma after the word architect.

Sentence 1 means: I had lunch with 2 people, i.e. my parents. One of them is an architect, whereas the other is a breed of dog (Labrador).

Sentence 2 means: I had lunch with 3 people and an animal, i.e. my parents, an architect, and a dog.

 

Though many of us make an effort to use punctuation, we often restrict ourselves to just two – comma and full stop. It’s a shame that a dozen other punctuation marks that can make our writing cohesive remain largely ignored.

 

In this series, we’ll explore the entire set:

 

full stop	comma	exclamation mark	question mark	hyphen	dash	apostrophe
.	,	!	?	‒	—	’
quotation marks	colon	semi colon	slash	ellipsis	square bracket	round bracket
“ ”	:	;	/	…	[ ]	( )

 

1. Full stop

The most common use of a full stop is to signal the end of a statement; it is also used in indirect questions and abbreviations. Do keep in mind that there is no space between the last letter (in a word) and the full stop.

 

Used	Example
to signal the end of a statement	I work as a teacher.
at the end of an indirect question	She asked me where I had been.
with abbreviated (shortened) forms	etc. | e.g. | Sept. | p.m.

 

 

2. Comma

Generally speaking, commas indicate slight pauses or breaks in a sentence: they may separate items in a list, extra information, or clauses.

 

Used	Example
to separate each item in a list	We bought flowers, fruit, pudding, and sweets.
to separate extra information that is not part of the main sentence	Graham’s brother, Phil, is very naughty.
to separate a clause	Tim, who lives in London these days, was at the party.

 

Remember, efficient use of punctuation can make your writing a lot clearer.

 

 

 

GLOSSARY

 

do away with (something)
Form	:	phrase
Meaning	:	remove; get rid of
Example	:	We’re doing away with all the traditions this Christmas and not having a tree.

 

distort
Form	:	verb
Meaning	:	to change a piece of information so that it is no longer accurate
Example	:	Newspaper articles sometimes distort the truth.

 

a shame
Form	:	phrase
Meaning	:	used to mean that something is disappointing
Example	:	It’s a shame that they lost the match even after playing so well.