Pausing for breath
Pausing for breath
“The writer who neglects punctuation, or mispunctuates, is liable to be misunderstood…” Edgar Allan Poe, American writer and poet.
Punctuation plagues some authors, and yet it adds weight as well as understanding to your writing. Punctuation needs to be seen as a cure for writers rather than a curse.
Think of punctuation simply as a pause, giving the reader room to catch their breath. Literally.
The softest form of punctuation is the comma, with the full stop as the strongest, and semicolons and dashes somewhere in between. Let’s not forget others: the colon, the exclamation mark, or the apostrophe.
Let’s be clear: the two most important considerations are the reader; and maintaining logical consistency. See what I’ve done there; I’ve used a colon as punctuation to point the way forward. The most indecipherable documents are those with too much, too little or even non-existent punctuation (such as legal contracts).
Commas are used to separate clauses from main sentences and to break up text with more than one sentence. I prefer to use semi colons or full stops to break up long sentences. Many grammarians dislike the use of a comma before ‘and’ but this may help when the word separates two diverse topics.
Actions speak louder than commas
The title of the great book on punctuation by Lynn Truss, Eats Shoots and Leaves, could have three meanings with different uses of punctuation (only one involving a gun):
Eats, shoots, and leaves (3 actions).
Eats shoots, and leaves (2 actions).
Eats shoots and leaves (1 action).
Semicolons have more weight than commas, and help to break up sentences more clearly. A series of related sentences may take a semicolon. This is where to use a colon, which, as I have said, provides a forward signal to readers, helping them to take a breath and get ready.
The point of full stops is to end a sentence, and so does a question mark, an exclamation mark – which is used for emphasis – while a dash is similar to a bracket.
You are advised to use exclamation marks sparingly!
Apostrophes for possession or omission
An apostrophe has two uses in English: to show possession and also where a letter, or letters, have been omitted.
Possessives (belonging) and apostrophes: when something belongs, we usually say or write: “That is my brother’s tie” rather than “That tie belongs to my brother”. You often see confusion between its and it’s. Its is a pronoun; whereas in ‘it’s’ the letter ‘i’ is omitted from ‘is’.
We also have: “in two weeks’ time” (weeks and time are connected or belong together); and “my neighbours’ children” = “the children of my neighbours” (plural) – if only one neighbour is involved, you write “my neighbour’s children”. [Note the dash is slightly weaker than the semicolon so I have use it instead in this case]. Oh, yes brackets: the (normal) bracket has less emphasis than the [square] bracket.
When a noun ends in ‘s’, rules are vaguer. You will see ‘s’ followed by an apostrophe and also s’s.
If in doubt, read aloud
A Chinese student who spoke perfect English told me once that she found punctuation the most difficult thing about our language. My advice, if in doubt, was (and is) to read aloud what you have written. See where you pause for breath and for how long. Then adjust the punctuation accordingly.
As the meerkat says in the TV ad, “Simples…” You see, punctuation is simple, isn’t it? (Question mark).