Pebblepup's Writing Den

Punctuation makes your writing make sense. While you can write without punctuation, you won’t convey your meaning to readers very well. Sentences need punctuation such as periods, commas. Quotation marks, exclamation points, and question markhelp to make your writing clear.

Periods signal the end of a sentence. Consider this sentence as one you might write without any way of telling when it ends and if the sentence has one single topic without a period you have no idea when to take a breath. That sentence is what’s called a run on sentence. You don’t know when it stops until you get a period. The period is a signal to stop. You can have an open ended sentence by using an ellipse. In fiction, an ellipse could signal a thought tapering off. “If only he’d…” is a good example.

Commas help clarify the content of a sentence. They separate clauses and items in a list. He pulled several items from the box. He put a hammer, some nails, screws and a screw driver on a table. They can also clarify what would otherwise be an ambiguous sentence. “Let’s eat kids!” has a far different meaning than “Let’s eat, kids!”

The apostrophe (‘) indicates missing letters. We use this in contractions like can’t which is the same as cannot. It can also show possession, like “Joe’s ball was red.” The exception to that is the word its. “Its various colors made it look so pretty.” Its is the possessive form of it. “It’s” is a contraction of it is.

Question marks signify the sentence is a question. Who are you? That is a question. Putting that as a statement, you get who are you.

Exclaimation points emphasize the whole sentence. “Look at that!” carries urgency than “look at that.”

A semicolon, (;) separates a sentence with two, similar, subjects. It makes the stop at the end less of a stop and more of a pause; rather like a yield sign as opposed to a stop sign.

You get the idea. Punctuaion is supposed to help create clarity for a piece of writing. Some are more clarifying than others. Some help your reader catch their breath, like commas and periods. The difference in that case is one of length. The pause at a period is longer. That’s for when someone is reading the text aloud.

You could leave some punctuation off, such as exclamation points and question marks. That wouldn’t change the context of the sentence. Those give the reader cues on how to read the text aloud. Questions usually end on an upward inflection. Try saying “what.”, “what!”, and “what?” aloud. The first instance is a flat one. The second is more urgent and the last is a question. How we say them changes with the punctuation marks.

You don’t have to worry about punctuation in your first draft. Worry about getting the words out. As you revise your work, look to see where punctuation can help make the text easier to understand. This is where having the computer read it to you helps. If you can’t have the computer read it, read it aloud.

That’s about it. I’m no punctuation guru or expert. I know the basics. You should too. Good luck and keep writing.