Jj is for Jottings 100.  The Importance of Punctuation.

 

Following on from Prince William’s comments on punctuation and the subsequent “toe-dip” into the importance of punctuation, we’ll add a bit more detail here. We are referring to punctuation of anything written, not just social media, which was the specific topic of the prince’s remarks.  There may be a slight overlap with the earlier article because each article needs to stand alone.  But repetition is important for learning anyway!  (And so is more repetition.)

 

WHAT IS PUNCTUATION?

Punctuation is the use of spacing and signs to aid understanding and the correct reading of text.  It translates the intonation, stress and pauses we use in speech to convey our meaning.  So, it’s really like a friend who helps you get your point across by making your writing, spelling and meaning clear to the reader.  There are 14 punctuation marks that are commonly used in English grammar:

• . full stop
• , comma
• ? question mark
• ! exclamation mark
• ‘ apostrophe or single quote mark
• “ quotation mark/inverted comma
• : colon
• ; semicolon
• … ellipsis mark
• – hyphen
• – en dash
• — em dash
• ( ) parentheses or curved brackets
• [ ] brackets or square brackets.

We will talk about some of these in later articles.

WHY IS PUNCTUATION IMPORTANT?

1.  Clarity of Communication.

This could be a matter of life and death!  See the difference between versions one and two below:

1. Some people enjoy cooking, their families, and their dogs.
2. Some people enjoy cooking their families and their dogs.

The first one, correctly punctuated, provides a list of things people enjoy.        Remove the punctuation, and it seems you would enjoy cooking your family   and dog for dinner.

And here’s another:

Charles the First walked and talked
Half an hour after his head was cut off.

With a semi-colon and a comma added it reads:

Charles the First walked and talked;
Half an hour after, his head was cut off.

There are many entertaining examples of the effects created when punctuation is either incorrectly used or not used at all.

2.  Efficiency of Communication.

If communication is not clear, it will be inefficient.  The reader will have to waste time mulling over the possible intent of the writer.  The reader may have to try mentally putting in punctuation to work out the most likely meaning if the sentence could be interpreted in more than one way.  In a conversation, lack of clarity can be repaired instantly by the listener asking questions to clarify the speaker’s intent.  But this is usually not possible for a reader, since the writer will almost certainly not be present.

I must say that I find any errors of punctuation, spelling and grammar really slow me up.  Each one is a sort of hiccup in the speed at which I am reading.  I refer here mainly to the written work of secondary students, but it applies in any circumstance.  (Misplaced capital letters have the same effect.  It is amazing how many students don’t start sentences with capital letters, but sprinkle them inappropriately throughout the sentence.)

3.  Judgements Based on Literacy Skills.

This relates to getting jobs, and to how a person is perceived and, in many cases, how they perceive themselves.  The simple fact is that higher standards of literacy and language, which includes punctuation, will open more doors than lower standards.  Whether or not it is valid, people will judge others as being less educated and even less intelligent if they do not punctuate correctly.  When you think about it, it might be a reasonable way of weeding out job applicants.  For instance, take a person who has not taken the trouble to learn to use punctuation correctly, or doesn’t bother to check what they have written. That will probably give some indication of how they might behave as an employee.

Of course, there are many jobs for which punctuation is not at all important.  However, I suspect that some employers would still have an unwitting bias towards applicants with higher standards, all else being equal.

A lovely Anglican priest told me recently that he knew a man who had quite a severe stutter.  He knew this man to be a very successful and intelligent businessman.  Although he knew this, the priest still had to keep reminding himself of it, since the stutter made him look… let us say ‘unfortunate’.  He had to really struggle to not make a judgement.

I’ve always subscribed to the idea that life is easier if you have high standards in everything you do.  You can go into any situation with confidence that you will cope.  You can always drop your performance if you need to fit in, but you can’t suddenly raise your standards if you didn’t have them under your belt in the first place.

 

A PUNCTUATION PUZZLE.

We’ll finish with a puzzle.  Wikipedia [sic – I disagree with their spelling] has provided us with a delightful and mind-boggling sentence.  It makes sense if you punctuate it correctly.  You might like to see if you can solve it:

“James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher“.

Don’t read any further if you want to try and solve it first, since the answer is immediately below.

It refers to two students, James and John, who were taking an English test.  The question asked them to describe a man who had suffered from a cold in the past. John writes “The man had a cold”, which the teacher marks incorrect, while James writes the correct “The man had had a cold”. Since James’ answer was right, it had had a better effect on the teacher.

The sentence is much easier to understand with added punctuation and emphasis:

James, while John had had “had“, had had “had had“; “had had” had had a better effect on the teacher.

Punctuation can even be fun!

The importance of punctuation is illustrated in the puzzle. There are 11″hads” in a row! Punctuation makes sense of them.

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