Let’s go back to those fond days of your first few years of schooling – you’ve managed to finally form something that legibly looks like your own name; are extensively pleased with your artistic skills (all the colours fit IN the lines now); but you are plagued by the notion of punctuation.
“What is the point?” you may ask…
Well, punctuation can make all the difference in the message conveyed, as shown by this lovely demonstration.
(Disclaimer: no Grandpas were hurt in the making of this blog post)
Now, let’s focus on some of the very basic punctuation that I believe everyone can get a firm grasp on.
First, is the renowned full-stop (also known as a period in US English). This fellow is used at the end of a sentence, like so.
This is obviously very useful otherwise we would have very long and rambling sentences where no-one would be able to discern one thing from another it would be most terrible with people never knowing when to stop talking…
(I am all sure we know one of those…)
But, a full-stop also has other functions! You can usually find them relaxing next to an abbreviation “etc .” and splitting up the U. and S.
Second on this fantastical journey through punctuation is the comma; as you can see, they really do make all the difference between whether you want to eat with your Grandpa, or actually just eat him…
So, the role of a comma is to separate two clauses that are linked; it indicates a pause within the entire sentence. Many have experienced what it is like to get towards the end of a realllllyyy long sentence with no breath, and a rather higher pitch voice than you started out with. The lovely comma rectifies all of those problems; reading a sentence aloud, and paying attention to where a pause is helps to understand exactly where a comma should be.
They are also present in lists, removing the pesky multiple “and”: apples, bananas, oranges and pears.
Another form of punctuation that is widely used is the question mark. I mean, how else would people know whether the sentence is a declarative or an interrogative, right? These little curvy comrades clear up all of the… well, questioning doubt you may have.
What I like to think of as the cousin of the question mark, is the very excitable exclamation mark! These put emphasis on the statement, either adding a peppy out look or connoting a burst of anger. Naturally, if you have ever seen something like “Get back here now!” Then you understand the power of the exclamation mark.
This has been a very brief look over of the most basic punctuation that is available in the expanse of language.
Naturally, there are many of the extended family which we have not yet explored in this post – but luckily for you I have tackled some of the more confusing ones here
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