Punctuation
Marks, the Signpost of Good Writing
“Punctuation gives the silent page some
of the breath of life.”
By Mukesh Sharma
A speaker may succeed in telling what he
wants to say even if he mispronounces a word, uses it in wrong syntax and makes
an incorrect sentence. But a writer
would fail miserably, if he does so. Written words convey the desired meaning when it is conceived clearly
and written accurately. Obviously, one can have an accident-free drive, if one
follows traffic rules, and obeys traffic signals. In the same way, one can write correctly, if
one follows certain rules of Writing. Grammarians call them “Punctuation Marks”.
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| Signpost of Good Writing |
The word punctuation has been driven
from the Latin word punctus, “point”.
From 15th to the early 18th Century, it was known in English as
“pointing”. The term punctuation was
first used in the middle of 16th Century.
In fact, English has borrowed certain terms such as full stop, comma
and colon from Greek only. Like traffic signals, punctuation may be
described as Signpost of Writing. It helps to avoid juxtaposition of thoughts. It
brings clarity to an expression and accuracy to a written text.
In his The Practical Stylist,
Sheridan Baker Warner writes: “Punctuation
gives the silent page some of the breath of life.”
The standardised signs which are used to
punctuate the written text and are known as Punctuation Marks, can be categorised as
under:
1.
The Period or Full Stop ( . )
This sign was one of the first of the marks
of punctuation. As the name suggests, it
indicates a complete halt. Hence a
period or full stop marks the end of a sentence.
Standardised use of
Period
i) Any
sentence which is complete in its sense may be ended with full stop.
ii) It is
used to indicate abbreviations e.g.. Mr.( Mister), M.A.( Master of Arts) etc. However,
certain abbreviations that are pronounced collectively as words, are written
without periods, e.g. VIP, USSR etc.
iii) It is
used between figures which indicate date e.g. 22.2.2005.
iv) Periods serve as decimals for figures, e.g.70.8%,
Rs. 20.75.
v) Periods
are also used to indicate the divisions by cut, scene and line (Julius Caesar/i
3.2)
vi) Periods are placed inside the quotation
marks, if sentence is a attributed to somebody.
vii) If a sentence ends with an abbreviation, no
period is necessary at the end.
viii) Periods
and commas are commonly used together, e.g. When I reached the station, the
train had left.
ix) Depending
upon the context, when brackets are used the period may be placed inside or
outside the brackets.
2. The Comma ( , )
The word comma derived from Greek, means a piece cut off or struck out. It
indicates a brief pause which is significantly used in writing, reading and
speaking. It is the most frequently used
punctuation mark.
In Technical Writing (1985), John M
Lannon says:
“The
comma is a brief blinking yellow traffic light for which we slow down without
stopping.”
Standardised use of
Commas
i) It
is used to join compound sentences and where it is used before the coordinator
(but, or, for, nor, yet, sometimes, ‘so’) joining two independently
clauses. e.g.: <Corruption can be rooted out from India,
but there must be political will to do so>
<He loves her, and cannot live without her>
ii) It is
used to join short sentences. e.g.: <I reached house, opened the door, and
collapse over the sofa>
iii) It is
used to separate words in series.
e.g.: <I placed an order for
pizzas, french fries with burger and cutlets>
Exception:
a) No comma is used when ‘or’ or ‘and’ is used
between all items in the series.
e.g.: <I can work in Delhi or Mumbai or Kolkata>
iv) It is used to separate phrase and dependent
sentences (clauses) in series.
e.g.: <While cooking, she
brunt her fingers, and she is not able to take exam>
v) Infinitive,
prepositional or verbal phrases introducing sentences are set off by
commas. e.g.: <To a girl, a house is like a prison, and
to a woman, it is her whole world>
<In fact, she doesn’t love him>
<Working day and night in the kitchen, her fair complexion turned
dark>
vi) When an interjection introduces a sentence,
it is set off by a comma. e.g.: <Oh, so it is your final decision>
vii) When a direct address introduces a sentence,
it is set off by a comma. e.g.: <Ramlal, you have done a great job>
Exception:
a) No comma is used when an introduction phrase
is followed by inverted word order.
e.g.: <From a battered and
booted woman emerged an amazon>
b) No comma is necessary, if an intro ductory clause is short and allows no
misreading. e.g.: <As soon as I receive your call I will
leave home>
viii) Commas are used to increase the readability
of addresses, names of places, dates, statistics, measurement and to serve
other conventional purpose. e.g.: <March 25, 2005 is the deadline> <Mr. Ram Avtar, D-20, Safdarjung Enclave,
New Delhi, India> <The C.E.O, Mr.
X or C.E.O, X>
ix) It is
used in letters after salutations and complimentary clauses.
a) Dear Mr. Dastor, b) Yours sincerely,
Thumb-rule
In fact the comma is more an instinctive
punctuation mark than sheer a grammatical entity. The main purpose of the comma is to give
clarity and readability to a written text.
During the writing process, any sensible
writer can realise where his thoughts need the comma, if he wishes to convey
the meaning clearly. And this should be
guiding principle and a thumb-rule as well.
3. The semicolon ( ; )
‘Colon’ is a Greek word that means
‘limb’. Writing about ‘semicolon’,
Ronald Gillespie says:
“The
semicolon and colon separate are the limbs of a paragraph”
“The
semicolon is neither a weak colon nor a strong comma. It is a kind of tight period. Separator of contrasts.” says Sheridan
Baker.
Britannica Encyclopedia also says that the semicolon separates different
clauses or statements.
Standardised
use of semicolon
i) It
separates independent clauses which are complete in sense in themselves, but
are closely related with one another.
e.g.: <I love X; I wanted to
marry her; she never cared for my love; today she is alone in this big bad
world>
ii) The
semicolon is a useful alternative to a conjunction such as and and but. e.g.:
<I reached the office at 10; other colleagues came after an hour>
iii) Semi
colon must accompany adverb; and other expressions that connect related
independent ideas (besides, otherwise, however, still, moreover, on the other
hand etc.). e.g.: <There is no vacancy; however I accept
your resume as I feel that you deserve a special post in our company>
4. The Colon ( : )
The colon is one of the least used marks
of punctuation. According to John M
Lannon, a colon signals us to stop and then proceed paying close attention to
the situation ahead, the details of which will be revealed as we move ahead.
In other words, a colon signifies a
transition point of the sentence.
Standardised
use of colon
i) It is used to introduce a list, items or
examples. e.g.: <I need the books as follows: 1. Conquest
of Happiness by Bertrand Russel, 2. Self help by Swete Martin, etc.>
ii) The
colon indicates an explanation, elaboration or co-relation. e.g.: <India: the world’s fastest economy >
iii) It is used to introduce a quotation or
formal statement. e.g.: <In a speech Subhash Chandra Bose said: Freedom
wants blood. You give me blood, I will give you freedom.>
iv) It is
used to separate hour from minute in
time. e.g.: <8:35 AM>
v) It is used to separate volume from
page. e.g.: <BE Vol. 29: 230-390>
vi) It is used to separate title from subtitle
e.g.: <Good English: The Student
Writer>
vii) It is used to separate place from
publisher. e.g.: <New Delhi: Storytellers>
viii) It is used in ratio. e.g.: <30:70>
5. The Apostrophe ( `
) or elision
It is a single up-in-the air comma. It’s job is to indicate that something has
been left out. It marks the elision or
possessive case.
Standardised use of
the apostrophe
i) It
is used to indicate the possessive case of noun and indefinite pronouns. e.g.:
<My brother’s car> <One
can’t tell what one’s problem is!>
Exceptions:
a) Use
of apostrophe with words end ing in sounds
of S and Z depends upon the pronouncement of the syllable. If syllable is pronounced the ‘S’ is kept, if
not apostrophe is kept without the
‘S’. e.g.:<Mr. Reinz’s house> <Celysses’ journey>
b) Possessive
case in a plural noun apostrophe follows the completed word. e.g.: <The girls’ hat> <The
men’s hats>
ii) When
an apostrophe is used to indicate the contraction or the omissions, it referred
as elision. It is used in making the
negative forms. e.g.: <can’t, won’t, don’t> usually in poems,
the class of’ 59, the revolution of’ 48.
Poets use elisions for metrical and special reasons. e.g.:
he’d (he had or he did), O’er (over), e’er (ever), Hon’ble (honourable),
ma’am (madam).
iii) It is
also used to form plural numbers, letters, signs abbreviations, dates and words
which are used as words. e.g.: <70’s and 80’s> <The 1920’s>
6. The Hyphen ( - )
The hyphen is a horizontal stroke, in
print a fraction shorter than the dash ( — ).
It is opposite number of the dash.
Though both are horizontal strokes, former indicates a joining up, and
latter a breaking off. The main job of
the hyphen is to act as a link between syllabus or words.
Standardised
use of hyphen
i) It
is used to form familiar compounds.
e.g.: <Sister-in-law, heavy-hearted>
ii) It is
used to coin words with prefix or suffix.
e.g.: <President designate
trans-Asia>
iii) It is
used to form numbers, fractions, ration, and compounds with numbers. e.g.:
<two-year-old child>
iv) It is
used to join compound modifier.
e.g.: <He is well-read and
well-behaved man> <Top-flight
journalist> <High-flying
glider>
v) It is
used to hyphenate all the words which begin with the prefix ‘self’. e.g.: <Self-discipline> <Self-effacement>
vi) It is
also used to hyphenate certain words to avoid ambiguity. e.g.:
<re-creation (recreation)>
7. The dash ( — )
The dash is a short horizontal stroke a
fraction of longer than hyphen as described above. It marks abruptness or irregularity — a
sudden breaking off. It can provide
dramatic emphasis for a statement when used selectively. Dashes are effective so long as they are not
over used. Differentiating between the
dash and the parenthesis, Sheridan Baker says: “The dash says aloud what the parenthesis whispers.” The dash can make a sentence incomplete which
is grammatically complete. So it must be
used selectively and judiciously for the desired effect and emphasis.
Standardised use of
the dash
i) It
is used to introduce a summary statement following a series of words or
phrases. e.g.: <Love, sacrifice, honesty — they are the
unknown words in the dictionary of his life>
ii) It
marks the sudden break, shift or interruption in the writer’s thought; a sort
of contrast. e.g.: <She loves me madly — she will kill me, if
she finds me in the company of any other woman>
iii) It
serves more or less as a formal substitute for the colon in introducing an
explanatory statement, list or quotation.
e.g.: <US president George
Washington Bush — we will smoke them out and bring them to justice. We will continue to fight terrorism in
whatever forms it is, in the largest interest of mankind>
8. The Quotation marks
or
inverted commas
In the use of quotation marks, a sort
of confusion has been created because of American English. In Standardised English, single quotation ( ‘
’ ) is used and double quotation is used ( “ ” ) for quotation within
quotation. However, American English
does exactly the opposite of it. Commenting
on quotation marks, Ronald Gillespie says:
“Quotation
marks can be double “....” or single ‘....’ and either is used to enclose
written or spoken words which the writer is quoting. That is their principle, though not their
only function, their real importance lies in the fact that anything they do so
enclose is assumed to be, and must be, the exact and literal words which have
been written or spoken, not a mere approximation to them.”
It is observed that American English
which is one of the dialects of Standard English (British), is influencing more
and more and day by day English of those particularly Asians, who have learned
it as a second language.
It is the common practice among English
newspapers in India that they use double quotations for attributing the
statement to somebody and single quotation, particularly for a word when it is
used with some different meaning or some special significance.
Standardised use of
quotation marks
i) Commonly
it is used to identify the direct quotation or to attribute the statement to
speaker. e.g.: <Pakistan PM Imran Khan said, “We will
continue to extend moral support to our Kashmiri brethren in their fight for
freedom.”>
ii) It is
used to indicate that a particular word has been used with different meaning or
significance. e.g.: <In India most of the middle class people
are ‘happy’ like harlots>
Readers, however,
should not be confused in the choice of double or single quotation marks. Either of them can be used depending upon the
choice of the writer. But one must stick
to same choice throughout.
9. The exclamation
mark ( ! )
The words convey the message. But the exclamation mark makes them to convey the emotion of speaker
with the words.
Earlier, the exclamation mark was also
known as the mark of admiration. It was
derived from the word admirare which means to wonder.
It is used after words or phrases or
sentences which convey amazement, horror, contempt, an imperatively given
order, or any strong emotion. It may
follow a single syllable, as in go! or it may appear at the end of a long and
complicated sentence.
Standardised use of
exclamation mark
i) It
is used to make an emotionally charged statement. e.g.:
<I love you! > ( here sign
of exclamation signify that the speaker makes the statement emotionally)
ii) It is used after the words representing
surprise, pain, sorrow etc.. e.g.: < Oh!, great!, ouch!, alas!>
10. The Question Mark
( ? ) or Sign of interrogation or Query mark
The question mark signifies a
question. In plain words, it asks a
question. It is common with the
exclamation mark and has more than the effect of a full stop. It conveys certain emotional quality,
particularly, when direct question is asked, and to which an answer is
expected.
Standardised use of
question mark
i) For
asking the question. e.g.: <Where is Mr. X?>
Exception:
a) No question mark is used at the end of indirect
question. e.g.: < She asked
me why I could not give call to
her > <He was cocksure - is it
bad to be cocksure that he was going to
win>
b) The Question mark is used in journalistic
writings to make an ironic statement.
e.g.: <Rahul Gandhi will marry
an Indian girl ?>
11. Ellipses points (
..., .... )
Though the ellipsis points are not on
par with sign of exclamation in conveying the emotions, they also tend to make
an emotional statement.
Usually, a writer uses ellipsis to
indicate that some words have been left out intentionally with the hope that
the target reader would be able to read between the lines and get the actual
message of the writer.
Ellipsis points are used
in three ways:
i) Three
dots ( ... )
Use of three dots in a row indicates
that some material has been left out of a quotation. e.g.:
<Life is a sexually transmitted disease... >
ii) Four
dots ( .... )
If omitted word comes at the end of
original sentence, a fourth dot indicates the period. e.g.:
<Politicians are power-hungry.
They can’t live without.... >
iii) Dots
at the centre of a sentence
Several dots given in between the
sentence indicates that a paragraph or more has been left out just to save the
time. e.g.: <We left the.......travelled around the
world>
12. Italic (slanted
words)
Italic is a type style in which slanted
words are typed or printed.
Standardised use of
Italic
i) It
is used to indicate the foreign words and phrases not yet fully absorbed into
the English language. e.g.: <Government has no idea about the modus
operandi of drug-peddlers>
ii) It is
also used for the designate titles of books, periodicals, newspapers, drama,
operas, symphonic works, paintings, movies, ship and aircraft. e.g.:
<Dicken’s Great Expectations>
iii) It is also used to add emphasis to a word or
phrase. e.g.: <Subject in the letters particularly,
commercial is written in italic just for an emphasis>
13. Slash ( / )
Slash is also called slant or
virgule. It is slightly slanted vertical
stroke.
Standardised use of
slash
i) Slash
is used to indicate alternatives.
e.g.: <We can have South
Indian/North Indian food>
ii) It is
also used as a dividing line between a period of time extending over successive
years. e.g.: <1982/83>
14. Hash ( # )
Hash is equal sign crossed by two
slanted vertical stroke. It is also one
of key stroke on computer key-board.
Standardised use of hash
i) It is
used to indicate that the meaning of word is explained at the end of the
article or in the book at foot note.
ii) In American English, hash stands for ‘number’
and is used with telephone and house numbers.
e.g.: <Tel # 212 (718)
7496> <House # B-91>
iii) Netizens
use this sign to tag the file to specific destination eg. #BJP, #PMO
15. The Asterisk ( * )
It is star like sign. It signifies the hidden message carried with
the asterisk word or statement which is unveiled at the end of the text.
Standardised use of
asterisk sign
i) It is
commonly used in formal writings to indicate that the comprehensive meaning of
the word or phrase is given at the end of the text.
ii) It is
also used in advertisement to avoid legal implication when a catch statement is
asterisk. e.g.: <Get interest free loans* (*against Fixed
deposit)>
16. Capital letters
(AAYUSHI)
English language is written in two types
of letters — capital and small letters. Though most of the text is written in small letters, there are certain
rules for the use of capital letters.
Use of capital letters
Capital letters are used to
begin:
i) The
first word after a full stop, or mark of exclamation or question mark.
ii) Every
line of poetry, whether the previous line ends with a full stop or not.
iii) God, and its adjective e.g.: <It is He who knows answer to your all the
question> <He is Christ like
man>
iv) Titles like:
<I request Your Honour> <I request Your Gracious> <I
request His Highness> <I request His Excellency>
v) All
proper nouns — name, people, places and things e.g.: < Ram Singh, Ram Dayal, New York>
vi) The days of the week. The months.
<Monday, March>
vii) Common, or just plain ordinary nouns,
when they are used with some special
significance. e.g.: <The haunted House>
viii) When a word is an adjective derived from a proper noun such as the name of a person or place and still has some
real link with that proper noun. e.g.: <Indian handicraft, Chinese
tea, French culture>
17. Brackets or marks
of
Parenthesis
Brackets like inverted commas isolate
what they enclose from the surrounding text. But bracket signifies totally a different reason. And it totally gives a different effect.
There are four types of bracket: parenthesis ( ),
square [ ], curly or braces { }, and angle or chevrons < >.
Standardised use of
brackets
i) Parenthetical
bracket is used to insert additional comment or an explanation within a direct
quotation. e.g.: <She (Jane Austen) is also known as
kitchen writer>
ii) The
square brackets are used by sub-editors when they edit the story and write
comments. e.g.: <The first day of Victoria’s reign [June
20, 1837] was an exciting one for young queen>
iii) Sometimes in prose curly brackets are used to
indicate a series of equal choices.
e.g.: <Chose a movie {Sapney,
Sholey, Kasam} and sit down>
iv) Angle
brackets (< >) are often used to enclose highlighted material. Some dictionaries use angle brackets to
enclose short excerpts illustrating the usage of words.
Copyright © 2018 by Mukesh Sharma
