Do you all remember the joke we heard in childhood about punctuation? I remember my grandpa used to write ironically, ‘Let’s eat grandma’ and after the strict notice of grandma, he used to correct it with a single comma, ‘I did not mean that, and I just wanted to say, let’s eat, grandma’ (by adding a comma in between eat and grandma), I would conclude it after reading this example, ‘punctuation saves lives.’
While this was quite funny to read back then, one can now realize how the joke puts great emphasis on punctuation. Punctuation is an integral part of English writing. In fact, in any language, your writing becomes meaningful only with the use of correct punctuation.
There are 14 punctuation marks in english language, which are as follows,
- The Period (.)
- Question mark (?)
- The exclamation point (!)
- The comma (,)
- Semicolon (;)
- Colon (:)
- Dash (—)
- The hyphen (-) *Hyphen is shorter than a dash.
- Parentheses ()
- Brackets [] *Brackets are used for all types of Brackets, Parentheses also comes into this category
- Braces {}
- The apostrophe (‘)
- Quotation marks (“)
- Ellipsis (…) *An Omission
If you have just started writing English, it might be a good idea to read more. If you understand the concept of punctuation marks, it becomes easier to understand the rules and functions of each element in the text you read. You can start with any beginner level book for this purpose.
Once you learn the basics, remember the golden rule, that practice makes a man perfect. The more you write and review your work, the better it gets over time. Consistent practice, reading more and more about these rules will assist you in using these punctuation marks perfectly.
To understand the significant role of punctuation marks, remember the words of Edgar Allen Poe,
‘The writer who neglects punctuation, or mispunctuates, is liable to be misunderstood.’
