Punctuation Part 2

Dotty or What?

Just like that little guy above, people can get a little confused and over generous when spreading their dots around.

Punctuation is rather like the musical score of our writing. It reflects the pauses and intonations that we use in speech. The ups and downs, the highs and lows. I expect you know what a question mark is for. Also an exclamation mark.  But what about those colons, semi-colons, ellipses?

Punctuation is really about grammar, of course. The main uses of these marks are to separate, or to enclose, words and phrases. As with commas and apostrophes, it's all about making the meaning clear.

A piece of writing with no punctuation is difficult to make sense of. You might manage, eventually, but even then you can't be sure that the way you have understood it is what the writer meant.  Try this:

Of Russian French and to some extent Ethiopian origin Peter Ustinov was born in London in 1921 and educated at Westminster School during the war he served in the Royal Sussex Regiment and the RAOC familiar to a world wide public as a brilliant playwright versatile actor director set and  costume designer he is an entertainer of wide and diversified talent.

Now try it this way:

Of Russian, French and  - to some extent - Ethiopian origin, Peter Ustinov was born in London in 1921 and educated at Westminster School. During the war he served in the Royal Sussex Regiment and the RAOC. Familiar to a world wide public as a brilliant playwright, versatile actor, director, set and costume designer, he is an entertainer of wide and diversified talent.

Punctuation makes life a whole lot easier.

It is sometimes said that the period - full stop in the UK - and the comma indicate a pause, however short, and normally that is true. But pauses can also be used in speech where no comma occurs in the writing.

As we saw in Part 1 a sentence is constructed, at its most basic, with a verb surrounded by the subject and the object of the verb.  The verb should not be separated from its subject or its object by the use of a comma.

In a long sentence it may be necessary to pause slightly between say, the subject and the verb, for emphasis perhaps, or simply to take a breath!  However, there should not be a comma there to indicate a pause. Take this sentence:

The question that does remain to be discussed concerns notions of political responsibility and ethics.

If you read that aloud you might well pause briefly after the word "discussed" but it would be wrong, grammatically, to have a comma there. This is why:

The question that does remain to be discussed (subject) concerns (verb) notions of political responsibilty and ethics (object). 

As with Part 1, I dont want to get too complicated here. I want to try to keep it simple, which means I won't go into too much detail. Learn the basics and then we can move on if necessary. We'll start with the simplest of dots, the period (US) or full stop (British).

The period or full stop.

This is used for

1) ending a sentence. 

2) to indicate an abbreviation, in names, titles, etc, though this is less common today: Mr. Mrs. etc.

3) in dates where the oblique stroke (slash or solidus) is not used:  6.7.03

4) in Britain, for separating time abbreviations: 9.30 pm
(whereas in the US a colon is generally used:      9:30 pm)

5) between units of money ($4.60)
and also between other numbers as decimal points (3.14159...)

NOTE: If a period is used for an abbreviation at the end of a sentence, use only one.

The ellipsis

Consisting of three periods in a row, and sometimes known as suspension periods, these are the subject of some debate. People have likes and dislikes about using them. However, in general, they are used to:

1) indicate where part of a quotation has been omitted. Eg:

Another alteration is: "...weep and you sleep alone."

2) indicate hesitation or suspense  Eg:

It was the world's worst nuclear accident...yet.
Charles was so...she searched about for the right word...picky!

3) show an indefinite continuation, as in the example of the decimal places above, or indicate words left unsaid at the end of a sentence:

"He's gone," she said.  "I suppose he changed his mind, unless..."  I knew what she meant.

A dash can also fulfill the second of these uses, but tends to indicate a sharper break. See Part 3.

The Question mark

These can be tricky. They are sometimes seen at the end of what is actually a comment, and not a question at all. I can only assume that this has followed the rather irritating use of speaking comments as if they were questions, rising at the end.  For example:
It is correct to use one for "What's the time?" or "You love me, don't you?" but it isn't correct to write: "This is my wife?" when introducing her, or "I'm going to lunch?" as an excuse for going out.

Anyone hearing or reading that sort of thing might reasonably ask: "Don't you know?" or "Why ask me?" Yet it is happening increasingly.

The Exclamation mark

Used for:

1) Exclamations (fairly obviously):  How lovely!

2) questions which are more like exclamations: You wouldn't!  or: Haven't you grown!

3) shock or surprise: I don't believe it! 

4) traditional wishes or curses: Happy Birthday! or: Damn you!

5) warnings or alarms: Look out! or: Go on, shoot him!

6) short sharp phrases (interjections) : Oh no! or: John! or: Hi!

They can appear inside parentheses occasionally to show the writer's surprise at what has been said:  She was even older than me (!) and extremely fat.
Used this way, it's rather like one of those surprised smiley faces.

In informal writing, they can even appear in twos and threes: The things we do for love!!
Or in combination with a question mark: Haven't you fixed that car yet?!

The Colon

Apart from being part of the bowel, a colon is two dots, one above the other ( : )

It is used to:

a) introduce examples, such as an itemised list, as you see here,

b) to introduce one example. 
I only have one child: a daughter.

c) introduce identification.
Today they face a further threat: starvation.

d) to introduce speech.
The Minister was heard to say: "We shall never give up."

e) Some other uses:
As mentioned earlier, colons are used (in the US) for the time;
they are also used to divide chapter and verse when quoting from the bible, eg:   John 3:16

In the US it can be used after the salutation in a letter, as in Dear Sir: 
In Britain a comma would be used here.

A colon can also be found in such places as: 

PS: 
Note: 
Ist Prize:

There are other minor uses but these are not really relevant here.

The semi-colon

This one takes a bit more explaining. That's because we have to get a little bit technical. I'll try to keep it simple though. Ok. Sometimes you want to say two things which are closely connected, but which aren't really part of the same sentence.   Eg:

We can't prove anything; possibly there is nothing to prove.

You could make that into two separate sentences using periods, but they would sound a little abrupt. You could also use "and" or "but" instead of the semi-colon, but which would be correct?
In situations like this, don't sweat it.  Use a semi-colon. 

Another use of the semi-colon is to separate items in a list.  You've already seen in Part 1 how commas are used to do that with words, but the semi-colons separate a list of phrases:

We sit in the car instead of walking; we use the elevator instead of the stairs;  we watch tv instead of going to the gym.

She's a wonderful mother; a great cook; a fantastic lover.

Some of the phrases, or clauses, may have commas in them already, so it would get very confusing to simply add yet more commas between the phrases. That's where the semi-colon comes into its own. Eg:

We saw a range of things laid out on scraps of plastic on the ground: Russian chocolates, curling irons, cutlery, shower nozzles, juice extractors; plus East German fishing rods, a Czechoslovak carpet, a Turkish fire extinguisher.

The semi-colon is like a comma, but more so. More than a comma, but less than a period. Think of it as the Schwarzenegger of commas. Not scary at all when you get to know it.