Mr. Punctuation Mark and the Land of Nightmares

Punctuation...eeeek, the stuff of nightmares! The nightmares it causes those trying to read your Facebook status, blog post, university paper or short story, that is.

Nothing ruins the flow of a good read more than missing or incorrect  punctuation.  We all know you hate it, but punctuation makes your writing easier to read and your meaning clear. There is some wiggle-room for style, but that does not mean you can neglect poor, misunderstood Mr. Punctuation Mark any longer.

For example, I send you to the store with a note:  I need cream corn dill pickles cinnamon rolls a tomato soup.  How many items are on this list? If I am planning a meal and send you to the store with this, how likely am I to get the ingredients I actually wanted?

Commas can make sure I get what I need.  I wanted: Cream, corn, dill, pickles, cinnamon, rolls, a tomato and soup.  Is that what you got? Or did you get cream corn, dill pickles, cinnamon rolls, and tomato soup?

Next, the overused exclamation mark.  These beauties imply that you are excited about something. Having multiple sentences following one another with exclamation marks as punctuation tells us one of two things: you drink too much coffee, or you don't realize that using too many in a row makes them lose significance.

Example: Oh my God! Did you see what she was wearing! What the heck is going on with her hair! Did she roll out of bed and leave the house without stopping at a mirror?!  Hand me another energy drink! Oh look, a squirrel!

When I read this, I think 14 year-old girl who has just seen Justin Bieber after having eaten 27 cotton candies. Take a deep breath.  Calm down.  Use other punctuation marks.

Now for the less frightening part of Mr. Mark that we all know and love. The period. It works nicely at the end of a sentence to show that you do, indeed, require oxygen.  A question mark can be used to indicate that you are...wait for it...asking a question.

Finally, the most dreaded of spectres, the semicolon; he is not nearly as fearsome as you have been led to believe. This misunderstood ghoul has a simple use once you get over his disjointed appearance.  He is the perfect punctuation when you have two ideas that are independent clauses (stand-alone sentences) yet want to suggest they are tied at the hip.


For the lowdown on how to make Mr. Punctuation Mark your friend and remove him from the realm of nightmares, visit the following websites:

http://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tcdnstyl-chap?lang=eng&lettr=chapsect7&info0=7
http://www.whitesmoke.com/uses-of-commas
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/placing-proper-punctuation0.html
http://listverse.com/2007/10/12/top-10-rules-of-punctuation/
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/semicolon