Punctuation Makes a Difference

No, Really, it Does!

Part One

By Vitora

There’s this little set of marks—mainly ! , . ? “ ; : ‘ — and ()—that makes an incredible difference in the way people read your writing. They show emotions, digressions, tones of voice, where lists begin and end, and quite a few other things. The problem comes when one doesn’t know how to use them. An example:

Note the difference between this…

The otter flicked his tail decisively. “Let’s go, mate.”

And this (which is quite an embarrassing mistake)…

The otter flicked his tail decisively. “Let’s go mate.”

The lack of a comma makes quite a big difference…aheheh, quite a difference. One implies that the person the otter is speaking to is a friend or buddy, therefore causing the otter to use the traditional river jargon of “mate” to mean friend. The other…well…um. Maybe I won’t explain that one; you can probably figure it out for yourself.

Rules of Commas:

Commas are needed between items in a list, such as, “The mouse had come for his wife, his children, and his other possessions.” It clarifies where one item begins and another ends—there’s no such thing as a wifechildren, or a childrenpossession, and although intelligent readers know this, it makes you look like an amateur if you don’t separate the items.

Commas are also used when addressing someone. This prevents awkward mistakes like the one above, and, if you have a strange insult or nickname for someone, prevents further confusion: “I need full power Chewie!” Now, Chewbacca may be strong, but I’m not sure he’s full power. What Han should have said (or rather, what the kid should have written) was this: “I need full power, Chewie!” The comma here shows that it’s not the Wookiee who’s needed at full power, but rather the spacecraft they’re flying.

There are many other uses for commas, and I’ll mention just a few for brevity’s sake:

These handy-dandy little punctuation marks separate half- (or third-, or quarter-) thoughts within a sentence, such as, “If, for example, you are creating an example with this sentence…” Without the commas, there would be confusion and choppy-ness and run-on sentences, which are terrible things that can all result from lack of commas and/or sugar. (Crumbs. I’m starting to sound like Spring and Ben Miff.)

Finally, commas separate introductory words or phrases from the rest of the sentence. Most of the time, said opening words and phrases are unimportant to the rest of the thought, and so the comma shows where the unimportance ends and the vital stuff begins.

Rules of Exclamation Marks:

As Fidget so kindly pointed out in her first SPAG poem (see April issue), exclamation marks should not be used in excess; they make you look silly and juvenile, because it causes each sentence to seem important, exciting, and/or surprising. Seriously, though, how often is the sentence “He opened the book and thumbed through it” exciting, life-threatening, or wonderful? Refrain from using exclamation marks outside of dialogue.

In dialogue, however, they are quite useful. There’s a definite difference between:

Deren blinked. “You’re going to fall.”

And,

Deren blinked. “You’re going to fall!”

The first implies that he either couldn’t really care less that whoever it is is going to fall, or that they aren’t dangling off a two-hundred foot high cliff. The second, on the other hand, shows that he’s worried, maybe because the are dangling off said precipice.

Another rule of exclamation marks: one only!!! (Sorry, couldn’t resist.) More than one creates the illusion (or is it?) that a first-grader wrote the story, because the kids…well, they tend to overdo things. For instance, my brother, when he was in third grade, had this sentence as a cliff-hanger.

They found themselves face to face with…RAIDER’S FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously. Count the exclamation marks and note the capital letters, then tell me if you didn’t seriously think of a little tyke having written that. (I’ll get to capital letters some other time.)

Rules of Periods:

Periods are little marks the size and shape of a pencil point that separate sentences. They end distinct, separate thoughts. Observe:

Without: Daniel motioned to his friend Markus leaped over the cliff.

Hmmm. With: Daniel motioned to his friend. Markus leaped over the cliff.

With no periods, it’s a little difficult to figure out where Daniel’s actions end and Markus’s begin. When you insert a period (in the right place, of course; and I’ll get to run-ons yet another time), it breaks up your writing into easy, manageable chunks.

Three periods make what is known as an ellipse, which are usually used to illustrate awkwardness, thoughtfulness (such as a pause in a train of thought), and drama. Use ellipses sparingly, though, as they can get on a reader’s nerves and too many, once more, makes work look juvenile.

Finally…

Rules of Question Marks:

When a part of dialogue or even narrative is a question, a question marked is used. However, there are little rules for these things, some of which I didn’t even know until I researched and wrote this article. For example:

Deren kicked the winged horse hard and asked her where the Finger was?

Nope. That’s a big no-no, because it’s an indirect question rather than a direct one. If, on the other hand, the sentence went like this…

Deren kicked the winged horse hard. “Where is the Finger, anyway?” he asked sharply.

…The question mark is allowed because the question is directly asked of the winged horse. There are other places in which you can use question marks, such as within parenthesis (did I do this right?), for an inquiry as to the right word (?), and within dashes—such as these, don’t you agree?—as long as all of the above are direct questions.

Summary Time!

Yup, it’s that time again—time to wrap up the article and bid adieu until next time…literally, actually, because I’ll be doing a second installment of this next month, if I ever get to it. Hope this was useful for you!