Why Punctuation is Important.
If you're interested in really improving your punctuation, writing and spelling, I've developed a great Beginner's Guide to Punctuation Course on Curious.com/howtospell Click here and check it out.
In this lesson we're looking at:
why punctuation is important,
how it can change the meaning of sentences,
and how it can improve your spelling and grammar.
Loads of people hate punctuation, don't know why we should use it and don't really understand the purpose of it. I was one of these people too. What about you?
But I've really worked hard to understand it. And one thing I've learnt is that you need to see punctuation as a friend. A friend that helps you get your point across by making your writing, spelling and meaning clear to the reader.
According to The Penguin Guide to Punctuation, "The problem with poor punctuation is that it makes life difficult for the reader who needs to read and understand what you've written."
So without punctuation writing becomes hard to read! - look at this.
ill tell you what well learn im going into detail about a lot of things that well look at related to spelling and in this sentence i want you to see that not having punctuation makes reading this sentence so hard and not using apostrophes correctly really makes it even more difficult and not using a period or full stop in sentences up makes it hard to read and understand...
Let's look at two key punctuation marks that are said differently in American and British
(.) British English a full stop / American English a period (.)
(!) British English an exclamation mark / American English an exclamation point (!)
Let's look at how punctuation can change the meaning of sentences if placed in different positions within the sentence.
Look at this sentence – it’s difficult to understand without punctuation.
ive lost the oil can you find it for me
So we need a capital letter, apostrophe, a full stop/ period in there, and either a question mark or exclamation mark/point.
I've lost the oil. Can you find it for me?
I've lost the oil can. You find it for me!
The comma is essential for writing lists, separating, bracketing and pausing. (,)
I collect silver, paper, hats and chairs.
I collect silver paper, hats and chairs.
I collect silver, paper hats and chairs.
Apostrophes for contractions
If you don't put an apostrophe in some words it can change the word
she'll - shell
we're - were
she'd - shed
we'll - well
Apostrophes for possession
Putting the apostrophe before or after the "s" can signal a plural or singular possessor
The girl's toys ( apostrophe before the 's = The toys belonging to one girl)
The girls' toys (apostrophe after the s = The toys belonging to many girls)
Most punctuation is in your hands. There are lots of ways to punctuate or write a sentence and the decision is yours as long as it's grammatically correct and you get the point you want to make across.
So to sum up
The purpose of punctuation is to help the reader understand you and to help you make your meaning clear
Keep it simple - that's the key to writing and punctuation success.
