Punctuation is a relatively modern invention. The modern punctuation marks we know today were not codified until around the twelfth century. Before then, manuscripts were handcopied laboriously by scribes; very early manuscripts contained no punctuation marks, paragraph divisions, or even word divisions! Given the lack of graphical clues, manuscripts could be read only by the most educated people-rabbis, clergy, scholars, and noblemen. People who were barely literate or semi-literate were unable to decipher complex ideas embedded in unpunctuated sentences whose words all ran together. (1)

The need for punctuation arose as a direct result of the rise of democratic governments, mass education, and literacy, and these little marks (along with word and paragraph divisions) significantly improved the ordinary reader's comprehension skills. With this background in mind, it seems sensible then, to look at modern punctuation marks to see their various uses in making written prose clear and readable.

PUNCTUATION AND MEANING

An extensive discussion of grammar and punctuation is outside the scope of this Web site, but we can examine punctuation marks briefly, especially the more sophisticated ones like parentheses, dashes, semicolons, and colons. Punctuation marks do more than enclose and separate. Good writers choose punctuation marks carefully-to enclose and to separate, to be sure-but also to emphasize, or to slow us down, or to speed us up, or to clarify. Like transitional elements taken up in Chapter 5, punctuation marks help you follow the writer's ideas. The writer's words are meant to be heard in your head, and punctuation allows us to recreate them as the author intended.

Let us begin with the comma. There are many uses of the commas, the rules for which you can find in any good grammar handbook. No matter how it is used, a comma always indicates that we should pause, however briefly. Commas affect the cadence of the prose. To demonstrate this, read this passage by Gretel Ehrlich aloud. Notice as you read how these little markers enhance the rhythm and flow of her description of a Wyoming winter:

The name Wyoming comes from an Indian word meaning "at the plains," but the plains are really valleys, great arid valleys, 1600 square miles, with the horizon bending up on all sides into mountain ranges. This gives the vastness a sheltering look.

Winter lasts six months here. Prevailing winds spill snowdrifts to the east, and new storms from the northwest replenish them. This white bulk is sometimes dizzying, even nauseating, to look at. At twenty, thirty, and forty degrees below zero, not only does your car not work but neither do your mind and body. The landscape hardens into a dungeon of space. During the winter, while I was riding to find a new calf, my legs froze to the saddle, and in the silence that such cold creates I felt like the first person on earth, or the last.

Gretel Ehrlich, The Solace of Open Spaces

Note that although the comma following "earth" in the last sentence is grammatically unnecessary, it contributes to the effect. Do you see how?

The semicolon is useful for connecting two independent clauses with a clear relationship to each other. Stronger than a comma but not quite as strong as a period, the semicolon shows that the writer wants you to consider the clauses together, as a unit, because there is some logical connection between them, for example, cause-effect or contrast or general statement-supporting example. Sometimes a transitional word or phrase indicating the logical relationship is placed between the two clauses, as in the last two examples:

• Steeped in new moods and ideas, I bought a ream of paper and tried to write; but nothing would come, or what did come was flat beyond telling. (Richard Wright, Black Boy)



• The act of exploration alters the perspective of the explorer; Odysseus and Marco Polo and Columbus returned home as changed men. (Timothy Ferris, Coming of Age in the Milky Way)



• But however immature they are, these lovers are not dull characters; on the contrary, they are hauntingly and embarrassingly real. (Arthur Mizener, The Far Side of Paradise)



• . . . while there were occasional battles and raids, the Ohlones [a California Indian tribe] were in no way a war-ridden people. In fact they felt in their hearts that war was wrong and the way of peace was right; thus they were forever presenting themselves as victims-as a peaceful, proper people forced into warfare against their wills by the intolerable insolence of their enemies. (Malcolm Margolin, The Ohlone Way)

Besides introducing lists, the colon has a special function within independent clauses. A colon sets up something introduced in the first clause that will be further explained in the second one. Study these examples:

• Indeed, the life of a sharecropper's wife, which often demanded twelve-hour days in the fields, normally allowed little time for food preparation at all. Typically, she would rise at 4 a.m. in a one- or two-room cabin to prepare breakfast: thinly sliced fat salt pork fried over an open fire and corn bread spread with fat and molasses. (Harvey Levenstein, Revolution at the Table: The Transformation of the American Diet).



• Because of Columbus's exaggerated report and promises, his second expedition was given seventeen ships and more than twelve hundred men. The aim was clear: slaves and gold. (Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States)



• Besides the old charges of usury and fencing, Las Vegas pawn shops have another image they would like to disown: they are often seen as overpriced banks for gamblers. (Joe Heim, "Pawnshops," The Real Las Vegas: Life Beyond the Strip)



• For all the complaints, Las Vegas still has one advantage over Fort Lauderdale, Palm Desert, or Phoenix: this is, after all, as civic boosters still remind us, the "Entertainment Capital of the World." (Michelle Ling, "Bingo!" The Real Las Vegas: Life Beyond the Strip)

First a word about parenthetical remarks, which refer to explanatory or qualifying material set off in varying ways from the main idea. The writer's choice of punctuation determines how strongly he or she intends the parenthetical information to be interpreted. Parenthetical information may be enclosed with three kinds of punctuation-parentheses, commas, or dashes. You can remember their differences with this little formula: Parentheses whisper; commas state; dashes shout. In other words, parentheses convey the least emphasis, commas are plain and factual, and dashes emphasize. Consider this sentence by Ivan Doig, from his autobiography, This House of Sky, which refers to his Montana hometown of White Sulphur, and see how the sentence changes depending on the punctuation. (The original sentence used commas to set off the parenthetical remark.)

• The plainest fact I found (so plain that it seemed to me then it could never change) was that White Sulphur totally lived on livestock.



• The plainest fact I found, so plain that it seemed to me then it could never change, was that White Sulphur totally lived on livestock.



• The plainest fact I found--so plain that it seemed to me then it could never change--was that White Sulphur totally lived on livestock.

Parentheses enclose additional or "extra" information within a sentence, and since they "whisper," they suggest that the material enclosed could be dropped without any significant loss of meaning. Study these other examples:

• Different peoples acquired food production at different times in prehistory. Some, such as Aboriginal Australians, never acquired it at all. Of those who did, some (for example, the ancient Chinese) developed it independently by themselves, while others (including ancient Egyptians) acquired it from neighbors. (Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel)



• Television's greatest minute-by-minute appeal is that it engages without demanding. One can rest while undergoing stimulation. Receive without giving. In this respect, television resembles certain other things one might call Special Treats (e.g., candy, liquor), treats that are basically fine and fun in small amounts but bad for us in large amounts and really bad for us if consumed in the massive regular amounts reserved for nutritive staples. (David Foster Wallace, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again)



• A further reason for football's intensity is that the game is played like a war. The idea is to win by going through, around, or over the opposing team and the battle lines, quite literally, are drawn on every play. Violence is somewhere at the heart of the game, and the combat quality is reflected in football's army language ("blitz," "trap," "zone," "bomb," "trenches," etc.). (Murray Ross, "Football Red and Baseball Green")

The dash is a dramatic mark of punctuation. One of its functions is to introduce an afterthought or a punchline at the end of a joke, as you can see in this example:

• People who live in Maine say that they have two seasons--winter and July.

In prose, however, the dash is more commonly used to enclose parenthetical elements, where the writer wishes to convey emphasis or drama or both, or to signal an abrupt interruption in the middle of a sentence. Study these examples, all written by David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, concerning the Americans' efforts to eliminate the Taliban's rule over Afghanistan in late 2001:

• When it came to Afghanistan, we readily summoned the memories of the British and Russian experience there-the cruelty and the snows, the slaughters and the chastening retreats.



• The images of liberation in Kabul-of singing in the streets, of beards being shorn, of kites flying-were unambiguously thrilling.



• There is no doubt that in the very short run the ruthless American-led pursuit of the leaders of Al Qaeda [Osama bin Laden's terrorist network] and the Taliban is indispensable. But no Afghans-to say nothing of the volatile political constituencies in Pakistan and other Muslim countries-would tolerate a situation in which the United States imposes, or is seen to impose, a new political order on their country.



• Sited where the northern edge of the valley began to rumple into low hills-by an early-day entrepreneur who dreamed of getting rich from the puddles of mineral water bubbling there, and didn't-White Sulphur somehow had stretched itself awkwardly along the design of a very wide T. (Ivan Doig, This House of Sky)

An ellipsis, usually composed of three dots (. . . ), indicates an omission of material in quotations. A writer quoting someone may intentionally omit a word, phrase, or sentence if it is unnecessary to the idea he or she is discussing. If the omission occurs at the end of a sentence, as it does in the following example, the ellipsis consists of four dots, the last one being the period. Notice also Rodriguez's use of dashes to indicate rhetorical questions his observations give rise to in his mind.

• Without question, it would have pleased me to have heard my teachers address me in Spanish when I entered the classroom. . . . But I would have delayed--postponed for how long?--having to learn the language of public society. I would have evaded--and for how long?--learning the great lesson of school: that I had a public identity. (Richard Rodriguez, Hunger of Memory)

Quotation marks generally indicate quoted material. Double quotation marks (" ") are the standard form. Single quotation marks (' ') indicate quoted material within another quotation. Quotation marks can also be used to set off words or phrases used as illustrations. For example, in explaining doublespeak and levels of abstraction, William Lutz uses quotation marks to set off his examples. (In the same sentence, some writers would italicize these examples.)

• Using a high level of abstraction we can call the new dump a "resource development park" and sewage sludge "biosolids" or "organic biomass."

But quotation marks have another use, one not so readily apparent. A writer may use quotation marks to convey irony, to cast doubt on the authenticity of the material quoted. The author is saying, in effect, "I don't accept the meaning of this use of the word." Study these two examples:

• Cuba Shows "Evidence" That Planes Violated Airspace (Newspaper headline for a story by Juanita Darling, The Los Angeles Times)



• The history of the word "creole" itself dates back to the slave trade. After slaves had been gathered from many parts of Africa, they were imprisoned in West African camps, euphemistically called "factories," for "processing" before being shipped out to "markets." (Peter Farb)

Of the four pairs of quotation marks used here, only one pair does not indicate irony. Which one?

Finally, read this passage describing the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., and study the writer's use of commas, the colon, and the dash. Perhaps you will now have a greater appreciation for the significance of these seemingly insignificant little marks.

The memorial, an angle of polished black stone subtly submerged in a gentle slope, is an artistic abstraction. Yet its simplicity dramatizes a grim reality. The names of t he dead engraved on the granite record more than lives lost in battle: they represent a sacrifice to a failed crusade, however noble or illusory in motives. In a larger sense they symbolize a faded hope-or perhaps the birth of a new awareness. They bear witness to the end of America's absolute confidence in its moral exclusivity, its military invincibility, its manifest destiny. They are the price, paid in blood and sorrow, for America's awaking to maturity, to the recognition of its limitations. With the young men who died in Vietnam died the dream of an "American century."

Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History

ON THE WEB

An excellent site devoted to grammar, usage, and punctuation, with both instruction and practice quizzes, is available at Guide to Grammar and Writing.

1  An examination of the origins and history of punctuation can be found in M. B. Parkes, Pause and Effect: Punctuation in the West (University of California Press, 1993.)

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