Author: Tom Aaron

Writing is an art that demands writers master many different skills. Editing writing, correcting grammar, and using rich punctuation are some of these skills. Punctuation may be the least respected skill. Were Rodney Dangerfield to write of punctuation, he might say, “Punctuation is like me. It don’t get no respect.” When we think of punctuation, we may only think of punctuation marks, but punctuation is much more. Anything used in written language that is not a letter or number is punctuation. This means punctuation marks, spaces between words, and indentation are all part of punctuation. If we turn to Wikipedia, we can find a definition of punctuation. Wikipedia says, “Punctuation marks are symbols that correspond to neither phonemes (sounds) of a language nor to lexemes (words and phrases), but which serve to indicate the structure and organization of writing, as well as intonation and pauses to be observed when reading it aloud.”

We enrich our punctuation the same way we improve our writing. The above paragraph is the first version of a rough draft. Let’s edit it and see how we can improve the punctuation.

The art of writing demands writers master many different skills including editing, correcting grammar, and enriching punctuation. Punctuation may be the least respected skill. Were Rodney Dangerfield to write of punctuation, he might say: “Punctuation is like me. It don’t get no respect.” Punctuation goes beyond punctuation marks; anything in written language outside of letters and numbers is punctuation.

Punctuation marks, spaces between words, and indentation are all punctuation. Wikipedia defines punctuation: “Punctuation marks are symbols that correspond to neither phonemes (sounds) of a language nor to lexemes (words and phrases), but which serve to indicate the structure and organization of writing, as well as intonation and pauses to be observed when reading it aloud.”

Let’s look at two differences between the first and second versions.

1. The number of paragraphs

The first version had one long paragraph, which became two paragraphs in the second version. Paragraphing is part of punctuation. A paragraph can be as short as one sentence or as long as several pages. A one-sentence paragraph, however, is unusual outside dialogue. Longer paragraphs are hard on readers. Breaking a long paragraph into two or more smaller paragraphs makes reading easier.

2. Variety in punctuation marks

The first version used only periods and commas; the second version added colons and semicolons. Punctuational variety enriches the writing. Many people use an extremely limited repertoire of punctuation marks: periods and commas. Use variety in punctuation marks to differentiate your writing from everyday writing without this rich variety.

We would also like to show additional ways to use punctuation:

1. Colons can emphasize contrast.

We waited all day for Godot to show up: He never arrived.

2. Ellipsis emphasize that there is more.

We ate apple bars with whipped cream, lemon bars with nuts, marshmallow bars, meltaway chocolate bars….

Improving your punctuation is fairly easy; remember the colon and the semicolon. When you read, notice the punctuation. See how you can add ellipsis, exclamation points, dashes, and more. Observe, learn and improve your writing.

Still, we don’t want you to overwhelm your readers with punctuation. Thinking of punctuation as a piece of chocolate cake might help. One piece of chocolate cake may taste like heaven; two pieces may just be too much heaven. Using exclamation points, dashes, and ellipses too often may overwhelm your readers and begin to interfere with their reading of your writing.

About the Author:

This article is from Aaron Language Services at
http://www.aaronlanguage.com/
We provide English writing services to a primarily Japanese clientele. If you are an experienced editor, specializing in medicine or the hard sciences, please contact us via personnel on the menu on the left side of our top page.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Enrich your punctuation and improve your writing

Twitter is an interesting phenomenon. I generally (but not always) have TweetDeck running in the background while I’m working on my desktop. And while I don’t read every single tweet that shows up, I look at a lot of them. By following some of the links that seem interesting, I come across some interesting people with interesting blogs. I will usually follow them and subscribe to the RSS feed of their blog. It may give me that many more blogs to read (that I don’t have time for) and that many more tweets to read (that I don’t have time for), but it often results in some interesting new insights that I otherwise wouldn’t have found.

Like this great post, and in general this great blog, about getting a second set of eyes to review your work, or decisions, or whatever:

[W]hy wouldn‘t you ask someone to look at all of your stuff? Business plans, new boyfriend, marketing strategies, new suit, tagline, dinner party menu, web copy, first home, logo…

A new set of eyes is likely to find the flaws. You know, when you’ve looked at something so many times, they just seem natural and right to you.

The post talks about closing your eyes and assuming a specific yoga pose, then opening your eyes and reviewing your actual pose or posture. The writer is confident that you will find yourself well out of alignment and probably looking a little odd, but it will feel correct to you.

As with anything that you do, what feels or looks or otherwise seems correct or comfortable, may not be. It’s always worthwhile to get a second opinion.

Image by Free-StockPhotos.com