What is Punctuation for?

As already stated, this is not an English course. The purpose of the course is to make you into a proofreader who can give assurances of quality to clients, other departments or superiors, so that they can be confident that possibly the last pair of eyes scanning their output had their best interests at heart. Your being able to deliver on that assurance requires a full understanding of the nuts and bolts of language, and if we say that grammar is the nuts, then punctuation is surely the bolts.

Punctuation has a hard time these days. There are those who would rather do without it and those who use it too much, both of whom create confusion as to its proper use. “Proper” – now there’s a contentious word. After all, who decides what is “proper English”? Whereas some would assume that the answer lies in some dusty volume of written English in the British Library, others would suggest that since more people speak and write in US English than British, the former should be the standard. Indeed, the major university presses of Great Britain generally opt for US English in their academic work.

Such differences are, we could say, academic. While an American reading a British book might be amused by its quaintness, its Frenchness, a Briton might baulk at the butchery of his or her language in the name of progress and simplicity. One should never be so bold as to nominate a “proper English”. Your job as a proofreader, editor or writer is to put across a message to a predesignated readership, and to make it clear, understandable and accessible.

The punctuation marks that follow can blow even experienced writers off course; it’s quite surprising how many otherwise excellent and intelligent manuscripts I have read where oddly placed punctuation has made comprehension difficult. What follows is not the definitive guide to punctuation, but shows the areas where mistakes are common.

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