• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

W.W.

The Spirit To Achieve The Best

  • Home.
  • All Contents.
  • Blog.
  • About.
  • Contact.
You are here: Home / Good Writing Skills / The Importance Of Punctuation In Writing Good English

The Importance Of Punctuation In Writing Good English

white flowers + importance of punctuation

Continuing with my aim to helping you write clearly, concisely, effectively and pertinently, today we will see exactly about what are punctuations and their importance. In a later session, I will also give you a detailed definition of each of those punctuations and where they are expected to be used.

SymbolName
.period or full stop
,comma
;semi-colon
:colon
?interrogation point or question mark
-dash
" "quotation marks
'apostrophe

Purpose Of Punctuation In Writing

=> To give written words the intended meaning and expression of the spoken words.

Converting spoken words into a written form is a critical process. If you fail to convey the exact intended meaning of what Mr X said, you are essentially conveying the message in a different form which may entail consequences. Let’s take an example.
Consider the following 3 phrases:
1) Jonas beats James in the running competition.
2) Jonas beats James to run in the competition.
3) James beats Jonas while running.

Do these three sentences have the same meaning? Of course not!

Spoken Words Can Be Conveyed Appropriately In Written Words

Just as the meaning of spoken words are varied by pauses or by changing the tone of the voice (voice inflexion), the meaning of written words may also be varied by the use of punctuation.
Therefore, a sound knowledge of the principles of punctuation is essential to convey clear expression.

Definition Of Punctuation Marks

In speaking, it is customary to make pauses or change the inflexion of the voice where the sense requires it. In writing, to indicate the reader the effect or feeling of those pauses and inflexion, we make use of certain signs or marks. Those signs or marks are named as ‘punctuation marks‘.

Important Points To Be Noted With Punctuation

1) In the same way as a change in the order of words in a sentence may bring about a change in the meaning, an alteration in the punctuation may involve an alteration in the meaning too.

Example:
A1) “Your hand, Samantha, ”
B2) “Your hand, Samantha?”

These two phrases have different meaning which are indicated by the punctuation marks.
In spoken language, phrase A1 would indicate a statement while phrase B2 is an enquiry. Now in written language, if you don’t convey meaning correctly by using the appropriate punctuations and at the right positions in the sentence, you will undoubtedly convey a different idea.

2) Good punctuation shows that a student or a writer has a good knowledge of grammatical structure. And to understand the latter, you should obviously grasp what is a simple sentence, a complex sentence and the meaning of each punctuation marks and where to use them. Hopefully, I will discuss all these in future sessions as we go gradually and grow our “Good Writing Skills By Learning The Basics Of The English Language”

Updated:
=> The next Session is here: ‘General Principles Of Punctuation – What Are Punctuations And How To Use Them‘

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Cashmere says

    November 7, 2008 at 9:32 am

    This is like learning English all over again… ;P

    Reply
  2. Wakish says

    November 7, 2008 at 12:38 pm

    @Cashmere:
    For different people with different english skills level, it will mean differently:

    1) For people who learned the language by ‘trial n error’
    => It’s a re-learning the language, but properly this time and consolidating

    2) For people who are having trouble with actually learning
    => Here, it’s the learning process

    3) For people who are intermediate to advanced, it’s just ‘reading’

    But these articles are aimed at people who rae keen to learn.

    Thanks for the visit!
    Cheers!

    Reply
  3. Jirel says

    November 11, 2008 at 12:54 pm

    As I have already told you in my email, this will help me a lot. So, I will be sure reading new posts.

    This will really help for people like us!

    Reply
  4. Wakish says

    November 11, 2008 at 2:46 pm

    Hi Jirel,
    thanks for your visit and comment. Yes I read your email, thank you so much!
    It’s so good to see people like you caring and being around..

    Cheers!

    Reply
  5. ESPERANCE NAMWEZI says

    May 4, 2010 at 8:57 am

    I am very happy to read this because it allows me todo my assignment. THANK YOU FOR HELPING PEOPLE LIKE US TO MASTER ENGLISH.God bless you! Espérance NAMWEZI

    Reply
  6. Wakish says

    May 4, 2010 at 7:36 pm

    @NAMWEZI:
    Thank you so much!

    Reply
  7. ayodeji says

    April 13, 2011 at 11:57 am

    kudos!it’s really inspirational.i can now do my assignments.thanks

    Reply
  8. Gideon Sebastian says

    April 13, 2011 at 8:28 pm

    it is wonderful explanation. big up

    Reply
  9. Samuel Damian says

    February 1, 2012 at 11:00 pm

    It is real thrilling and quite exciting browsing through this particular site.bravo

    Reply
  10. Ahsan says

    April 8, 2012 at 6:16 am

    Sir, it is so nice of you to teach students, great.

    Reply
  11. Azeez adams says

    November 9, 2012 at 4:44 pm

    Thanks very much

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

© 2006-2017 · WAKISH WONDERZ - THE SPIRIT TO ACHIEVE THE BEST ·

  • Writing Tips by Wakish
  • Disclaimer
  • Archives
  • Advertise