Punctuation Revisited

A Strategic Guide for Academics, Wordsmiths, and Obsessive Perfectionists

Richard Kallan

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9780429807206
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Grammar & Punctuation
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Punctuation Revisited is an advanced, comprehensive guide to the importance of punctuation in conveying meaning and augmenting the power of a message.

Richard Kallan provides guidance on how to structure sentences accurately and in a manner that enhances their readability and rhetorical appeal. This book discusses in fine detail not just when and how to employ specific punctuation marks, but the rationale behind them. It also notes when the major academic style manuals differ in their punctuation advice. These unique features are designed to benefit beginning, intermediate, and advanced students of standard punctuation practice.

Punctuation Revisited is a wonderful resource for students of composition and writing, an essential read for writing center tutors and faculty, as well as the perfect addition to anyone's professional library.

1
PERIODS, QUESTION MARKS, AND EXCLAMATION POINTS

Purpose and Application

Commonly referred to as “ending punctuation,” periods, question marks, and exclamation points can be placed almost anywhere. They usually come at the end of a complete sentence, but they can also follow an incomplete sentence, whether in the form of a dependent clause, phrase, or single word. These marks indicate when a sentence (or incomplete sentence) has ended and whether it is declaring, asking, or exclaiming. More challenging is the correct positioning of periods, question marks, and exclamation points when they are used in conjunction with other forms of punctuation.

QUICK REFERENCE GLOSSARY

A COMPLETE SENTENCE features one or more independent clauses. An independent clause is a related word grouping that can stand alone as a sentence because it (1) includes a subject and a predicate and (2) expresses a complete thought.

1. The subject is who or what initiates or receives whatever is happening in the sentence. The predicate describes the happening; it commences with a verb, which most often is an action, and usually comprises one or more other elements (a direct object, an indirect object, a complement, and modifiers).

• I [subject] enjoy [verb] my writing class.
• I [subject] enjoy my writing class [predicate] .

Other times, the verb establishes a condition by serving as a linking verb that, in essence, functions much like an equal sign to connect the subject and the condition.

• Writing is fun.
• Writing = fun.
• Writing [subject] is [linking verb] fun [condition].
• Writing [subject] is fun [predicate] .

Sometimes the subject of a sentence is implied, such as a command.

Run [predicate]!

The implied subject of any command where the subject is not explicitly stated is always you.

2. Along with having a subject and a predicate, a complete sentence expresses a complete thought: a “finished” declaration, exclamation/ command, or question. Note how these sentences have a subject and a predicate but remain incomplete:

• Although I love to write.
• When class starts.
• If I may ask.

Each sentence is incomplete because the writer begins but never finishes the larger thought the sentence structure promises. Instead, we have three dependent (or subordinate) clauses. A dependent (or subordinate ) clause contains a subject and a predicate, but it does not express a complete thought. Unable to stand alone, a dependent clause must precede or follow an independent clause to form a complete sentence. Dependent clauses are introduced with subordinating conjunctions, such as after, although, as, because, before, even if, even though, if, since, so that, than, that, though, unless, until, when, whenever, where, whereas, wherever, whether, while.

An INCOMPLETE SENTENCE (also referred to as a sentence fragment ) takes the form of either a dependent clause; a phrase, which is a related word grouping that does not have both a subject and a predicate; or a single (non-command) word. Because those are the rules. All right readers, any questions? Good.

Adapted from Richard Kallan, Renovating Your Writing: Shaping Ideas and Arguments into Clear, Concise, and Compelling Messages. 2nd ed., Routledge, 2018. Permission courtesy of Routledge.

Periods

Bacall, Aaron; www.CartoonStock.com

Ending a Sentence

1.1 The most common use of a period is to end a sentence. Like the question mark and the exclamation point, it tells the reader to stop.

Leave one space after a period. Just like at the start of this sentence. Not like the start of this one. The standard now is to leave one space after all punctuation, including periods, question marks, exclamation points, and colons.

• This is an example of a sentence that ends with a period.
• This is another example. And here's one more.

Most sentences end with periods. If a sentence does not end with a period, it will likely end with a question mark or an exclamation point. The exceptions would be a sentence ending in “suspension points,” a name given to a specific use of ellipsis, which is formatted with no ending punctuation (see Chapter 7: 7.12); or a sentence ending in a dash used to signal interrupted speech (see Chapter 4: 4.22).

Providing Visual Closure

1.2 Periods provide visual closure at the end of incomplete sentences, stopping them from flowing into the sentences (and incomplete sentences) that follow. Periods also provide visual closure when phrases and single words serve as in-text headings; the period separates the heading from the text.

I am qualified to become your social media director for three reasons:

• TECHNICAL SKILLS. I am proficient in . . .
• WORK EXPERIENCE. My industry experience includes working at . . .
• EDUCATION BACKGROUND. As my resume details, I earned a BA from. . .

Do not, however, place periods after article and essay titles, chapter titles, headings and subheadings (even if they form complete sentences), and captions for photographs and illustrations that are incomplete sentences. (Periods, though, should follow multiple sentences, incomplete sentences, or a combination of both when they comprise a caption.)

Following Abbreviations¹

1.3 Place periods after abbreviations of titles.

1.4 The trend is away from using periods with academic degrees. Nearly all major style manuals recommend such, with the exception of AP Stylebook. The preferred style (with some exceptions—LL.M, LL.D):

1.5 Place periods after abbreviations common to informal (and sometimes formal) writing.

Note: No space comes between the letters of a two-word abbreviation: a.m. (not a. m.).

1.6 Place periods after abbreviations often found in academic citations.

1.7 Style manuals sometimes differ as to whether initialisms, abbreviations created by combining the first capitalized letter of each word in a name or phrase, require periods. Most often, the periods are dropped.

Acronyms, which are essentially initialisms pronounced as words, not as individualized initials, follow the same pattern.

No spaces come between the letters comprising an initialism or acronym.

1.8 Place a period followed by a space after each initial comprising part of a name.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

HunterS.Thompson

J.K.Rowling

J.R.R. Tolkien

But when a name comprises only initials, no period or space follows each initial.

FDR

JFK

LBJ

MLK

1.9 Do not place periods after postal abbreviations, compass poin...