Many writers take them for granted. Punctuation marks, according to the experts of the language, are those marks that clarify and make plain one’s argument. One can imagine putting his/her thoughts or ideas on paper without inserting punctuation marks in the right places, to mark off units of utterances or speeches, either to show their grammatical relationship or give them some emphasis. This has been the case, for the majority of writers, who pay little attention to punctuation marks, particularly commas and periods. These marks are freely used for the sake of clarity and precision. How many of us, as writers, journalists, or even reporters take seriously punctuation marks in order not to mislead the reader or listener? A negligible number, if I would say here. It is pertinent to pay attention to punctuation marks such as, apostrophe, period, coma, semi-colon and even colon to covey the proper meaning, rather than send the reader, a message that the writer does not intend to pass along or convey.
Writing for the radio and television demands extra vigilance, where punctuation marks are generously used to make presentation pleasurable, and easy read. Punctuation marks, when observed to the letter, send a comprehensive and seamless script presentation to the listening audience, which is the essence of broadcasting, the masters and purists submits. Even the print media, down to the casual writer, or the office secretary, to write plainly and concise, should as matter of fact, insert punctuation marks at regular intervals where pauses or breaks naturally occur. One can feel it, and verbalise it in silence when putting one’s idea on paper. Try to breathe in and out when reading through the prepared script, that way it would go a long way towards placing or inserting the correct punctuation mark where it matters most. There are no hard facts about the placement of punctuation marks, but the general rule is that short sentences and paragraphs help to insert the desired mark in the right place.
Be it apostrophe, coma, period, colon and semi-colon; remember to see them as very essential to be ranked as a skillful writer or speaker. The reason or secret why many writers choose to write scantily, or where economy of words come to play, or what some call water tight scripting is to avoid verbosity which often times than not bore the reading publics, especially when the punctuation marks are glaringly missing. Short, precise sentences of not more than eight words is ideal for the skillful writer; never go on writing long winding expressions, ignoring punctuation marks. Many, particularly the casual writer, are guilty of this. Let’s spare no effort at taking our punctuation marks seriously. It is an integral part or companion of the skillful writer. Before we put full stop to our lesson, let’s do some exercise. Contract these long and wordy phrases to one, two to three-syllable words, at least to drive home our argument of precision writing.
For example, the sentence, ‘retain his position as’, is lengthy; rather, the two-syllable word, ‘remain’, should be preferred. So also, these expressions, ‘retired for the night’, ‘shortfall in supplies,’ ‘since the particular time’, ‘special ceremonies marking’, ‘submitted his/her resignation’, ‘subsequently’, ‘subsequent to’, ‘succeeding in defeating’, and ‘sufficient consideration’, as many would write and speak could be turned around. It is better to cut down the extra words that make your writing looks clumsy. Straightforward writing and functional English remains the way to go. The creative and skillful writer would dump long winding sentences just as we have seen here, but favours short and simple ones to make his or her point clear, and avoid ambiguity. So, the expression, ‘retired for the night’, should be shortened to read, ‘went to bed’ or ‘slept.’ ‘Shortfall in supplies’, ‘since the particular time’, ‘special ceremonies marking’, ‘submitted his or her resignation’, should take this short form, ‘shortage, cut back’, ‘since then’, ‘celebrated, marked’, ‘resigned’, and so on.
