For many beginning writers, and some veterans, too, punctuation can be confusing. Scoring rules sometimes seem arcane, abstract, even random. But if we see punctuation as a form of traffic control: commands to stop, pause, look ahead, etc. – It is easy to master these necessary grammar rules. In a previous excerpt, we explained how to use periods, commas, colons, and semicolons.
Separate words to combine ideas. People regularly coin new words by combining multiple words. Studded with hyphens, these expressions often become single words. The word for the national pastime of the United States began as baseball, evolved to baseball, and finally took the modern form of baseball. The last example: email transformed to email and then to email.
Scripts offer a great way to show how things are related to each other. Consider the following sentence: “East Coast liberals like Hillary Clinton differ from West Coast liberals like Jerry Brown.” We could say, “West Coast Liberals,” but that’s not quite as concise.
Of course, connecting too many things with hyphens can be silly. Thus: “The first-term African-American senator from Chicago’s South Side made his first run for the White House in 2008.”
Use em dashes, like this one, to make asides. If you want to highlight phrases or entire lists, use a long hyphen known as an em dash. Look at this sentence:
The Chicago Cubs’ inability to win a World Series for 100 years, a period that saw nineteen different presidents, has caused angst among fans.
The em dash helps the author to make an aside. The em dash tells the reader to pause, as if to say, “Hey, check this out.”
Critics say em-dash makes writing cheaper by encouraging a relaxed, informal style. No doubt, excessive use of any tool can be annoying. When we overuse the em-dash-like here-it distracts-and annoys-the reader. But in moderation—again, not like that—the em-dash offers a useful, and even fun, way to emphasize a point.
Use an ellipsis to show that the thought is fading… Every time I see an ellipsis, a set of three points, I hear the sound of harp music. The ellipses (plural of ellipses) suggest that thought is fading, reflecting, open ideas. The ellipses allow us to drift for a moment…
Case in point: “Dorothy considered her challenge: ‘If only I could get to see the Wizard of Oz…”‘ We see the girl with braided hair, a wicker basket, and a dog named Toto staring off into space, in her own world, lost in her thoughts.
Ellipses also perform a more technical task: marking spaces in quoted passages. Quotations often omit entire sections. People rarely speak in compact packages, so writers must piece together comments made at different times. To indicate a space, use an ellipsis. Therefore, we can quote John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address in this way:
Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country… Let us move forward to lead the land we love, asking for His blessing and help, but knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our
An ellipsis here indicates that the writer has cut words from the original source. Connecting one part of the quote to another quickly makes a point.
Psst: Use parentheses to set aside. Sometimes you want to provide a piece of related information. That information could strengthen the argument (provide details or context) or simply offer an aside. (Ben Yagoda loves parentheses.)
Parentheses offer an efficient way to add background information. When you want to provide examples of multiple things, use parentheses instead of saying “for example” over and over again. When Barack Obama began shaping his administration in 2008, he turned to America’s elite universities. New York Times columnist David Brooks described the emerging team:
January 20, 2009 will be a historic day. Barack Obama (Columbia, Harvard Law) will be sworn in as his wife Michelle (Princeton, Harvard Law) watches proudly. Nearby, his foreign policy advisers will be beaming, including perhaps Hillary Clinton (Wellesley, Yale Law), Jim Steinberg (Harvard, Yale Law) and Susan Rice (Stanford, Oxford). Phil.).
Here an elite, there an elite, everywhere an elite. Brooks uses parentheses to make this point very well.
Excessive use of parentheses makes typing difficult. It’s disorienting when you’re taken out of the main train of thought, over and over again. On the other hand, sometimes you want to show how hectic the world can be. “So my braces are part of my style?” asks Yagoda (rhetorically). “Actually, yes. They appeal to me in part because they express my belief that the world and language are multiple, knotty, and illuminated by digression.”
Use quotation marks to say exactly what someone said. To indicate that you are using someone’s exact words, use quotation marks. So:
“Ask not what your country can do for you,” said President Kennedy. “Ask what you can do for your country.”
Use the exact words of the speaker. If you want to paraphrase, quote only the words that were said and use your own words to connect the sentences. So:
After challenging the nation to “ask what you can do for your country,” President Kennedy challenged other nations to “ask not what America will do for you, but what we can do together for the freedom of man.”
Punctuation is usually enclosed in quotation marks. Therefore: “Ask not what your country can do for you,” said Kennedy.
Place punctuation outside the quotation marks to avoid confusion about what is being quoted. When TV journalist Tim Russert died, a website ran this headline: Tom Brokaw as host of “Meet the Press?” The headline suggests that Brokaw was in fact the host and that the name of the show contains a question. The headline should have asked: “Tom Brokaw as ‘Meet the Press’ host?
Sometimes it is necessary to quote someone by quoting another person. To do that, use single quotes, inside double quotes, like so:
“I went back to the doctor and he said, ‘Henry, I told you, you can’t do it, you’re going to die in that mine.’ I said, ‘Well, Dr. Craft, let me try it one more time,’ because he had some debts that he wanted to pay off.”
And what about a quote within a quote within a quote? Go back to the double quotes (“), like this:
“I met Joyce at the rally and she was like, ‘Let’s sing something. How about, ‘I’m not going to let anybody turn me around’? Let’s do it.'”
Use exclamation points (rarely!) to show enthusiasm or be emphatic. I once worked with someone who used exclamation points, a lot, all the time! Whether talking about something mundane or exciting, he would end each sentence with a multitude of these happy punctuation marks! I guess it’s not much different from someone who agrees with you all the time, or says “have a nice day” no matter what’s going on!!!! But it’s too much!!!!
Sober wordsmiths avoid exclamation points, except to show someone yelling. They point out, for example, that the constitutional guarantee of free speech does not include yelling “Fire!” in a theater full of people. Novelist Elmore Leonard suggests using no more than two or three exclamation points every 100,000 words (the length of a book). And I agree. Mainly! To show real emotion, tell a great story instead of relying on light-hearted punctuation.
And yet I admire Tom Wolfe so much that I admit the value of each and every one of his exclamations. By one count, Wolfe’s novel The Bonfire of the Vanities contains 2,343 exclamation points in 659 pages. “I’m trying to restore the score to its rightful place,” Wolfe once explained. “Dots, dashes, and exclamation points were removed from the prose because they ‘smelled of sentimentality.’ But still! shows someone letting go. Why not? The writer is careful not to use this punctuation and doesn’t bother to convey what is exciting to the reader.”
Wolfe uses the exclamation point cleverly, conveying overzealousness or innocence or naivety or rudeness. It works for him. However, for most of us, it’s like a sharp object best left in the drawer!