Punctuation

Punctuation covers the common textual marks that have 2 broad functions:

• building and connecting words 
• signposting sentences. 

While recent decades have reduced the amount of punctuation we use, it will always remain essential to convey meaning in a text. As the standard joke goes, without punctuation ‘Let’s eat, Grandma’ becomes more sinister as ‘Let’s eat Grandma’.

Accurate punctuation is essential in professional texts, whether for a client or the public. Errors can greatly impair your credibility and distract readers from your content.

This is partly why there is considerable anxiety about punctuation and often heated debate about what is correct. A lot of time can be wasted in workplaces when someone adds a punctuation mark that someone else removes, only for a further reviewer to restore it.

Writers and editors play a crucial role in applying clear standards and understanding the rationale for them. Fortunately,  around 80% of punctuation choices are set by clear grammatical rules. This calls for some basic knowledge of grammar and sentence structure, but that is easily acquired.

More difficult is the other 20% of punctuation, where there is flexibility for rhetorical emphasis and personal preference – particularly in the placement of commas. 

This section of the ASG outlines the core grammatical rules for punctuation while also explaining where you can exercise some judgement and flexibility.