The dictionary definition of punctuation is 'the practice or system of using certain conventional marks or characters in writing or printing in order to separate elements and make the meaning clear, as in ending a sentence or separating clauses.'
Punctuation was introduced to assist that small number of people who could read, to read aloud to those who couldn’t read. It’s true to say that until several hundred years ago, many people could not read and even today, some can’t.
The word punctuation comes from the Latin punctus, which means ‘point’. Therefore points were added to the written text to provide those reading aloud with guidance as to when to pause, take a breathe, or what to emphasis.
Although it was widely used, when punctuation was first introduced in Europe (early centuries AD), not many people used the same points (punctuation) for the same reason. The printers of the printing presses (which were invented in the 15th Century) wanted firmer guidelines to ensure that everyone was using points (punctuation) in the same way. Since these first printing presses there have been many rules created, discovered, others invented, and a lot argued about.
It isn’t hard to read without punctuation. Thinking about punctuation in today's world - what punctuation do you add when you are sending a text message to a friend, or colleague? It’s true to say that you probably use none, but the text message is still understood. Think about a long text message that you may have received – what would happen if you were to read it aloud? How easy is it to read? 
It's true to say that if you aren’t expecting punctuation, you don’t look for it.
Authors use punctuation because they are thinking about the words in each sentence that they are using. For example, they want you to understand when to emphasis something they’ve written. Some authors hate punctuation.
Timothy Dexter (18th Century US author) hated punctuation so much that he included a page of full stops and commas in a booklet, and allowed his readers to put the punctuation where-ever they wanted it. He said he was not going to put them in himself.
Ben Jonson (17th century author) loved punctuation – so much so, that he even put a colon between his first and last names – Ben:Jonson.
«¿What do you understand about punctuation?»
Does this sentence look strange to you? Although written in English, this sentence is using punctuation from other languages. If you were to see this sentence written in, for example, Spanish – the punctuation would be correct. In Arabic you might see the same question mark sign as that used in English, but facing the opposite direction. In Greek a different sign is used altogether – they use what, in English, we call the semi-colon.
« text » - speech marks. Speech marks represent the words someone is actually speaking, in the text you are reading. They began to be widely used during the 18th Century. You’ll also find speech marks in Finish and Danish.
? – question mark. In the middle ages a squiggle about a full stop was sometimes used to show that the sentence was a question, and for this reason if they sentence was being read aloud the readers voice should go up at the end of the sentence. By the 17th Century this had turned into the ? (question mark) that we all know and love. It is felt that the shape may have come from the letter Q, which is short for the Latin questio meaning question.
! – exclamation mark. In the early days of punctuation when you saw the exclamation mark, it represented a pause. Then people started to think of it as a squashed-up version of the ancient Greek word ‘IO’ which means something like ‘Oh gosh!’ This was then represented as the i on top of the o. The exclamation mark was developed as part of the printing press invention.
, – comma. The word comma comes from the Greek ‘piece cut off’; and when seen as punctuation in the English language means a short pause.
: – colon. The word colon comes from the Greek for ‘limb’ or a verse of a poem; and when seen as punctuation in the English language means a medium-size pause.
. – full stop or period (as it is sometimes known). The word period comes from the Greek for ‘way around’. A full stop or period (as it is sometimes known) means a long pause.
' – apostrophe. The word apostrophé is a Greek word. In an ancient Greek drama, an apostrophé represented the action where the actor turned away from the audience to address someone who was not on the stage. It was from this that the word apostrophe came to represent something that was missing. The apostrophe has two meanings in the English language. The first is to show where a letter is missing in a word – couldn’t (could not). The second is with a s to demonstrate who owns something (Gerard’s keys).
Then there is the interrobang (as fully explained in the Readers Digest Australia – September 2008 issue). It’s true to say that more punctuation marks are being invented/introduced every day – a clear example of this is the introduction of texting. An interrobang was invented/introduced by Martin Speckter in 1962, and is used in those moments when you want to use a question mark and an exclamation mark at the same time (sadly not found on my PC to be able to show it)!
What about other punctuation that you might recognise?
¶- paragraph mark.
‘ – single opening quote
’ – single closing quote
“ – double opening quote
” – double closing quote
So, what do think of punctuation? How do you use it? Let us know next time you are sitting down to a cup of coffee!
Barbara J. Dalpra, MNMC, FECI
Accredited Fellow Coach (ECI)
Deputy CEO (Operations, IT, Finance)
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