History of the Punctuation of English

Writing
Punctuation prior to the development of printing was light and haphazard. William
Caxton (1474), the first printer of books in English, used three punctuation marks:
the stroke (/) for marking word groups, the colon (:) for marking distinct syntactic
pauses, and the period (.) for marking the ends of sentences andbrief pauses. For
example,
The thyrde temptation that the deuyl maketh to theym that deye. is by Impacyence:
that is ayenste charyte/ For by charyte ben holden to loue god abouve alle thynges.
(modern form)
The third temptation that the Devil makes to them that die is by Impatience; that is
against charity. For by charity be holden to love God above all things.
Clearly the use of a period for brief pauses as well as full stops at the ends of
sentences was inconvenient and writers soon stopped so using it.
Tyndale's Gospels (1535) eliminated that practice and other ambiguities of Caxton's
system of punctuation. Soon after Tyndale the comma replaced the stroke. The
semicolon was introduced at that time.
Early seventeenth century writers appeared to use colons, semicolons, and commas
interchangably. Their use depended upon pauses for breath rather than the syntactic
structure of the sentence.
Writers of the late seventeenth century tried to establish precise rules for the use of
the comma, semicolon and colon, on the principles that a semicolon indicated a
pause twice as long as that for a comma, and a colon indicated a pause twice as long
as for a semicolon. Some grammarians rebelled at such artificial rules. One
grammarian of later times, Justin Brenan, wrote,
What a quantity of useless controversial stuff has been written upon the proper use
of the semicolon and the colon -- but I am wrong in saying that it was useless for, at
last, common sense prevailed and the public threw these stops overboard.
Brenan himself wanted to substitute the dash () for the colon. As he expressed it,
"No one of good taste could use any other stop." Brenan was one of the first
grammarians to argue that punctuation marks should not be primarily indicators of
pauses for breath but an integral part of the sentence pattern.
The question mark was originally called a note of interrogation. There was some
uncertainty in the seventeenth century as to whether a question mark should be
used when a question is only described (an indirect question) or only used in the
case a question is actually being asked (a direct question). By the eighteenth century
the question mark was only being used for direct questions.
The exclamation mark comes from the term note of admiration, in which admiration
referred to its Latin sense of wonderment. One theory of its origin is that it was
originally the Latin word for joy, Io, written with the I written above the o.
Quotation marks are the most recently added form of punctuation, having been
created in the late seventeenth century. However the use of bullets for items in a list
verges on being the introduction of a new punctuation mark.
In recent times some writers tried to introduce a new punctuation mark which is a
combination of the question and exclamation marks (!? or ?!) to indicate a tone of

shocked disbelief but nothing much came of it. English could benefit from the
Spanish system of punctuation marks preceding a sentence as well as ending the
sentence. Thus a question is Spanish is preceded by an inverted question mark and
an exclamation by an inverted exclamation mark.

Punctuation Marks and

Their Common Functions
Period ( . )
To indicate the end of a declarative sentence
Example: Here is the place.
To indicate that letters are used as abbreviations
Example: Dr. Carle D. Reynolds
To indicate decimal fractions
Example: 16.34
Three Periods--Ellipses ()
To indicate that a portion of quoted matter is omitted
Example: To receive, obey, and pass on
Comma ( , )
To separate independent clauses joined by a conjuction
Example: This is the street, but I dont know the number of the house.
Note: no comma is used unless each statement is independent.
Example: You will police the area and maintain a fire watch.
To separate parts of a series
Example: Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
To separate coordinate or equal adjectives in a series
Example: a loud, sharp blast
Note: Unless the adjectives modify the same noun in the same way, they are not in series and no
comma is used. To test, check if the adjectives can be reversed. If not, no comma.
Example: heavy woolen clothing
To separate introductory statements beginning with such words as when, while, since, if,
because, until, although, and whenever (or other subordinate conjunctions)
Example: When the rain was falling, there was very little wind.
To set off introductory prepositional phrases (starting with on, in, at, to, by, for, of, through,
etc.)

Example: By the time she crawled into bed, she was too exhausted to sleep.
Note: Short prepositional phrases (3 words or less) are not always followed by commas.
Example: In Japan he served as platoon commander.
To separate non-essential elements from the rest of the sentence. A non-essential element is a
word or group of words that gives additional identifying information about someone or
something already identified; its non-essential because the sentence is still clear without it.
Examples: The President, who is the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, rates a salute.
I visited Albany, the capital of the state of New York.
Note: Commas are NOT placed around essential elementsthose that limit meaning or give
identifying information about someone or something not already identified.
Example: The procedure that you are required to follow is explained in TM 5-250.
To set off introductory phrases beginning with verb participles ending in ing, -ed, -en, etc.
Example: Having turned off the lathe, I stopped the motor.
To set off such expressions as you, no, well, on the other hand, you might say, and of course,
(such expressions are called interrupters)
Example: He was, of course, the first person I saw.
To set off such expressions as he said from direct quotations
Example: That decision, he explained, must be your own.
Note: No comma is used to separate such expressions from the rest of the sentence if the
sentence is an indirect quotation (often introduced with the word that).
Example: He explained that the decision must be my own.
To separate contrasting elements
Example: The wall is gray, not blue.
To prevent misreading
Example: Undressing, the child ran into the bathroom.
To set off the name of a person addressed
Example: Frank, may I borrow your skill saw?
Semicolon ( ; )
To separate independent statements that are not joined by a coordinating conjunction (and, but,
or, nor, for, yet, so)
Example: Black is a mixture of all colors; white is the complete opposite.
Note: If the independent statements are short, a comma may be used.
Example: Horses sweat, men perspire.
To separate independent statements when the second statement begins with such conjunctive
adverbs or phrases like therefore, however, thus, otherwise, on the other hand, for example, in
fact, that is, etc.

Example: I submitted a request six months in advance; still, I did not receive a permit in time
for the departure.
To separate independent statements joined by conjunctions if such statements are long or they
contain internal punctuation
Example: Classic science fiction sagas include Star Trek, with Mr. Spock and his large pointed
ears; Battlestar Galactica, with its Cylon Raiders; and Star Wars, with Han Solo, Luke
Skywalker, and Darth Vader.
Apostrophe ( )
To show possession (if the word does not end in s, add an apostrophe and an s.)
Example: The doctors advice, the housewifes choice, mans clothing, Martins house
Note: If the word is singular and ends in s or an s sound, use apostrophe and an s Example: Mr.
Schultzs car
unless pronunciation is awkward: Example: Miss Simmons coat
To indicate the omission of letters in contractions
Examples: cant, wont, doesnt, havent, its
To form the plural of letters, words, and symbols that do not have logical plurals
Example: three 2s, too many &s, and seven cs
Dash ( )
To indicate a sudden, abrupt break of an unfinished word or sentence
Example: She will take charge of this post and Wait a minute. Who are you?
To set off a summary of a preceding series
Example: Food, clothing, shelter, and a sense of humor those are the things a man needs to
survive.
Hyphen ( - )
To join two or more words serving as a single adjective before a noun
Example: a one-way street, chocolate-covered peanuts
Use a hyphen with compound numbers
Example: forty-six, sixty-three
Our much-loved teacher was sixty-three years old.
To avoid confusion or an awkward combination of letters
Example: re-sign a petition (vs. resign from a job) semi-independent (but semiconscious)
shell-like (but childlike)
Use a hyphen with the prefixes ex- (meaning former), self-, all-; with the suffix -elect; between
a prefix and a capitalized word; and with figures or letters
Example: ex-husband, self-assured

To divide words at the end of a line if necessary, or show a break between syllables
Example: pre-fer-ence, sell-ing
Quotation Marks (__ and __)
To set off quoted matter (including punctuation marks, usually. See a handbook for details.)
Example: I saw it, he replied.
Note: Indirect quotes are not set off by quotations.
Example: He said that the decision must be my own.
To indicate a quotation within a quotation (single quotation marks)
Example: I replied, When I asked him if he had ever heard of the American Revolution, he
said, I saw it.
To enclose titles of short stories, poems, magazine articles, portions of books, and individual
television show episodes
Example: Good diagrams can be found in the chapter entitled Engine Constructions in Dean
Austins book Automotive Mechanics.
Italics

_________________

To indicate the titles of books, plays, magazines, long musical compositions, works of art,
movies, and television show series
Example: I highly recommend The Technique of Clear Writing, by Robert Gunning.
To indicate use of foreign words
Example: And there I was, en dishabille.
To indicate that the writer is referring to a word rather than to the sense that it conveys
Examples:
He mistook was for saw.
Can you spell precede?
(Note: Letters, figures, and symbols, when used as such, are also italicized.)
Examples:
The m looks like a w.
Type & rather than and.
Parentheses ( )
To set off digressions or elements which provide extra information
Example: The progress report (Form #78) is submitted each week.
I told him (Travers) exactly what to do.
To enclose numbers and letters enumerating parts
Example: The principal parts are (1) the present tense, (2) the past tense, and (3) the past
participle.

Brackets [ ]
To set off material inserted in a direct quotation
Example: Audubon reports that if there are not enough young to balance deaths, the end of the
species [California condor] is inevitable.
Colon ( : )
Used after an independent clause (complete sentence) to direct attention to a list, an appositive,
or a quotation
Example: He laid down three rules: no smoking, no idle talk, and no sleeping.
Example: A rainbow consists of the following colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and
violet.
Example: The speaker quoted a popular saying: We grow too soon old and too late smart.
To separate two independent clauses (complete sentences) when the second one summarizes or
explains the first
Example: Faith is like love: it cannot be forced.
Slash ( / )
To indicate the end of a line of poetry
Example: Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough, / A Flash of wine, a Book of verse
and Thou
To set off phonemic transcriptions
Example: In French the /e/ is pronounced as /A/.
To separate paired terms (use sparingly)
Example: pass/fail producer/director