Opinion and Perspective

The Importance of Punctuation
Dennis Murphy
The United Graduate School of AgriculturalSciences, Ehime University
In 2009, I started teaching scientific English to doctoral students, most of whom
are from Southeast Asian nations, and therefore, their native language is not
English. They read many scientific papers in English, so they understand thestructure of a scientific paper and how to write one. However, they need help
with their English, and that, of course, includes punctuation. In this brief article I
would like to highlight why it is important to teach punctuation.
In writing, it would be safe to say that most people do not give much thought
to punctuation. I certainly did not. I know how to write reasonably clearly, butI did not really think about why a comma is used in some places but not others,
and why use an em-dash rather than a semicolon, for example. That blissful stateof non-thinking ended when I started teaching the doctoral candidates. I had
to quickly study the technical aspects of using punctuation, so I read reams ofstyle guides, browsed a multitude of Web sites, and devoured Eats, Shoots &Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss (2003).
Who would have thought a book on punctuation would be so interesting andentertaining? I also gained enthusiasm, inspiration, and interest from Woe Is
I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English by Patricia T.
O’Connor (1996).
Punctuation is not some arbitrary set of symbols used by pedants to makelife difficult for learners (and teachers) of English. Punctuation marks help makewriting clear and, therefore, make reading easier. In spoken English, we makeourselves understood by using stress, intonation, gestures, rhythm, and pauses381

Murphy(assuming what we are saying is not complete gibberish), but this is not possible
in written English, so we use punctuation (Holtom & Fisher, 2006).
Punctuation marks perform four functions: separate, group or enclose,
connect, and give meaning (McCaskill, 1998). A full stop (also called a period)
separates sentences, a semicolon can be used in place of a full stop to separate
two closely related sentences, and a comma, amongst many other uses, separates adependent clause from an independent clause in a sentence. A pair of parentheses
encloses extra information within a sentence, as could a pair of em-dashes (orem dash, m-dash, m dash, em rule, m-rule), and a pair of commas could, as inthis example, enclose (and separate) a parenthetical remark within a sentence. A
hyphen connects two or more words to form a compound adjective to modify anoun, e.g., three-stage experiment, and an en-dash (or en dash, n-dash, n dash,en rule, n-rule) connects continuing or inclusive numbers, e.g., 2011–2015. Aquestion mark turns a statement into a question or indicates uncertainty, andan exclamation mark (also called an exclamation point) indicates strong feeling.
The marks help readers understand the structural relationship within asentence (Matthews & Matthews, 2008). Each mark has a clearly defined role.
In general, correctly used grammar and punctuation is not noticed by the reader.
I seriously doubt anyone would read a sentence, passage, or article and exclaim,“Wow! That was excellently punctuated writing.” You read a sentence, take in its
meaning, and move on to the next sentence. On the other hand, incorrectly used
grammar and punctuation are noticed; they make readers stop and can change
the meaning of a sentence.
Perhaps you have seen the following hoary old chestnut: “A woman without
her man is nothing.” Hoary and old and a chestnut it may be, but it does a goodjob illustrating the power of punctuation. Judicious use of punctuation results in
two sentences with the same words but two very different meanings:
A woman, without her man, is nothing. (Emphasises the importance of men.)
A woman: without her, man is nothing. (Emphasises the importance ofwomen.)
A great big raspberry to both meanings, but I think you get the idea.
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Punctuation cannot be learned or taught in isolation; it must be taught withthe various constructions that constitute English writing, that is, dependentand independent clauses, prepositional and infinitive phrases, and so on. One
requirement for cohesive writing is clarity, particularly in scientific writing.
Clarity in writing means avoiding needless complexity (unnecessarily complex
words, phrases, and sentences) and avoiding ambiguity in choice of words,syntax, and use of pronouns and punctuation (Alley, 1996).
I have edited hundreds of scientific papers and have found that misused,incorrectly used, and missing punctuation, particularly the comma, are problems
authors face in presenting clear and concise writing. Following are some common
examples of punctuation errors:
1. Inserting a comma or colon after a verb or a preposition when introducing aseries of items; neither a comma or colon is required:
The unit components include, a laser scanner, ultrasonic sensors, and aprogrammable logic controller.
The unit is separated into, a laser scanner, ultrasonic sensors, and a
programmable logic controller.
2. Missing comma after a non-restrictive (which) clause:
Present-day greenhouse robots, which are generally designed for a single
task only are expensive and prone to break down. (A comma is required after‘only’.)
3. Missing comma after an introductory clause to avoid confusion:
After 2010 loss of separation incidents between aircraft decreased.
(A comma is required after 2010 to avoid ambiguity.)
4. Insufficient use of commas in a list to avoid ambiguity:“In our study, we examined pure methanol, pure ethanol, methanol and 10%water and ethanol and 10% water” (Alley, 1996, p. 95).
How many fuels were examined? The following revision removes theambiguity:“In our study, we examined four fuels: pure methanol, pure ethanol, methanoland 10% water, and ethanol and 10% water” (Alley, 1996, p. 96).
5. A profusion of commas within a long, complicated series of items.
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The following is an example of a correctly punctuated sentence containing
a list with semicolons separating the list items and an internal comma in thefirst list item:“Cities responded by building centralized networks to deliver clean water,energy and safe food; to enable commerce, facilitate transportation andmaintain order; and to provide access to health care and energy” (Pentland,2013, p. 66).
Unfortunately, some writers use commas alone to separate list items, which
could render a list confusing.
6. Confusing the possessive pronoun its and the contraction it’s (or heaven
forbid, its’).
7. Unwanted hyphen: The theory is not well-understood.
8. Confusing use of hyphens: “five week-old chicks” versus “five-week-oldchicks”. The first indicates five chicks that are a week old, whereas the secondindicates chicks that are five weeks old. To avoid ambiguity, the first should berewritten as “five one-week-old chicks”.
There are a large number of punctuation marks, some with fabulous names
like solidus (/; (forward) slash to you and me), interpunct (·), octothorpe (#;otherwise known as the number sign, pound sign, or hash symbol), obelus (÷;more commonly called the division sign), pilcrow (¶; also called the paragraphmark or sign), and interrobang (‽; informally known as the quexclamation markand often represented by !? or ?!). (See Wikipedia (Punctuation, 2015) for an
extensive list of punctuation marks.)
Space does not allow for a discussion of the many punctuation marks(massive sigh of relief all round), or even just the main ones. Instead, I would liketo talk a little about how I teach punctuation. First, there is no quick and easy
method, there is no magic formula, and it takes effort.
As mentioned earlier, punctuation cannot be learned or taught in isolation;
it must be taught with the various bits and pieces required for English writing.
In general, the shorter and simpler a sentence, the fewer the problems withpunctuation. However, writing only short, simple sentences would make reading
very boring.
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In my class, I teach the various types of clauses and phrases, as well as
the punctuation that connects them. There are three 90-minute classes onpunctuation alone. For each punctuation mark, example sentences are provided,
many of them of a scientific nature. In addition, I try to provide, as far aspossible, actual examples taken from science-related books or academic papers.
For example, the following sentence shows a colon being used to introduce anexplanation or elaboration of what comes before the colon. “The idea is simple:
no scientific claim can be considered legitimate until it has undergone critical
scrutiny by other experts” (Oreskes & Conway, 2011, p. 154). In another example(not from a science book or paper), the sentence “Venus is the hottest planet;
Neptune, the coldest” shows an example of the use of the gapping comma toindicate when a missing word is a repetition of a previous word in the sentence.
In this case, the gapping comma indicates the missing word is.
During the explanations of the punctuation marks, I briefly mention
whatever sentence structure constitutes the example sentence. That is, a simple
sentence consisting of a single independent clause, a compound sentence
consisting of two or more independent clauses, or a complex sentence consistingof an independent clause with one or more dependent clauses. In later classes,
those structures are discussed in more detail, and the rules of punctuation thestudents learned during the specific lectures on punctuation are reinforced.
At the end of the lectures on punctuation, the students do many in-classexercises, which we then discuss. Each set of exercises focusses on a single
punctuation mark, so the students can concentrate on correctly using one ofthe punctuation marks. In the exercises, the students must correctly punctuatea sentence or choose the correctly punctuated sentence from a selection ofsentences. The final exercise tests students’ understanding of all the punctuation
marks they have studied, requiring them to choose the correctly punctuatedsentence from a selection of sentences. Following are examples of exercises:
1. (Apostrophe) Its an interesting hypothesis, but experimental evidence isneeded to determine its validity.
2. (Comma) The culture media contained glucose sucrose fructose and galactose.
3. (Semicolon) Which of the following sentences can be connected with a385

Murphy

semicolon?
1. Using punctuation correctly is important____although it is difficult.
2. Using punctuation correctly is important____but some think it isboring.
3. Using punctuation correctly is important____it is essential for clear
writing.
4. Using punctuation correctly is important____I dislike writing.
(To keep the exercises interesting, I occasionally provide a selection ofsentences that are either all correct or all incorrect.)
When discussing the exercises, I am invariably peppered with manyquestions, which tell me that the students have listened and learned. They are
not interested in punctuation per se; rather, they are very interested in learning
how to write clearly and precisely to make it that much easier to get their papers
published. The more time they devote to getting it right the first time may resultin less time required working on journal-requested revisions.
So, I encourage anyone interested in good writing to learn a little more aboutpunctuation. You too may come to love it.

References

Alley, M. (1996). The craft of scientific writing (3rd ed.). New York, NY:Springer.
Holtom, D., & Fisher, E. (2006). Enjoy writing your science thesis of dissertation!
London, England: Imperial College Press.
Matthews, J. R., & Matthews, R. W. (2008). Successful scientific writing: A
step-by-step guide for the biological and medical sciences (Vol. 3). Cambridge,England: Cambridge University Press.
McCaskill, M. (1998). Grammar, punctuation, and capitalization: A handbook
for technical writers and editors. Hampton, VA: NASA Langley ResearchCenter.
O’Connor, P. T. (1996). Woe is I: The grammarphobe’s guide to better English inplain English. New York, NY: G. B. Putnam’s Sons.
Oreskes, N., & Conway, E. M. (2011). Merchants of doubt. London, England:386

The Importance of Punctuation, OnCUE Journal, 9(4), pages 381-387

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
Pentland, A. (2013, October). The data-driven society. Scientific American,309(4), 66-69.
Punctuation. (2015, September 14). Retrieved from Wikipedia, The Free
Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/punctuation
Truss, L. (2003). Eats, shoots and leaves: The zero tolerance approach topunctuation. London, England: Profile Books Ltd.

Author bioDennis Murphy has lived in Japan for 23 years. He created and teaches the course
English for Scientific Writing and Presentations to doctoral candidates at the United
Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences, Ehime University in Matsuyama, Ehime
Prefecture. He is very interested in the correct and judicious use of punctuation.
dennis@agr.ehime-u.ac.jp
Received: September 10, 2015
Accepted: January 26, 2016

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