Making a Point summary

For centuries, humans have had heated arguments over the proper way to use hyphens and semicolons. But punctuation is much more than a battleground of opinions.

The best way to view punctuation is as a hierarchy of mutually exclusive choices that can divide up text. This hierarchy ranges from spaces between paragraphs to hyphens between words.

Incorrect use of punctuation can incite some surprisingly impassioned responses. Indeed, we all have friends who view misplaced commas as personal affronts. But while people can go to surprisingly great lengths in the name of correct punctuation, it’s sometimes best to let it slide.

Just take the cautionary, and true, tale of two friends, one a writer and the other a bookseller, who took a trip across the United States to correct the typographical errors on their nation’s signs. They even formed an organization for their movement and called it the Typo Eradication Advancement League.

Peel back the surface appearance of any punctuation mark and you’ll find a varied history of trends, fashions and arguments. If this checkered history of punctuation has anything to say, it’s that there’s no ultimate punctuational truth to swear by – and that generalizing does more harm than good.

So, while many students are taught that there are unbreakable rules of punctuation, this practice actually has a negative effect on literacy. After all, if students of English are taught strict rules, when they come across deviations from these structures, they won’t have the tools to deal with them. As a result, they’ll grow confused and end up making the exact errors they intended to avoid.

Depending on what kind of author someone is, they might view punctuation marks as aesthetic abominations that mar the beauty of their work, or as creative tools in which to express themselves. The latter opinion was certainly held by the American writer and painter E.E. Cummings, who was a prime example of how writers can insert renewed vigor into punctuation marks through creative usage.

For instance, Cummings was so famous for his inventive use of punctuation that, in a tribute to his style, people began to write his name without capital letters, making it “ee cummings” instead. But what was so amazing about how he employed these little marks?

Adding a smiley face to the end of a message might seem like a straightforward way to express happiness, but it’s not quite that simple. These symbols color the language around them and it isn’t always clear whether an emoticon is meant to signify happiness, laughter or sarcasm.

But what is clear is that there’s a difference between formal and informal language – and young people are well aware of this. So, while scaremongers might tell you that texting is degrading the younger generation’s ability to communicate, it’s not really an issue.