English punctuation

Punctuation in the English language helps the reader to understand a sentence through visual means other
than just the letters of the alphabet.[1] English punctuation has always had two complementary aspects: on
the one hand, phonological punctuation linked to how the sentence can be read aloud, particularly to
pausing;[2] and on the other hand, grammatical punctuation linked to the structure of the sentence.[3] In
popular discussion of language, incorrect punctuation is often seen as an indication of lack of education and
of a decline of standards.[4]

Variants

British and American styles

The two broad styles of punctuation in English are often called British (typically used in the UK, Ireland,
and most of the Commonwealth of Nations) and American (also common in Canada and places with a
strong American influence on local English, as in the Philippines). These two styles differ mainly in the way
in which they handle quotation marks with adjacent punctuation, and the use or omission of the full point
(period) with contraction abbreviations.

Open and closed punctuation

The terms open and closed punctuation have been applied to minimizing versus comprehensively including
punctuation, respectively, aside from any dialectal trends. Closed punctuation is used in scholarly, literary,
general business, and "everyday" writing.[5] Open style dominates in text messaging and other short-form
online communication, where more formal or "closed" punctuation can be misinterpreted as aloofness or
even hostility.[6]

Open punctuation

Open punctuation eliminates the need for a period at the end of a stand-alone statement, in an abbreviation
or acronym (including personal initials and post-nominal letters, and time-of-day abbreviations), as well as
in components of postal addresses. This style also eschews optional commas in sentences, including the
serial comma. Open punctuation also frequently drops apostrophes.[7]

Open punctuation is used primarily in certain forms of business writing, such as letterhead and envelope
addressing, some business letters, and résumés and their cover letters.[5]

Closed punctuation

In contrast, closed punctuation uses commas and periods in a strict manner.[5]

Closed style is common in presentations, especially in bulleted and numbered lists. It is also frequently used
in advertising, marketing materials, news headlines, and signage.[8]

Usage of different punctuation marks or symbols

Frequency

One analysis found the average frequencies for English punctuation marks, based on 723,000 words of
assorted texts, to be as follows (as of 2013, but with some text corpora dating to 1998 and 1987):[9]

Frequency
Name Glyph
(per 1000 words)

Full stop (period) . 65.3

Comma , 61.3
Double quotation mark " 26.7

Apostrophe / single quotation mark ' 24.3

Hyphen - 15.3
Question mark ? 5.6

Colon : 3.4

Exclamation mark ! 3.3

Semicolon ; 3.2

Apostrophe

The apostrophe ( ’, ' ), sometimes called inverted comma in British English, is used to mark possession, as
in "John's book", and to mark letters omitted in contractions, such as you're for you are.

Brackets

Brackets ( [...], (...), {...}, ⟨...⟩ ) are used for parenthesis, explanation or comment: such as "John Smith (the
elder, not his son)..."

Colon

The colon ( : ) is used to start an enumeration, as in Her apartment needed a few things: a toaster, a new
lamp, and a nice rug. It is used between two clauses when the second clause otherwise clarifies the first, as
in I can barely keep my eyes open: I hardly got a wink of sleep.

Comma

The comma ( , ) is used to disambiguate the meaning of sentences, by providing boundaries between
clauses and phrases. For example, "Man, without his cell phone, is nothing" (emphasizing the importance
of cell phone) and "Man: without, his cell phone is nothing" (emphasizing the importance of men) have
greatly different meanings, as do "eats shoots and leaves" (to mean "consumes plant growths") and "eats,
shoots and leaves" (to mean "eats firstly, fires a weapon secondly, and leaves the scene thirdly").[10]

The comma is also used to group digits in numerals and dates: “2,000” and “January 7, 1985”. In many
other languages, the comma is used as the decimal separator.

Dash and hyphen

The dash ( ‒, –, —, ― ) and hyphen or hyphen-minus ( ‐ ) is used:

as a line continuation when a word is broken across two lines;

to apply a prefix to a word for which there is no canonical compound word;
as a replacement for a comma, when the subsequent clause significantly shifts the primary
focus of the preceding text.

Ellipsis

An ellipsis ( ..., …, . . . ) is used to mark omitted text or when a sentence trails off.

Exclamation mark

The exclamation mark ( ! ) is used to mark an exclamation.

Full point, full stop, or period

The character known as the full point or full stop in British and Commonwealth English and as the period
in North American English ( . ) serves multiple purposes. As the full stop, it is used to mark the end of a
sentence. It is also used, as the full point, to indicate abbreviation, including of names as initials:[11]

Dwight D. Eisenhower's home in Gettysburg, Pa., was not very far from Washington, D.C.

The frequency and specifics of the latter use vary widely, over time and regionally. For example, these
marks are usually left out of acronyms and initialisms today, and in many British publications they are
omitted from contractions such as Dr for Doctor, where the abbreviation begins and ends with the same
letters as the full word.

Another use of this character, as the decimal point, is found in mathematics and computing (where it is often
nicknamed the "dot"), dividing whole numbers from decimal fractions, as in 2,398.45. In many languages,
the roles of the comma and decimal point are reversed, with the comma serving as the decimal separator and
the dot used as a thousands separator (though a thin space is sometimes used for the latter purpose,
especially in technical writing, regardless what the decimal separator is). In computing, the dot is used as a
delimiter more broadly, as site and file names ("wikipedia.org", "192.168.0.1." "document.txt"), and serves
special functions in various programming and scripting languages.

Question marks
The question mark ( ? ) is used to mark the end of a sentence which is a question.

Quotation marks

Quotation marks ( ‘...’, “...”, '...', "..." ) are used in pairs to set off quotation, with two levels for
distinguishing nested quotations: single and double. North American publishers of English texts tend to
favour double quotation marks for the primary quotation, switching to single for any quote-within-a-quote,
while British and Commonwealth publishers may use either single or double for primary quotation, also
switching to the alternative for any nested. Further nesting (quote-within-a-quote-within-a-quote) reverts to
the primary marks, and so forth.

Question marks, exclamation points, semicolons and colons are placed inside the quotation marks when
they apply only to the quoted material; if they syntactically apply to the sentence containing or introducing
the material, they are placed outside the marks. In British publications (and those throughout the
Commonwealth of Nations more broadly), periods and commas are most often treated the same way, but
usage varies widely. In American publications, periods and commas are usually placed inside the quotation
marks regardless. The American system, also known as typographer's quotation, is also common in
Canadian English, and in fiction broadly.

A third system, known as logical quotation, is strict about not including terminal punctuation within the
quotation marks unless it was also found in the quoted material.[12][13] Some writers conflate logical
quotation and the common British style (which actually permits some variation, such as replacement of an
original full stop with a comma or vice versa, to suit the needs of the quoting sentence, rather than moving
the non-original punctuation outside the quotation marks). For example, The Chicago Manual of Style, 14th
ed.: "The British style is strongly advocated by some American language experts. Whereas there clearly is
some risk with question marks and exclamation points, there seems little likelihood that readers will be
misled concerning the period or comma."[14] It goes on to recommend "British" or logical quotation for
fields such as linguistics, literary criticism, and technical writing, and also notes its use in philosophy texts.

Semicolon

The semicolon ( ; ) is used to separate two independent but related clauses: My wife would like tea; I would
prefer coffee. The semicolon is also used to separate list items when the list items contain commas: "She saw
three men: Jamie, who came from New Zealand; John, the milkman's son; and George, a gaunt kind of
man."

Slash

The slash or stroke or solidus ( /, ⁄ ) is often used to indicate alternatives, such as "his/her", or two
equivalent meanings or spellings, such as "grey/gray". The slash is used in certain set phrases, such as the
conjunction "and/or".

References
1. Coulmas, F. (1996). The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems. Oxford: Blackwell.
2. Parkes, M.B. (1992). Pause and Effect: An Introduction to the History of Punctuation in the
West. Aldershot: Scolar Press.
3. Halliday, M.A.K. (1985). Spoken and Written Language. Oxford University Press.
4. Truss, L. (2003). Eats Shoots and Leaves. London: Profile
 5. Walton, Ashley. "Open vs. Closed Punctuation" (http://classroom.synonym.com/open-vs-clos
ed-punctuation-5866.html). Synonym. Leaf Group. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
6. Collister, Lauren (19 July 2016). "Why does using a period in a text message make you
sound insincere or angry?" (https://theconversation.com/why-does-using-a-period-in-a-text-m
essage-make-you-sound-insincere-or-angry-61792). The Conversation. Retrieved
17 January 2017.
7. Malady, Matthew J. X. (23 May 2013). "Are Apostrophes Necessary?" (http://www.slate.com/
articles/life/the_good_word/2013/05/apostrophes_and_when_to_use_them_punctuation_ne
cessary_at_all_not_really.html). Slate. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
8. See for example: Harrison, Kim (21 February 2015). "Bringing a headline to a full stop" (http
s://cuttingedgepr.com/free-articles/core-pr-skills/bringing-headline-full-stop/).
CuttingEdgePR.com. Perth, Western Australia: Cutting Edge Insights Pty. Archived (https://w
eb.archive.org/web/20180117211352/https://cuttingedgepr.com/free-articles/core-pr-skills/bri
nging-headline-full-stop/) from the original on 17 January 2018. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
9. Cook, Vivian J. (2013). "Frequencies for English Punctuation Marks" (http://www.viviancook.
uk/Punctuation/PunctFigs.htm) – via VivianCook.uk. Excerpt from Cook, Vivian J. (2013).
"Standard punctuation and the punctuation of the street". In Pawlak, M.; Aronin, L. (eds.).
Essential Topics in Applied Linguistics and Multilingualism. Springer International. pp. 267–
290..
10. Truss, Lynne (2003). Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.
Profile Books. ISBN 1-86197-612-7.
11. Irwin Feigenbaum The Grammar Handbook 1985 p303 "... period after initials in a name and
after other abbreviations. (103) Dwight D. Eisenhower's home in Gettysburg, Pa., was not
very far from Washington, D.C. In a direct quotation, 3 periods are used to show that a word
or words have been
12. "Journal of Irish and Scottish Studies" (https://web.archive.org/web/20110410233640/http://w
ww.abdn.ac.uk/riiss/Documents/JISS%20Style%20Guide%20revised%20FV.pdf) (PDF).
University of Aberdeen, Scotland: Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies. 2008.
Archived from the original (http://www.abdn.ac.uk/riiss/Documents/JISS%20Style%20Guid
e%20revised%20FV.pdf) (PDF) on 10 April 2011. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
"Punctuation marks are placed inside the quotation marks only if the sense of the
punctuation is part of the quotation; this system is referred to as logical quotation."
13. Nichol, Mark (6 June 2011). "Logical Punctuation Isn't the Logical Choice" (http://www.dailyw
ritingtips.com/logical-punctuation-isn%E2%80%99t-the-logical-choice/). Daily Writing Tips.
Retrieved 4 September 2015.
14. Wilbers, Stephen. "Frequently Asked Questions Concerning Punctuation" (http://www.wilber
s.com/FAQPunctuation.htm). Wilbers.com. self-published. Retrieved 17 January 2017.

Further reading
Casagrande, June (2014), The Best Punctuation Book, Period. Berkeley, California: Ten
Speed Press.
Cook, Vivian J. (2004), The English Writing System. London: Arnold.
Strauss, Jane; Kaufman, Lester (2014), The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation, 11th
ed. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley.
Todd, Loreto (1995), The Cassell Guide to Punctuation. London: Cassell.
Trask, R. L. (2004), The Penguin Guide to Punctuation, international ed. London: Penguin.
Guide to Punctuation and Style, 2nd ed. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster.
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