The point of punctuation is to organize and regulate—to organize our thoughts and regulate their pace so that our readers can flow along with our ideas as we present them. A period, we know, marks the end of a declarative sentence, but what do three other common marks of punctuation—the comma, colon, and semicolon—do?
Here is a sentence that illustrates all four marks (or should, as we will see), and a close look at it will help us use them more accurately in our own writing:
He traveled little in his working life, but in retirement he flew off with abandon to destinations in every direction; to vineyards along the coast; to ski resorts in the mountains; to forests in the north, and to beaches in the south.
Let’s begin by saying again that this example is one sentence, which means in a little more technical language that it represents one utterance, or what in the more specialized terminology of grammar and rhetoric is called a period. The punctuation mark which we call a period, then, is so called because it marks the end of a rhetorical period, a complete utterance which carries along one or more thoughts. To utter our thoughts is to express them, to put them out into general circulation for others to learn of, consider, and comment upon. And since we often find what we want to say by wandering around it at first, the term period (composed, curiously, of the two Greek elements peri, around, and hodos, path) is used to announce the end of an utterance.
The period as punctuation mark, therefore, puts a full stop (as it is also called) to what we’re saying, but what about the other three marks? In our example, the first punctuation we encounter is the comma between the noun life and the conjunction but, and that is as it should be, because the conjunction but indicates a fairly decisive turn in logical direction, announcing as it does some degree of contrast, sometimes even outright opposition, to what has preceded it: working life versus retirement. As the sentence continues, though, we next come upon the semicolon after the noun direction. In its composition, the semicolon stacks a period directly over a comma, and this architecture is meant to suggest that the connection of what lies on both sides of the semicolon is not distinct enough to warrant a period, but not loosely enough related to let it drift on with merely a common. A grip somewhere between that strength and slack, period and comma, is what the semicolon is attempting to hold.
But look very closely at the logical connection between the phrase destinations in every direction before the semicolon and the phrase to vineyards along the coast after it. The vineyards (and ski resorts and forests and beaches) are not so many things distinct from destinations in every direction, but are rather examples of those destinations. When we mean to exemplify or enumerate something we’ve referred to, the correct punctuation is a colon, not a semicolon. A better version of this original, then, might be this revision: He traveled little in his working life, but in retirement he flew off with abandon to destinations in every direction: to vineyards along the coast, to ski resorts in the mountains….
Three marks in the original remain for us to consider: two semicolons and one comma. Each of these marks sectionalizes a prepositional phrase beginning with to, and so we can wonder why the last of them, the comma, is not another semicolon, in keeping with the organizing principle of parallelism. But if we made that simple change, we’d next have to recognize that the semicolon usually separates a series of elements when one in the series has internal punctuation of its own. That, however, is not the case here (none of the prepositional phrases has a comma or colon or dash within its boundaries), and so we are forced to conclude that a comma, not a semicolon, should section off all the phrases: to vineyards along the coast, to ski resorts in the mountains, to forests in the north, and to beaches in the south.
With these changes, we both better organize the logic and straighten the path for readers to make their way fluently through (and through to) the period. The few marks of punctuation we possess prove to be powerful when we wield them each according to their purpose.
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Reading Closely to Write
Writing Smartly Short Course
Wednesdays, February 5 through February 26, 2025
Beginning tomorrow evening, Wednesday, February 5, from 6:00 to 7:00 CT, Writing Smartly will offer again its four-week online short course entitled Reading Closely to Write. Each week we will examine the structure and stylistic design of sentences from one short story (each averaging about 15 pages) written by a celebrated author.
We will analyze the grammar and composition of certain significant sentences, and consider how other designs the author could have chosen would have produced different effects. Our emphasis will be on the grammar and language of the reading so that we can begin to develop an eye and ear for discovering our own natural written voice. By considering linguistic forms closely like this, we can come to appreciate the craft of language, training ourselves to discern assumptions and question implications—all to become more thoughtful about what we read and hear.
New selections this term will be from Short Story Masterpieces, edited by Robert Penn Warren and Albert Erskine (Dell Publishing, 1982), readily available at Amazon and elsewhere. Tuition for this four-session online short course is $300, paid through Zelle (ultimo@writingsmartly.com), or by personal check (please email me for the mailing address). Upon your registration, I will reply with a confirmation and the Zoom link for the course.
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