Stops, or How To Punctuate

Throughout the ages, languages continue to adapt and change. English, being a relatively new language, is a nice example of that. Though the English vocabulary is continually evolving, the system of punctuation has remained constant for the most part. This means that grammar books from 1895 are still applicable today.

Punctuation marks are symbols that indicate the structure and organization of written language, as well as intonation and pauses to be observed when reading aloud.

In written English, punctuation is vital to disambiguate the meaning of sentences. For example, "woman, without her man, is nothing" and "woman: without her, man is nothing" have greatly different meanings, as do "eats shoots and leaves" and "eats, shoots and leaves". "King Charles walked and talked; half an hour after, his head was cut off" is more alarming than "King Charles walked and talked half an hour after his head was cut off".

Therefore, listening to Paul Allardyce’s “Stops, or How to Punctuate” would be a good idea.

01 - Introduction
02 - The Full Stop
03 - The Comma
04 - The Semicolon
05 - The Colon
06 - The Point of Interrogation
07 - The Mark of Exclamation
08 - The Dash
09 - Brackets
10 - The Inverted Comma
11 - Italics
12 - The Hyphen
13 - The Apostrophe
14 - Mark of Ellipses
15 - Reference to Notes
16 - How to Correct a Printer’s Proof