Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface to the fourth edition
- Layout of the fourth edition
- Preface to the first edition
- Acknowledgements
- Part I Problem: the illness
- Part II Solution: symptomatic relief
- 4 Technology, changing language and authority
- 5 Guidelines to clearer writing
- 6 Spelling
- 7 Is there a better word?
- 8 Superfluous words
- 9 Imprecise words
- 10 Superfluous phrases
- 11 Trouble with short words
- 12 Use of the passive voice
- 13 Consistency: number and tenses
- 14 Word order
- 15 Punctuation
- 16 Circumlocution
- 17 Words and parts of speech for EAL writers
- 18 Clichés and article titles
- 19 Constructing sentences
- 20 Further help with sentences for EAL writers
- 21 Drawing clear graphs
- 22 It can be done
- Part III Practice: recuperation
- Appendix British–American English
- References and further reading
- Index
15 - Punctuation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2014
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface to the fourth edition
- Layout of the fourth edition
- Preface to the first edition
- Acknowledgements
- Part I Problem: the illness
- Part II Solution: symptomatic relief
- 4 Technology, changing language and authority
- 5 Guidelines to clearer writing
- 6 Spelling
- 7 Is there a better word?
- 8 Superfluous words
- 9 Imprecise words
- 10 Superfluous phrases
- 11 Trouble with short words
- 12 Use of the passive voice
- 13 Consistency: number and tenses
- 14 Word order
- 15 Punctuation
- 16 Circumlocution
- 17 Words and parts of speech for EAL writers
- 18 Clichés and article titles
- 19 Constructing sentences
- 20 Further help with sentences for EAL writers
- 21 Drawing clear graphs
- 22 It can be done
- Part III Practice: recuperation
- Appendix British–American English
- References and further reading
- Index
Summary
I myself have learned from experience, that, if ideas that are difficult to understand are properly separated, they become clearer . . .
(Aldus Manutius, 1449–1515, Italian humanist and publisher, credited, along with his grandson, of introducing a standardized system of punctuation. Interpungendi ratio, 1466. Taken from T. F. Husband & M. F. A. Husband. Punctuation, its principles and practice. London, Routledge, 1905, and accessed at http://archive.org/details/punctuationitspr00husbrich.)There are whole books written on punctuation – the quotation at the head of this chapter was the first. In Trask’s more recent book (see reference books), there is an excellent summary of why good punctuation is important.
‘When we speak English . . . [we make ourselves clear by] stress, intonation, rhythm, pauses – even, if all else fails, repeating what we’ve said. When we write, however, we can’t use any of these devices, and the work that they do in speech must be almost entirely handled by punctuation.’
We cannot repeat what we’ve written, but we can, with poor punctuation, force readers to re-read a sentence to get the sense. We shouldn’t.
This chapter deals with the basic ideas of punctuation. In Chapter 19, there is a more general discussion of the construction of sentences. (For the use of apostrophes, see p. 38.) Punctuation has been having a much better than customary press after the runaway success of Lynne Truss’s book, Eats, shoots & leaves (see books to read or dip into). Anyone who has read that book can regard this chapter as revision.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Medical WritingA Prescription for Clarity, pp. 240 - 251Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014