Pesky Punctuation: The Basics

When it comes to clear and effective communication, punctuation plays a crucial role. It imposes coherence and structure, but proper punctuation is more than knowing to end sentences with a terminal mark or placing commas in the correct spot.

While memorizing rules is all well and good, they can’t always be cleanly applied. And this is where the confusion and frustration set in. It may help to remember that these so-called rules are really more guidelines. An author should always aim for clarity over following rigid, and sometimes outdated, rules.

Understanding the function of punctuation will go a long way in helping you navigate those pesky pitfalls. So, if you agonize over commas and hate semicolons, this Pesky Punctuation series is for you. First, we’ll start at the very beginning.

>> Don’t miss the other posts in the series: Terminal Marks, Joining Independent Clauses, Joining Dependent & Independent Clauses, and Phrases & Omissions <<

THE BASICS

Let’s review the basic grammatical units of a sentence. (I promise to make this as painless as possible!) They are:

• Subject: The subject is always the “doer” of the verb. It is the thing that is acting.

  • In the sentence “The dog ran,” the dog is the subject because it is the one who is running.

• Clause: A clause is a group of words that contains both a subject and a finite verb (the main verb that drives the rest of the action). Sentences are made up of one or more clauses, and when more are added is when punctuation comes into play. So, it may stand to reason that there are two types of clauses:

  • Independent. These clauses stand alone as a complete sentence. “The dog ran” is both an independent clause and a complete sentence. It tells the reader everything they need to know.

  • Dependent. These clauses, you may have guessed, cannot stand alone and do not form a complete sentence. Consider this sentence: “The dog ran, tongue lolling as it tried to catch the squirrel.” If you came across “tongue lolling as it tried to catch the squirrel” on its own, you’d have a lot of questions. That’s because it depends on the first part of the sentence—“the dog ran”—to convey meaning.
    Dependent Clauses can also be restrictive or non-restrictive, but I’ll explain that later in the series.

  • Phrases. These are the opposite of a clause as they are a group of words that do not contain both a subject and a finite verb. There are many types of phrases, and they can show up in everyday use as idioms like “kick the bucket.” As with a dependent clause, they typically cannot stand alone.

ADDING PUNCTUATION

In an ideal world, we wouldn’t have to worry about punctuation—but it would be rather chaotic! In fact, punctuation has three main usages:

• To Mark the End of a Sentence. It may seem obvious, but periods, exclamation marks, and question marks are called terminal punctuation. They are crucial in conveying tone and telling the reader when an idea, or line of dialogue, has ended.

• To Join Independent and Dependent Clauses. If we only wrote sentences with independent clauses, everything would read as robotic. There’d be no emotion. So when joining clauses, commas, colons, semicolons, dashes, come to our aid. They impose clarity and help get the point across.

• To Set Off Phrases. Phrases can be used to pull attention to a certain element or to highlight a piece of information, but the information is not vital to understanding. They are set off using commas, dashes, and ellipses.

These uses are what I’ll explore in this series, showing how grammar and punctuation work hand in hand—and how you can manipulate it to work in your favor! Just remember to follow the age-old rule of “clarity above all.”

As always, keep creating!

>> Don’t miss the other posts in the series: Terminal Marks, Joining Independent Clauses, Joining Dependent & Independent Clauses, and Phrases & Omissions <<

(Cover Photo by Amador Loureiro on Stockio; all examples written by Jennifer Dinsmore.)