Polish & share · Tip 73 of 82 · 4 min read
Punctuation Power: Full Stops, Commas and More
Little dots and squiggles tell your reader when to stop, pause, shout and wonder.
Punctuation marks are like traffic signals for your reader. They say stop, slow down, get excited or wonder about this. Without them, your words crash into each other like cars with no brakes.
The full stop: a red light
A full stop ends a sentence. It tells your reader to take a tiny breath before the next idea. If a sentence goes on and on and on, it probably needs a full stop somewhere in the middle.
Okay 😐
the bell rang and everyone ran outside and Leo tripped over his lace and his crisps went everywhere and a pigeon ate them
Wow! 🤩
The bell rang. Everyone ran outside. Leo tripped over his lace, and his crisps went everywhere. A pigeon ate them.
The comma: an amber light
A comma is a short pause. Use one between things in a list, and after a starting phrase like Suddenly, or After lunch,. Commas can even change the meaning of a sentence!
Let's eat Grandma! Let's eat, Grandma!
The question mark and exclamation mark
- ? goes at the end of a question: Where did the cake go?
- ! shows surprise, shouting or excitement: The cake is alive!
- Use ! sparingly. If every sentence shouts, none of them sound loud.
Bonus marks
An apostrophe shows that something belongs to someone (the dragon's tail) or that letters are missing (don't means do not). Three dots... show a voice trailing off, or that something is about to happen.