The punctuation marks
They help to convey the exact feelings of the writer

Punctuation marks are used mainly for two reasons. Firstly, they provide an order and a structure to an otherwise unsystematic flow of words. With no indication of starting and ending points, it would be tricky to distinguish viewpoints, essentials and ideas. Secondly, punctuation adds style to writing. Punctuation conveys the feelings the writer has put into words — the pause, an emphasis or an exclamation.

The use of punctuation marks has increased tremendously, thanks to the era of emoting through these marks while on email, chat or even the short messaging system. It’s so convenient to type out a question mark instead of spelling out the entire question and the credit goes to the Internet Renaissance. In English language the exclamation mark was to be used sparingly, now it is the most used symbol. There are some interesting stories about how punctuation marks have played an important role in some way or the other. In Russia, the period or the full stop in reality saved a man from a death sentence. The Czar had condemned the man to death and sent this note to the jailer “Pardon impossible. To be executed.” The Czarina, who felt compassionate toward the criminal, seized the note and changed it to: “Pardon. Impossible to be executed.” There is a humorous anecdote about punctuation marks and that is the sentence; “Woman without her man is nothing”; men write: “Woman, without her man, is nothing” and the women punctuate it as “Woman! Without her man is nothing.”

Punctuation marks are essentially used to elucidate meaning by indicating separation of words into sentences, clauses and phrases. Knowing where and when to use punctuation marks present in English grammar can greatly enhance your writing skills.

Three punctuation marks are appropriate for use as sentence endings. They are the full-stop, question mark, and exclamation mark. A question mark indicates a direct question when placed at the end of a sentence. The exclamation mark expresses a sudden outcry or adds emphasis. The comma, semi-colon and colon are often erroneously used because they all indicate a pause in a series. The comma is used to indicate a separation of ideas or elements within the structure of a sentence. Furthermore, it is used in letter writing after the salutation and closing. The semicolon is used to connect independent clauses and indicating a closer relationship between the clauses than a period does. A colon has two main uses. The first is after a word introducing a quotation, an explanation, an example, or a series and often after the salutation of a business letter.

Two kinds of dashes the — en dash and the em dash — are used throughout written communications. An en dash is used in writing to connect continuing or inclusive numbers or to connect elements of a compound adjective when either of the elements is an open compound, but the em dash is used to indicate a break in thought or sentence structure or to introduce a phrase added for emphasis, or to separate two clauses.

Care should be taken while using the apostrophe as it is used to indicate the omission of a letters from a word, the possessive case, or the plurals of numbers, letters, and abbreviations. Ellipses are frequently used within quotations to jump from one phrase to another, omitting redundant words that do not hamper with the meaning. Ellipses have gained in popularity over the net and are used to signify a continuation of thoughts.