Punctuation — The pauses in written communication

Let’s go and eat mom.

She is a great housewife who enjoys cooking her two little kids and the dog.

Were you shocked after reading this? I too was. How can one eat one’s mom?.. . or how can somebody enjoy cooking her kids? or dog for that matter?.

OK, Let’s go through another version of these two sentences: 

      

Let’s go and eat, mom.

She is a great housewife who enjoys cooking, her two little kids, and the dog.

Feeling relieved now. Putting one or two commas has made a great difference. So let’s get acquainted with what these marks are and how and when they are used in a statement.

In a written communication, punctuations play a very important role in conveying the meaning.  They represent pauses in the statement, making the statement easily understandable. If not placed at appropriate places, the punctuations can change the meaning of the statement to the extent that the information conveyed can turn out to be ridiculous/funny or just opposite of what was intended to be conveyed. There is no space between a punctuation mark and the letter/character it follows.

The basic punctuation marks are Period (.), Semicolon (;), Colon (:), Comma (,), Question Mark (?), Exclamation Mark (!).

The other punctuation marks are Inverted Commas (‘ ’), Quotation Marks (" "), Dashes (-), Parentheses ([{ }]), Elllipses (…).

Brief description of the basic puntuation marks is given next.

The Period[.]

The period is placed at the end of a sentence. It ends the sentence and thus is the biggest of the pauses in a write up.

Examples

• He was a man of integrity. 
• The book kept on the table is written for the advanced users of AutoCAD. 
• The novel War and Peace was written by Leo Tolstoy.

The Semicolon [;]

A semicolon is used when-

- the sentence comprises the closely related independent clauses.

- the independent clauses in the sentence have multiple commas.

Examples

• He was asked to submit his documents; he had no documents.
• I like Mathematics; he, Physics.
• There are two fruits, mango and banana; three mobile phones, Jon’s, Mary’s and Eddie’s; and two books, Applied Mathematics and Modern Physics.

The Colon [:]

A colon is used when the statement or description following it illustrates the statement that it follows. It is also used to connect independent clauses, like a semicolon, that are very closely related.

Examples

• There are three tenses in English grammar: present tense, past tense, and future tense.
• Another heinous incident involving a woman took place in the city: Has the time come to frame stringent law to stop it.
• Mahatma Gandhi: The lean man who dared to fight mighty Britishers with his non-violence.

The Comma [,]

Comma is the smallest pause that is used to separate items in a series.

Examples                                                                                           

• He likes reading novels, writing blogs, and watching action movies.
• This tool can be used to save, export, merge, and delete a file.
• The meeting was attended by the prime minister, home minister, and external affairs minister.

Question Mark [?]

A question mark is put at the end of an interrogative sentence.

Examples

• Do you have a computer? 
• Is it the institute where Revit, AutoCAD, STAAD Pro , SolidWorks are taught?
• Can a robot ever be able to express feelings like a human?

Exclamation Mark [!]

This mark is used to show surprise, shock, sudden expression, emotion or wish.

Examples

• Oh, what a scene!
• Voila! I have found it.
• Great! The job you have accomplished will be remembered for years.

Proofreading Marks

You are already aware of the roles and responsibilities of a proofreader. In this post, you will learn how a proofreader marks changes in a manuscript. There are some specific marks/symbols that proofreaders use to suggest changes in manuscript. These marks are placed on the left or right margins of the page.

The following table displays some of the proofreading marks and their meanings.

The following paragraph shows how a proofreader marks a manuscript

Ten Best Editing Tips

We write to propagate thoughts, ideas, and information. It is important that not only readers read the matter but also grasp it as desired. A wrongfully written document is akin to uncooked food- purposeless and indigestible. Editing plays a pivotal role in making a write up error free and readable. Here are some editing tips which will help you identify your mistakes, and write clearly and persuasively.

1. Take time to edit: Do not start editing immediately after finishing your write up. If time permits give it a day or two, or even some hours, to sink in. You will be able to view the text with a novel perspective and will spot errors you thought never exist.

2. Read aloud: Read the text aloud, you will figure out discrepancies which numerable silent readings will not spot. You can even ask a friend to read the text for you. You will definitely hear something which you did not read.

3. Look out for structure and content first: Generally we start with rephrasing and refurbishing individual sentences and then at later stage go for additions, cuts, or rewrites. In this, we can end up doing away with the former long haul effort. So, it’s always advisable to check content and structure before digging up each sentence and word.

4. Do not edit while writing: It’s OK to correct some typo or spelling error but otherwise curb that temptation to review the document after writing every sentence. You will lose your flow and the time consumed will be equally demotivating.

5. Trust your eyes: Running spell check is always recommended but tools like these have limited dictionary. They can misspell a correct word or can miss words which form some otherwise logical meaning. Trusting your own eyes will help you overcome this limitation.

6. Cut down on inessential words or phrases: It’s more appropriate to write “a misinterpreted statement” instead of writing “a statement which was not interpreted properly”. Do not over write and cut down words adding clutter.

7. Read backward: Our mind gets so much accustomed to the words written by us that mistakes are overlooked. Reading backward will help you concentrate on grammar and spellings as the content will not distract you.

8. Write active: Get your doer do the action. Write in active voice. Passive voice is after all a passive thing and to be more clear try to write in active voice.

9. Decide your medium: Whether computer or hard copy, decide on which medium you are more comfortable while editing.

10. Write short sentences: Long sentences with many ideas tend to lose the focus of the reader and could make him disinterested. So wherever possible split a lengthy complicated sentence into two.

Content Writing [Technical] - Some Prerequisites

Writing is an art. It requires rational thinking, analytical approach, logical flow of ideas, conciseness and preciseness of information, completeness of information, methodical and lucid presentation of arguments, etc. However, the approach may vary depending on the type of writing and the perspective of the writer.

Writing can be broadly classified into two categories: creative writing and non-creative (technical) writing. Creative writing aims at revealing facts, meditates on abstract thoughts, involves imagination, feelings, etc. On the other hand, non-creative or technical writing deals with information sharing, widens the knowledge base, educates the audience on proven facts, etc.

The purpose of a written piece of information is to convey the message to its audience such that most of it is understood and grasped. However, a writer sometimes comes across a complex situation where the probability of deviation from the facts increases to a large extent or where the information cannot be expressed in concise manner and thus forces the writer to infuse more words into the write-up, inviting the chances of ambiguity.

Here we will confine ourselves to non-creative (technical) writing. Following are some of the points that an aspiring technical writer must keep in mind:

Read Before You Write

Reading habit generally makes you aware of the presentation of idea and widens your perspective. It helps you increase your vocabulary, determine the most probable questions that may crop up in the readers’ mind as well as the answers of those questions, equips you with all necessary tools required for writing.

Audience Level 

Keep the target readers in mind while writing else it will turn out to be irrelevant and will not meet the objective.

Clarity of Thought 

A writer must be clear about the facts he is writing on. Presenting facts properly with correct usage of words, grammatical accuracy of content, and accuracy of information is indispensable part of writing. Do not deviate from the main objective as it may mislead the reader.

Completeness of Information

Incomplete information is never conclusive and therefore would beat the purpose of writing. In technical writing, information must be given pedagogically.

Relevancy of Information 

The facts described to support the topic or idea must be relevant.

Flow of Information 

The flow of information must be seamless. Starting from the introduction to the supporting fact through the conclusive part, the description of idea or concept must flow smoothly. The terms that are not in vogue, slangs, cliché and jargons should be avoided.

Preciseness of Information 

This is one of the most sought-after criteria in technical writing. The facts/information provided must be correct and should not lead to ambiguity or falsity.

Avoid Overwriting 

Avoid usage of unnecessary words and phrases in your writing. Over-usage of words to explain the facts distracts a reader from the main point of discussion. It thus hampers the process of insemination of information from writer to reader.

Structure and Design 

Once you have made all the groundwork, it’s time to finally prepare the draft, decide the proper structure and layout, and make it ready for the readers. Properly structured content easily receives attention of the readers and helps them retain maximum of the idea for longer time.

Editing and Proofreading - The Basic Differences

Many people consider editing and proofreading as the same thing and pay less heed to these stages of publishing. This sometimes paves way for some basic and silly errors to creep in the document and thus the document fails to deliver information in proper manner. Editing and proofreading stages are important stages as most of the typographic, presentation and consistency -related, and sometimes conceptual and factual errors, are filtered out in these stages.

Here’s a brief description about the editing and proofreading processes and some basic differences between them.

Editing  

Once the first draft of a piece of text is complete, it is submitted to editing for review. Editing deals with the structure, organization, and presentation of content. It involves rephrasing for smoothness and simplification of the content. 

Editing ensures:

• Clarity of expression
• Elimination of ambiguity from the text
• Consistency
• Proper flow of idea/concept
• Completeness of content
• Relevancy of the information
• Logical and meaningful flow of content
• Grammatical accuracy

Proofreading

Proofreading stage comes next to the editing stage. In this stage, grammatical accuracy, layout, and presentation of the content are taken care of and substantive rephrasing is not allowed.

Proofreading ensures that:

• There is no typing error in the text.
• The spellings in the text are correct.
• The content follows the same style throughout.
• The format and layout of the content is correct.
• Punctuation marks are used correctly.