Essay

!

By Samantha Loong

When I was in primary school, it was decided one year that we would do a musical production of Mary Poppins. My class was involved in an ambitious interpretation of one of the songs in the musical, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Each of us wore a letter and concluded our dance number by spelling out the entire word on stage. I'm not sure if it was because they originally didn't have a part for me, but I'm convinced that I was destined for a career in words and languages when I was assigned the role of the exclamation mark.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! I relished this responsibility, mostly because I knew exactly where I'd need to be at the end of our elaborate choreography. This was an easy-enough punctuation rule that even my 9-year-old self could get. So I was mortified when on opening night my friend -- the final "s" -- ended up swapping places with me in front of everyone. I don't claim to be a punctuation expert, but to this day, violations of what I think are pretty basic punctuation rules frustrate me to no end.

Punctuation marks are small and unassuming enough that many people think they can just be left out. Or, as in the case of apostrophes, some people over-correct themselves and add them where they don't need to be. This is known as the "greengrocer's apostrophe," the term possibly originating from how many greengrocers write things like plum's instead of plums on their signage.

There are also far too many native English speakers setting a bad example by using its and it's, and your and you're interchangeably. Another pet peeve of mine is when quotation marks are used to emphasize something, for example: We "guarantee" that you'll get rock-hard abs in only three minutes a day! Inappropriately using quotation marks makes the quoted statement look like it might not be true. And the inclusion or omission of commas in the examples "Let's eat, grandma" and "Let's eat grandma" makes all the difference in whether or not grandma decides to join you for dinner.

Communicating meaning and intention clearly isn't all about punctuation symbols, however. Capitalization also affects how readers interpret your sentence. A common mistake newbies to the world of electronic communication sometimes make is to type entirely in capital letters. WHAT THIS DOES IS MAKE IT LOOK AS IF YOU'RE SHOUTING. Randomly capitalizing letters also has the disadvantage of making your writing look child-like at best, and at worst a kidnapper's ransom note.

Although they are fairly innocuous-looking, knowing how and when to use punctuation sets you apart. Even if your job doesn't require you to have much to do with words and languages, making an effort to use punctuation in the correct way shows that you're not sloppy and that you have an eye for detail. And in the case of this famous example, it can also completely change a sentence's meaning and impact:"Woman, without her man, is nothing."/"Woman: Without her, man is nothing."

Shukan ST: MARCH 1, 2013

(C) All rights reserved