Punctuation: The Secret To Effective Writing

By: James Murphy

As a small business owner, unless you have an assistant, you will be doing your own administration, paperwork and writing including letters, quotes, briefs etc. Incorrect punctuation can really have a detrimental impact on the image you present to your customers (and potential customers) and to associates. Using punctuation correctly enhances your effectiveness as a communicator and the image of yourself and your business that you are presenting, writes Alex Greer.

So if, like me on occasion, you wonder just where that apostrophe should go or if your comma is in the right place then these tips on using punctuation correctly are just what you need.

Tip 1 - The possessive apostrophe!
No, this isn't about a badly behaved and jealous punctuation mark! Using apostrophes is where I see the most errors in writing.

This is because a wrongly placed apostrophe doesn't change the emphasis or sound of a sentence or word, which you would pick up on if reading that sentence back to yourself. So here are two tips in one:

- When, for example, writing about an object that belongs to someone the apostrophe should go after that person's name, even if their name ends in an s - but don't add another s. So that is: James' car, Molly's house, the dog's bone.

- You don't need an apostrophe when you use plurals. The most common example of this is when people write about years or decades. I.e. 'The 1990's started out badly for Simon', or, 'It's not like it was back in the 20's'. You don't need an apostrophe here - the years don't possess anything, it is just a plural. There might be exception to this (there usually are exceptions in grammatical rules) but I can't think of one - please let me know if you can!

Tip 2 - The common comma
I love commas! They make writing come to life. They create pauses, a change of emphasis, reinforce meaning and they enable the reader to 'hear' what the writer was thinking as they were writing and much, much more. Here are ways to use commas effectively:

- As you write, hear the words in your head and when you hear a pause you probably want a comma. Read the words out loud too - this makes the use or omission of a comma obvious, especially when you find you need to take a breath!

- Don't use a comma before the word and - you can use it afterwards though. E.g. Michael, Jenny and, of course, myself went to dinner.

- Use a comma after the word however - even when it is the first word of your sentence and before the word which. E.g. However, Susan couldn't make dinner that night, which was a shame. These are non-negotiable uses of comma.

Tip 3 - E.g. and I.e.
Most people know what e.g. stands for: for example. Did you know that I.e. stands for 'That is'? If you do I'm not surprised, but a lot of people make mistakes when using e.g. and i.e. in their writing.

- They should always be written with a full stop after each letter, regardless of the rest of the sentence's construction.

- When written in full and in the context of this usage, For example, and That is, should always be followed by a comma.

- They are also often used in the wrong context. I find it easy to remember that if you have to give someone a general idea of what you are talking about then use e.g. or for example. If you want to provide a clear explanation of your previous statement or a specific example, then use that is.

Tip 4 - ...And I quote
Quotation marks are punctuation tool that it is easy to get wrong. Do you use the single or the double quote marks, for example? But there is a specific mistake that is a grammatical pet peeve of mine and that is when writing a quote and then putting the beginning and ending punctuation marks in the wrong place. Well, it's easier to show you what I mean:

When talking about punctuation, Alex said, "I wish that everybody knew how to correctly punctuate a quoted sentence" and I agreed with her.

This is a correctly punctuated, quoted sentence. The following rules apply to using quotes:

- Use double quote marks to open and close your quote.

- If you mention a speaker before the quote and use the phrase: Alex said or says, then the said or says should be followed by a comma.

- If you mention a speaker at the end of the quote then you should put a comma after the closing quote marks, e.g. "It can be easy to get punctuation wrong", said Alex.

- The first word of your quote should be a capital letter.

- If the quote ends at the end of your overall sentence then you should place the full stop inside the ending double quote marks, not outside. You do not need another full stop outside of the quote marks, i.e. .".

- If your quote does not end the sentence then you do not need a full stop inside the quote marks.

I could go on...

Tip 5 - Its and it's - isn't it?
This is a specific version of the possessive apostrophe usage but one that is really easy to get wrong. In fact, I find myself having to stop every now and again to make sure I have got the usage right.

And here's a simple way to check: read the sentence with the dubious its or it's in it and replace the offending word with it is. If this changes the intended meaning of your sentence then you are using the wrong it!