LEARNING OUTCOMES/OBJECTIVES

• Develop a functional understanding of punctuation 
• Understand why punctuation was invented and how it has developed over time 
• Identify levels of punctuation for modern punctuation marks 
• Understand and explain conventions for using semicolons, colons, and dashes Evaluate sentences for conventional punctuation usage 
• Create metaphors to explain the function of punctuation marks to writers 

This workshop is grounded in Nancy Mann's (2003) view of punctuation as "a norm system for remote-controlling reader interpretation” (p. 363). Tracing the history of punctuation demonstrates its functional nature while showing that conventions of punctuation are by no means fixed. By seeing punctuation as functionally driven, consultants can have open conversations with writers about what they wish to accomplish by punctuating in particular ways, thereby enhancing their sense of rhetorical agency (Shapiro, 2022).

MATERIALS NEEDED

Marks Across Time Powerpoint presentation

INSTRUCTIONAL PLAN

Introduction 

Introduction (Slide 1)

• This presentation will provide ways of understanding and explaining punctuation by thinking about its history.
• The primary goal will be to understand and explain the function of punctuation by thinking about why it was invented in the first place and how it has developed over time.
• Punctuation marks have always marked different levels of meaning corresponding to units of different sizes.
• First, participants will review some of the conventions for using marks at the middle level in this hierarchy (semicolons, colons, and dashes) and then practice ways of explaining them to writers.
  
  

Learning Objectives (Slide 2)

• Develop a functional understanding of punctuation 
• Understand why punctuation was invented and how it has developed over time
• Identify levels of punctuation for modern punctuation marks
• Understand and explain conventions for using semicolons, colons, and dashes
• Evaluate sentences for conventional punctuation usage
• Create metaphors to explain the function of punctuation marks to writers

Body of Lesson 

Why Punctuation Is a Good Idea (Slide 3)

• To understand how punctuation works, it is useful to look at the history of how it developed.
• The marks we use to punctuate written English have their origins in ancient Greece and Rome.
• Punctuation began as marks readers added to texts to make sense of them (Parkes, 1992)
• This ancient Roman inscription from Trajan’s Column, carved a little after 100 C.E., shows why punctuation was a good idea. 
• Ancient Roman writing didn’t use punctuation or even word spacing.
• Readers had to insert punctuation in order to make sense of sentences.
• Only later did writers start adding punctuation to texts so that readers didn’t have to do so.

Ancient Punctuation (Slide 4)

• In his book Shady Characters, Keith Houson (2013) explains how punctuation and other visual conventions of writing developed in ancient Mediterranean cultures.
• As Houston (2013) explains, “The word space was a late arrival, appearing only when monks in medieval England and Ireland began splitting apart unfamiliar Latin texts to make them easier to read.”
• One of the earliest descriptions of punctuation was proposed by the scholar Aristophanes of Byzantium (257–180 B.C.E), the head librarian at the great Library of Alexandria in Egypt. He “described a series of middle (⋅), low (.) and high points (˙) denoting short, medium and long pauses” (Houston, 2013).
• Aristophanes’s punctuation was different than our modern marks but established the idea that punctuation marks pauses of different lengths—similar to pauses in modern musical notation.
  
  

From Sound to Syntax (Slide 5)

• Our names for many punctuation marks come from Ancient Greek and Latin words indicating the units that they divided.
• Richard Nordquist (2020) traces how the units marked by punctuation changed over time.
• According to the Greek philosopher and rhetorician Aristotle (384–322 B.C.E), a period is a long, self-contained unit of speech.
• The mark developed to indicate a rhetorical period took on the name of the unit it indicated.
• The word colon originally meant part of a body, a limb—a colon is smaller than a period and corresponds with a clause.
  
• The word comma originally meant “that which is cut off” and represents the smallest unit, a piece “cut off” from the rest of the sentence.
  
  

Medieval Punctuation (Slide 6)

• Punctuation developed in the Middle Ages to include a wider range of marks.
• Gospel of Mark (8:27-29) from a 13^th-century English Bible
  
• Point out the different kinds of medieval punctuation marks. The other marks in the manuscript are abbreviations, used to save parchment.
• Read through the translation with the medieval marks.
• Ask participants to compare medieval and modern punctuation. Which marks look similar to modern ones? Which look different? How are they used differently?
• The mark that looks like a modern period could function as a comma, a period, or to set off quotations.
• The medieval question mark looks like a wavy line above a period.
• The mark that looks like an inverted semicolon appears in a surprising place, before “like one of the prophets,” perhaps for emphasis.
  
  

Shifting Units of Meaning (Slide 7)

• The kinds of units separated by punctuation changed over time (Nordquist, 2020).

• In the Middle Ages, punctuation often marked units of thought or logical steps.
• In the Renaissance, punctuation marked parts of an argument, or rhetorical units.
• Today, we use punctuation to mark units of sentence structure or syntax, that is, grammatical units.
  
  

Hierarchy of Punctuation (Slide 8)

• What we’ve seen so far about punctuation marking different kinds of units in a hierarchy, from small to large units, can help us understand how modern punctuation works (Dawkins, 1995).

• At the top of the hierarchy are marks like the period, question mark, and exclamation point, which separate sentences from each other.
• In the middle is “heavy” punctuation like the semicolon, colon, dash, and parentheses, which separate larger units within sentences. Semicolons, for example, separate groups of words that could stand alone as sentences but that the writer wants to show are logically related.
• Commas are at the bottom of the hierarchy and mark the smallest units within sentences.
• If we go back to the idea that punctuation marks indicate pauses of different lengths, we can better understand why particular marks function as they do.
• Periods, question marks, and exclamation points mark the longest pauses and so separate the largest units.
• At the opposite end, commas represent short pauses and so can’t separate major units.
• Semicolons, colons, dashes, and parentheses are somewhere in the middle.
• Many writers find this middle level the hardest to learn, perhaps because they come to college used to using sentence punctuation (the top level) and commas (the bottom) but don’t have as much practice with marks that fall between the two extremes. We’ll focus on some of these mid-level marks.

The Test (Slide 9)

• Before looking at conventions for using semicolons, it’s useful to know “the test.”
• Helps identify independent clauses, use semicolons, and avoid comma splices and fused sentences (a.k.a. run-ons)
  
  

To apply “the test,” and determine whether or not a group of words is an independent clause, look at a group of words and ask

• Does it have a subject and a verb?
• Does it make sense by itself?

Try it out: Does each group of words pass the test? Why or why not?

• Cheese is often underrated
• Yes: the group of words has both a subject and a verb and makes sense by itself.
• Because it passes the test, it is an independent clause.
• To get a better grade
• No: there is no subject, the verb get is not the main verb of a sentence, and the group of words does not make sense by itself
  
• Monkeys sliding down the banister
• No: Monkeys looks like a subject but is not the subject of a sentence because sliding is not the main verb of a sentence
  
• The group of words also does not make sense by itself.
• Although they make good arguments
• No: the group of words has a subject and a verb but does not make sense by itself.
• The fact that it has a subject and a verb but does not make sense by itself makes it a subordinate clause.

Semicolons (Slide 10)

• Semicolons go between two groups of words that each pass the test:
• I am not bound by mere facts; I make the world the way I want to see it.
• My dog seems to bark at anything used to clean the floor; however, the vacuum is her archnemesis.
• Shows that ideas are related
• vs. a period, which finished one idea and starts another without indicating any relationship between the two
• Often what writers intend to use when they create comma splices.
• = using a comma to separate independent clauses (groups of words that have a subject and a verb and make sense by themselves)

Testing for Semicolons (Slide 11)

Use the test to determine whether the following semicolons and commas are used correctly.

• Does a group of words have a subject and a verb?
• Does it make sense by itself?

Try it out:

• Ancient Greeks and Romans considered themselves to be at the center of civilization; those who lived farther from the Mediterranean were barbarians or even monsters.
• Correct: Both groups of words on either side of the semicolon pass the test.
• Belief in the so-called “monstrous races” lingered for centuries, appearing even on maps from the 1600s.
• Incorrect: The first group of words passes the test, but the second doesn’t.
• As fantasy emerged as a literary genre; authors continue to populate imagined worlds with monstrous people.
• Incorrect: The first group of words does not pass the test, but the second does.

Colons (Slide 12)

• Sometimes confused with semicolons (;)
  
• Means “namely,” “specifically”

Point from the first group of words to the second

• Only the first group of words separated by a colon has to pass the test
• The second does not need to express a complete thought
• We will need to pack the following: hot chocolate mix, extra weed trimmer cord, and permanent markers.
• The group of words to the left of the colon passes the test because the following completes the meaning of to pack.
  
• The reason for her reaction is clear: she didn’t like me.
  
• Both groups of words pass the test. The colon indicates that the second group of words illustrates the first: she reacted as she did because she didn’t like me.
• The only rooms left to clean are: the kitchen, the dining room, and the study.
  
• Incorrect: The colon appears between the verb are and the words that complete its meaning. Don’t go between words that belong together to complete their meaning, such as a verb or a preposition and its objects. The group of words to the left of the colon does not pass the test.

Dashes (Slide 13)

• Sometimes confused with hyphens (-)
• Indicate abrupt breaks in thought; can also mean “namely,” “specifically”
• None of the words around a dash need to pass the test, but they may.
• NPCs (non-player characters) in this video game talk for ages—way too much exposition
• The first group of words passes the test, but the second doesn’t.
• Every year at this time mallard ducks—the cute little things—occupy the park.
• None of the word groups pass the test because “the cute little things” interrupts the sentence.

Your Metaphor Here! (Slide 14)

• Writing consultants often resort to metaphors to explain the function of punctuation by comparing it figuratively to other things.
• Doing so can help writers understand why we use particular punctuation marks, as seen in our consideration of the history of punctuation.
  

Create a metaphor or a simile to explain the function of each punctuation mark to a writer.

• A period is (like) a …
• A semicolon is (like) a …
• A colon is (like) a …
• A dash is (like) a …
• A comma is (like) a …

Have consultants share their metaphors with the group.

• Examples:
• A period is like a stop sign.
• A colon is like a one-way sign.
• A dash is like a hazard sign.
• A comma is like a speed bump.
• A semicolon is like a yield sign.

Conclusion and Final Reflection (Slide 14)

Takeaways 

• Punctuation was developed to help readers navigate texts.
  
• Punctuation has marked different kinds of meaning in a hierarchy of larger and smaller units.
• A key test for punctuation is whether the word groups that it separates have a subject and a verb and express a complete thought. 
• Understanding how punctuation functions can help us explain it to writers through the use of metaphors.
• What is something you understand now that you didn’t before?

How might you apply what you’ve learned in a writing consultation?

ASSESSING FOR UNDERSTANDING

The “Testing for Semicolons” and “Your Metaphor Here!” activities assess consultants’ understanding of punctuation conventions.

EXTENSIONS AND ADAPTATIONS

This lesson can be extended and adapted in a number of ways. Participants could draw pictures to represent their metaphors for different punctuation marks visually—a strategy they might also use in consultations. They could also role-play explaining punctuation to writers. Using examples of authentic student writing could help participants identify and respond to punctuation concerns in a context closer to what they will encounter in the writing center. Additional material could extend the focus of this presentation to punctuation in other languages.

RESOURCES

The Houston and Nordquist selections can be assigned in conjunction with the lesson for participants to read on their own.

Houston, K. (2013). Maximal meaning in minimal space: The history of punctuation. Shady Characters. https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2013/04/hiatus-article/

Nordquist, R. (2020). An introduction to punctuation. ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/punctuation-definition-1691702

Parkes, M. (1992). Pause and effect: An introduction to the history of punctuation in the West. Routledge.

Purdue OWL. (2023). Brief overview of punctuation. Purdue Online Writing Lab. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/punctuation/punctuation/index.html.

REFERENCES

Arbogast, J. (2006). Photo of the inscription on Trajan’s Column. [Photograph] Wikimedia Commons. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/21/Trajan_inscription_
duotone.jpg

Dawkins, J. (1995). Teaching Punctuation as a Rhetorical Tool. College Composition and Communication, 46(4), 533–548. doi: 10.2307/358327

Houston, K. (2013). Maximal meaning in minimal space: The history of punctuation. Shady Characters. https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2013/04/hiatus-article/

Nordquist, R. (2020). An introduction to punctuation. ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/punctuation-definition-1691702

Parkes, M. (1992). Pause and effect: An introduction to the history of punctuation in the West. Routledge.