Punctuation, of course, matters. Otherwise, there's no difference between "let's eat, Grandma" and "let's eat Grandma."
Grandma knows there's a difference. And she'd be glad to hear you say, "Sorry, I love you." But not, "sorry I love you."
Punctuation marks are important. But how do they rate? Glad you asked. As a professional writer, I use punctuation marks every day and keep a handy list of how I rank them (not really, but play along for purposes of this column).
Following are the top 10 punctuation marks, from least to most important (correct use is significant, too).
10. Semicolon. The most-frequently misused punctuation mark; it is sometimes used as a replacement for a comma or even a colon. I hate semicolons – in my writing, they're replaced by a dash or by breaking the thought into two sentences. Like this.
9. Single quotation mark. Here's the rule: They are used to indicate quotes inside of quotes. "Frank said he told her 'go away,’ ” is correct. All other uses (frequently used to refer to TV or book titles) are wrong. You don't want to use them like 'this.'
8. Hyphen. This is how we combine words, giving them a first-class identification. The only exception is when an adverb is part of a compound word, usually indicated by the first word ending in "ly," although family-friendly is acceptable (since family isn't an adverb. But that's another column).
7. Colon. It's the preferred way to identify a single entity: The colon. Although people sometimes confuse it with its idiot cousin, the semicolon, the colon is a strong way to indicate a conclusion: The colon rocks.
6. Quotation mark. They're double and they go around things people say, titles of all compositions except the Bible and are often misused by people to indicate emphasis. My favorite: A church sign years ago that said this: "Jesus" is the reason for the season. The marks indicated that Jesus was perhaps his nickname.
5. Apostrophe. Indicates possession or a contraction, although many people struggle with the choice between it's and its. In this one exception, there is no apostrophe in the possessive. But don't forget it in forming a contraction. You cannot get away with that. You just can't.
4. Question mark. Every sentence ends with a question mark or period, but this punctuation form trails the period because you can write around it. How can you do that? Thusly: One may question how you can do that.
3. Dash. This is the form of punctuation that I – someone who generally follows convention – have been accused of overusing. I believe the dash – which is different from a hyphen – is a great way to set off parenthetical thoughts without using a parenthesis.
2. Comma. It provides breaks and breaths in your sentences. In fact, commas provide breaks, breaths and indicate the start and end of quotes. I am a strong opponent of the "Oxford" or "serial" comma, which nonsensically appears before the word "and" in a list. I follow Associated Press style: There is no comma before "and," except when items in a list include the word "and."
1. Period. The oxygen of the writing world. When your elementary school teacher lectured about semicolons and commas, the only thing you really had to know to use was the period. You can write sentences and get your point across without anything but a period. It's the most important punctuation mark. Period.
Brad Stanhope is a former Daily Republic editor who is pretty sure he made a punctuation mistake in this column that will be mocked. Reach him at bradstanhope@hotmail.com.
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