Punctuation … bah, who needs it!

Synopsis: For those who think proper punctuation is useless and unnecessary.

When called-on in English class to explain how an ellipsis ( … ) is used,

a high school student (with poor grades) confronts the teacher:

“What is the big deal about punctuation?

I can write anything without it,

and anyone can tell what I wrote.”

So, the teacher scribbled on the blackboard,

“A woman without her man is nothing,”

and asked the class to copy and punctuate it properly.

All the boys wrote,

“A woman without her man, is nothing.”

All the girls wrote,

“A woman … without her, man is nothing.”

Punctuation can be powerful, indeed!

Let's go eat granny!

Let's go eat, Granny!

🙄

Richard W. Jenkins

©2021

Author's Note

There are fourteen punctuation marks commonly used in English grammar:
the period, question mark, exclamation point, comma, semicolon,
colon, dash, hyphen, parentheses, brackets, braces,
apostrophe, quotation marks, and ellipsis.
Following their correct usage will
make your writing easier to
read 'n more appealing.

I posted this mainly for interesting responses and feedback from my fellow poetesses, writers, and poets, and for a venue to express different points of view on this, often controversial, topic.
Feel free to comment under your own or anyone's review.

And remember, constructive critique is always welcome.😊

Reviews

[lightsong]

VERY powerful example!!! it shows how everything is turned upside down with simple use of punctuation, in Arabic they are important as in English, at a young age children at schools learn them and they lose grades if they forget them, as for poetry as I know one must respect the rules of English and the professional poetry, still Poetry is about creativity and creating with no boundaries, one may use them for a purpose and might not for another one, as for me I am still confused by them when I "poet" my poetry lol

[Richard🖌]

Your reviews are always wisdom-filled and serve delicious food for thought. 🥣

This one is no different in that sense; plus, you've added your own flavoring and spice to stir and tease our grammatical appetites to a taste of perfection.

What a blessing You* are! ⁓ Richard🖌

[lightsong]

It seems it's your commenting day, Good Luck ☺️

[Richard🖌]

Ghounwah,

Teaching requires so much time, it's difficult to read, review, and comment on reviews; there's little time left for creative writing, as-well.
So, best I take advantage of the free moments I'm enjoying today to at least comment on reviews … You understand, I know. : )

[lightsong]

Of course I do. Good Luck Always ☺️

[Richard🖌]

Thanks for the "Good Luck Always" wishes. : )

[Lisasview]

Hello again Richard,
Just finished reading this.. Again, so clever to point out the differences..
Lisa

[Richard🖌]

Thank you, Lisa,

For reading and commenting ⁓ Richard 🍃

[JE Falcon]

I love logic, and I like the way you told this Great story-poem. Now if I can only figure out if I punctuated this answer correctly, probably not. :)

[Richard🖌]

I love logic, and I like the way you told this Great story-poem.
Now, if I can only figure out if I punctuated this answer correctly; probably, not.😜

[JE Falcon]

LOL, and thanks, should have done it, but the computer wanted more.

[JuanitaClint]

Said very poetically. The phrase that "a woman... without her man is nothing" really resonates with me, too. Punctuation plays a significant role in the semantic load of the text. On this site https://phdessay.com/, I sometimes read some free essays, and I am surprised at how correctly and in the right place is a comma or a period. I wish I could put punctuation correctly, too. So if you notice a mistake in my text, feel free to tell me about it.

[Richard🖌]

Said very poetically:
The phrase, "A woman ... without her, man is nothing," really resonates with me, too. Punctuation plays a significant role in the semantic load of text.
On this site, https://phdessay.com/, I sometimes read free essays. And, I am surprised at how correctly, in the right place, a comma or a period is used … I wish I could use punctuation correctly, too.
So, if you notice a mistake in my text, feel free to tell me about it.🙃

[Carlos Lorenzo Estrada]

I am just the worst when it comes to punctuation, but I applaud this humorous truth telling piece. Job well done, sir, job well done.

[John the Baptist]

May all the non-punctuators on this site (and there are many) read this.

[Tricessimus]

"Let's eat grandma" versus "Let's eat, grandma", commas save lives. Umlauts are all required to learn CPR but I'm pretty sure semi-colons only thirst for the blood of the innocent. It was a fun read.

[Chris Shaw]

Hello dear Richard, your examples prove how important punctuation can be. The position of a comma can change the whole meaning of a sentence or paragraph entirely. I punctuate carefully when writing letters or stories. However, where poetry is concerned, I prefer to remove the punctuation altogether and let the reader pause where they want to. I hope all is good with you and yours and you are keeping happy, healthy and safe.

Chris

[Susan 🦋]

Wait, are we talking about punctuation or how important a woman is? Ha ha! Well, I get the point. Punctuation matters. :-)

[no tell writer]

Thank yo so much for writing this, It is so true

[Richard🖌]

Thanks for the review.