Punctuation Matters
As you build your English vocabulary, do more reading, and have more ideas to share, you'll want to write more. To express your ideas clearly, you need to set up your sentences in a way that is easy to read. In English, we use special marks called punctuation to do this. Punctuation tells the reader if a sentence is ending or continuing, if the writer is excited or asking a question, which words go together, and many other things. Read this page to understand why punctuation is so important in English.
Those Little Marks: Punctuation Matters
The main function of punctuation is to separate phrases and clauses into meaningful units of information. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the basic structure of sentences – phrases and clauses – to understand the proper uses of punctuation.
When punctuation is missing or incorrectly used, the reader may get a completely different message than the one intended. This can not only confuse readers and waste time, but can have disastrous results in cases where the writing has legal, economic, or safety implications.
Punctuation is nothing more than a code that tells the reader how a sentence should be said. For example, a question mark at the end of a sentence means your voice goes up at the end. A period means your voice goes down at the end. Say these sentences aloud:
What is your name?
My name is Laura.
Hear the difference? If you use punctuation correctly, readers will "hear" your words correctly.
Incorrect punctuation sends incorrect information to the reader. Sometimes, the result is confusing or even silly. For example:
With a comma: Let's eat, Mother. (This is telling your mother it's dinner time.)
Without a comma: Let's eat Mother. (This suggests that Mother should be the main course.)
However, punctuation doesn't exist simply to cause problems; in fact, it was created to help communication. These marks were invented to guide readers through passages – to let them know how and where words relate to each other.
When you learn the rules of punctuation, you equip yourself with an extensive toolset so you can better craft language to communicate the exact message you want.
Let's watch this video about the names of different punctuation marks in English. How many do you know? There are a lot, but don't worry about all of them! We'll cover the basics in the rest of this unit.
Note: Occasionally, you'll come across an instance that seems to require multiple punctuation marks right next to each other. Sometimes, you need to keep all the marks, but other times, you should leave some out.
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You should never use more than one ending punctuation mark in a row (period, question mark, or exclamation point).
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When quoting a question, you would end with a question mark, not a question mark and a period.
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If an abbreviation, like etc., ends a sentence, you should only use one period.
Now that we reviewed the important role of punctuation in English, let's look at options to end sentences.
Sources: Susan Last, 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Gay Monteverde, https://pressbooks.nscc.ca/123write/chapter/5-1-end-punctuation/e
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License.
Lexi Magic, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3DBlcOsEIE
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Kristin Shelby, https://open.ocolearnok.org/woscenglishcomp/chapter/outcome-punctuation/
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.