Punctuation
End marks
End marks are used to end a sentence. They enable you to tell your reader where one thought ends and another begins. Thus end marks help you keep your ideas distinct so that your reader can understand what you have written.
There are three ways in which a sentence can be ended:
- The full stop (or period) written thus: .
- The exclamation mark written thus: !
- The question mark written thus: ?
Full stop
A full stop ends a sentence, for example:
- This sentence finishes with a full stop.
Full stops also clearly separate sentences. Thus:
- This sentence finishes with a full stop. This sentence does not!
Full stops are also used to indicate abbreviations. For example:
- Ben phoned Widget Gadgets Inc. for the bearings
- Ben obtained the bearings from Widget Gadgets Inc.
In the first example, the full stop after 'Inc' indicates that it is an abbreviation for the word 'incorporated'. In the second example, only one full stop is needed because the abbreviation 'Inc' is also the last word of the sentence.
Exclamation mark
This was used in the example above. An exclamation mark should be used when you intend the sentence to be either a strong command or an emphatic declaration. For example:
- Do as you are told! [strong command]
- Idiot! [emphatic declaration].
Exclamation marks retain their effect so long as they are not overused.
Question mark
This is used to indicate a direct question. For example:
- What did you mean by that outrageous claim?
Question marks are sometimes used incorrectly when a question is reported in indirect speech. For example:
- She asked me if I knew the way out.
In such cases, a full stop rather than a question mark is the correct sentence ending.