Edwin Herbert Lewis

Punctuation is a system of disjunctive marks by which the eye and ear are helped to understand the sense of what is written. It is desirable to regard the subject as governed to a great extent by a few principles of common sense. The present chapter reviews those matters of capitalization and punctuation which seem to give most trouble to secondary school students.

Capitals.

1. Of course all proper nouns should begin with capital letters, and so should adjectives derived from them: examples, Russia, Russian, Jew, Jewish, Gentile, French, German. But the word christian is not always capitalized, especially if it is used vaguely as a synonym for good, righteous, etc.

2. We capitalize the words North, South, East, West, when, because we mean parts of the country, we use the article the before them. Thus, “The extreme West favors free silver.” But if we speak of direction merely, we do not capitalize: “Many people took Horace Greeley’s advice and went west.” Capitalize sections of the country, but not points of the compass.

3. Names of the seasons are not capitalized. Thus, though we write June, September, we also write spring, autumn.

4. In the salutation of a letter, the word Sir is capitalized, but not the preceding adjective unless that begins the salutation. Thus: “My dear Sir.” So in the leave-taking only the first word receives a capital. Thus: “Yours very truly.”

5. One valuable device is the use of the capital to introduce the semblance of a quotation, or what might be called a rhetorical quotation. Note: “I should answer, No.” Here the quotation No is merely rhetorical, or pretended, not real. Or this: “Let me give you a short rule for success: Trust in God and keep your powder dry.” Or this, from Longfellow: “Perhaps the greatest lesson which the lives of literary men teach us is told in a single word: Wait!”

6. In titles of books, essays, etc., the important words are capitalized. Thus: “My theme-title to-day was, A Description of a Person.”

7. Names of Deity begin with a capital, and many persons prefer to capitalize adjectives referring directly to Deity. Thus: “We crave Thy grace.” But this habit should not be carried so far as the capitalization of words like divine, omniscient, when these are not applied to Deity. Rather: “His goodness was divine.”

Written Exercise.—Copy the following, capitalizing where necessary:—

1. After going south last spring I understood better than before what is meant by the new south. The southerners have taken to manufacturing; the cotton is no longer all shipped away. Wealth has multiplied. Immigration has increased—the french are not the only foreigners now. There are colleges and even universities, that compare favorably with those of the north. Are the people wide-awake and ambitious? I answer, yes.

The Reasons for Punctuation.—In early days manuscripts were written “solid,” thus:—

MANUSCRIPTSWEREWRITTENSOLID.

It was found that both eye and ear demanded spaces and punctuation. The reader’s train of thought goes straight ahead from word to word until the punctuation mark warns it that there is danger of misunderstanding if it does not pause. The mark shows that the words which precede it are to be understood mentally as a group, and to be read orally as a group. If the thought is kept in mind that a punctuation mark is a sort of danger signal, many of the difficulties of the subject vanish. “Henry rose, and I with him laughed at the story we had heard.” If that comma be omitted between rose and and, what happens?

The Comma.

1. The comma, even more than other points, shows what the meaning of the sentence is; it should set off the parts of the thought. Nothing is easier than to spoil a minor unit of thought by breaking it in two with a comma. So far as may be, the modified subject of a sentence should not be cut into by a comma; neither should the modified predicate; nor should a subject and its predicate be separated any oftener by commas than is necessary. The following passage, written by a lad of fifteen from dictation, shows the minor units of thought divided by too many commas:—

The mean appearance of the houses, in old Boston, was, to some extent, relieved by the rich display, of painted, and sculptured signs, which adorned the front of taverns, and stores.... They served sometimes, as advertisements of the business, sometimes merely as designations, of the shops which were indicated popularly, and, in the newspapers, by their signs.

If this passage be read aloud, a pause being made wherever a comma is placed, it will sound unnatural, disconnected. Revised, it will read somewhat as follows:—

2. Commas are used to set off matter that is parenthetical, but not sufficiently so as to need parentheses or dashes. Such words as therefore are not usually to be considered as parenthetical. A parenthetical group of words is not to be broken into unnecessarily by a comma. Incorrect form: “The squire remarked, as all we who live here, in Smithboro, know, that, so far as the people who lived over there, in Edinburgh, are concerned, we are as happy as they.” Correct form: “The squire remarked, as all we who live here in Smithboro’ know, that so far as the people who live over there in Edinburgh are concerned, we are as happy as they.”

3. Vocative words, that is, words used in direct address, are set off by commas. “Come, men, let’s go!” “Well, sir, how now?” It is curious that in the expressions “Yes, sir,” “No, sir,” in pronouncing which we do not pause before “sir,” we still place a comma here. Probably no rule of punctuation is more neglected than this of vocative words. Something like this usage is the placing of a comma after the expletive Now. Thus: “Now, I think that the case is a little different.”

4. (a) Words or phrases forming a series are separated by commas when conjunctions are omitted; and the comma is used between the last two members of the series, conjunction or no conjunction. Thus: “Burns, Barnes of Dorsetshire, and Riley are poets of the people.” If the last comma were omitted, we should seem not to be considering each man separately. Exceptions: “little old man,” “fine fat hen,” etc.

(b) A rapid series of independent propositions, very closely related in sense, may be punctuated by commas. Thus: “I came, I saw, I conquered.” This is the only structure in which an independent statement, not introduced by a conjunction, is ever pointed with the comma. If there is any doubt whether or not the series is rapid enough to admit commas, semicolons should be used instead.

5. Relative clauses not restrictive[10] are set off by commas. This is a rather important rule. If I say, “The moon, which, as everybody is aware, goes round the earth, is cold,” the which clause does not so restrict or define the word “moon” that it is necessary to our understanding what is meant by “the moon”; the relative clause can be picked out bodily, and the sentence will still be intelligible. “The moon is cold,” is clear enough to people who live on the earth. They understand that the earth’s moon is meant. But suppose I say, “The moon which goes round the earth is smaller than one of Jupiter’s moons”; now the relative clause identifies, restricts the word “moon”—tells what moon is meant. The clause forms an integral part of the subject. It is no longer the moon merely, a thing that everybody knows about; it is one particular moon: the-moon-which-goes-round-the-earth. Occasionally such a clause can be identified by that, for many writers save this relative for restrictive clauses.

Written Exercise.—Copy and punctuate the following sentences, all of which, except the first, are from Robert Louis Stevenson. Defend orally your pointing:—

1. There goes President Harper who is so much interested in everything that interests students.

2. Marquis I said if you take another step I fire upon you.

3. In the midst of these imagine that natural clumsy unintelligent and mirthful animal John.

4. The terms and spirit in which he spoke of his political beliefs were in our eyes suited to religious beliefs and vice versÂ.

5. Oh yes I dare say said John.

6. Moy pronounced Moÿ was a pleasant little village.

7. We were in a large bare apartment adorned with two allegorical prints of music and painting and a copy of the law against public drunkenness

8. Now what I like so much in France is the clear unflinching recognition by everybody of his own luck

9. If it ever be a good thing to take such despondency to heart the Miserere is the right music and a cathedral a fit scene

10. But the sun was already down the air was chill and we had scarcely a dry stitch between the pair of us

11. The inn to which we had been recommended at Quartes was full.

12. Mme. Gilliard set herself to waken the boy who had come far that day and was peevish and dazzled by the light.

13. Do you remember the Frenchman who was put down at Waterloo Station

14. The children who played together to-day by the Sambre and Oise canal each at his own father’s threshold when and where might they next meet

15. I began with a remark upon their dog which had somewhat the look of a pointer

16. The only buildings that had any interest for us were the hotel and the cafÉ

17. Not long after the drums had passed the cafÉ [we] began to grow sleepy and set out for the hotel which was only a door or two away

The Semicolon.

1. The semicolon is a kind of weak full-stop, i.e. period. Nearly always it separates clauses that are grammatically able to get along without each other, but that are closely related in sense. So rare indeed are the cases in which the semicolon may be used with a dependent clause, that a high school student may properly ignore them. For the present, avoid using the semicolon to point a dependent clause.

2. Sometimes the semicolon punctuates a series of mere phrases. This occurs if some particular emphasis is desired for them, or if they are too long to be set off by commas. Example:—

An enormous smoke-stack blocks my view; built of brick, and massive; blue in the cold winter mist; glowing like a pillar of fire as soon as the sunlight reaches it; the most changing, the most stable, thing is this landscape.

Oral Exercise.—Which statements in the following sentences are independent? which dependent? (It need hardly be suggested that the necessity of understanding a subject or a predicate does not make a statement dependent.)

1. If the sky falls, we shall catch larks.

2. Faults are thick, where love is thin.

3. Happy is he that is happy in his children.

4. Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtile; natural philosophy, deep; morals, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.

5. O, there be players that I have seen play,—and heard others praise, and that highly—not to speak it profanely, that neither having the accent of Christians, nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted and bellowed, that I have thought some of nature’s journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably.—Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 2.

The following sentences were written by a pupil in the first year of the high school. If there are mistakes in punctuation, explain what principle is violated:—

1. When the time came to retire; my uncle was shown to the tower-room.

2. A short time afterward when he was travelling through Normandy; he came to an old castle standing in the midst of a park.

3. The postilion was ordered to drive to the castle; where my uncle received a welcome from the little Marquis.

4. This seemed the very night for ghosts; with the wind howling outside and whistling through the ill-fitting casement.

The Colon.

1. The colon is usually a mark of specification. Thus, “The old idea of education was simple: reading, writing, arithmetic.” A fine distinction of logic can be shown by using it: a general statement may be followed by a colon, after which the details that explain the statement may be given. In the following sentence the colon specifies what is meant by fine character. “He was a fellow of fine character: brave, honorable, free from false pretense.” Usually the colon separates clauses that are logically, if not grammatically, in apposition with each other.

2. The colon introduces a formal or long, the comma an informal or short, quotation. “He answered, ‘I will work while the day lasts.’” “The Declaration of Independence begins as follows: ‘When, in the course of human events.’”

The Dash.

1. The dash shows a sudden break in the thought. Thus: “We were hurrying onward—but first let me tell what happened before that.”

2. The dash sometimes precedes a summing up. Here it usually follows a comma, since the members of the series are set off by commas: “Chaucer, Shakespeare, Wordsworth,—very many of our great poets indeed, were at home in the country.” Sometimes the dash is used when there is no real summing up, but an appositive phrase is added, as a further explanation. For an example, see the last sentence of the next paragraph,—and this sentence also.

3. The dash, like the comma, is often used to set off a parenthetical expression. (See 2, under the comma.) Examples: “His father—that iron gentleman—had long ago dethroned himself.” “He was a man—the reader must already have perceived—of easy, not to say familiar, manners.” Note that in these examples no commas are used with the dashes, because if the parenthetical words were lifted out, the sentence would close up without punctuation. But suppose the sentence were such that it could not close up without punctuation; then the comma would be needed. The comma in “His father being angry, he felt afraid,” remains when the parenthesis is inserted: “His father being angry,—that iron gentleman,—he felt afraid.” Note that in such a case a second comma is used,—with the second dash.

Written Exercise.—Copy and punctuate the following sentences from Stevenson. In the first is there not a choice of punctuation after “difficulties”?

1. All the way down we had our fill of difficulties sometimes it was a wear which could be shot sometimes one so shallow and full of stakes that we must withdraw the boats from the water and carry them round

2. But this is a fashion I love to kiss the hand or wave a handkerchief to people I shall never see again to play with possibility and knock in a peg for fancy to hang upon

3. You see what it is to be a gentleman I beg your pardon what it is to be a pedler.

4. Centralization said he but the landlord was at his throat in a minute

5. There should be some myth but if there is I know it not founded on the shivering of the reeds there are not many things in nature more striking to man’s eye

6. “The fire should have been here at this side” explained the husband “then one might have a writing table in the middle books and” comprehensively[11] “all it would be quite coquettish Ça serait tout-À-fait coquet.”

Quotation Marks.

1. Marks of quotation, or, as the English call them, inverted commas, are placed around direct quotations. Many students neglect a part of this little duty: they fail to mark the end of the quotation.

2. A quotation within a quotation stands between single commas. Thus: “We were gathered on shore, watching the schooner. Gray spoke up: ‘She’s certainly going down, and we must let the saving station know it. Maybe the patrol has already seen her; I saw a sailor walking on the beach not long since, and singing, “Yeave ho, my lads, the wind blows free.”’” Note that when there is a quotation within the second quotation, it receives the double marks.

3. Sometimes a quotation is given in substance, with no attempt at accuracy; to show this fact it is quoted in single commas. Thus: ‘A foolish consistency frightens little minds.’ This is the substance of Emerson’s remark, “A foolish consistency is the bugbear of little minds.”

Theme.—Write a dialogue a page or two long. Show the change from speaker to speaker by the use of quotation marks and paragraphing. Each reply of each interlocutor, with its word or two of introduction, if such there be, should go by itself as a paragraph. Choose your own topic; or take one of these, changing the wording: (1) Smith tries to make Brown see the difference between relative clauses restrictive and those merely coÖrdinate. (2) Two girls lament the difficulties of punctuation. (3) Two lads [or, men] talk politics. Do not begin each speech as in Shakespeare each is begun—with the speaker’s name. Refer occasionally to the speakers, if you please, e.g., “‘Not by any means,’ responded Bangs, rather tartly”; but do not hesitate to let most of the speeches stand without comment. Punctuate the dialogue carefully, as you write. Then revise it carefully for punctuation.

Brackets.

Brackets indicate that the included matter is inserted by another person than the original author; that is, by a person who is quoting or editing the passage. Thus: “He [Goethe] tells us that character is developed in the busy world, though intellect is developed in solitude.”

The Exclamation Point.

1. There is a tendency to punctuate with the period sentences that are really exclamatory; it is better to use the exclamation point. Thus: “I am so delighted to see you!”

It is better still to avoid an excess of exclamatory sentences, however correctly punctuated.

2. The word oh! should be followed by an exclamation point or by a comma. This is not the word O, which is used in direct address—

and to express a wish:

3. The exclamation point may stand in the midst of a sentence, at the end of a clause. The mark is then not followed by a capital letter. Thus: “Is it possible! is it credible!” exclaimed the Bishop.

The Interrogation Point.

1. Placed in parentheses the interrogation point questions the accuracy of a statement. Ex.: “It is in New York (?) that the largest number of exiled Russians is found.”

2. Like the exclamation mark, the question mark may stand at the end of a clause, before a small letter. Thus: “Do you believe it? was the way he greeted me as I finished reading the letter.” Or, “Shall we lie here inactive? Shall we plan nothing? attempt nothing? do nothing?”

Written Exercise.—Copy and punctuate the following sentences from Stevenson:—

1. Such a dinner as we were going to eat such beds as we were to sleep in

2. Where were the boating men of Belgium where the judge and his good wines and where the graces of Origny

3. Come back again she cried and all the hills echoed her

4. All the gold had withered out of the sky and the balloon had disappeared whither I ask myself; caught up into the seventh heaven or come safely to land somewhere in that blue uneven distance into which the roadway dipped and melted before our eyes

Italics.

1. A good rule for italics is to shun them—that is, not to use them freely to denote emphasis. Emphasis can be secured by some other means; for instance, by putting the emphatic word near the beginning of the sentence. Thus: “It was such a very fine thing to spin along over the ice” becomes, “A fine thing it was, to spin along over the ice.”

2. Use italics to show that a word is foreign. Thus: “Sophronia likes to interlard her English with such fine phrases as en passant, fin de siÈcle, and al fresco.”

3. It is usual to italicize single words if they are specified,—spoken of as words. Thus: “A good many words that pass muster with most people are not really in good use; for example, burglarize.”

The Apostrophe.

1. One use of the apostrophe is to mark the plural of single letters, or figures. Ex.: Distinguish between your 8’s and 3’s; dot your i’s and cross your t’s.

2. The commoner use of the apostrophe is to mark the possessive case. There is however no apostrophe in the word its, which is considered an adjective, not a personal, pronoun.

Asterisks.

A row of asterisks is used to show an omission. Thus, if a writer were quoting, and wished to skip a page or two, he would insert this sign * * * * But if he omitted only a few words, he would rather use “leaders”; thus....

Oral Exercise, in Review.—Read this passage over carefully, and listen to the reading of it aloud by some member of the class or by the instructor. Then explain how it should be punctuated.

Mr. Higginbotham Mr. Higginbotham tell us the particulars about old Mr. Higginbotham bawled the mob what is the coroner’s verdict are the murderers apprehended is Mr. Higginbotham’s niece come out of her fainting fits Mr. Higginbotham Mr. Higginbotham

The coachman said not a word except to swear awfully at the ostler for not bringing him a fresh team of horses the lawyer inside had generally his wits about him even when asleep the first thing he did after learning the cause of the excitement was to produce a large red pocket-book meantime Dominicus Pike being an extremely polite young man and also suspecting that a female tongue would tell the story as glibly as a lawyer’s had handed the lady out of the coach she was a fine smart girl now wide awake and bright as a button and had such a sweet pretty mouth that Dominicus would almost as lieves have heard a love tale from it as a tale of murder

Gentleman and ladies said the lawyer to the shopkeepers the mill men and the factory girls I can assure you that some unaccountable mistake or more probably a wilful falsehood maliciously contrived to injure Mr Higginbotham’s credit has excited this singular uproar we passed through Kimballton at three o’clock this morning and most certainly should have been informed of the murder had any been perpetrated but I have proof nearly as strong as Mr. Higginbotham’s own oral testimony in the negative here is a note relating to a suit of his in the Connecticut courts which was delivered me from that gentleman himself I find it dated at ten o’clock last evening

So saying the lawyer exhibited the date and signature of the note which irrefragably proved either that this perverse Mr. Higginbotham was alive when he wrote it or as some deemed the more probable case of two doubtful ones that he was so absorbed in worldly business as to continue to transact it even after his death but unexpected evidence was forthcoming the young lady after listening to the pedlers explanation merely seized a moment to smooth her gown and put her curls in order, and then appeared at the tavern-door making a modest signal to be heard

Good people said she I am Mr. Higginbotham’s niece

Written Exercise, in Review.—Copy, punctuate, and capitalize the following, from Charles Lamb:

And first let us remember as first in importance in our childish eyes the young men as they almost were who under the denomination of Grecians were waiting the expiration of the period when they should be sent at the charges of the Hospital to one or other of our Universities but more frequently to Cambridge these youths from their superior acquirements their superior age and stature and the fewness of their numbers for seldom above two or three at a time were inaugurated into that high order drew the eyes of all and especially of the younger boys into a reverent observance and admiration how tall they used to seem to us how stately would they pace along the cloisters while the play of the lesser boys was absolutely suspended or its boisterousness at least allayed at their presence not that they ever beat or struck the boys that would have been to have demeaned[12] themselves the dignity of their persons alone insured them all respect the task of blows, or corporal chastisement they left to the common monitors or heads of wards who it must be confessed in our time had rather too much license allowed them to oppress and misuse their inferiors and the interference of the Grecian who may be considered as the spiritual power was not unfrequently called for to mitigate by its mediation the heavy unrelenting arm of this temporal power or monitor in fine the Grecians were the solemn Muftis of the school oeras[13] were computed from their time it used to be said such or such a thing was done when S—— or T—— was Grecian.

Common Abbreviations.

The following list of abbreviations should be learned, Latin words and all.