Studying punctuation is a waste of time*[]?...(!)-;/:!

[TalkingPoint]

Studying punctuation is a waste of time*[]?...(!)-;/:!

What do YOU think?

[Mandy2]

Punctuation isn't a waste of time. It's important to make the sense of a piece of writing clear. Even while speaking, we pause at certain points for the sake of clarity, right? We're using punctuation marks in written English for the same purpose.
Many years ago when I was still in school, I was also not always aware of the importance of punctuation. But as I grew older and had to communicate more frequently in foreign languages, I changed my mind.

You will find many examples to illustrate the importance of punctuation on the web. Here is one:

Look at this sentence:

Woman without her man means nothing at all.

Girls, do you agree? Most likely not.

Now let's punctuate the sentence and read it again:

Woman: without her, man means nothing at all.

Did you notice the influence of punctuation on the meaning?

[Adhir Garg]

Hi All (including Mandy),

Thanks Mandy for giving such a nice example This is really a good one..

In life too, we punctuate while saying something !!! Saying like putting a question mark in front of the person.. We try to put some emotions (however weird they might be) in front of the listeners, Same is the function of Punctuation too .. In writing, placing a wrong/incorrect punctuation would change the entire meaning.. So Punctuation is a good thing !!

Enjoy

[Judy2004]

Every language is made up of pronunciation,grammer and punctuation,each part is essential and it can't be a language without any part.

One basic function of punctuation is that it indicates a speaker/reader can pause or stop for a breath,so if there is no punctuation,we will hold our breath for a few minutes or even longer time to finish reading an article or explaining our opinion.

Another main function of punctuation is to help us modify the mood and convey the sence more clearly.Sometimes punctuation can work as words and make us express ourselves more simply and more concisely.There is a story which can best describe this function:Once upon a time,a famious writer contributed one article to a publisher,after a long time,he didn't receive any reply from the publisher,so he had no idea about whether the article was accepted or not.To make sure the result,he prepared a letter to the publisher,on which there was only three question marks and his signature.One week later,he received the reply and he was eager to unfold it and found there was three exclamation marks on the paper.He was very happy to know he succeeded.From it, we can know punctuation is powerful and sometimes beyond words.

Another example can prove punctuation is extremely useful.As we know,there are defining clause and non-defining clause in English,one of difference between them is that the non-defining clause is separated from the first clause with commar,but it is not the case with the defining clause.So the different hint between the two sentences below is very obvious.
1. My brother who is in Australia (it means that I have more than one brother,one among them is in Australia.)
2. My brother,who is in Australia (it means that I only have one brother,he is in Australia.)

Due to the importance of punctuation,if we can't use the punctuation correctly,we don't master the language.

[Dixie]

I just can't stand reading a text with no punctuation marks. Am I a maniac or something? I can't understand the fact that people don't use them, or don't use them properly. The same happens with spelling...

[D]

I just can't stand reading a text with no punctuation marks. ... I can't understand the fact that people don't use them ... . The same happens with spelling...

I hear you, Dix! I'm a regular contributor to the BBC's Learning English messageboard, and every now and then we have Asian learners post messages with minimal, if any, punctuation.

This is probably due to their native languages' being non-script ones; they don't "understand" the ideas behind capitalisation nor punctuation marks, and thus jot down their thoughts in one big lump of text. When confronted with their dubious orthography, they'll reply to the tune of "spelling unimportant, im just communicating to practice my english". Yes... Sic transit gloria mundi.

D

[slh_84tr]

Punctuation isn't a waste of time. It's important to make the sense of a piece of writing clear. Even while speaking, we pause at certain points for the sake of clarity, right? We're using punctuation marks in written English for the same purpose.
Many years ago when I was still in school, I was also not always aware of the importance of punctuation. But as I grew older and had to communicate more frequently in foreign languages, I changed my mind.

You will find many examples to illustrate the importance of punctuation on the web. Here is one:

Look at this sentence:

Woman without her man means nothing at all.

Girls, do you agree? Most likely not.

Now let's punctuate the sentence and read it again:

Woman: without her, man means nothing at all.

Did you notice the influence of punctuation on the meaning?

+1 language is nothing w/o panctuation

[someone_cute]

No ,, it isn't ..
Teachers at school specially in writing in tests guard us for punctuation and we lose marks for that ..
So ,, is it important or not ?!
I don't know teacher !!! May be after some minutes you may says that learning English is a waste of time also !! is it ??

[tikay]

Punctuation is only important if a person wants to get a message, or a meaning across, very clearly, and with very little (or few) misunderstanding(s)...otherwise it is, of course very unimportant.
Each person should decide on their own how clearly they would like to be understood...period.
I must add that in here where people are learning to write/speak it should be much less important! We are not here to correct as far as I know but to teach by our good example of English useage...am I right?