Doesn’t it sometimes seem as though punctuation was only designed to befuddle us and give English teachers an excuse to mark down papers? Sure, punctuation has its place, but the so-called rules can be obscure and arbitrary, with no system or logic discernible to the average reader and writer. The humble comma seems especially troublesome, even intractable. A period is firm and decisive: Stop here. The exclamation mark is bold, even flashy: Look at it! A question mark knows what it’s about: … [Read more...]