In the ever-changing world that we live in, punctuation is more important than ever because it allows the author of a piece to properly convey their meaning.
Punctuation is important because its proper use allows for the author's meaning to truly show; removing punctuation or not using it properly would not tell the reader the proper inflection, tone, or mood of the passage, so the reader would lose some of the meaning the author intended them to have. For example, Thomas writes "Look! they say, look at what I just said! How amazing is my thought!" (Thomas) about the exclamation point. Without even some of those exclamation points, the sentence would lose some of its meaning; the emphasis would not be placed properly, resulting in a loss of correct inflection. In addition, each punctuation mark has their own part in properly communicating meaning. The semicolon, for example, gives "a kind of exquisite tension, a feeling of delicious responsibility, in being so loaded up" (Dolnick). If correct value is not placed on punctuation such as the semicolon, this feeling of responsibility would diminish; that would cause sentences like this one to lose the intended meaning. Even authors that claim to not value punctuation utilize it to accurately impart interpretation--the author Emily Dickinson, who claims to "dwell in Possibility" (Dickinson) uses 13 dashes in her entire poem, which is just 12 lines. The use and proper value given to punctuation allows the author to "clarify meaning" (Hitchings), and without it, the reader would not correctly understand what the author intended them to.
Punctuation is important because its proper use allows for the author's meaning to truly show; removing punctuation or not using it properly would not tell the reader the proper inflection, tone, or mood of the passage, so the reader would lose some of the meaning the author intended them to have. For example, Thomas writes "Look! they say, look at what I just said! How amazing is my thought!" (Thomas) about the exclamation point. Without even some of those exclamation points, the sentence would lose some of its meaning; the emphasis would not be placed properly, resulting in a loss of correct inflection. In addition, each punctuation mark has their own part in properly communicating meaning. The semicolon, for example, gives "a kind of exquisite tension, a feeling of delicious responsibility, in being so loaded up" (Dolnick). If correct value is not placed on punctuation such as the semicolon, this feeling of responsibility would diminish; that would cause sentences like this one to lose the intended meaning. Even authors that claim to not value punctuation utilize it to accurately impart interpretation--the author Emily Dickinson, who claims to "dwell in Possibility" (Dickinson) uses 13 dashes in her entire poem, which is just 12 lines. The use and proper value given to punctuation allows the author to "clarify meaning" (Hitchings), and without it, the reader would not correctly understand what the author intended them to.
Nice job on the synthesis. I love the picture (and I assume most grandmas do as well).
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