There is nothing mysterious about punctuation. It is based upon simple principles. The “rules” which one can find in all sorts of books are usually true enough, but they tend to make the matter seem unnecessarily complicated, and they do not show why they are true. The more practical approach is to consider certain typical situations and what they naturally require. The important thing, of course, is good sentence-structure. What correct punctuation does is to keep that structure unmistakably clear for the innocent reader who does not know what is coming.
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References
1.
GladwinEllis, Letter Logic, The Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, Hartford, May 1966.
2.
GladwinEllis, Letter Logic, The Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, Hartford, February 1967.
3.
“Rocking chair philosophy,”The Christian Science Monitor, May 14, 1966.
4.
The New York Times, November 19, 1966.
5.
RestonJames, “Washington: ‘Too Damn Big and Rich,’”New York Times, Sunday, May 8, 1966.
6.
University of Chicago, Summer 1967.
7.
The Christian Science Monitor, editorial, April 29, 1967.
8.
Ibid., October 11, 1966.
9.
Book-review in Reading Horizons, Western Michigan University, Spring 1966, p. 107.
