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# Funny Punctuation
- URL: https://thedailyeudemon.com/1897/
- Published: 2005-08-04T19:16:52.000Z
- Updated: 2005-08-04T19:16:52.000Z
- Author: Eric Scheske
- Tags: Writing, #wpChunk

Richard Lederer at *Vocabula Review* takes issue with those who think punctuation isn't that important. [Link](http://www.vocabula.com/2005/VRJULY05Lederer.asp?ref=thedailyeudemon.com) (subscribers only). Excerpt:

> Like it or not, writing well – not artistically, not ornately, not floridly, but just competently – really is the difference between being largely able to define your own life and having much of your life defined for you. Writing is, in a word, power. And trying to write a Post-it note – much less anything of any substance – without understanding punctuation is like trying to build a house without nails: it'll look awful, and no one will want to come near it.

That passage seems a little extreme to us, though we agree that bad writing isn't condemned nearly as harshly as it ought to be, probably for the same reason moral sins aren't condemned: no one wants to look too hard into his own heart (or hand).

Anyway, Lederer goes on to provide a few funny examples of what bad punctuation can do to passages:

> Punctuation can make an enormous difference in meaning. Which dog has the upper paw?

> A clever dog knows its master.

> A clever dog knows it's master.

> The second sentence, of course. Why do so many people insert a squiggle before the s in the possessive its?

> Which speaker beheld a monster?

> I saw a man eating lobster.

> I saw a man-eating lobster.

> Note the effect of the missing apostrophe in this sentence:

> The butler stood in the doorway and called the guests names.

> . . .

> Note the startling result of the absence of hyphens in this headline:

> FATHER TO BE STABBED TO DEATH IN STREET.

> Behold the effect of the missing serial comma (the one that should go before the and) in this book dedication:

> To my parents, the Pope and Mother Teresa.