The Importance of Punctuation

Writing is a way of freedom and a form of art, a way in which you can express yourself however you want. Even though there are certain rules one has to follow there’s always that gap you have in which you can change some rules to go with your own style. In the “Survival of the Fittest” by Nicholson Baker and the “Q as in Quotation” by Durs Grunbein, the authors demonstrate how the language is unlimited and that each person has the freedom to write as he/she wants. You don’t have to write the famous five paragraphs essay in order to express your ideas and points of view. You can just start writing in your own way and end up having an essay.  I believe that the more restrictions one has on writing, the harder it becomes to express ones self. On the other hand I do agree that there should be some basic rules everyone has to follow. If we all started writing without punctuation and grammar it would all become a mess. Since I was in sixth grade I have learned that punctuation is really important. It helps the readers understand what you are writing and a misplaced punctuation might lead to a different meaning of what you were trying to say. For example “Lets eat Grandma!” is a complete different thing from “Lets eat, Grandma!”

The purpose of each punctuation mark has been modified and changed through out the years. Now a day, technology has given a turn to the punctuation marks. We teenagers use the semi colon and colon mostly to text our friends. We use them to form happy faces and winks such as J and ;). In a sort of way we have lost the main function of them and most of the time we misuse them when writing an essay. Out of all the advantages the technology has brought the society, I believe that it has a huge disadvantage. It has led for us to be each time more careless about our grammar and punctuation. We are always trying to abbreviate all of the words and we use all the punctuation marks in the wrong way.

I believe writing is one of the most important means of communication. The one thing that hasn’t changed throughout the years is that writing is the main way of communication. You can write whatever you want without being judge. You have all the freedom to express whatever pops into your head. For some persons, like me, it is easier to express the feelings by writing than by saying them out loud.