punctuation marks

36 PUNCTUATION AND CAPITALIZATION WHAT IS PUNCTUATION? Rathin said, "Jayeeta is a fool." "Rathin", said Jayeeta, "is a fool." The word order is the same. But see how a fool is exchanged by punctuation. So PUNCTUATION is PAUSES IN SPEECH to make a new meaning or change the meaning of a sentence. "Punctuation (derived from the Latin punctum, a point) means the right use of putting in points or stops in writing." Wren & Martin "When we speak, we naturally make pauses and stops for an unbroken stream of words tends to become a mere unintelligible gabble. In writing we make these natural pauses by means of stops." L. Tipping The following are the marks or stops used in writing : [1] Full Stop [7] Apostrophe Comma [2] Comma [ , ] [8] Dash [ - ] [3] Semicolon [; ] [9] Hyphen [ - ] [4] Colon [ : ] [10] Inverted Commma [' 7, [" ] [5] Note of Interrogation [ ?] [11] Brackets [6] Note of Exclamation [ ! ) [12] Asterisk [1] The Full Stop represents the greatest pause. A Full Stop is used : (i) To mark the end of an Assertive or an Imperative or an Optative sentence : Shrila is a good girl. (Assertive sentence) Come to the blackboard. (Imperative sentence) May you live long. (Optative sentence) (1) To mark abbreviations : B.SC., M.Sc., B.D.O., S.D.O., B. C. Roy, Dr. Das, 300 B.C., 1990 A.D., 5 a.m., 9 p.m., U.K. (United Kingdom), U.S.A. (United States of America), etc. 445