Checking your English - why punctuation matters

Effective and clear punctuation is an important element of good writing.
You might consider it a decorative addition to your writing - adding a sprinkling of commas and a few semi-colons or exclamation marks to taste.
However, good punctuation is about good communication and, no matter what we are writing, we want our readers to understand what we are trying to say.
This requires a set of common rules and standard usage of punctuation.

Consider the following examples.
They show how different usage of punctuation marks can change the meaning of a sentence.

She had one issue: only Mike knew she was guilty.
She had one issue only: Mike knew she was guilty.
She had one issue only, Mike knew: she was guilty.

Read the following two sentences out loud:

I'm sorry. I still love you.
I'm sorry I still love you!

Can you see how different the same sequence of words sound when punctuated differently?

Hopefully these brief examples convince you that punctuation used incorrectly can really confuse your reader, and correct usage of grammar can significantly enhance your writing.

So how do you go about improving your punctuation? There are plenty of free punctuation tutorials and guides on the Internet and simple books you can purchase to help you get to grips with different punctuation marks and their usage.

However, if you are lacking the time to dedicate to learning about punctuation, there are English checking software packages out there which include punctuation checking features, in addition to their grammar and spelling features.