Why We Punctuate; or, Reason Versus Rule in the Use of Marks

by William Livingston Klein

Our next sentence is particularly interesting because of its character and its source. It is from a book by a distinguished literary man, who is the professor of English in one of our leading universities and the author of a text-book on English composition. The book from which the sentence is taken was printed at The Riverside Press, which has long been considered by many to be the best printing-office in the world:

21. The deliberate good sense with which Franklin treated matters of religion and morality, he displayed equally in his scientific writings; and, a little later, in his public documents and correspondence,[4] which made him as eminent in diplomacy and statecraft as he had earlier been in science and in local affairs.

In No. 20-1 we use a semicolon expressly to show that what immediately follows the mark looks forward for its connection; and, it seems to us, the semicolon in No. 21 cannot fail to give to any reader, with or without much knowledge of marks, notice that a complete new group, and not an additional part of the preceding group, is to follow the semicolon. If the reader is looking forward for a new group (a clause), the ending of the sentence gives him a surprise, and compels him to read over the entire sentence to make the proper grouping.

It is difficult to say just what notice a comma before “and” in Sentence 21 would give most readers. Let us so punctuate it, and challenge the comma. What will its answer be? This, of course, is a question that the reader puts to himself, testing his own knowledge of the marks. In the light of our discussion of Sentence 1, the comma might seem to say that “and” does not connect “writings” with some noun to follow. We shall see, later in our discussion, that a comma may be necessary in a grouping almost like this; but in this sentence the reader has another aid, in fact two others, thus making the comma unnecessary, if not objectionable. The word “equally,” which comes before “in his scientific writings,” raises the expectation of a similar group to follow and to be introduced by a suitable connecting word. As “and” is such a word, the absence of a mark of punctuation before it at once suggests that a like group is to follow. The second aid to the reader in the process of grouping is the word “in,” which introduces each of the groups connected by “and,” and identifies the second group as the coördinate of the first.

We punctuate to aid the reader quickly to grasp through the eye the groupings of printed language, and to enable him to determine the relations between the groups thus formed. When a mark is not needed for this purpose, it may be omitted.

If we say the man is in a bad state of mind and in an equally bad state of body, the eye catches the words “and” and “in,” at the end of the line, practically at the same instant. The “in” tells of the grouping so distinctly that a comma is not needed to inform the reader that no word follows “and” to be connected by it to “mind.” Therefore we say, when groups are so similarly formed that the word following the conjunction gives ample notice of the grouping, a comma is not needed. We shall consider this point more fully in another place.

By a slight change in the wording of No. 21, we get a counterpart of the illustrative grouping just given:

21-1. He displayed good judgment in his scientific writings and in his public documents.

The grouping here is so unmistakable as to make a comma before “and” quite objectionable. It is unmistakable because of the like formation of the groups, and also because of the absence of any word after “and” that suggests a wrong relation to what precedes.