Punctuation

Punctuation—they may be small, but punctuation marks help to give clarity to a sentence. Whether it is a period (.), comma (,), question mark (?), exclamation point (!), semicolon (;), colon (:), apostrophe (‘), quotation marks (“”), em dash (—), hyphen (-), parentheses ( ), brackets [ ], or ellipsis (…), each serves a purpose and helps to guide readers through the intended rhythm, tone, and meaning, of written text, helping to avoid confusion and adding precision to our language. I know I don’t always get the punctuation right and often fret over the correct use, but does it matter?