Punctuation Alone
Table 5
Degrees of Separation Between Clauses
| MAXIMUM: | I gravitated to the random. I swung with the nonsequential.—Joan Didion |
| I gravitated to the random; I swung with the nonsequential. | |
| MEDIUM: | The fire is dying, the sparks scattering over the sand and stone: there is nothing to do but go. |
| The fire is dying, the sparks scattering over the sand and stone—there is nothing to do but go.—Edward Abbey | |
| MINIMUM: | And it is true that all of us write within traditions, we all have a history and a context.—Donald Murray |
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Table 5 is a further representation of the hierarchy as indicated in Tables 1 and 2. The “meaning” of these markings ranges from maximum separation to no separation (or connection)—but see the remarks on the dash and colon below. And since we use punctuation to clarify our meaning and gain appropriate emphasis, it is reasonable that, for ease of reading, the two marks of minimum separation between independent clauses are not as effective as the marks of medium or maximum separation. Zero, of course, is even confusing (and found only in experimental writing or certain kinds of poetry where, however, it is used for the very reasons indicated by the hierarchy — to show connection where, normally, separation would be shown). The comma splice, however, is an intentional mark in the writing of most “good” writers and, as indicated by the hierarchy, shows less of a separation than the higher marks — thus the purpose, an absolutely legitimate purpose, of the comma splice, as illustrated in another sentence by E. M. Forster (a fearless comma splicer):
And it is true that all of us write within traditions we all have a history and a context.
(36) He could not stand the insecurities that are customary between officials, he refused to make use of the face-saving apparatus that they so liberally provide and employ.
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There is a similar difference between the period and semicolon—the significance of the hierarchy, after all, is pretty straightforward. Look at the following ways of punctuating some words by E. B. White:
(37) The great days have faded. The end is in sight.
(38) The great days have faded; the end is in sight.
White actually used a comma splice here—forgive the deception, a way to make two points at once.
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The dash and the colon are similar in function and, sometimes, even in meaning (see Tables 2 and 5). For example, which one would you choose for E. M. Forster’s well-known sentence:
(39) So Two Cheers for Democracy (pct?) one because it admits variety and two because it permits criticism.
Forster used a colon, but I suppose that many of us would choose a dash (and if your background is British, you’d be tempted by a semicolon).