{"id":178,"date":"2010-10-04T08:24:34","date_gmt":"2010-10-04T08:24:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vappingo.com\/word-blog\/?p=178"},"modified":"2026-03-18T17:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T17:31:09","slug":"the-importance-of-punctuation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vappingo.com\/word-blog\/the-importance-of-punctuation\/","title":{"rendered":"A Humorous Look at The Importance of Punctuation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-6936\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vappingo.com\/word-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Not-using-commas-300x251.png\" alt=\"Punctuation is important\" width=\"450\" height=\"377\" \/>Punctuation is not really that important, right? \u00a0WRONG! \u00a0It&#8217;s very important, and a tiny, misplaced comma or question mark can cost millions of dollars or break someone&#8217;s heart. That&#8217;s why using native <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vappingo.com\/Proofreading-Services\/\">English\u00a0proofreading services<\/a> before publishing your work is so important.<\/p>\n<p>Not convinced?<\/p>\n<p>Take a look at some of these great examples of punctuation mistakes. \u00a0If you didn&#8217;t previously recognize the importance of punctuation, you will after seeing these!<!--more--><\/p>\n<h3>1) \u00a0Dear John Punctuation<\/h3>\n<p>The Dear John punctuation example is a very commonly used story about a man who received a beautiful letter from his loved one. In the letter, his girlfriend spelled out, in no uncertain terms, how much she loved and adored John and it was clear to anyone reading her words that she couldn&#8217;t live without him. \u00a0Or could she?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Dear John:<\/p>\n<p>I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we&#8217;re apart. I can be forever happy&#8211;will you let me be yours?<\/p>\n<p>Jane<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>What happens to the letter if it is punctuated in an entirely different fashion?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Dear John,<\/p>\n<p>I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men, I yearn. For you, I have no feelings whatsoever. When we&#8217;re apart, I can be forever happy. Will you let me be?<\/p>\n<p>Yours,<\/p>\n<p>Jane<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Which letter do you think John would prefer to receive?<\/p>\n<p>Want a good laugh? Take a look at our guide to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vappingo.com\/word-blog\/best-dissertation-proofreading-service\/\">importance of proofreading<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>2) Woman Without Man<\/h3>\n<p>A professor wrote the following sentence on the board and asked his class to punctuate it:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Woman without her man is nothing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Half of the class punctuated the sentence in the following way:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Woman: without her, man is nothing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The other half of the class responded with the following:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Woman, without her man, is nothing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It&#8217;s clear, from this example, that punctuation is very important indeed!<\/p>\n<h3>3) Who&#8217;s Supplying Whom?<\/h3>\n<blockquote><p>Say \u2018NO\u2019 to Drugs from the NMB Police D.A.R.E Officers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Oops! That one missing comma turned police officers into drug dealers.<\/p>\n<h3>4) \u00a0Your Grandpa&#8217;s Life Depends Upon It<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vappingo.com\/word-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Punctuation-saves-lives.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-179 aligncenter\" style=\"border: thick solid #8f8f8f;\" title=\"Punctuation saves lives\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vappingo.com\/word-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Punctuation-saves-lives.jpg\" alt=\"Missing comma changes Grandpa's life\" width=\"500\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>5) \u00a0His Wife&#8217;s Life Depends Upon It<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vappingo.com\/word-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/punctuation-saves-lives-two.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-180 aligncenter\" style=\"border: thick solid #8f8f8f;\" title=\"Punctuation saves lives two\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vappingo.com\/word-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/punctuation-saves-lives-two.jpg\" alt=\"Example of punctuation error on Twitter\" width=\"500\" height=\"285\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Make sure your work doesn&#8217;t end up appearing in a blog like ours; use our proofreading services. \u00a0From only $0.020 USD per word!<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"color: #ffffff; font-size: 1em; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 1.8em; text-align: left; display: inline ! important;\" align=\"center\"><a class=\"big-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vappingo.com\/your-vappingo\/order\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\"><strong><strong>Order now<\/strong><\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<\/a><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Punctuation is not really that important, right? \u00a0WRONG! \u00a0It&#8217;s very important, and a tiny, misplaced comma or question mark can cost millions of dollars or break someone&#8217;s heart. That&#8217;s why using native English\u00a0proofreading services before publishing your work is so important. Not convinced? Take a look at some of these great examples of punctuation mistakes. &#8230; <a title=\"A Humorous Look at The Importance of Punctuation\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vappingo.com\/word-blog\/the-importance-of-punctuation\/\" aria-label=\"More on A Humorous Look at The Importance of Punctuation\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fun-and-fails"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vappingo.com\/word-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vappingo.com\/word-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vappingo.com\/word-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vappingo.com\/word-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vappingo.com\/word-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vappingo.com\/word-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9582,"href":"https:\/\/www.vappingo.com\/word-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions\/9582"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vappingo.com\/word-blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vappingo.com\/word-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vappingo.com\/word-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vappingo.com\/word-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}