Punctuation Is Powerful

By Daniel Scocco

The image we published last Saturday was quite popular, so I decided to run another one this Saturday.

The theme is the same: punctuation.

For those who can’t see the image, here’s what it says:

An English professor wrote the words:

“A woman without her man is nothing”

on the chalkboard he asked the students to punctuate it correctly.

All of the males in the class wrote:

“A woman, without her man, is nothing.”

All of the females in the class wrote:

“A woman: without her, man is nothing.”

Punctuation is powerful.

I also wanted to thank all the readers who sent ideas and images. If you want to send one simply email it to info@dailywritingtips.com.

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6 Responses to “Punctuation Is Powerful”

  • Paul M

    A! Woman without! Her man is nothing!

  • Ross Bennett

    As one of the Shakespeare fans in the class, I always prefer to punctuate it in the following context.

    Dev. Good Lementio, who calls at the gate?

    Lam. My lord, A woman without; her man is nothing.

    Dev. Bid her enter, then, and show her man to the livery.

  • Cristian

    Hi,

    How do you input double acute and grave accents when you write in Windows ?

    Do you have a shortcut for them ?

    In example, when you wrote: “A woman, without her man, is nothing.”

    I’m interested in how you entered those characters.

    Thanks,

    Cristian

  • Eoz

    It doesn’t make sense the second way. If you are referring to man as a whole gender group (“without her, man is nothing”) it doesn’t make sense to refer to “A woman” as in one specific woman.

  • safdsaf

    @Eoz
    Yeah it’s true that the second way doesn’t make sense. That’s the inside joke. The inside joke is that women are good at punctuating.

  • Krishnakumar B

    ‘Without her, man is nothing’. Is it grammatically correct? It should be ‘without she, man is nothing ‘, isn’t it?

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