It’s a rhetorical element a lot of people take for granted, or simply don’t think about at all, but effective use of punctuation can be a very important part of how your company’s messages—and thus, your company—are received. There’s a distinct visual effect to most forms of punctuation, such as the above dashes (or of course, the familiar parentheses), which carry a unique design aspect, but can also affect your company’s authoritative image.
Do you want customers to see you as calm and professional? To see you as edgy and conversational? To get bewildered by an over-excessive use of question marks????? I’m guessing the answer to the last one is “no.”
So what elements of punctuation are most effective and most significant from a rhetorical perspective?
Formality vs. Informality
The biggest element of authority riding on your use of punctuation is your formality. First, you’ll need to determine the level of formality you want to present, and then find the right blend of punctuation that presents that. Being personal is always important, but if you want a high reputation with conservative values, you’ll want to use punctuation differently than a creative new technology firm capitalizing on a young population.
Examples of formal punctuation use:
· Parenthetical lists (e.g. examples)
· No exclamation points and no incomplete sentences. Ever. Like this.
· Sparing use of contractions: use “you are” instead of “you’re.”
Examples of informal punctuation use:
· Parenthetical asides (like this use, rather than a list of examples)
· Exclamation points and question marks peppered in (but always use them sparingly, even if you’re shooting for informality! Or else you look foolish! Like this! And exclamation points lose their value! See below!)
· Hyphenated phrases that aren’t need-to-be-hyphenated phrases.
· Everything’s a contraction!
Save the Exclamation Points
Limit your exclamation points. Just… please limit your exclamation points. You never need more than one, and some people claim you should never use exclamation points:
“One should never use exclamation points in writing. It is like laughing at your own joke.” –Mark Twain
Though Mark Twain didn’t have to deal with the demandingly low attention spans of iPad-dependent demographics… Regardless, the bottom line is exclamation points are embarrassingly overused and hardly ever needed.
The Oxford Comma
Formal, informal… doesn’t matter. Designers might fight me on this, but the Oxford comma is ALWAYS a good idea. It’s dying, and we need your help to support it. Without the Oxford comma, we get situations like the ones in this blog image. Don’t let it happen!
The conclusion? Think about your punctuation, or else you might give off the wrong impression. And for the love of God, limit your exclamation points!!!
