Putting a Point on It

by S. M. Hutchens

Today I ungratefully received a communication completely, and insolently, I think, devoid of punctuation, which inspired me to observe that punctuation, once invented, becomes necessary to express the movements of the mind and voice it was meant to reflect. People who think without punctuation are insane; those who speak without it, unintelligible. Those who write without it one suspects of being cockroaches hopping about on typewriter keys—or texters, their modern equivalents. (So many of the latter have given their lives for their craft in traffic that a certain air of nobility hangs about it.)

This rant accomplished, I admit that former Touchstone editor David Mills once sent me a large box of fresh, unused periods and paragraph breaks—which I gladly accepted, and prize so highly that it has lasted me for years.

S. M. Hutchens is a Touchstone senior editor.

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