How important is it to have a period at the end of a sentance when there is nothing following it?
How important is it to have a question mark at the end of a sentence when there is no answer [big grin]
You can replace any question mark with a glottal stop (voiceless glottal plosive). As the linguistic symbol for glottal stops is not often found in symbol sets (its a question mark without the dot underneath), it can be substituted with one of the few US English words that is, in essence, nothing but a glottal stop. uh-oh!
While I’m being linguistically obtuse…If you speak with a cockney accent, the glottal stop is also found in the middle of the word “butter” substituting for the two t’s. Of course in the good old USA we don’t pronounce the t’s either; we use d’s and often say budder. - Everyone seems to agree on the schwa however.
What do you think of that uh-oh!
Have I over stated my case uh-oh!
Where will this silliness end uh-oh!
I like D’Oh! bedder.
Hell, why stop at punctuation let’s get rid of paragraph spacing and hierarchy and give the contractor something that looks like this:
Prior to the start of fabrication meet at the fabricator’s plant to review methods and sequence of fabrication, special details and conditions, standard of workmanship, testing and quality control requirements, and other pertinent topics related to the fabrication of the assemblies Preinstallation Meetings Prior to the start of the Work, meet at the Project site with the same participants as the preliminary meeting to review material selections, availability of materials, personnel, equipment, and facilities needed to make progress and avoid delays, methods and sequence of installation, structural load limitations, special details and conditions, standard of workmanship, quality control requirements, testing, inspecting, and certifying procedures, job organization, coordination with other trades, and other pertinent topics related to the Work Coordination Drawings Prepare coordination drawings where work of other Sections is integrated in the work of this Section for efficient installation of different components, and when coordination is required for installation of products and materials fabricated by separate entities in the work of this Section indicate relationship of components shown on separate Shop drawings indicate required installation sequences refer to Divisions 22, 23 and 26 for specific coordination drawing requirements for mechanical and electrical installations notify concerned trades of items required to be incorporated into work of separate Sections Certain components specified in this Section include items closely integrated with doors and frames, glazing components specified in other Section that require close coordination with such allied trades Be responsible for coordination with these other trades to ensure correct installation procedures and results coordinate and cooperate with adjacent cladding systems subcontractors by installing closures and trim supplied by work of other Sections and installed directly into the glazed assemblies verify actual locations of embeds and structural supports by field measurements before fabrication and indicate measurements on Shop Drawings Prior to start of Shop Drawings, coordinate tolerances of work of other trades that may affect the work of this Section the Design Engineer shall be responsible for design of the work of this Section to meet or exceed the following structural and weather resistance criteria, as demonstrated by engineering calculations and on-site testing the Design Engineer shall determine material size, yield strength, gage (thickness) and joint spacing sizes indicated and specified are minimums acceptable to the TJPA Representative and shall not be reduced regardless of the Contractors engineering design requirements specified herein shall be analytically and mathematically proven, except for those specified to be proven exclusively by physical testing methods calculations and related data and their application in engineering, fabrication, assembly and installation shall be the responsibility of the Design Engineer Perform these functions using a recognized 3-dimensional finite element program using geometric and material non linear analysis Design Engineer shall submit proposed finite element software for ****** approval geometric non-linear analysis is required for evaluation of all structural systems material non-linear dynamic time step analysis is required for evaluation of framing under blast loading
why stop there - go ee cummings and remove all those capitals. Capitlulate! Heads will roll!
Since no one apparently took me seriously - that’s okay, I think I got my answer.
Thanks to all for the entertaining responses - they were worth the question.
M AGRIPPA L FCOS TERTIVM FECIT
Richard,
Can you imagine this group not taking punctuation seriously? Shocking!
My extensive non-legal experience leads me to believe the following: The purpose of a period at the end of a sentence is to indicate the end of a sentence. No additional words were accidentally left off because of widow/orphan or computer elf issues. It’s like using “end of section” at the end of the section, and not leaving the reader to wonder if that half a blank page means we’re done.
That puts an end to it.
Seriously, that’s good logic. I use periods at the end of sentences and sentence fragments, with an exception or two, such as section and other titles, the ends of the lines of a mailing address, and drawing notes.
Now I think I understand the original question. I have also questioned whether a period should be placed at the end of a specification “paragraph” or “subparagraph” if that string of words is NOT, in fact, a sentence. I firmly believe every sentence must have at least a subject and a verb.
Richard, I did not intend to diminish your earnest interrogative but it did generate some amusing responses.
I’m with Lisa and Sheldon on this. Unlike some people, I use periods at the end of text messages, in addition to everywhere else Sheldon uses them.
My husband once sent me a text message that said, “I’m going to meet w” (no period) and I thought it was an unfinished message that he’d sent me accidentally. Later he told me he’d met George W. Bush. When I was surprised, he told me he’d texted me to tell me before he met him. I told him there was no capitalization, no period, and that I thought he’d sent me an unfinished text message. (I’m pretty good at extracting intent from people’s garbled messages, but this one got by me.)
If asked why a period should be used, my 4-year old grandaughter would answer, quite matter of factly-- BECAUSE!
Lets go back to the days of telegraph messages stop Use the word stop to show the end of sentences stop
I agree with Lisa and Sheldon stop
I use stop after all paragraphs and subparagraphs stop
I do not use stops in tables stop
Thats all I have to say about that stop
I will not be back stop
I use periods at the end of sentences, as well as fragments if the fragment is on a line by itself.
In outline formatting, it is not incorrect to put a period at the end of each line of a list as in the example…
- This is a list:
a. Item 1.
b. Item 2.
c. Item 3.
Which I find looks a lot better than…
- This is a list:
a. Item 1,
b. Item 2,
c. Item 3.
or…
- This is a list:
a. Item 1;
b. Item 2;
c. Item 3.
Richard: It’s level importance varies depending on the potential for misinterpretation. Generally, punctuation, when used correctly, serves a purpose. I have missed a period as a typo now and then. In William’s example above, it may not be clear if the list is “and” or “or”. Is it (1) or (2) or (3) or (1) and (2) and (3)? Example One implies the 3 items are individual, so any one of them might suffice, whereas lists 2 and 3 imply “and”. The correct way is actually, "this is a list: Item 1; and Item 2; and Item 3 if all 3 are required.
I think I’ve got my answer. I’ll use periods when I remember to hit the key on my computer.
Thanks to all - both the serious and not so serious, but entertaining.
Digressing, what do you think of the dominant practice now of having a single space after the period between sentences. This is in liwu of the traditional two spaces between sentences. Personally, I favor two spaces to make the period (our least conspiculus punctuation mark) more visible and to differentiate it from the period on abbreviations.
I strongly prefer 2 spaces. I put 2 spaces in, even if I have to go back and edit something (like my blog) and add spaces if the second spaces got eliminated in a translation from Word to the blog. I only use one space on Twitter though!
Liz and company I disagree. the two space thing was created for monospaced type (from a typewriter) once we got computers and REAL type faces this was no longer needed and I feel should be discouraged. See the book the “The Mac is Not a Typewriter” published way back in 1991
M