Human speech is characterized by pauses and intonation.

These help to determine effective rendition of statements, questions, command and other locutionary act. An effective writer must therefore translate the act properly in the writing by consciously and effectively using punctuation marks. So what pauses and intonation achieve in speech in what puuationnction marks do in writing. Punction consist of a series of marks made on papers by a writer to determine unit of an utterance which either give emphasis to these unit or help to establish grammatical relationships between them. For instance, introductory phrases could easily be mark out from the rest using the appropriate punctuation mark. Simarlary , the full stop or comma used at the end of an utterance merely establish the length of a pause, one being longer thanthe other . A writer who makes effective use of punctuation marks provides a lucid, vivid and free flowing essay for his reader. To present your ideas clearly becomes necessary to observe the following rules even though you must have it at the back of your mind that two people punctuate the sme way. The rules are: I. II. III. Using your intuitive abilities, punction marks should reflet pauses and intonation effectively Use punctuaction to reflet various sentences constructions These marks should assit the reader to understand what the writers has in the mind to say. Thus the writer should justify the marks he has applied at each point of essay.

Every writer must note that the use of punctuation marks involved a lot of common sense. When this common sense is combine with the writers personnal taste in expression of ideas the result is a clear written discourse. That means punctuaction allows for flexible rules where by personal taste can comes in. A flamboyant writer uses punctuation in a spectacular a manner to archieve his purpose. Effective use of punctuation is a great asset to the writer. The following punctuation marks will be discussed in this work;

Types of punction
Apostrophe caret colon comma Capital letter dash ellipsis exclamation hyphen parentheses Period of full stop Question mark Quotation marks Semi colon

Representation marks
^ : , A _ ! ( ) or [ ] . ? ;

The period or full stop

The is the longest pause that obtain in either written discourse or in reading. It isused as fellow; (A) At the end of decleartive sentence. So it will neither be a question nor an exclaimation. E.g umuahia is the capital of Abia State. Abia state university is situated At Uturu. Emele score the winnng goal. (B) after abbreviation . E.g Ltd., sch., Prof., Rev., B.A., M.Sc., Ph.D. However , most aronyms unlike abbreviation no longer take a full stop. E.g NEPA, ASSU, VUNA, UNDP, NASU, etc. (C) To differentiate between units of money and other numbers E.g N6.50, 5.6cm 2.8 billion, etc. (D) to seprate hours from minutes when in figures E.g The comma The comma is the most frequely used of all the punctuation marks but this does not make easy mark to deal with. Indeed, it is very troublesome mark. Its inconclusion or omission can completely alter the sense of the sense of the written discourse. Writers are therefore warned to handle it the with care so that what they intend to convey will not be disorted by just a stroke of mark. The functions of the comma include: (a) i. ii. iii. iv. (b) i. Commas are used to mark off vocative words of addresses, that is , a direct address. Chukwudi, gives me that book Emeka, let us go home. We should like to known, Rev. Ikenna, whether you agree with the opinion. Let me see what you have written, Daniel. The comma is used to introduced direct quotation. E.g The secretary