Mark my words

Punctuation marks may be on their way out, to the chagrin of grammar zealots the world over. 

- PAUL LITTLE

Most punctuation marks describe sounds or silences. They are attempts to replicate in writing things that we do naturally when speaking. They tell you when to stop and start: the short pause of a comma; the longer pause of a full stop. Or they tell you what sort of noise to make: the rising inflexion of a question mark; the declamatory emphasis of an exclamation mark. Such simple jobs, yet they generate complex emotions that can approach the level of neurosis.

If you are someone who struggles to use "correct" punctuation, then there might be some good news for you. If you are one of the shrinking number who agonise over the placement of a comma or the etiquette around brackets, you might want to stop reading now.

Because a lot of what we consider essential punctuation is a relatively modern invention, not really that essential and showing signs of being on the way out.

Berlin-based scholar Florence Hazrat, the author of An Admirable Point: A Brief History of the Exclamation Mark! and at work on a social history of punctuation, has a very broad definition. "It's more than a dot and a question mark," she says. "It's also font, typeface, bolding, paragraphs, spaces.

Generally, organisation of text on the page can be seen as punctuation. Capitalisation, for example, organises how the eyes move, and white space is super important."

Writing for the digital magazine Aeon, Hazrat noted: "Writing without punctuation (or spaces) actually lasted for many hundreds of years." Before printed texts and silent reading, the job of any punctuation was to guide people when reading aloud.

"Any marks that were inserted served to indicate where to pause." It was even believed good punctuation could help you to live longer. "In the 16th and 17th centuries," says Hazrat, when people mainly read aloud, it was thought that "reading is good for your health, because you exercise your breath".