Capitalizing and Punctuating Sentences

    Several weeks ago, the article on the opening page of the PG was written without any textual cues--capital letters or punctuation marks.  What motivated me to write thusly were the countless text messages and e-mails which I receive and have received that did not have either.  Often it took two or more readings to understand with the sender was trying to communicate and sometimes the response asked for clarification. 

     Here is the same article again, but this time it should be a little bit easier to understand.

     The ability to write is a talent just as being able to paint pictures, compose music, sculpt, or create or interpret any other art form; but unlike the other arts, every literate person sooner or later writes--be it a simple to do list or report or text message.  Now with modern means of instant communication not only through cellular phones but also through e-mails, the conventions of capitalization and punctuation are being disregarded.  A person may not be a modern day Shakespeare; but every time a person writes even a SMS, he is trying to convey a message and punctuation and capitalization are aids to help the reader interpret the message.   A capital letter tells the reader where a sentence starts and lets him know if a string of letters is an acronym and not a mistake of key punching.  OF COURSE THERE ARE THOSE PEOPLE WHO LIKE TO USE ONLY CAPITAL LETTERS WHICH MAKES THE READER THINK THE WRITER IS YELLING.  Maybe capital letters can be disregarded in the rush to produce an instant message and most of the punctuation marks ignored, but a period at the end of each sentence would be nice so that the reader knows where one idea ends and the next begins,

    What do you think the following sentence means?

woman without her man is nothing

 

  There are a few ways to punctuate the above sentence and I had hoped that I would have received some answers through the comments.  There are two interpretations and several possibilities of how to punctuate the sentence to illicit one of the meanings:

 

A woman needs a man to be a contribution to society.

• Woman without her man is nothing.

 A man needs a woman to be a contribution to society.

• Woman: without her, man is nothing.
• Woman--without her, man is nothing.
• Woman! Without her, man is nothing.

     So please at least get in the habit of using a period at the end of your sentences whenever you write anything.  It will make it so much easier for your reader to understand.