On the topic of the usefulness of punctuation, students might enjoy the challenge of punctuating the following to make it a coherent sentence, using only commas, quotation marks, and a semicolon.

 

James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher.

 

Check here for a solution. (Sure to be denounced by Brad Johnston.)

 

Conversely there’s the ever-popular “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo,” which does just fine as a sentence without any internal punctuation.

 

Dick

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Richard Veit
Department of English
University of North Carolina Wilmington