KNOW YOUR PUNCTUATION! [THE FULL STOP (.)]
The full stop (also known as period or full point) is a terminal punctuation mark (also referred to as end marks or stops). Other terminal punctuation marks are exclamation mark and question mark. So, the popular definition of full stop as the punctuation that marks the end of a sentence is not totally correct, because the full stop is not the only punctuation mark that indicates the end of a sentence.
1. Describing full stop in a better way, one can say that, amongst other purposes, it is a terminal punctuation mark that marks the end of declarative sentences, and sometimes, imperative sentences.
A. In this excerpt from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus below, the use of full stop to end declarative sentences is demonstrated.
“We climbed the curving stairs slowly. I wondered if Jaja’s stomach rumbled at the lower part like mine did. It was the first time in our lives that we would be sleeping outside home without Papa.”
The above has three declarative sentences with three full stops.
B. The use of full stop to end imperative sentences is demonstrated in the sentences below:
a. Be here at two.
b. Tidy up your room.
c. Find my black pen.
d. Be quiet.
e. Speak politely.
2. Another function of the full stop is to indicate abbreviation; the instance of a letter or part of a word representing the whole word.
a. Mr. Bako is here. (Mister Bako is here).
b. Prof. F. Andrew is a good man. (Professor Friday Andrew is a good man).
c. It is slated to hold on the 13th of Dec. this year. (It is slated to hold on the 13th of December this year).
In the first example, the full stop could be omitted, because it is not necessary to use it if both the initial and final letters of the word represent the word. For example, Junior – King Jr, Doctor – Dr Pat, Road – Rd 11, etc.
It should be noted that though there are different types of abbreviations – such as initialism, acronym, shortening and contraction, full stop is not used in all of these variants. For example, initialisms (such as FBI – Federal Bureau of Investigation) and acronyms (such as OPEC – Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) do not require the use of full stops.
There are other alleged functions of the full stop, e.g. computing (223.34.233), separating units of money (N45.55k), in web and e-mail addresses (smartacademy.com.ng, taiyewofawole@gmail.com), etc.
Places where full stop is not required
The use of the full stop becomes superfluous when used at the end of titles of essays, section headings, subheadings, etc.
Thus, the headings below become inappropriate:
6. Feminism.
6.1. Feminism in African.
6.2. Feminism in other parts of the world.
It should be written as below:
6. Feminism
6.1. Feminism in African
6.2. Feminism in other parts of the world
Though there might be other functions of full stop that have not been mentioned in this post, I’m sure you’ve gained some useful insights as to the use of full stop.
In my next post, we shall see together how the comma (,) is used.
