This week's column is going to be about a tool in writing - punctuation. Make no mistake, I'm not a grammarian. Looking at punctuation need not be academic. Reflecting on this tool of the trade led to surprising thoughts.

Take the period, which has come to be referred to in internet lingo as the "dot." This means STOP - in no uncertain terms. What power it has in ending declarative sentences. I transgressed for a moment; what if I could halt a dog from barking, a child from acting up, people from arguing or even nation from warring with just a single dot? Sure, that's wishful thinking. Nevertheless, the "." at the end of sentences is indisputable. It's one of those marks that seem destined to be with us forever, making the breaks in our written expression.

Consider next the short little hyphen, the bit longer en dash −, and finally the em dash-, the longest horizontal punctuator. While the long dash gets used to join or separate phases or sentences, the shortened hyphen comes into play between words and numbers. This one little mark can bridge so much. Think about a person's life span being expressed with "1920-2008." What does that "-" mean? From birth to school, family, marriage, children, work, heartaches, friends, tragedies, joys, celebrations, diseases, and achievements to death, that tiny line indicates a huge expanse. The humble hyphen has also joined with other marks to communicate a special computer language:

:-) smile; :-( frown; :-0 surprise; :-/ mixup; and <:-) dunce.

Next, ponder the exclamation mark. I think if I were punctuation, I would be the exclamation point! I like the looks of it. I like to write it. I often draw it. I have to search for its key on the computer so that my exclaiming does not end just with a perfunctory period. To me, the exclamation point signals energy, delight, and astonishment. It is an emotion-filled sign that says the author is feeling with intensity and wants you to feel something too.

Finally, my musing turns to the quotation mark, which seems to have taken on a life of its own today. I first began to understand quotation marks as the punctuation around dialogue. Then I learned that verbatim text had to be set off by quotes. Once I got into the intricacies of quote marks, I came to appreciate their capacity for finesse - like conveying that "fine-tooth comb" is figurative rather than literal. Most recently, "air" quotes have become the thing for speakers. How many times have you seen someone reach upward, wiggling two fingers to express quote marks around words or expressions as they speak?

I still have the comma, semi-colon, colon, question mark, parentheses, and brackets to reflect on. Next time you ask me or another writer what they think about, beware. We may just be pondering punctuation marks.