THE FULLSTOP

[Thalabathi]

Hi all,
First of all sorry to all of you for not posting any articles and left
our group flimsy.
Hereafter we all will try to post something atleast once in a week to
keep our group alive. After a long time i'll start off with an
interesting topic "The Full Stop".

Here the topic goes..

THE FULL STOP
I. A full stop is placed at the end of every sentence that is neither
exclamatory nor interrogative.

A penal statute is virtually annulled if the penalties which it
imposes are regularly remitted as often as they are
incurred. The sovereign was undoubtedly competent to remit penalties
without limit. He was, therefore,
competent to annul virtually a penal statute. It might seem that there
could be no serious objection to his doing
formally what he might do virtually.

How much should be put into a sentence is rather a matter of style
than of punctuation. The tendency of
modern literature is in favour of the short sentence. In the prose of
Milton and of Jeremy Taylor, the full stop
does not come to release the thought till all the circumstances have
been grouped around it, and the necessary
qualifications made. In Macaulay the circumstances and the
qualifications are set out sentence by sentence. So
the steps of reasoning in the example which we have given are stated
with that distinct pause between each of
them which the reader would make if he thought them out for himself.
They might be welded together thus:
Seeing that a penal statute is virtually annulled if the penalties
which it imposes are regularly remitted as often
as they are incurred, and seeing that the sovereign was undoubtedly
competent to remit penalties without
limit, it follows that he was competent to annul virtually a penal
statute; and it might seem that there could be
no serious objection to his doing formally what he might do virtually.

Both forms are correct in point of punctuation. Which is the better
form is a question of style. Take another
example:
The sides of the mountain were covered with trees; the banks of the
brooks were diversified with flowers;
every blast shook spices from the rocks; and every mouth dropped
fruits upon the ground.
There is here an advantage in putting these four statements together,
instead of making four separate
sentences. We can more easily combine the details, and so form a
single picture--a picture of fertility.

II. As a rule the full stop is not to be inserted till the sentence be
grammatically complete. But some parts of
the sentence necessary to make it grammatically complete may be left
for the reader to supply.
It is well said, in every sense, that a man's religion is the chief
fact with regard to him. A man's or a nation of
men's. By religion I do not mean here the church-creed which he
professes, the articles of faith which he will
sign and, in words or otherwise, assert. Not this wholly, in many
cases not this at all.

III. When a sentence is purposely left unfinished, the dash takes the
place of the full stop. (See Rule XL.)
"Excuse me," said I, "but I am a sort of collector." "Not Income-tax?"
cried His Majesty, hastily removing his
pipe from his lips.

IV. A full stop is placed after most abbreviations, after initial
letters, and after ordinal numbers in Roman
characters.


Hope you got something about the topic..

Yours
Thalabathi..

[Thalabathi]

Forgot to mention the source.
Source: From the book "STOPS" by PAUL ALLARDYCE