Good punctuation helps us better understand texts and helps avoid misunderstandings, said Sandro Cohen during a conference at the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico (UAEM). The poet, narrator, translator, editor, essayist and university professor said that proper punctuation prevents readers from “misunderstanding or misinterpreting what we want them to understand.”
Cohen, who participated in the “April, Reading Month” program of the UAEM with the “The Power of Punctuation” conference, said that punctuation is like road signs: “Alone, it means nothing, but it can guide us through our readings and it can show us the compositional strategy of the writer.”
The writer was accompanied by María de los Ángeles Araujo González, director of Academic Staff Development, and Pedro David Mercado Hernández, director of the “Ignacio Ramírez Calzada” school. Cohen said that few people know that if we were to always use the exact same word order, that is, the same syntax, we would not need punctuation, except for the period at the end of a sentence or paragraph.
Cohen has written books such as “Essential Guide for Writing in Spanish” and “Essential Guide for Questions of Use and Style in Spanish.” He also said that one of the most common mistakes made by those who have not yet mastered writing, is “enjambment,” which occurs when two sentences are joined in a single statement without there being a relationship of coordination or subordination between them.
