THE USE OF PUNCTUATION MARKS IN WRITTEN COMMUNICATION: IMPLICATIONS FOR EFFECTIVE WRITING AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

Abstract

Punctuation is a central resource of written communication because it helps writers organise clauses and sentences, signal grammatical relationships, indicate discourse boundaries, and guide readers towards interpretations. Yet punctuation is often taught as a collection of isolated rules, and learners may struggle to apply these rules in reading and writing. This paper presents an integrative narrative review of scholarship on punctuation, writing, reading comprehension, prosody, and English language teaching, with particular attention to Nigerian English-language education. Literature was identified through targeted searches of databases, publisher platforms, and research repositories using terms related to punctuation, comma use, apostrophe, writing, reading comprehension, prosody, English language teaching, and Nigeria. Studies were selected for direct relevance, with relevant empirical studies prioritised and foundational sources retained for conceptual background. The literature was synthesised thematically rather than statistically. The review finds that punctuation functions as a grammatical, semantic, rhetorical, and processing resource. Evidence on commas shows that grammatical structure strongly constrains placement, although readers and writers respond to prosodic cues. Research indicates that awareness of punctuation-prosody relationships is associated with reading comprehension, while writing studies show that punctuation can serve rhetorical purposes as well as mechanical correctness. Nigerian evidence indicates that writing development remains an educational concern, but punctuation-specific evidence in primary and secondary classrooms is limited. The paper therefore argues that punctuation instruction should be integrated with syntax, reading aloud, comprehension, guided writing, editing, peer review, and writing practices. It identifies the need for more context-specific empirical research on punctuation and English language pedagogy in Nigeria.