Punctuation is indeed powerful..

I saw this on my friend's FB.

An English professor wrote the words on the whiteboard.

"A woman without her man is nothing" 

He asked his students to punctuate it correctly.

All of the males in the class wrote:"A woman, without her man, is nothing."

All the females in the class wrote : A woman : without her, man is nothing ."

 Punctuation is powerful.

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      And ni pula my story about how important punctuation is in writing.  I remember when I was in lower secondary , my Bah Melayu teacher Cikgu Tajul (Arwah ), was teaching on punctuation or tanda baca in Malay.

      He told us a story ( pertaining to the importance of punctuation).that I still remember until now.And always I would relate to  the story too when I taught punctuation to my pupils.

      Long ago,there was a man who was found guilty of murder. So when the day came to hang him he was taken to a secret place by the guards of the king on a horse drawn carriage.

    Suddenly a man came to see the king and confessed that the man was innocent and that the real culprit was caught and taken to the palace. Semua orang panic. The carriage was long gone. 

    The king then ordered  the best man to go and save the man .With him the king wrote a letter to be given to the chief guard.

   He wrote : TUNGGU JANGAN GANTUNG LELAKI ITU. (There was no punctuation in the sentence! )

   Actually the king should have written : TUNGGU, JANGAN GANTUNG LELAKI ITU !

The chief guard received the letter from the king and read it loudly with his own perception .

      "TUNGGU JANGAN , GANTUNG LELAKI ITU.!

The poor man was hanged ....kesian.

PS. Moral of the story..Punctuation is indeed powerful..

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