Punctuation change

Question 1

What are the rules for using a capital letter in a modern text?

Answer 1

At the start of a sentence, in titles, for proper nouns and for the singular first person pronoun ‘I’

Question 2

What are the rules for using a capital letter in 17th and 18th century texts?

Answer 2

They are used at the start of a sentence, in titles, for proper nouns and for the singular first person pronoun ‘I’, but also to add emphasis to certain words. These are often inconsistent though from text to text and even within texts.

Question 3

What types of punctuation are used a lot in modern texts?

Answer 3

There is greater use of exclamation marks to add emphasis and non-standard punctuation such as question marks and exclamation marks together ??!!!.

Question 4

Why is punctuation often missing from modern forms of communication such as texts?

Answer 4

It is seen as too formal and can make the sender seem angry.

Question 5

How do older texts separate their sentences that is different from modern texts?

Answer 5

Very old texts may use the virgule /, whilst texts from the 17th and 18th centuries often have lots of long complex sentences divided using semi-colons.