Full stops

No one misuses full stops: they end a sentence. But people do miss full stops out sometimes, using either a comma or the word ‘and’ instead. Here’s an example:

“Thank you for your letter and I am extremely pleased to hear that your problems have been resolved.”

If you can replace an ‘and’ with a full stop then do. It will make your sentences shorter and easier to understand. In this example, the writer has thanked the customer for their letter. They then move on to a separate point about being pleased to hear something. The two points do not need to be connected by the word ‘and’, so it should be replaced by a full stop.

The word that most frequently causes people to miss out full stops is ‘however’:

“Believing that you had £120 in your account, you tried to withdraw £40 however an earlier payment into your account had not cleared.”

 Here, the sentence should end after ‘£40’. The writer has told us about an action – trying to withdraw £40 – and the belief that inspired the action. The word “however” begins a new point, a new idea that is different to the one we have just been told. A new point requires a new sentence:

“Believing that you had £120 in your account, you tried to withdraw £40. However, an earlier payment into your account had not cleared.”