ON THE MARK is an extraordinary and entertaining account of how the words we read have a hidden language and history of their own. At first, I thought that Florence Hazrat’s book might help me improve my writing skills. But I quickly realized that this would be a far different journey, and it was one that I fully embraced and enjoyed.

In 2007, the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary changed 16,000 words by altering hyphens. Some words were combined, while some hyphens were eliminated by divorcing words previously joined together. The editor explained his decision by commenting that ordinary people “are not confident about using hyphens anymore,” because they are “messy looking and old-fashioned.” The tiny hyphen had served readers and writers well for thousands of years. Why toss it into the dustbin (or is that dust-bin) of punctuation history?

"Florence Hazrat has given us far more than a thoughtful history of punctuation. In this delightful adventure in reading, she has provided us with a history of the world."

For Hazrat, changes in punctuation are normal and an important reflection on our values. ON THE MARK examines how humans have interacted with punctuation individually and collectively. It organizes our lives and has done so even before the printed word became part of our daily existence.

Punctuation began with lines and notches pressed into clay in ancient Mesopotamia. For thousands of years, no spaces existed between words. Then, in the eighth century, Irish monks pioneered their use. By the 13th and 14th centuries, writing moved from religious documents to the public and governmental areas of people’s lives, and it required more than just written words. Punctuation became essential to proper communication. Along the way, important writers such as Martin Luther, Queen Elizabeth, Galileo and William Shakespeare used the world of writing and literature to educate and inform. 

Hazrat weaves her way through history with wonderful examples of how punctuation has influenced our lives. In our world, printing is a simple process as we type, autocorrect and hit print. But at the beginning of the 20th century, printing was still a demanding task that required individual letters, ink and trays. Punctuation marks were a must. When the Russian government announced that printers would not be paid for punctuation marks, a strike ensued that impacted the entire nation. This was the beginning of the Russian Revolution of 1917. But this was not the first time that punctuation influenced history. Just recall our own American War of Independence and the writings of Thomas Jefferson.

ON THE MARK is neither a grammar guide nor a lecture on the evils of unpunctuating. It is an interesting journey of how we have arrived at a moment when we now ponder how emojis have become part of our communications. Florence Hazrat has given us far more than a thoughtful history of punctuation. In this delightful adventure in reading, she has provided us with a history of the world.