History Main / NoPunctuationPeriod

* A rather unusual characteristic of comic books from UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|OfComicBooks}} and forward, particularly those from {{DC|Comics}} (although [[http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2010/01/28/comic-book-legends-revealed-245/ Marvel got in its share in 1971]]), is a complete lack of any punctuation other than exclamation points and question marks. In the beginning it was because the low-quality paper stock would render any small marks, like periods or commas, invisible or illegible. As it stands, the omission of periods and the use of all caps is a stylistic choice, not practiced by all letterers. The dialog is instead structured by comic's own unique punctuation mark, the speech balloon, which provides flow and rhythm via spacial placement, as well as other tone information.

* Given that periods are not required in written Japanese, a lot of scanlations are prone to this. Or else! They will end every sentence the same way! With an exclamation mark! Even when it makes no sense! And when it reduces the impact of sentences that had an exclamation mark in Japanese!

* In ''Wonderful Town'', a character has to take an emergency pause for breath while reading an enormous run-on sentence in one of the [[StylisticSuck deliberately ridiculous]] [[ShowWithinAShow Plays Within The Play]].

* A rather unusual characteristic of comic books from {{the Silver Age|OfComicBooks}} and forward, particularly those from {{DC|Comics}} (although [[http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2010/01/28/comic-book-legends-revealed-245/ Marvel got in its share in 1971]]), is a complete lack of any punctuation other than exclamation points and question marks. In the beginning it was because the low-quality paper stock would render any small marks, like periods or commas, invisible or illegible. As it stands, the omission of periods and the use of all caps is a stylistic choice, not practiced by all letterers. The dialog is instead structured by comic's own unique punctuation mark, the speech balloon, which provides flow and rhythm via spacial placement, as well as other tone information.

* The fiction of Portuguese novelist José Saramago features only periods and commas, and nothing more. Furthermore, there's no indication of dialogue or who's talking what, except that each piece of dialogue starts with capital letters, just as if it was written normally. Finally, his paragraphs extend over pages. Sweden awarded him the NobelPrizeInLiterature.

** In fact, originally punctuation didn't even ''exist'' in Japanese (it was imported in the early 20th century). In ''bungo'', the old form of written Japanese, the form of the verb differed depending on its position in the sentence. If it determined a following noun, it was in ''rentaikei'' (the cat sleeping here > koko de ''nuru'' neko); if it ended the sentence, it was in ''shūshikei'' (the cat sleeps here > neko ha koko de ''nu''). However, bungo fell out of use at the turn of the 20th century because of its increasingly absurd divergence with spoken Japanese − imagine 1890 Brith people speaking more or less in modern English but still writing like Shakespeare. Since modern Japanese no longer has that distinction, punctuation may have been a way to compensate.

** In fact, originally punctuation didn't even ''exist'' in Japanese (it was imported in the early 20th century). In ''bungo'', the old form of written Japanese, the form of the verb differed depending on its position in the sentence. If it determined a following noun, it was in ''rentaikei'' (the cat sleeping here > koko de ''nuru'' neko); if it ended the sentence, it was in ''shūshikei'' (the cat sleeps here > neko ha koko de ''nu'').

->and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.

* Similar things pop in up ''ArchieComics'', so that every sentence tends to end with an exclamation point. It appears that Riverdale is full of people with no inside voices.

* Can also be done for stylistic reasons: viz., the last chapter of ''{{Ulysses}}''. Well, it has one period somewhere in the middle, and one at the end (said by some to indicate an orgasm). Supposedly Joyce did this to imitate his wife's letters, which were written that way, per a technique used to teach less well-off girls in Ireland at that time to write.

* The second part of ''TheSoundAndTheFury'', narrated by a somewhat unstable Quentin, gradually discards all grammar and punctuation and devolves into a single run-on sentence that goes on for pages.

* Every sentence in the original Japanese ''{{Pokemon}}'' games ends in either an exclamation point, question mark, or ellipses. One with a period was finally added for ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver''; it describes what happens when a Pokémon uses the move "Splash" (nothing).

* Roast Beef of ''{{Achewood}}'' (and Nice Pete as well)'s speech balloons have a lower sized font than the rest of the comic's population, and no punctuation. Presumably this reflects a quiet, flat tone of voice.

** [[WhatAnIdiot They were idiots.]] (Thats not fair I have dyslexia or Aspergers or adhd or hangnails or chocoholism google said so!)

* Literature/{{Trainspotting}} has different punctuation rules based on the point-of-view character. Each chapter is from a different perspective. Some of the narrators are better about it than others.

* Lucy on ''TheWarComms'' barely even knows what a Shift key ''is''. Rod and Sue can be pretty bad about this sometimes, too.

Often goes hand in hand with AllLowercaseLetters. Has absolutely nothing to do with NoPeriodsPeriod or ''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation''. Let us mention neither here. Related to WantonCrueltyToTheCommonComma.

Alas, you've just stumbled into a relic of the No Punctuation Period, a horrible time in which people apparently forgot how sentences were built. When taken to extremes it can result in a visual WallOfText, thus adding to its unreadability. Sadly, this happens outside of FanFics too, as many tropers could tell you. There are a few havens of good style, [[GrammarNazi some brave netizens tropers among them]], who have taken up arms to fight back the [[SeriousBusiness scourge of illiteracy]].

* "On The Train" is one of the most {{egregious}} examples. Despite the majority of the punctuation being relatively correct, the story contained no commas whatsoever.

* Justified in the ''ArchyAndMehitabel'' poems by Don Marquis: Archy is a cockroach who writes by jumping headfirst onto the keys of [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis Marquis's typewriter]]. This means he can't type anything that requires holding down the shift key.

[[SelfDemonstratingArticle so youve found]] what seems to be a good [[FanFic fanfic]] you havent started reading it yet but its got a good description and better yet your [[{{OTP}} otp]] is in it of course you have to read it thusly you click on it and beg wait um what is this where are the periods the question marks exclamation points [[GrammarNazi oh god no commas or colons no no]] [[BigNo noooooooooooooo]]

[[SelfDemonstratingArticle so youve found]] what seems to be a good [[FanFic fanfic]] i mean you havent started reading it yet but its got a good description and better yet your [[{{OTP}} otp]] is in it of course you have to read it thusly you click on it and beg wait um what is this where are the periods the question marks exclamation points [[GrammarNazi oh god no commas or colons no no]] [[BigNo noooooooooooooo]]

Alas, you've just stumbled into a relic of the NoPunctuationPeriod, a horrible time in which people apparently forgot how sentences were built. When taken to extremes it can result in a visual WallOfText, thus adding to its unreadability. Sadly, this happens outside of FanFics too, as many Tropers could tell you. There are a few havens of good style, [[GrammarNazi some brave netizens Tropers among them]], who have taken up arms to fight back the [[SeriousBusiness scourge of illiteracy]].

* In ''JustForFun/PokemonVietnameseCrystal'', a poorly translated bootleg of ''[[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver Pokemon Crystal Version]]'', the game is such a BlindIdiotTranslation that every bit of text is full of spelling errors, no punctuation, and is grammatically incorrect.

* ''Literature/TheHouseOnMangoStreet'' by Sandra Cisneros never, ever seems to use quotation marks. You have to figure out who's talking.

** ''Willem often sent me letter back in the day. Often, the punctuation was off. One time, he sent over a letter which was just one long sentence, going on and on. He ended the letter with a bunch of dots and comma's and a post scriptum: My friend, please see fit to fill in all the dots and comma's where you think they might look nice.''

Sometimes, though, NoPunctuationIsFunnier.

* In a wholly justified example, the ancient Romans didn't use punctuation as we know it, so all Latin written in the Classical period would appear this way (including extant inscriptions). As a result, modern-day Latinists can't trust the punctuation that has long since been added to the vast majority of Latin literature which has been transmitted through the centuries via copied and recopied manuscripts.

** Telegrams not punctuated. May be example of trope. Usage of. Instead of period or full. Reduces alphabet size by obsoleting punctuation. In hindsight, if somebody wanted to actually ''say'' "stop", there was a small chance of the message being lost if the telegrapher was not experienced.