overpunctuate

present singular third person overpunctuates · participle present overpunctuating · participle past overpunctuated · past overpunctuated

1. To punctuate excessively.

   Do not overpunctuate; it is much easier than to underpunctuate. The general tendency nowadays is to make punctuation less copious than formerly.

   1893, John F[ranklin] Genung, “The Sentence”, in Outlines of Rhetoric Embodied in Rules, Illustrative Examples, and a Progressive Course of Prose Composition, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.; Chicago, Ill.; London: Ginn & Company, part II (Organization of Materials), chapter section II (Punctuation of the Sentence), page 191

   5 more examples

   In such works it is of the utmost importance to leave no room for doubt as to the meaning of the text, and the policy, in consequence, is to overpunctuate rather than not to punctuate enough.

   1924, Arnold Levitas, Editorial English, New York, N.Y.: Roy Press, page 16

   Do not overpunctuate. But do not underpunctuate. Make your sentence constructions so clear that it will be possible for you to keep punctuation at a minimum.

   1925, Henry Seidel Canby, John Baker Opdycke, Good English: Book Two: The Elements of Composition, The Macmillan Company, page 163

   If there is any tendency in punctuation, it is to overpunctuate rather than underpunctuate in order to keep fairly involved sentences moving smoothly.

   1979, William F. Irmscher, Teaching Expository Writing, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, →ISBN, page 164

   Under those circumstances, I felt obliged to use every device I could imagine to assist them in reading their lines, and sprinkled punctuation amid my prose like a glutton sugaring strawberries. It helped, and I tend to overpunctuate to this day. I practice overpunctuation, although I do not defend it. But the word processor, I believe, will in time change our perceptions of what constitutes overpunctuation.[…]I myself overpunctuate wildly, probably for the reason I pointed out earlier, although it may only be that my genes are badly tangled or something of that general sort.

   1984, Stephen White, The Written Word, and Associated Digressions Concerned with the Writer as Craftsman, Harper & Row, →ISBN, pages 73 and 93

   Students may overpunctuate rather than underpunctuate sentences. Because they feel that sentences must be punctuated, students have a tendency to insert commas randomly through sentences.

   1985, Mamie Atkins, Instructor's Manual, Prentice Hall Handbook for Writers, Prentice Hall, →ISBN, page 68