The Theory of Punctuated Pauses ©S. Ingraham: lightshedder.com
All writing is just speech pinned down on paper to hold it still. In speaking we do not just go on forever in one unending breath. We use pauses to make our meaning clear. In writing, we represent those pauses with punctuation. Every pause needs punctuation. Every time you would stop to draw breath, every time you would space your words to make the meaning clear, there should be some punctuation mark. That’s what punctuation marks are for, to tell the reader where to pause, and how to make sense of what you have written.
The shortest pause is marked by a comma... , It is just a bit of breath, a catch in the breath, the barest stop to make the meaning clear.
The longest pause, when you are going to stop to wait for an answer (or might if you had time) is marked by a... ? (question mark).
The . (period) marks a full stop between thoughts (sentences), longer than a ,...a definite silence between thoughts.
The ... (ellipse) marks a pause just longer than a , and is used when you are about to explain or expand on what you just said or when you intentionally leave words out.
The () (parenthesis) sets off extra information and marks a pause about as long as an ...
The : (colon) marks the pause before you give a list of examples or a definition.
The ; (semi-colon) is a pause just longer than a ,...you use it when you already have ,s in one or more items in a list; when you could replace it with the word and (or sometimes or) between two related thoughts (sentences). In that use it is like a . only just slightly shorter.