My Grammar and I (Or Should That Be 'Me'?): Old-School Ways to Sharpen Your English

S
TOP
! (
OR
, F
ULL
S
TOPS
)
The  full  stop  (or  full  point  or,  in  American  English,  period  )  is  the  strongest
mark of punctuation. It shows its muscle by telling us we need to make a definite
pause  at  the  end  of  a  sentence,  giving  us  time  to  gather  our  breath  or  our
thoughts, before moving on to the next sentence. Ignore the pause and sentences
run  together:  meaning  becomes  confused.  Full  stops  are  also  used  in  (some)
abbreviations (see below). They are not used:
  when we end a sentence with another punctuation mark, e.g. a question mark
or an exclamation mark. Understand? Of course you do!
  if a sentence ends with an abbreviation. In this case, the full stop indicating
the abbreviation does the job of two: I have to go out at 9 p.m.