Just as spoken and written language change over time, so does the relationship between these two forms of linguistic representation. In the case of English, this relationship has undergone two major shifts. Before the 17th century, writing was predominantly a means of recording formal transactions or enabling readers to re-present speech at a future time. By the 18th and 19th centuries, writing achieved greater independence from the spoken word. However, in the second half of the 20th century, writing was increasingly redefined as a mirror of informal discourse. This paper argues that the history of punctuation in the English-speaking world offers tangible evidence for the evolving interplay between speech and writing.