With or Without You?

 There must be something with the use of punctuation marks. In written English, we understand each other by the correct usage of punctuation marks. Mechanics of writing, as they say, put meanings to the way we write our messages. Here's a good example:

An English professor wrote the words, "A woman without her man is nothing" on the blackboard and directed the students to punctuate it correctly.


The men wrote: "A woman, without her man, is nothing."


The women wrote: "A woman: without her, man is nothing."