According to Solomon "Punctuation directs tempo, pitch, volume, and the separation of words." Basically he discusses the idea that with punctuation you can communicate almost anything. Taking this into consideration I would say that he feel similarly towards the use of capital letters. They can STAND OUT and draw a reader's FOCUS towards certain areas of the page. You can make something seem very IMPORTANT if it is in all capitals or in some cases you may do the exact OPPOSITE AND LOOSE THE READER'S ATTENTION IF THE INFORMATION SEEMS TOO DIFFICULT OR TOO MUCH WORK TO READ. (Williams mentions in The Non-Designer's Design Book that typeface in all capital letters is more difficult to read so use it cautiously)
I think that the only source of punctuation that actually needs to exists are quotation marks because lots of people would get in trouble for plagiarism if they didn't use them in their writing assignments. Also it creates useful transitions or breaks when incorporating dialogue into a written work. You could get away with things like question marks and periods because you could simply read something and know if it is a question without having a mark and you could simply finish a sentence by using a capital letter at the beginning of the next one.
I'm not as big on punctuation as Solomon is. I think there is enough punctuation that's already out there and just waiting to be used in new and creative ways. You can spice up punctuation with different sizes and fonts to create something new. I believe that if a person is creative and has a reasonable amount of intelligence they can use punctuation in many different ways that suit their specific needs or ideas.
Solomon, Martin. The Power of Punctuation. MIT Press. 28-32. Jstor.org. 9 Sept. 2011. Web.
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