Punctuation, Part 1

In this post I will explore three topics of punctuation, from Rules for Writers, that gave me new knowledge that I can use to improve my writing.

Jes, "anthropophagy." 10/22/2010 via Flickr. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic

1. Colon-

• Use a colon after an independent clause to direct attention to a list, an appositive, a quote, a summary, or an explanation
• Avoid common misuses: between a verb and its object or compliment, between a preposition and its object, after such as/ including/ for example
• This portion of "Punctuation" showed me that the colon can be incorporated into my writing in more ways than I originally thought. It can be somewhat easy to misuse a colon and misinterpret its correct uses, however, if properly executed, a colon can really add great effect to one's writing.

2. Unnecessary Commas-

• Do not use a comma between compound elements that are not independent clauses
• Do not use commas to set off restrictive or mildly parenthetical elements.
• Avoid common uses of comma: after although, after a subordinating clause, after such as or like
• One aspect of the portion of "Punctuation" that was interesting to me was that fact that one mustn't separate a clause that is being used as a modifier, if that modifier is crucial to the overall meaning of the sentence. I typically tend to misuse commas in my writing, therefore reading this section was helpful in reminding me the basic uses of commas.

3. Semicolon-

• Use a semicolon between closely related independent clauses not joined by a conjunction
• Avoid common misuses of semicolon: between a subordinate clause and the rest of the sentence, between an appositive and the word that it refers to 
• This section of "Punctuation" was helpful in reminding me that a semicolon can be used to connect independent clauses that are relevant to one another, but lack conjunctions (but, and, nor, for). My sentences are usually quite lengthy and I worry a lot of the time that my writing has run-ons, thus using more semicolons based on the knowledge I obtained from this reading could really help me.

Reflection:

After peer editing the rhetorical analysis drafts by Annelise and Lauren I leaned a lot more about the grammar points that I addressed in this post earlier.

For instance while reading Annelise's draft I was able to identify a sentence that needed a semicolon, rather than a comma:

"The use of the word 'phony' is not a descriptive word; it is a spiteful word."

• Originally the semicolon in this sentence was a comma, but after reading the "Punctuation" pages from our textbook I was confident in asserting that a semicolon should be used here, because it connects two related independent clauses. I typically struggle with grammar in my own writing, and usually am unable to point out grammatical errors in my peers' writing, thus to be able to find an error in Annelise's draft proved that the reading that I performed for this post was effective.

While reading Jenny's draft I came across a really beneficial use of a colon:

"Van Roekel brings up his credibility once again in the conclusion of his article: 'After decades spent teaching math and visiting schools across the country…'(Van Roekel)."

• When doing my reading about colons I was informed that a common use for colons is to introduce quotes. However, I was pretty skeptical about how this would be done. But after peer reviewing Jenny's draft I was able to see at least two examples of colons being used effectively, thus I am more confident that I will be able to use colons in my draft as well.