Punctuation, Part 1

In the following blog post I will be analyzing three punctuation topics found in Rules for Writers that I felt unfamiliar with.

The Green Album, "Punctuation",
 2/16/08 via Flickr.com

I reviewed the essay draft of Mira and Alex for my peer review.

The Semicolon:

I've always known semicolon's as a means of diversifying your sentence structures and connecting sentence elements. The possible applications of semicolons, however, are much larger than I ever thought. If a sentence uses a comma, it's important to reflect on whether you can place a semicolon in it's place. I found the use of the semicolon in lists with internal punctuation interesting, as well as the warning of using a semicolon in place of a colon.

The Colon:

I knew the typical use of a colon for a list and vaguely knew of the use of it with a quotation. I was, however, unfamiliar with its use for a summary or appositive. The summary use I found to be particularly useful. It gives the writer the chance to thin down on words as well as introduce a new sentence structure to keep the text interesting.

An example found in Alex's draft uses a colon in the case of an appositive:

"There is another argument for this policy based on fairness: provided that a drug is safe, it is unfair to the honest athletes that they have to miss out on an advantage that the cheaters enjoy."

Other Punctuation:

The use of other punctuation I found very interesting in particular because of their diverse usage. The use of a dash for emphasis seems like a fun and interesting structure. I feel that both parenthesis and brackets can be a little messy, but convenient when you know how to execute them. An ellipsis is convenient and saves space while cutting out unnecessary content. The slash is a clarifier.

Here is an example of the use of a dash in the place of a comma from Mira's draft:

"Much to the dismay of conservatives and climate change deniers alike, the Pope has pleaded with the world in his encyclical “Laudato Si’” - the original document sent by the current Pope to all of the Catholic bishops calling for recognition of the environment -  to realize the human effect on the planet and make a concerted effort to protect it."