Purposeful Punctuation

This chapter was very useful to me because I always felt that I knew how to use commas and semicolons appropriately, but I couldn't explain it in technical terms. The way I did it in the past was usually based on sound; if there was a pause, I put in a comma. If there was a longer pause, and it was two separate ideas, it was a semicolon. Of course this didn't always work, but it worked well enough for it to appear that I knew what I was doing. As far as dashes are concerned, I still don't like them even though I know how to use them properly now. They distract me too much from what I'm reading.

Purposeful Punctuation - empahsis on purposeful

I found this section fairly useful. I have always punctuated using only commas and end punctuation, but I had never really considered it a problem. After reading the section and seeing the different options laid out all together like that, I have come to realize that other punctuation can give my writing more clarity. The key is the idea of using it purposefully. I didn't find the exercises at all useful, because I didn't write the sentence. I couldn't know how to use punctuation to deliberately make the point, since the point wasn't mine. That said, I can absolutely see how dashes and semicolons could be useful tools for showing connections. I still don't think my writing was necessary deficient, but I do think I had more options available to me than I realized. Without these other punctuation marks, I was consistently forced into a situation of have to rewrite sentences to make them clearer. A lot of times I just decided to break them into two sentences, which could easily result in choppy-sounding writing. I suppose the other side of that coin is that even with revision, the sentences in exercise 63 are a bit confusing and could easily benefit from being rewritten into two separate sentences. And here my great epiphany: The nice thing about understanding how to use punctuation purposefully is that it gives you the option to separate or combine sentences, rather than forcing the necessity on you.

As a side note, you might have noticed that I really like the use of italics. I don't think it should be used all the time, but I do think it is often a much more direct way of showing emphasis than awkward there clefts and what not. Plus, the emphasis can totally change the meaning of a sentence while still sounding natural. If writing is code for speech, then it seems to me that italics are an excellent way to encode emphasis. Anyway, this is all really beside the point, and I'm not even sure I've ever been told not to do it, so I don't know why I'm acting like it's this great debate.

Purposeful Punctuation

After reading this chapter, I feel refreshed and excited about the new punctuation marks that I can use.  In most of my writing, I only use commas because I didn't know how to use dashes or semicolons correctly and I was scared of messing them up until now.  I like the way that dashes and semicolons add to the variety in the sentences and they way that they can be used as a tool to emphasize certain parts of the sentence.  An example from the chapter that I would have used a period in instead of a semicolon, is: 

The issues were difficult to sort out; however, the judges had to make a decision.  

The section that was least helpful to me was the one about using apostrophes.  I feel confidently about my ability to use apostrophes correctly.  I found the exercises fairly easy and I could not see myself putting that many commas in one sentence.  I am glad that I now have options other than commas in my writing.  I think this was a good section to read because it is one that most people have trouble with.  

  

Comments on "Purposeful Punctuation"

I think that some of the conventions described in this chapter are unpleasant and not useful as conventions.

Case in point:

"Do NOT use a comma between cumulative modifiers...

A set of large shiny new brass pots hangs over the stove." (363)

Now, I would write this sentence, "A set of large, shiny, new brass pots hangs over the stove." However, the writers of the book might say that this puntuation leads to confusion over whether the brass is new or the pots are new. As a reader or writer, I prefer the commas because each modifier deserves weight. Without the commas, I didn't pay attention to each modifier, so some got lost. Glossing over modifiers can be useful, but the writers don't provide the other option - my preferred option.

Also, they left out my favorite use of dashes - to connect two clauses that are completely causal. In this case, the dash stands in for a word like "because." Here is an example: I couldn't go to the store - the car was dead. This might not be conventional, but I think it works better than a semicolon.

I think the writers could have done a better job explaining the usages of parentheses. Parenthesis is a complicated stylistic device because it can "downplay explanatory or amplifying material" (366) or, contrarily, call attention to that material and change the tone of the sentence. It can also call attention away from the material around it, so that a reader focuses on nothing but the tone of the author or the information within the parentheses. The writers should have taken more time to discuss this device and its complicated effects.

I found their explanation of colon usage useful because have been misusing colons with the word "includes." Hopefully I will remember not to use a colon like this (with the word "includes") in the future.