Punctuation, Part 1

Punctuation is key, as countless examples have shown us.

Daren McClure. "Punctuation Saves Lives!". 9-30-11 via Flickr. CC A 2.0.

The first section I read is the Comma section, because they're definitely the form of punctuation that I use most and I really don't even know the official rules. After reading the section, I recognize that I've been taught most of this before but in my writing I definitely don't live by all of the rules. I do, however, try to use commas in order to separate clauses that may have a confusing meaning if the comma isn't there. One new thing I learned was about the use of commas on unrestrictive clauses. I definitely knew that people do this and it makes sense, but I never realized there was a name for it and enough information to include it in a book about writing.

Next, I read the Unnecessary Commas section because it made sense to learn about what commas I don't need to include after learning about the ones that I do. This was really cool and I found out that I definitely overuse commas. Instead of listing all the instances I found where I shouldn't actually be using commas, I'll just say that my comma usage is going to be one of the new focuses of my writing and hopefully theres a notable difference.

The Colon. This section was liberating in a way because I feel like I never use colons, and it's because I didn't fully understand where they're acceptable and/or necessary. Fortunately, now I have a whole list of situations when a colon is necessary and so I can start using them more without fear of being mistaken. The most surprising thing was how easily they can fit into normal sentences; I never thought it would be that simple.

Finally I read the section that discusses the Apostrophe. Similar to commas, I think apostrophes start getting thrown around a lot to express plurality but I wasn't sure if that was really allowed. I found out that it's allowed in some instances and not in others. The surprising thing was that there are actually rules about when to use an apostrophe to indicate that there are many of something, and now I have a reference whenever I end up in one of those situations.


REFLECTION
After reviewing Brandon and Mark's projects, I noticed how they both used punctuation in different ways to construct their argument. Because their projects were in a powerpoint and Prezi, I feel like the punctuation was less relevant because of the formatting. If formatting can be considered a form of punctuation then I'd definitely point out that they both formatted their presentations in a way that made the material easy to understand. I tried to think about how I could take that same style of easy-to-read formatting and apply it to my own writing, but because I'm doing it in the form of a paper I feel like the lucidity of the piece is based on the diction and punctuation more than the formatting.