Punctuation, Part 1

In the following post, I will relate what I learned from the sections about punctuation I read in the Rules for Writer's textbook.

Graham, Sean. "Employee Must 'Wash Hands'" 9/5/2006 via flickr. Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License.

Unnecessary commas

I am most guilty of the subsection that reads "Do not use commas to set off restrictive or mildly parenthetical elements. The examples they provided in the book of when not to add commas really helped me to differentiate when commas are necessary and when they are just in the way. 

Other punctuation marks

I like using punctuation such as dashes, slashes, etc. in my writing. Interestingly, I learned that to form a proper dash in a document, you must use two --, and not just one - as I had been. It's a simple correction, but I actually found it interesting that there's a rule about that specifically. 

The semicolon

I've hated semicolons my whole life. But as english classes became more advanced, they were a necessary introduction into my writing style (did that sentence need a semi-colon? I don't even know). The book gave the same parameters that all other english textbooks do, though I still find that some of the literature I've read doesn't seem to follow these rules either. Is there some instances where the author has creative liberty with semicolons? Overall, I still just don't like semicolons. 

Reflection

I peer-edited Morgan's Project 2 Analysis. She appeared to be very comfortable with semi-colons. One instance in which she utilized a semi-colon is listed below. 

It is generally easy to find information on the author of an online article; clicking their name usually links readers to a short biography on who they are and what credentials they have.

Here she demonstrates rule 34a: Use a semicolon between closely related independent clauses not joined with a coordinating conjunction. It was nice seeing an example of this in Morgan's draft. It helped to solidify this rule in my mind.

***

I also peer-edited Nick's Project 2 Analysis. He demonstrated a well-grounded understanding of comma use in sentence. He wrote the following:

Nevertheless, for those interested in the topic of geoengineering, namely “solar geoengineering” (as Keith calls it), or those in support of the methods, the ideas presented by Keith in the interview may be solid evidence of reliable and credible information.

The commas successfully suit their need of "preventing confusion" (32j) and setting of "transitional and parenthetical expressions" (32f). Analytical essay's can be filled with complicated sentences that require numerous commas. Nick demonstrated a firm grasp on these concepts.