Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Punctuation

Let's talk a minute about three kinds of punctuation, and what they do.

, is a comma. It can act like a pause, an indicator that you're about to clarify or qualify something or a connector of items in a list. It is not the same as a period or the semicolon.

. is a period. It ends sentences. It precedes capital letters at the beginning of new sentences. It is not the same as a comma or a semicolon.

; is a semicolon. It bridges two complete thoughts together into an extended sentence, as well as acts like a comma for when you're making lists of longer phrases. It is not the same as a period or comma.

Got it?

Now go practice.

Happy writing.

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like you could use a laugh with punctuation as the theme:

    http://penny-arcade.com/archive/results/search&keywords=punctuation/

    ReplyDelete
  2. lol Awesome.

    I just finished reading the first 4 Song of Ice and Fire books, and I cannot believe how many comma splices the editors allowed to go to print. *shudder*

    ReplyDelete