Comma And Semicolons

In the day where technology is thriving, and the communication through email and text messages are now the common norm, there has been a steady decline and absence on the use of proper punctuation. The slow disappearance of punctuation standards, like commas and apostrophes, indicate the need for change towards the written world. Lynne Truss considers herself a stickler for punctuation, and her book, Eats, Shoots and Leaves addresses the minority of those who regard themselves as punctuation "sticklers" as well. Through the use of humor, figurative language such as relatable analogies and real life anecdotes, Lynne Truss creates a call to action for all the fellow punctuation sticklers: embrace proper punctuation, and require zero tolerance for those who use it incorrectly.

As a writer it is important to find new ways to improve, I realized in to this class just how weak my skills in punctuation are. After each paper I review comma and semicolon rules, yet I still struggle with these rules. They are simple rules, but when it comes to applying them I draw a blank. This is one skill that will take some extra work on my part. Even in this assignment I see mistakes that I do not know how to fix. However, this class has inspired me to continue to try and fix the punctuation errors so that my

It helps the sentences transition nicely and form into well worded paragraphs. As Zinsser said in his essay, “You can avoid this dreaded fate for your message, whatever it is, by making sure that every sentence is a logical sequel to the one that proceeded it.” (TRR 202) He gives us an alternative method by suggesting to create two or three different sentences or words and see what one fits and flows the best. Choose your sentence, as each good sentence will form a perfect piece of writing.

Punctuation is a major part of writing because it creates meaning within sentences. And John Irving uses it liberally. Throughout the book, many words

In the introduction to my first essay the 3rd sentence contains an easily remediable comma splice: “Not me, I live for this.” Later in the same paragraph I made the same mistake with “My operators think they are the ones who drive me into these situations – they’re wrong, I am the one who drags them into the belly of the beast.” Prior to ENC1101, I would never consider the preceding sentence wrong. After learning about the proper usage of commas and semicolons, I realized I have been creating comma splices all my life. Learning what independent clauses were and how to properly punctuate them has given my writing a greater sense of credibility. Replacing the comma with a semicolon, the punctuation used to separate 2 independent clauses, fixes them. Another error exposed during this course was my improper use of word forms. An example is shown here from my second essay “Seeing their demeanor switch from animosity to appreciative made me feel rewarded for my efforts”. Reading that sentence in my mine seems fine, but on closer inspection the words “animosity” and “appreciative” are not in same form. This course (specifically the SmartThinking program) has shown me that making word forms agree leads to more fluid writing. Correcting these errors leads to more mature writing and will make future professors respect my writing

We read so we can remember. We write so we can remember. In his essay Foer writes, “The brain is always making mistakes, forgetting, misremembering, writing is how we overcome those essential biological constraints.” (Foer 161) Foer provides us with this statement to elaborate on how essential writing is to learning and remembering. Writing was very different than it is now. Spaces where not even used, the early form of writing, scriptio continua, was broken up by neither spaces nor punctuation. Foer would describe scriptio continua, “Where one word ends and another begins is a relatively arbitrary linguistic convention.” (Foer 163) Since scriptio continua was one long drawn out string of sounds it was hardly, if ever, read silently. With no punctuation the relationship between reading and writing played a much different role then it does today. Reading this type of text required the reader to already be familiar with what he or she wanted to stay. The reader had to memorize the text. By extension, reading is no different today. If we read, we must first have an understanding of what it is that we are reading. Understanding has become much easier to achieve due to advances in the organization of

Punctuation: these may have occurred because the student may have not been aware of the proper use of commas, semi colons, full stops and the like.

The two errors that present the biggest challenge to me in writing are comma splice and unnecessary commas. All throughout high school and into college these two errors have been my biggest downfall. In Fall 2014 semester, I took English 111 and my teacher had written on every paper that I wrote that I have to be careful of both comma splice and unnecessary commas. I can use this class as an opportunity to correct these errors by referring back to this book. In my other class, we didn’t use a book so I never had something to help me understand what exactly I was doing wrong. I hope that with help from my classmates and my teacher I can overcome this obstacle I face in my writing. In addition, I plan to use the book to help me when I am uncertain

You will be asked to correctly add commas to a paragraph of text using your understanding of the 8 comma rules.

My love for writing isn’t as strong as my love for reading. I’ve always enjoyed the idea of expressing my thoughts in words, but I always struggle with things such as punctuation, spelling, grammar, and word choice. I think I’m better at writing personal narratives, and persuasive essays, but I‘m always unsure of where to put my commas. Writing has always given me the pleasure of challenging me, and I hope that this year I would become a better

After reading “Semicolons: A Love Story” by Ben Dolnick, my view and knowledge of semicolons changed. The first thing I learned is that I had no idea someone could write about punctuation by telling a story and relating it to personal experiences. For example, the author begins the article talking about when he was a teenager that he did not pay much attention to semicolons. Over time the author started noticing and was fascinated with how these semicolons were used as well as how he could use them in his own writing. Another thing that I learned was the definition of a semicolon. The author states “a semicolon is used to separate parts of a sentence that need a more distinct break that a comma can signal, but that are too closely connected

I was able to identify some additional areas where I would like to improve my writing. In fear of miss-using them, I have always avoided colons and semi-colons. But now, after reading Grellier and Goerke (2006) I am confident that I know their role and will use them appropriately. Although no spelling errors were found in my writing, I know there are words that I commonly misspell and use spell check to correct without actually learning the correct spelling. With this in mind, a friend suggested that I manually correct all my spelling

Elena Gonzalez Hoggatt-Abader Engl 101 September 29, 2015 The Demands of Womanhood Society plays a key role in determining how people are supposed to fulfill their roles in society—specifically their gender roles. This means that typically the norm is that men are to be the head of the house and are to be the financial supporters while women are typically categorized as being the homemaker and caretaker. The complexity and importance of being a woman the “right” way is shown through Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl”, a short story reflecting her growing up in Antigua.

An aspect that I often struggle with is proper punctuation. Truthfully, I do not know how to correctly use punctuation. When writing, I place punctuation by mimicking authors’ formats or by placing them where it feels right. This is present in all of my writing, but I am attempting to improve. Punctuation also plays a part in another weakness of mine, one that is most likely present within this essay. Since middle school, it was engrained in my mind that a good essay is a long essay, so I have a tendency for wordiness. To elongate an essay, I tend to add needless words and sentences. For example, in the rough draft of the Whole Process Essay, I added several unrelated occurrences to elongate the paragraphs. Although my essays were long and wordy, the professor commented on vagueness and unclearness within the whole process and practice essay. Sometimes, I disregard the fact that the reader might not know what it is I am writing about or the sentence makes perfect sense to me. The latter is the most common, I quickly read the sentence and it appears fine to me. Within the Whole Process Essay, another weakness was brought to my attention. I lack structure, a key element in effective writing. Within the same essay and a few others, I simply added what felt right, sometimes the result would be acceptable but in other instances, it was a long, jumbled mess.

Punctuation was created in the English language to create a sense of knowledgeability and clarity while reading, writing or speaking. While punctuation is not used in this piece