Punctuation, Part 1

In this blog post, I will be discussing punctuation methods and marks found in the front of the Students' Guide.

The Semi-Colon: I tend to overuse semi-colons in my writing. I think this is because in high school, I was strongly encouraged to use creative grammar in order to display my knowledge as opposed to using my writing to do so. I do enjoy a good semi-colon, but I believe I might have been misusing them before. For instance, I now know that semi-colons should never accompany subordinate clauses.

"Air Quotes" from Austin Powers

Quotation Marks: The reason I find quotation marks interesting is the accompanying nuances that go with intonation. Obviously, quotation marks are widely used to directly quote text. However, the whole concept of quotation marks often goes along with sarcasm, irony, or sass.

Colon: I found the colon most interesting because the Students' Guide instructions directly contradicted what I had been told my whole academic life about colons. For some reason, I have been told never to use a colon with a direct quotation. However, I have now seen the light. Usually I use colons to emphasize a point. This might work stylistically, but grammatically, can be problematic.