Punctuation, Part 2

Punctuation, Part 2 

Correct punctuation is the key to successful writing. Below is an analyzation of three more areas of punctuation that I feel are necessary for me to focus on in the revision process. 

• Commas
• In my last blog post I focused on unnecessary commas but I think it also important to look at the proper conventions of the comma. There are a number of instances in which a writer should use a comma, on in specific is between a coordinating conjunction joining independent clauses. Many of these conventions are taught to students in grade school but one thing I was surprised by was that a comma should be used between all items in a list or series. I always thought the comma should only be used between everything but the second to last item and the word and but that is incorrect. Additionally, the semicolon and comma combination is an interesting writing tactic that I might try to employ more in my writing.
• The Apostrophe:
• There is much discrepancy about where apostrophes should be placed. The main use of the apostrophe is to show that a noun is possessive. It was interesting to hear the logistics of how apostrophes work specifically. 
• If the noun does not end in s the writer should add -'s
• If the noun is singular or ends in -s or s sound the writer should add -'s 
• If the noun is plural and ends in -s the writer should add only an apostrophe
• Joint possession is shown by -'s added to only the last noun of the joining 
• Compound nouns should have -'s added to the last element
• Other punctuation marks: the dash, parentheses, brackets, the ellipsis mark, the slash:
• All of these other punctuation marks are pretty interesting to me because I rarely use them if I use them at all. I thought it was interesting that the dashes are used to off set something that needs emphasis. Additionally, parentheses should be used around supplemental material that is not imperative to understanding the text while brackets are solely used in quotations around wording or grammar that the author has changed in a quote. The ellipsis is used to show you have deleted words from a word-for-word quotation and the slash is used to separate two or three lines of poetry that have been input into the text. It was exciting to finally understand all the different punctuations. 

McClure, Darin. "Punctuation Saves Lives!"9/30/11 via flickr.  Creative Commons Attribution.

Revision Realizations: 

• "Those who appreciate the genetic engineering ban worry about people beginning to ask for change in physical traits rather than change in internal health traits, the opposite of what should be being resolved with the process of gene manipulation. (Parry)"
• In this quote from my paper that is a paraphrase of some of Parry's ideas I utilized the comma to separate the two independent clauses. This is just one of the many effective ways that a comma can be used in a sentence. Although I used the comma correctly and effectively hear sometimes I think that I still use it incorrectly in other ways that I will be focusing on for the rest of my revision process.
• "The article ends with the question: “How would a ban on the genetic modification of children be enforced, she asked, would all babies be forcibly tested?” leading readers to end off on a note regarding the article and leads them to think about how the topic could be expanded upon."
• This quote from my draft shows my attempt at using a different type of punctuation known as the colon. A writing becomes more interesting to a reader if there's varying sentence structure and the use of different types of punctuation can help to aid that process. That being said I think I want to try to use more variation in punctuation type through my paper in order to keep the reader from getting bored. I could include tactics like the semicolon and comma combination, more colons, or dashes to convey my ideas effectively.