Tag Archives: punctuation

Using colons: an explanation follows

Reading, Writing, Research Posted on by 2

Colons are among the oldest punctuation marks in use. At first, they indicated a pause somewhat longer than a comma and shorter than a period.  Now, they more likely indicate that what follows is related in to what comes before by offering some kind of explanation. Or to put it another way, a colon means the sentence isn’t finished, and what follows is important. Colons also have important roles besides in sentences. The rules for using them are straightforward and not controversial.

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Some troublesome punctuation marks

Reading, Writing, Research Posted on by 2

What are punctuation marks? Some say they’re like the stitching that keeps different pieces of fabric together. Some say they’re like traffic signs; they tell readers when to stop, keep going, slow down, or take a detour. And nearly everyone, it seems, has trouble with punctuation. Whatever image you like, using correct punctuation is nothing more than good manners. Unfortunately, many people find it confusing. College students soon learn that the various style guides—think AP, APA, MLA, CMS—all have different rules. Proper punctuation according to one is a mistake according to another. Let’s look at some types of punctuation marks and try to have some fun as we try to make sense of them.

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Notice to online writers: proofread!

Reading, Writing, Research Posted on by  

When I was first starting out in this writing business, I read a lot about how to make money from writing. One person in particular kept stressing over and over that writing online is a business, and must be taken seriously as a business. Great advice, but all of her articles were riddled with typos and simple grammatical errors. I tried to make allowances; English is not her first language. But then it wasn’t Vladimir Nabokov’s first language, either. Lolita may be a disgusting story, but he tells it with gorgeous prose. Perhaps you’re saying that his publisher provided a copy editor to catch and correct errors. And that brings up a big problem with writing online. There are no copy editors. We writers must either proofread carefully ourselves or get someone else to do it for us.

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Spelling, punctuation, and other fun topics

Reading, Writing, Research Posted on by  

People who like to read and write like words and like playing with words, sentences, punctuation, and anything else that comes along with reading and writing. Now that so many of us are BFF forever with our electronic gadgets, we have new tools for communicating—or failing to communicate, as the case may be. Word processing software now comes with spelling and grammar checkers. I expect most writers find them helpful, but they don’t make a very good crutch. For one thing, some of the grammar checkers contain hard-coded grammatical errors. And even if the suggested correction isn’t simply wrong, it might make hash of the meaning of the sentence. Spelling, or, software fails The spelling checker will bleed red all over people’s names, correctly spelled foreign words, brand names, and all kinds of things. On the other hand, just because a word is spelled correctly doesn’t mean that it’s the right word. I have had fun with that in my occasional series on “misused pears.” Years ago, a poem about spell checkers made the rounds of forwarded email. I just ran across a version of it again and love to share this kind of thing: I have a spelling checker, … Continue reading →

Semicolons: the most obscure punctuation mark

Reading, Writing, Research Posted on by 2

I remember a radio commercial that featured an asterisk salesman. He was trying to sell asterisks to use in warranties to bury lots of exceptions where no one would look. The advertiser refused, of course, and the salesman complained, “If I don’t make this sale, I’ll get demoted to semicolons.” When I was learning to type, I wondered why I had to shift to get colons, which I use a lot more than semicolons. Maybe back in the dark ages, when our beloved QWERTY keyboard was laid out, people used semicolons a lot more than we do now. Today, semicolons have two main uses Semicolons separate independent clauses An independent clause can stand on its own. Most of the sentences I have used so far consist of a single independent clause. I see that the second paragraph has two sentences with dependent clauses. Here they are, with the second shortened for clarity: When I was learning to type. Maybe . . . when our . . . keyboard was laid out. Don’t the periods look strange there? Those clauses have you waiting for what follows, which, by the way, is an independent clause. By definition, a dependent clause cannot stand … Continue reading →