Punctuation Saves Lives

This week I learned that proper punctuation is critical. The example above shows just how critical punctuation can be and also made me laugh.  I am now a little bit nervous that I'm going to make mistakes in this post. Dear friends, please have mercy on this post about punctuation; it's a concept I am still trying to grasp.

 While reading the Associated Press Stylebook, I had an "Aha" moment. The book states, "Punctuation is to make clear the thought being expressed." It helped me understand that punctuation is not just a set of rules to make our writing more complicated; it is a set of rules to help make our writing more clear. Punctuation is an important key to help the reader understand what the writer intends to express. 

This week I learned a lot about commas, including how to use them with equal adjectives. According to the Associated Press Stylebook, you can use a comma to separate a series of equal adjectives. Here are a few examples I thought of: a hot, sunny day; a shiny, new car; a big, beautiful flower. This is just one of the many rules I learned about commas this week. 

After learning about punctuation this week, I re-evaluated some of the newsletters I've written for my job. I found a few mistakes in my first paragraph, which I posted below. First of all, I used way too many exclamation points. I didn't use them sparingly like Professor Josephson suggested. Second of all, I used the Oxford comma in my first sentence. I also could have used a semicolon in my first sentence and said, "It's not just about being fit for summer; it's about being fit for fall, winter, spring and forever." I would probably put a comma in the last sentence like this, "School and work are in session, so book your sessions at the studio and let's crush this month." I will be a lot more cautious when I write next month's newsletter. 

I still have a lot to learn about punctuation, but I'm happy to be learning it now.