Week 2- Punctuation

Week 2- Punctuation

One of my favorite punctuation marks to use is the semicolon. “The semicolon indicates a longer break than a comma but not the full stop of a period” (Kessler and McDonald 2012, p. 106). I tend to write long sentences where I show which thoughts or ideas are more connected.

Nate sees the full potential of Parker and Hardison; he knows their strengths and weaknesses. (This is an example from my own writing about a TV show called “Leverage.”)

Both of the parts in this sentence are complete sentences, or more specifically, independent clauses. I added the semicolon in order to be more specific about what Nate sees in his team members. A period would make the sentences shorter, but take away the strong connection they have to each other.

Conjunctive adverbs such as however, moreover, nevertheless and therefore help add to a sentence when using a semicolon. For example:

I really enjoyed reading “Dracula” for book club; nevertheless, I still like “Jane Eyre” more.

I could have said:

I enjoyed reading “Jane Eyre” more than “Dracula.”

Either sentences can work, but the first sentence says more about the person. She liked both of the books. The second sentence does not specify whether she liked “Dracula” or not.

This page comes from an assigned readings in one of my English classes. “Inow” is a typo that should have been “know.” That being said, the sentence would make more sense if it were worded differently. Maybe, “I only know that this line, whatever it means, helped me produce the best writing I have ever done.” I personally like the revision better. Now the word “that” is only in the sentence once and the words, “whatever it means,” are not as jarring.