Punctuation , Part 1

via Flickr by Kristian Bjornard  " interesting exclamation point" https://www.flickr.com/photos/bjornmeansbear/9673038561 

In this post I write about my newly enlightened knowledge of punctuation .

Unnecessary Commas,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

To be honest I did not know such a thing was possible . I thought all commas were necessary. I thought whenever there was two independent clauses a comma was needed and also whenever but was used as well. In relation to my essay it makes me think of how many commas i'm going to have to delete from every sentence that could be technically deemed as unnecessary.

Semi Colon  ;?

I'e always been a bit unsure if I should be using a semi-colon or not so I usually just put  a in a comma to avoid using it .  ( hence unnecessary commas.)  So I liked how the book broke it down and actually specified  which instance I should use a semi colon. and now I have to go back over my essay for that. 

Colon:

If I didn't know about the semi colon than I should be honest and say I didn't really understand when to use the colon either. I just avoided it. but it's nice to know when I should use it and the book definitely provided answers for that.  Also I've been , apparently, using it wrong by putting it before a list of things so I may have to change that in my essay.

Reflection :  What I learned about my three topics are that most people have a handle on their punctuation use. I think it's just me that's confused. However I did find a few mistakes similar to mine  from reading Mathias's and Austin's drafts.

In  Mathias's draft he puts a common before and which, as it turns out isn't exactly needed like I thought it was.  "Before analyzing Soble’s article it is important to have a basic understanding of the article’s content, and the context of the controversy it involves."

In Austin's draft  , it wasn't really a comma issue it was more of the fact that he didn't need the first word or the comma in this sentence becasue it would read fine without them. "Now, the sentences you have read above are an example of an introduction. It is important to have a strong first sentence in order to draw in the audience shortly followed by a thesis."