Posts Tagged ‘punctuation’

How to punctuate more sentences

Here are a few more guidelines for punctuating sentences, offered in response to comments on my How to punctuate a sentence post.

Semi-colons
A reader asked when it’s appropriate to join sentences with a semi-colon. The semi-colon is a good choice when sentences are clearly related, when they seem to go together, when a period would create an overly emphatic stop between sentences. Alas, there’s no rule to determine whether… » Continue

April 12 2007 | By Guest | Tagged: Communication, punctuation, writing | 3 comments»

How to punctuate a sentence

Last month I showed how to unstuff a sentence by removing unnecessary words. This month I’ll offer a quick-and-dirty guide to punctuating a sentence. Nothing that follows is meant to substitute for the nuanced explanations of what’s usually called a writing handbook, the sort of book that college students purchase in a first-semester writing course. These five rules though have the virtue of being manageable, which is difficult… » Continue

April 5 2007 | By Guest | Tagged: punctuation, writing | 60 comments»