Purposeful Punctuation

Chapter 15 definitely surprised me. I didn't realize how many different jobs commas, semicolons, and colons have. I use them quite frequently, but now I have a much better understanding of how to use them in my writing. What stands out to me most in this chapter is the idea that we need to keep the reader in mind when writing--grammar is essentially for their benefit. It is interesting how clarifying a simple comma or semicolon can be. If the person I'm speaking to doesn't understand, I can always sense this and try to make your point clearer; however, I don't usually have the opportunity to do this when I am writing.

Here are a couple of things that are new to me:
-the difference between dashes and parenthesis--dashes are used for emphasis (and parenthesis are used to downplay material).
-a semicolon can be used when two independent clauses tied together with a coordinating conjunction already have commas in them. Interesting! I have always had trouble with sentences that have too many commas.