Punctuation, Part 1

In this post I will be analyzing three different types of punctuation that I personally believe I could improve on in my writing.

Comma
Commas are very typical in everyday writing and even formal writing. The key is how to use them correctly and sometimes I think I can be excessive with the amount of commas I use. I think the section that really stuck out and helped me was 33d titled "Do not use a comma between cumulative adjectives, between an adjective and a noun, or between an adverb and an adjective." I feel like I make this mistake a lot when I use two or more adjectives to describe something and then end up using way too many commas. Overall I think this section really solidified my understanding of commas in general and how to properly use them.

Semicolon
The semicolon is kind of confusing to me but this section helped clear up some issues. I think you need to set up in your sentence in a way where it is an appropriate place to put it, as in planning out how you're going to write out your sentence ahead of time. I liked the section that said "use a semicolon between independent clauses linked with a transitional expression" and then listed a bunch of adverbs that would be useful in this area.

Colon
The colon has always been really confusing for me. I think the only time I have ever used it properly when I was listing off something. Sometimes it's really easy to put a colon where a comma should be, and the book addresses this. The book did give some good examples on how and where to use a colon which was especially helpful, ie. My roommate is guilty of two of the seven deadly sins: gluttony and sloth.

Jurvetson, Steve. "Colorless gem cut from diamond grown by chemical vapor deposition." 03/27/06 via Wikipedia. Creative Commons License.

EDIT:

For this reflection I peer edited Evan's and Laurence's drafts of rhetorical analysis. It was nice reading other people's drafts in order to compare them to my own. Evan had some punctuation errors that I was able to notice after reading the Student Guide's reading. For example, one of his sentences read "Politician, David Perdue, has been quoted saying that he supports and is proud of his past experiences in outsourcing jobs." I knew that there was no need for a comma between "politician" and "David." Good grammar is essential in writing an essay and so it was nice to have a refresher on this topic.