Punctuation

Yep it is this time of year where we reach to something else you commonly use. The rest of the rules of punctuation! Let us begin with a parenthesis.

A parenthesis is used to emphasize something very important (as well as making my computer have to spell check me) such as date of birth-date of death (or any time for that matter) and is used to set off material that is nonessential. The difference between a comma and the parenthesis is that a comma gives less emphasis to its contents.

Jim (1900-1975) was an important and influential politician.


But what if a parenthesis is not enough emphasis for what you have to say? In that case we have dashes. Dashes place more emphasis on their contents then parenthesis and they set off appositive phrases that already have a comma. From Purdue OWL the definition of an appositive is "a word that adds explanatory or clarification to the noun preceding it."

The ship sank in the North Atlantic-no one had predicted icebergs. This is an example of the first purpose.
The people present-Tim, Reilly and Tom- marched to the shores. Is an example of the latter purpose. Here the appositive is the clarification of who is present at the march to the shores.

The next rule to be covered is quotation marks. The most obvious use of the rule is to show a direct quote of what someone said. The next most used example is to show irony in a statement. They are also used to show that whatever you are speaking about is the title of a short poem, a song, a short story, an article from a newspaper or magazine, an essay or speech, a chapter from a book, a short film or an episode of either a television show or a radio show.

"That is not right" said John. This is an example of the first rule.
Don't worry, he is doing the "right" thing. Is an example of irony.
"Like a Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan. An example of the title rule.

In the next post, Italics and underlining will be covered.