Punctuation

the pregnant pause in punctuation — The semicolon is so often misused, misunderstood, and overlooked; it’s a punctuation mark that can make such a profound difference in a sentence. Here is an example from a workshop I facilitated today. Resilience was the theme; we explored what resilience meant and how we tap into it in our…

The latest AI on the greatest form of punctuation — Disclaimer: The following article is written by ChatGPT, the chatbot by OpenAI The semicolon is a punctuation mark that is often underutilized and misunderstood. However, it is a powerful tool that can be used in a variety of ways to make your writing more clear and effective. Here are 10…

Writing complex sentences without the right punctuation is like offering your reader a spoon to carve up a steak — As an editor, I work with writers to construct stories that are readable. Most of the stories I edit have no problems with sentence structure — subject, predicate, and object. Where my assistance is needed more often is with punctuation. Punctuation is like a knife: It slices up a story…

Also, a gag order — “An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke.” F. Scott Fitzgerald There is a time and a place for everything! This includes the exclamation point! The correct time for it is not after every sentence! Not unless you write the Sunday Comics! 😉 Most of us know this…

I’m about to show you one reason why. After I finish the first draft of anything I’m writing, I quickly slap it into Grammarly. At that point, I’m already 99.9% sure I didn’t steal anything from anyone else, but I already know that I made a spelling and grammatical mess…

Why Does Everyone Misuse Semicolons? — The semicolon is a complicated character. Possibly the most misused bit of punctuation in the world of writing, the semicolon remains an enigma to many. In my brief tenure spent scouring the recesses of Medium, the improperly placed semicolon is a mistake I’ve perhaps encountered more than any other. The…