Punctuation, Part 2

In this post I will discuss the topics I learned from Rules for Writers and apply them to my current Project 2 draft.

ForestWander. "Autumn Red Fall Tree Lake" Sept 11 09. Creative Commons Attribution. 

The Comma

I've learned a lot about commas in my lifetime and I feel as though the most helpful tip of this section was to use a comma after an introductory clause or phrase. The provided an example and I tried to read the sentence without the comma they added and it resulted in the sentence having a completely different meaning. It explains that without the comma providing that necessary pause it will most likely result in the reader completely misunderstanding the sentence.

End Punctuation

This section discussed periods, question marks, and exclamation marks. Honestly I didn't learn as much from this section as the other ones that I've read because I'm already very familiar with this type of punctuation. In the period section I did learn to omit the period between academic degrees and to add it in in between a.m. or p.m. if it's lowercase. All the information from the question mark and exclamation mark section was full of information I was already aware of.

Other Punctuation

This section discussed a large variety of different punctuation. I mostly focused on the types that would benefit my Project 2 specifically. This includes the ellipsis mark and brackets. The book described that ellipsis marks are used to show that the writer omitted words from a quote. The most helpful tip I got from this section was that if more than a full sentence was taken from a quote, to use a period instead of an ellipsis. From the brackets section, I learned that brackets enclose words that the author inserted to replace a word from a quote. I also learned the meaning of "sic". It means that the quote was translated and shows up differently than the original quote.

From my Project 2 Draft

After reading my draft with these three topics in mind I didn't find many errors to correct but I did find sentences I had already applied the rules to or that I could possibly change in the future if it flows  in my work.

End Punctuation

I correctly applied the rule about omitting the periods between PhD in this sentence: "Gad Alon has a PhD and is a certified physical therapist".

Other Punctuation

I added an ellipsis in the following quote to eliminate unneeded words from the quote I chose: "At the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore...we strive to improve patient's' current capabilities by using ‘forced interventions,’". I skimmed all the quotes I used and I could add brackets or more ellipsis but it runs the risk of taking away from focusing on the author's words. Therefore I think I'll refrain from further use in this project.