This was a very helpful unit for me, although I agree that it was a lot of information to process. I think I could have used an entire week just to learn how to use commas properly! There are so many rules, and then exceptions to rules.
I have two things that for some reason have always been really hard for me with punctuation. The first is the semicolon. I’m not even really sure why this thing exists. It seems to me that every function it serves could also easily be served by a hyphen or a new sentence or some other form of punctuation. Writers just seem to use it because it’s stylistic. Because of this, I’ve always had a hard time knowing where they’re meant to be used. This chapter helped me to understand them a little better, although I still think the English language would be just fine without them.
The second problem I frequently have with punctuation is whether the period goes inside or outside the quotation! I don’t know why this gave me so much grief for so long, but now that I’ve read the explanations in the book it makes so much sense! I felt like I had a light bulb moment!
So I tried to find a really entertaining editing mistake, but the one I found was actually kind of boring. It was on a notice at work for how employees should wash their hands and all that jazz before they touch the food. The sign said that before an employee handles food they should be wearing “tight fitting disposable gloves.” There should have been a hyphen in “tight-fitting” since “tight” is modifying “fitting” and not “gloves.” So there you have it. I took a picture of it with my phone but I realized when I got home that I don’t have a USB hook up for my phone. Next week I’ll try to figure out how to get a picture up on here!
I agree about the tremendous amount of information.It made my head spin.I have had a problem with quotations as well. Just when I think I get it figured out, I find another exception. Like the question mark and exclamation rule. But that didn't seem too hard to figure out, so I think I will be okay.
ReplyDeleteI feel the exact same as far as the numerous rules and exception to rules. I also have trouble with the semicolon but I am glad that I now know more about when to use it. I used to absolutely never use one. Editing definitely is a lot more work than you think, especially when it comes to punctuation. I just hope I didn't make too many punctuation mistakes in my post. :)
ReplyDelete(THIS IS MY POST FOR THIS WEEK BECAUSE I HAVE NOT BEEN ADDED TO THE BLOG YET) Armed with my arsenal of spiral-bound reference books (Hacker, Kessler, and Shertzer), 15 years of primarily academic writing, and my 20 plus years of English speaking, I continue to battle my way through the webs of prolific errors that the internet presents. Sometimes a sentence can be written the same way it would be spoken and the sentence will not make grammatical sense. My biggest problems in grammatical functions are the infamous semicolon and comma splices. My professor from ENG 2010 devoted almost an entire semester to the comma splice. I learned quite a bit about the pesky little mistake, but the English language is incredibly complex and extremely dynamic. Try as I might it seems that a comma splice or two always seems to sneak into one of my papers.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to take this last 100 words to make an observation and defend the atrocious grammar and piss poor spelling that I utilize on the social networking site, Facebook. Perfect grammar and punctuation are always goals of mine in most of my writing, however I feel that the friends I have on Facebook are all people who I am very comfortable and relaxed with. Thus, my grammar and punctuation also take a nose dive. I use my grammatical errors as a defiant statement to the monitoring of ourselves on social networks, or any computer mediated communication not set aside as a formal means of communication. On the other hand, I do recognize that lax regulation of my spelling and grammar directly reflects upon my competence as a writer. This is why my online language and my academic writing are worlds apart. I am hardly concerned with my Facebook friends viewing me as less competent because I used the wrong to (too or two) or didn’t capitalize i because I was typing at 65 words per minute.
OK, enough ranting.