Punctuation, Part 1

Punctuation is an important part of writing. Incorrect use of punctuation can make the meaning of a text unclear.

Trotman, Kevin "Heavy Punctuation Crossing" 04/07/2005
via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The Comma

Essentially, a comma should be used before a conjunction in a compound sentence with two separate ideas. A comma should also be used after an introductory clause or phrase as in the sentence above. A conjunction does not replace a comma in a list of three or more items. Adjectives that modify a noun separately should be separated with commas. Commas should also be used to set off parentheticals, interjections, and direct quotations.

The Apostrophe

When a word ends in s, add only an apostrophe. To show joint possession, add an 's or s' to only the last noun. I realized that I had been misusing apostrophes in the read/reply/reflect sections of some of my blog posts. Apostrophes should be used for lower case letters and upper case A or I.

Quotation Marks

Quotation marks encompass direct quotations, excluding block quotes. Single quotation marks should be used within direct quotations. I made this mistake in my essay draft. Titles of short works that are referenced in a text should be enclosed in quotation marks. Periods and commas should be placed inside quotation marks, but colons and semicolons should be placed outside quotation marks.

In Mika's draft, he effectively used commas in the sentence, "In the last hundred years, humans have invented the radio, film, television, automobiles, flight, and the internet, and soon enough, intelligences that will think for themselves." He avoided the common mistake of using a conjunction without a comma for the last item in a list. He also effectively offset a transitional phrase for his second idea in the sentence.
In Jayni's draft, her use of both quotation marks and commas in the sentence, "This article, 'Why the Scientific Case Against Fracking Keeps Getting Stronger', is published in the environment section of the website, Mother Jones, and the people that usually view content found here are likely to be scientifically minded," is mostly correct. The only error is that the comma following the name of her article should be inside the quotation mark. Note that after pasting the quote from her analysis, I switched the quotation marks around her article title to single quotation marks, and changed the period at the end of the quotation to a comma to match the punctuation conventions described in Rules for Writers.

Both of the above example sentences could probably be clarified by being divided into multiple sentences, as they are both comma heavy and develop multiple ideas.