WEEK OF APRIL 9th: WRITING PROMPT – PUNCTUATE IT!

Before I get into punctuation, I want to talk a little more about why I chose grammar as the topic for the month of April.

After reading some of my claims about how seasoned professional writers still commit grammatical errors, you might be asking yourself “Why should I waste my time learning correct grammar if successful writers still commit grammatical errors?” That is a very good question, but the answer is simple.

As we familiarize ourselves more and more with correct grammatical structure, the more likely we are to create written passages that read more fluidly. The more grammatically graceful the writing, the more intriguing and attractive it will be to the reader. It is less important that you perfect your grammar, than you constantly improve your grammar. Similar to any other skill, the more you practice your grammar skills the better you will become with executing them. Even at your current stage of writing – no matter your level of experience – you are using correct grammatical structure without ever giving it a second thought.

As in the subject-verb agreement exercise from last week, you normally write sentences with a subject and verb. You might dress them up with catchy prepositional phrases, but in the end you will have a sentence with a subject and a verb.

PUNCTUATE IT!

I will use a few sentences from the section on the week of April 9th writing prompt to demonstrate how changing the punctuation in a sentence can enhance its meaning. Now I am not going to get so trivial as to demonstrate how you can change a statement into a question by rearranging the order of the subject and verb in a sentence, but I will demonstrate how you can give a sentence more impact by how you punctuate it.

Example One: Original Sentence – Conjunction

In this week we will look for ways to improve a sentence by changing the placement of a comma or by replacing a conjunction with a colon or semicolon.

Example One: Revised Sentence – Colon & Semicolon

In this week we will look for ways to improve a sentence: by changing the placement of a comma; by replacing a conjunction with a colon or semicolon.

Example Two: Original Sentence – Conjunction

The original version may actually read better than the revised version, but there is no harm in exploring.

Example Two: Revised Sentence – Semicolon

The original version may actually read better than the revised version; there is no harm in exploring.

Example Three: Original Sentence – Comma & Parenthesis

After all, two writes won’t make it wrong (sorry, but I just couldn’t resist it).

Example Three: Revised Sentence – Period & New Sentence

After all, two writes won’t make it wrong. Sorry, but I just couldn’t resist it.

Example Four: Original Sentence

We will also look at when it is appropriate and inappropriate to use ellipses.

Example Four: Revised Sentence With Incorrect Use of Ellipses

. . . also look at when it is appropriate and inappropriate to use ellipses.

Example Four: Revised Sentence With Correct Use of Ellipses

We will also look at when it is appropriate . . .  to use ellipses.

“. . . appropriate and inappropriate to use ellipses.”