My word processor changes the form of dashes to something longer sometimes – becomes —. I change it back sometimes. I’m obsessed by punctuation. I bought and read a book on the semi-colon, and love using Oxford commas. This article on Mental Floss outlines the dash or hyphen, the en-dash, and the em-dash (both named …
Punctuation is a tool to bring a sense of pace to the reader’s experience. An invitation to pause and reflect, without demanding a halt. An invitation to move forward, to gather speed, to accumulate an understanding as an idea is being expressed. As written communication is more and more composed on screens for instant transmission …
Learning rules of grammar and punctuation do not provide an infallible capacity to understand what the composer of a text meant when they wrote it. (This is so for those who study texts which originally had no punctuation at all) These guides and markers can provide help and insight, but not absolute mastery. Also, knowing …
In its early usage the semicolon served as a pause twice as long as a comma, and half as long as a colon. Eventually an adjustment in usage became identified by grammarians. In Semicolon, Cecelia Watson explains: The semicolon had been transformed. Before the 1800s, it had been a pause. By the early 1800s, grammarians …
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