Grammar and Punctuation

Since I've been writing and rewriting this blog I have found myself in many a quandary about grammar and punctuation.  Not so much spelling because I've always been a naturally good speller.  As I write this, I just had to look up how to spell "quandary" and it took me a few minutes.  The grammar part of writing is not a huge issue.  I can usually get that right by rereading what I wrote. But it's the punctuation that gets me as you know if you read this blog and know your punctuation rules.

Commas. These little snarky pieces of print drive me nuts. I know you use them when making a list.  I'm clear on that. But as for other uses I just make up the rules as I go along. That's not a comforting confession from a writing teacher but there it is. If I think I want the reader to pause, I stick in a comma.  If I want to offset an aside I either use a comma or parentheses.  Somehow I think both of those are wrong but who knows. I'm sure if I were writing the great American novel I'd have to know about this but a blog is much more casual.  At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Colons: What's up with those? And who decided to name a body part after it? I've no idea what to do with those.  I've been known to use them in memos to parents or in complaint letters. You use them when expressing time, of that I'm absolutely positive.

Semi-colons; A colon but not. Can't even use those to tell time.  All they're good for any more is making a smiley face that's winking ;).

"Quotation marks" I do know how to use these but quite frankly they're a pain. You have periods and commas and quotation marks and indenting all getting in on the action.  You can't read the dialogue for the punctuation. In some books they're left out as a literary device and in others an apostrophe stands in for them. So it seems like they're optional. Don't tell my students that!

'Apostrophes' These drive kids mad. Before the s, after the s, between the n and t or before the n. Kids have a hard time remembering the rules.  In other languages possession is actually written out like "le chapeau de ma mere", my mother's hat.  But in English another lousy comma-like bit of print tells us what belongs to who or whom (another quandary). And if you don't put it in exactly the right place when using contractions your teacher will mark it wrong.  You have to be very careful with these bits.

Everything else is pretty easy to handle.  Question marks, periods, and exclamation points are good solid punctuation, useful and easy to use. Did I need a semi-colon there? See what I mean? It's confusing.