Using Conventions Deliberately
IntroducedPunctuate the relationship you mean
- Choose the mark from the relationship, not from how long the sentence feels.
- If the second half explains the first, use a colon.
- If both halves are equal, use a semicolon. If one interrupts, use dashes.
A colon can announce an explanation; do not hire it merely because the sentence feels long.
Conventions buy attention
- Following conventions is not about correctness for its own sake.
- A reader who stops to work out your punctuation has stopped reading your argument.
- Every convention you keep is attention you have left available for the point.
Punctuation should be chosen from...
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Every mark asserts a relationship; choose the one that asserts yours.
Marks to use sparingly
- Dashes create emphasis by interrupting — three in a paragraph and none of them emphasises anything.
- Parentheses rank material as secondary; a paragraph full of them reads as an argument that could not decide.
- Exclamation marks ask the reader to feel something the sentence has not earned.
Keep, or cut?
Sort each usage by whether it earns its place.
Select all the marks this lesson says to use sparingly.
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Full stops are the default; the other three cost their effect when repeated.
Following conventions buys you the reader's ____.
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A reader working out your punctuation has stopped reading your argument.
Emphasis is relative. The second italicised word in a paragraph cancels the first, and the third cancels both. The same is true of dashes: three interruptions in one paragraph interrupt nothing, because there is no longer a norm to depart from.
Emphasis is relative, so a second italicised word in a paragraph weakens the first.
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If everything is emphasised, the reader cannot tell what mattered.
Emphasis by design
- Italics for emphasis work exactly once in a paragraph.
- The second italicised word cancels the first, because emphasis is relative.
- If everything is emphasised, the reader has no way to tell what mattered.
Match each check to the mark it tests.
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Each mark has a question it must answer before it earns its place.
A punctuation pass
- Find every colon: does what follows actually explain what preceded?
- Find every semicolon: are both sides independent statements of equal rank?
- Find every dash and italic: is this the only one in its paragraph?
"The report — which the department commissioned — was never published — a fact it has not explained." Three dashes, no emphasis, and a sentence the reader has to reassemble. One dash, kept for the last clause, would have done all the work.
Choose punctuation from the relationship you mean. Conventions buy the reader's attention for your argument. Use dashes, parentheses and italics sparingly — emphasis is relative, so the second one cancels the first. Then run a pass checking each mark against what it asserts.
Write from 4 dashes in one paragraph
- A paragraph uses 4 dashes for emphasis. The relationships did not all need an interruption.
- Say what the dashes cost.
A single paragraph contains 4 dashes, each meant to emphasise a different phrase. The relationships between the sentences are ordinary explanation and addition. What is wrong with the punctuation?
If everything is interrupted, nothing is emphasised.
What is the problem with 4 dashes in one paragraph?
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A mark used everywhere cannot point at one relationship.