Fabulous Grammar Tips Post

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Dawno

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The link is in the next paragraph, but to set it up, it's from John Scalzi's Whatever blog (a really good read in every post and great comments) - he's the author of Old Man's War and Agent to the Stars.

ETA: before you read the blog post and decide that it's 'gospel' please note this comment:
Medievalist said:
I admire Scalzi, very much, but he's down right wrong regarding almost every thing he says about punctuation.

He's very wrong indeed regarding semicolons--including the name of the punctuation mark. The semicolon links two independent clauses. That's what it does. There's no emotional weight to it at all, nor is it emphatic in the way his simile would suggest. Use a semicolon when you want to link two independent clauses (sentences) so that their connection is clearer than it would be if you used a period at the end of each.
Click to expand...

He calls it Writing Tips for Non-writers Who Don't Want to Work at Writing but it's a good little primer for anyone who puts words on a page, IMO.
 
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Dawno said:
The link is in the next paragraph, but to set it up, it's from John Scalzi's Whatever blog (a really good read in every post and great comments) - he's the author of Old Man's War and Agent to the Stars.

He calls it Writing Tips for Non-writers Who Don't Want to Work at Writing but it's a good little primer for anyone who puts words on a page, IMO.
Click to expand...

I admire Scalzi, very much, but he's down right wrong regarding almost every thing he says about punctuation.

He's very wrong indeed regarding semicolons--including the name of the punctuation mark. The semicolon links two independent clauses. That's what it does. There's no emotional weight to it at all, nor is it emphatic in the way his simile would suggest. Use a semicolon when you want to link two independent clauses (sentences) so that their connection is clearer than it would be if you used a period at the end of each.
 
Dawno

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Medievalist said:
I admire Scalzi, very much, but he's down right wrong regarding almost every thing he says about punctuation.

He's very wrong indeed regarding semicolons--including the name of the punctuation mark. The semicolon links two independent clauses. That's what it does. There's no emotional weight to it at all, nor is it emphatic in the way his simile would suggest. Use a semicolon when you want to link two independent clauses (sentences) so that their connection is clearer than it would be if you used a period at the end of each.
Click to expand...

ooh - yikes! Thank you for pointing that out.
 
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