During the first two weeks of class, I’ve learned how to use semicolons and dashes. Previously, I’ve not used semicolon or dashes in my writing because I didn’t know where or how to use them. Now I understand that semicolon can be used to link two independent clauses that share a common thought. The independent clauses can be individual sentences. An example of using semicolon is “John practiced his chemistry skills all weekend; his effort paid off on the test the following week”. Another way of using semicolon is to separate a list of items that includes commas, i.e. “Petter Northug, Norway; Axel Teichman, Germany; Vincet Vittoz, France”. To be honest, I don’t see the purpose of using semicolons in writing. Why not just use a comma, and follow up with an “and” before the next independent clause? It would make it easier for the average person who’s reading the text and the author would not have to think twice about formulating the sentence.
Dashes are used to emphasize something in a sentence. There are two kind of dashes, Em ( − ), which are used with words, and En (-), which are used with numbers. “Alan goes to school in Minnesota−it can get very cold there in the winter” is an example of the first, while “The price range was $5-$10 for the shirt”. Although I did not know there were two different kinds of dashes, I can remember noticing different sizes during my reading sometime in the past. Now that I understand the usage of the Em dash, I’ll pay more attention to what is being said when I see one as it is intended to grab the reader’s attention.
I enjoyed reading Linda Christensen’s article about her experience with English and ideas on how to teach it to school children. My own experience is not as terrifying, but I recognize the stories about spending hours memorizing grammar rules and not being able to explore or incorporate it into my writing. I think most students dread the grammar classes because it is taught in a poor way. If it is taught correctly–GRAMMAR CAN BE FUN–and teach students life-long lessons. By involving students the way we were in class, it will easier for them to remember how a certain rule works by creating a more conductive environment for learning.
Some of the examples of colon usage in our text book, More Nitty-Gritty Grammar, don’t look right to me. I understand that because they are in a text book they are most likely correct, but I don’t like the way they look. Similar to the semicolons, I don’t understand why comma can’t be used in place of the colon. There are times I see the benefit of colon, such as before a long quotation or when listing time. When listing names, such as the example of which athletes dominating track and field, I’d rather use a comma because I feel it creates a better flow in the text.
Paul,
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way as you about the use of semicolons and how they look weird in the textbook.But hopefully during the course of the rest of this class, it can be more clear on all of the rules and how to infiltrate them in your own writing eventually.
Your pattern of the week is good, and I enjoyed reading the article as well.
I'm not sure how to answer your question, but I hope that we can both understand it further as we learn more...
Paul,
ReplyDeleteIn response to this question:
"To be honest, I don’t see the purpose of using semicolons in writing. Why not just use a comma, and follow up with an “and” before the next independent clause?"--a comma and coordinating conjunction is EXACTLY how to join two independent clauses if you don't want to use the semicolon. Once we learn what an independent clause is (you're ahead of the game), we'll talk about how a semicolon can sometimes be used in rather pedantic, though gramatically correct, ways.
As to your question on colons for teh track and filed members, I may not be able to convince you that the comma alone "feels" better than the colon, but simply replacing the colon with a comma would splice a complete sentence (the part before the colon) with a list of three names--and a comma alone is not strong enough to do this. But I know what you mean about a colon seeming like an odd choice here, even though it is grammatically correct. Does this help you?
That year, several names dominated track and field, including Maurice Green, Michael JOhnson, and Marion Jones.
Notice that I had to change the word "three" to "several" in order to use including. If I am indeed just listing three names, the colon lets me know that the information following the colon are the specific three names that were mentioned earlier.
One more comment: Remember that the content within the parenthetical dashes has to be able to be removed and the sentence still make sense--could you do this in your example?
Great questions and explanations!
one more thing. . .
ReplyDeleteI noticed that I chose not to use the colon before my revised sample sentence about the track and field members, which means we don't know whether the "this" I mention refers to the material before or after. What follows the colon always shines more light on what was previously written, so I would revise my post in this way:
But I know what you mean about a colon seeming like an odd choice here, even though it is grammatically correct. See if this helps:
That year, several names dominated track and field, including Maurice Green, Michael Johnson, and Marion Jones.