Chapter 15

It was interesting reading this chapter at the end of the term rather than at the beginning. A lot of it was information that I am already very familiar with. However, it was interesting to see how these punctuation rules are based on principles of grammar that we discussed this term. This class really impressed upon me how grammar and punctuation can really make writing so dynamic.

Purposeful Punctuation

After reading the section on Purposeful Punctuation, I realized some of the common mistakes that I make within my writings. It was especially interesting to read about comma splices. There have been many instances where my professors have written comma splice in the margins of my paper; however, I never knew the definition of a comma splice, and what it was that I needed to change. Upon learning about comma splices, I have been able to concentrate and focus on not making the mistake any longer.

The other section that I found particularly interesting was "Signaling Sentence Openers." I found the part about absolute phrases to be quiet intriguing because I never knew that I could use a absolute phrase as an introductory sentence. The example they gave was "The electricity having gone out, our sump pump had quit working." I felt that this sounded like a comma splice, more-so than an grammatically correct introduction. However, what the book says goes, and now I will be able to use absolute phrases in my own writings.