Punctuation

In my opinion, the most interesting idea of Chapter 15 was that of optional punctuation. Throughout this term, we’ve been learning grammatical theory, and now we are putting it into practice more. Before I took this class, I had never realized how punctuation choices can place emphasis on words. Before, I’d always assumed that word order accomplished this. Choosing whether to use a comma, dash, semi-colon, or period can have different effects on the reader. Lastly, I had never been so critical of coordinating conjunctions before. Now, I realize that they show a relationship between clauses. Misuse of them can render a sentence nonsensical or illogical.