Thoughts on Purposeful Punctuation

I think punctuation is incredibly important in writing, not only for the sake of clarity, but also for stylistic and rhetorical purposes. Semicolons, dashes, and Oxford commas are my favorite punctuation choices. Depending on the context of a sentence, none of the aforementioned are particularly necessary, but they are often featured in my style of writing. In fact, I plan to use them all now. I use dashes profusely -- probably more than I ought to -- especially when handwriting, because I enjoy the pause and emphasis created by a mere flourish of a pen. Regarding semicolons, I love seeing the look on writers' faces when I explain why all it takes to correct their comma splice is a single dot.

As a former writing consultant and current newspaper copyeditor, it has become ingrained in my subconscious to correct improper sentences. While I may be confident in my punctuation skills, I continue to make errors. It doesn't matter how much I attempt to improve my grammar; I'm not immune to mistakes! One of my most common errors is overlooking commas before coordinating conjunctions, my personal nuisance being "and" -- for example, "To make a tasty pie, I mixed dough for the crust, and Patrick sliced apples." As simple as such an error may be, I firmly believe learning purposeful punctuation is an ongoing process. Also, I have been forced to publicly deny my love for Oxford commas, because they aren't allowed according to journalism rules. I continue to use them when no one is looking.