What Ms Petit lacks is found in overabundance in the general population: grammar anxiety. Her state of linguistic nirvana has been achieved by an awareness shift undergone by others as well. Cook portrays an active view of grammar as "purposeful rhetoric moves." Richards professes that "words work." Burke, describes language as "the Scramble, the Wrangle of the Market Place, the flurries and flare-ups of the Human Barnyard." These images run counter to the "drill and kill" of standardized testing or the dour teacher from grammar school days...well, at least my grammar school days. Think Aunt Bea with Barney Fife's sense of authority.
We may learn a few things from dissecting a dead phrase, but we could learn much more by watching a living, thriving thing. Petit would have it that we could learn even more still by having a hand at "editing" works of others.
Petit develops her brand of pedagogy while exploring the grammatical subcategory of punctuation further divided to the level of semicolon. Mostly, this works for her because as she asserts, semicolons are "not necessary." English language is not inexorably hinged upon the muscle of meaning they provide.
Does that mean they are not important? Do they have no rules? Why am I reading this anyway? With a wink and a smile [I knew you knew they were good for something. ;)], we can explore a bit of their style potential.
For official usage rules, "Andrea Lunsford's Everyday Writer presents the semicolon as weaker than a period but stronger than a comma and lists the following guidelines for using this punctuation mark:
- Use semicolons to link closely related independent clauses.
- Use semicolons to link independent clauses joined by conjunctive adverbs or transitional phrases.
- Use semicolons to separate items in a series containing other punctuation. (326-27)"
Semicolons are all about choice. In making choices, a writer develops a voice and a style. If writing is an art as well as a craft, semicolons punctuate the overlap. I may not have the rhetorical genius of King as witnessed in his Letter from Birmingham Jail, but my writing is also a series of choices; perhaps, some are more successful than others. I look forward to seeing you take it on as a makeover of sorts.
11 comments:
Hi Lori,
This was a super blog entry - I always like it when students use satire or humor; it makes grammar a bit more bearable!
Dr. Voss
Well, I can def. side with her felings. My grammar anxiety is the opposite. My language use was awful when I went to my community college. I thought of grammar as something I would never learn. I thought that it was a concept my brain just couldn't wrap around. But with great tips, like the ones in this artice, it's getting easier and easier to learn about semi-colons and commas and clauses. I guess that's why we're all here right!
Semicolons have always been confusing for me. I think that is why I have avoided using them for years in my own writing. However, the steps you listed from the reading suddenly provided a clearer understanding of appropriate placement of semi-colons in writing. Although, I will add for all of the creative writers in the class, semi-colons can be very effective in a piece stylistically. They provide a rhythm and drive between phrases that other punctuation does not. Try it sometime!
I've always tried to use semicolons in my writing. I think it helps switch up the style and structure of every paragraph after another. It also helps eliminating repetitive use of 'joining words.' Thanks for listing different ways and reasons for using the semicolon; it was very useful. Doesn't it kind of have a more 'literary look'? I think so, a little bit. Maybe it would help students stop their terribly long sentences they connect with and... and ... and... for example. Interesting blog!
I have also always been a kind of grammar guru but I don't take it to the extent of Ms. Petit. Semi-colons have always been confusing to me and something, I must say, I do not use very much. I understand the usages a bit more now but it will probably be something I still will not use very often. I do think beatrix's summary was more enjoyable than the original article.
I was taught in high school about semicolons and we used them often. We spent a few classes on clauses, how to use them, and how to combine them, followed with a test, I learned the semicolon very well. I have always used them in my writing, but after this particular teacher, I have learned to use them even more effectively.
In Junior College I had a teacher that loved the semi-colon; he would delete a period and rearrange the sentence to accommodate it. I like the semi-colon; it gives your writing a certain style, its gives it a professional feel to it. I have a problem with run-on sentences it helped me decrease the amount of them in my writing. So as far as the semi-colon being a useless punctuation mark it is not, I will continue using it in my papers.
I never really used semicolons until college. In High School and Junior High I hardly ever used semicolons for the reason of not really knowing when and where to use them. I was taught what the semicolon was but never really used it in papers until College. Now I use them pretty much in all my papers and I thinki that is it not useless. The semicolon I think looks good in papers and like Justin said, it does help with run-on sentences, because I have that problem to with run-ons.
This blog entry was quite the entertainer. not only did i gain a beter understanding of the semi- colon but i also learned that a semi colon is not always necessary.
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