Hey guys we're up to the punctuation now.
Of course you know how to use periods of question marks but there are four other types of punctuation
that the College Board really focuses on.
Connors semi-colons colons and something called an em dash.
So let's take a look and see how we can apply these rules for the punctuation.
OK.
Here's what each of those punctuation marks look like commas semi-colons colons and the em dash.
Let's start with commas because we all know commas.
But the College Board really really tests us on common usage in a variety of ways.
First of all I'm going to talk about that in the later grammar lectures.
There are many rules such as joining clauses parallel lists dangling modifiers or positives.
Many many different ways use comments and we'll cover that.
But in general if you can't remember all the rules later just use your gut instinct like pause whenever
there's a comma and see whether that sounds right.
The general philosophy is that commas are used to separate ideas.
We shouldn't put commas to break up things that belong together.
For example you don't use commas before prepositions OK.
If I said this is the pen of Philip.
Philip is very important to the pen it's describing who owns it.
I wouldn't put a comedy for it and you never would.
Because the proposition that the job is to tell you the relationship between the words that come before
and after it why would you separate that I'm describing the direct relationship between those two things.
However as I said here except there is a rule.
So normally I would never want to see a comma before preposition.
Never ever ever Soozie that you know it's a wrong answer.
It's a shortcut.
But if the proposition is attached to a relative pronoun which apart of adjective clauses and that's
Rule three be my grammar analyst then you can have a column before the prep..
And that's only because the main word here is the which the other is just tagging along.
It's just tagging along with which but which requires a comma which must have a comma.
So that's why this is a comma before the phrase of which this is the room in which I slept last night.
I'd probably put a comma before the end because it's attached to which
now I had to backtrack.
But you're just just to give you an example of what I mean by separating ideas.
You know if I said to you I like apples oranges and bananas right.
That's a list of different fruits that I like but they're each separate things that I like.
So I would put a comma to separate between each of those things.
All right.
Moving on to semi-colons.
Now this is really covered in Rule 1 be about joining clauses.
But I'm going to show to you here anyway because my columns are very important as well.
A semi-colon is when you use it when you're connecting
two clauses together.
There's a subject to this.
There's a verb is the second subject.
The semi-colon connects.
So because I have two clauses this is a correct usage of a semi-colon.
However when I have a clause there but no second cause that's not right.
Similarly if I had a clause on the other side but no close before that would be wrong too.
So that's a wrong example because there's no second clause after that said Michael semi-coma.
Join clauses Colon's on the other hand.
Very very flexible Cone's can perform exactly the same function.
Semi-colons you can join two clauses.
You can also join things that aren't clauses I can have something hereafter.
That's not a clause.
And this is still correct.
The one requirement the one requirement is that you must have a clause before the colon.
I couldn't say.
First clause colon second clause period.
That is wrong because there's no main clause.
I must have a clause before the call.
And if you don't know the clauses.
No I haven't got to it yet but I covered that in rule one.
OK.
So you can jump ahead to that if you want to learn what the clause is and then come back to this.
OK.
Some of you may be asking well what about if they're both they both have two clauses is it going to
be a semi-colon or a colon.
And the answer to that is no I've never seen that on their city.
They don't test you on the difference in meaning between a colon and a semicolon.
Technically a colon implies a more direct relationship between the two clauses.
But again I've never seen a tested
finally on to the dash and that's one of my favorites.
The em dash a form of punctuation is very versatile.
It's kind of like parentheses.
So you can almost imagine it is not even being there.
You can delete it to see whether the sentence makes sense.
The em dash is very versatile.
Oh yeah that works.
Gool
the em dash.
Let's get rid this also the on to cross it off the em dash is very versatile.
Still the same although I saw that the first one only had a phrase in there and this one has a clause
I don't care I can have whatever I want in the middle.
It doesn't matter.
It's kind of like a colon that way I can have whatever I want as long as the stuff on either side of
it makes sense.
In its third example though what if the end at the end of the sentence well in that case I'd use one
dash because I'm not going to put a dash in that period right.
That would be weird.
So the m dash is used by many writers.
That's my main sentence My main clause and then I open my m dash and I just had some words bind it that
was a phrase I can also do it with a clause as well the em dash is used by many writers.
There's the dash and I have another subject and verb but I don't care.
I can have whatever I want inside.
Of course I mean it has to be related to what you're talking about.
It's kind of a way of pausing the conversation.
Adding to add.
You know putting it's relevant but not directly relevant.
That's why I kind of think of it as as parentheses.
But you know the way you tackle this the way you think about the usage is not about meaning it but it's
about grammar and the grammar.
Is it a pause button.
You can have whatever you want in the middle as long as the stuff around it makes sense.
OK.
And when the index at the end then it's just ending the sentence.
You want the stuff before it makes sense.