Don't Interrupt Me!
Karl wrote with a punctuation question. “I frequently find
myself adding information midsentence, usually a definition or an example, but
using all those commas gets pretty tiresome. Are there alternatives?”
The first thing to consider is not interrupting yourself midsentence. Occasionally it seems necessary
or highly effective, but if it’s become a mere reflex action, try putting the
extra information in a separate sentence.
That said, there are three punctuation marks that can be
used to enclose parenthetical information. They include the comma, the dash,
and the parenthesis.
·
Members of the rodent family, such as mice,
gophers, squirrels, beavers, and chinchillas, take their name from a Latin word
meaning to gnaw.
·
Members of the rodent family—such as mice, gophers,
squirrels, beavers, and chinchillas—take their name from a Latin word meaning
to gnaw.
·
Members of the rodent family (such as mice,
gophers, squirrels, beavers, and chinchillas) take their name from a Latin word
meaning to gnaw.
And here’s the information expanded into a separate sentence:
·
Members of the rodent family take their name
from a Latin word meaning to gnaw. They include mice, gophers, squirrels,
beavers, and chinchillas.
Listen to Mike’s program in real
time every Tuesday morning, 9:10 - 10:00 a.m. EST, by going to wtcmradio.com
and clicking on Listen Now. You’ll
also find about a month’s worth of podcasts there under The Ron Jolly Show.
Comments