PUNCTUATION
intro and commas
punctuation is one of those things that can really change the meaning of a sentence. just the one small dash of a comma or dot of a period can make the sentence, "i'm going to watch my little brother, shower, and then eat," into "i'm going to watch my little brother shower then eat," which are two entirely different sentences.
so let's examine the difference between those two sentences: in the first, the speaker is going to watch his little brother, presumably babysitting or whatnot, then the speaker is going to shower, and then he is going to eat. in the latter sentence, the speaker is going to watch his brother take a shower, which is so many kinds of wrong, and then he'll either eat or watch his brother eat, depending on how you interpret it.
apostrophes
there is also the miracle of apostrophes, which changes ill (being sick) into i'll ( "i will" ). if one writes "ill do this," not only does it not make any sense, but adjectives such as ill can't
do anything. if you turned it into a noun, such as by saying "
my illness does this," then that is an entirely different sentence, but that is also delving into grammar, which i will steer clear of from now.
the wonderful world of semi-colons
semi-colons are probably my favorite of the punctuation marks. i never thought i would say that i have a favorite punctuation mark. but in any case, a semi-colon joins two separate clauses that could be separated by a period but not by a comma. the semi-colon is supposed to indicate a pause shorter than a period but longer than a comma. example:
"i came to see my mother. she was gone" vs "i came to see my mother; she was gone."
in the first sentence, there is a sharp pause, an entire beat being skipped, but with a semi-colon, the pause is softer, and more like half a beat rather than a full one. this gets into the musicality of poetry, which makes your favorite poems stick in your head.