Punctuation, Part 1

This post will review some helpful instructions on punctuation, and how the advice can improve writing.

"TIPID" (via ShopTpet).  

1. The comma- the most helpful information in this section was "Use a comma between coordinate adjectives not joined with and. Do not use a comma between cumulative conjunctions." I personally forget that you don't have to put a comma after "and" when you are writing a list. The rest of the section was fairly obvious, for example use a comma when you are listing items.

2. Unnecessary commas- this section is similar to the previous, but the point is when not to use commas. The best advice was "Do not use a comma between compound elements that are not independent clauses." The example was to not use the comma in the following sentence, "Marie Curie discovered radium, and later applied her work on radioactivity to medicine.

3. The apostrophe- this is something that I am sad to say that I have never mastered. I find myself looking up the correct way to use apostrophes. One that I always get confused about is "its" vs. "it's." It's means it is, and its means it is possessing.

Reflection:
After reading Mathias' Blog, I was able to help him with an issue of needing a comma. His original sentence is "Maybe something big is happening so you tune in to watch the news." I suggested that he added a comma after "happening."

After reading Lia's Blog, I was able to help her with having too many commas. Her original sentence was "Barnett presents a series of propositions: agriculture consumes too much water, so the water will eventually run out or at least become very scarce, which then will increase prices of these agricultural goods, since it will cost more to produce them, and this food is sold to all of the nation, which makes this a nationwide issue." This sentence had so many commas that it became confusing and hard to understand. I suggested that she break it up into two separate sentences, so that she didn't have to use so many commas.