Applying and Exploring Ideas
1.
Look in a weekly periodical (like Time or Newsweek) for three complex sentences. Rewrite each of them using different punctuation. Then explain how the tone, emphasis, or meaning changes along with the punctuation.
2.
Collect an obituary, an editorial, and a set of directions. Look carefully at the various punctuation marks, the length of the sentences, and the word choice. Describe the patterns you see, and try to explain the distinctions among them.
2.
Make a “playbook” in which you write down interesting sentences and rebuild them with different punctuation to see what changes. Start with some examples from Dawkins—like numbers 33, 36, 42, 55, 56, 61, and 64. Find and rebuild several other examples from the texts around you—textbooks, what you’re reading on the Web, e-mails, and so on. What conclusions can you draw from your work?
2.
Think about your experiences as a writer in high school or middle school. Can you think of rules or directions you were given that just didn’t make sense to you, and still don’t? Write a letter to a past teacher creating an argument for why one or two common rules seem unnecessary. Remember to say not only what you think but why, giving the best reasons and examples you can think of.
Meta Moment
Why do you think your teacher wants you to read an article asserting that punctuation is rhetorical rather than just explaining that it is? What do you gain by reading the article?