Punctuation rules are sometimes weird, often artificial, and occasionally contradictory. Punctuation, as a rule-based system, was imposed on language later ; that is why it has rules in the first place. Generally, we in the Modern/Postmodern Era prefer an open (sparse, flexible) system with fewer marks and clearer text.
So what do commas do?
Diana Hacker’s list. To explain “groups of adjectives”: Two phrases: A deceptive red herring and A deceptive, red herring. The first is a trick; the second is a fish. Why?
Punctuate this! And try to state what the punctuation is for.
C1: Direct address. C2: Junk in the front (introductory stuff/nonrestrictive appositive). C3&4: Lists. C4 = optional. C5: Junk in the front (transitional words). C6&7: Junk in the middle (nonrestrictive appositive). C8: FANBOYS (Coordinating Conjunction). C9&10: Junk in the middle (parenthetical). Optional, but either use both or none—you can’t just use one. C11: Junk in the front (nonrestrictive appositive). C12&13: Title. These two may be optional, depending on the situation and author. C14: Speech tag. C15: FANBOYS. C16: Lists of adjectives.
What do semicolons do?
What do colons do?
What do em-dashes do?
All six of these sentences are grammatically correct. What’s the difference in style, voice, and meaning?
Q: What’s the rule? A: For clarity, you sometimes need a hyphen between the words of multi-word adjectives.
What do apostrophes do?
Note ‘s on Congress’s: this is MLA’s suggestion, and seems counterintuitive at first. Note too in “Weird Plurals” that only the first example, the plurals of letters, is required. The other two are actually better without apostrophes.
We know what these do. What do we need to remember? Note: question marks in quotes. If the whole sentence is a question, then put the question mark outside of the quotes. If only the quote is a question, put the mark inside the quotes.
What are these?
What does this do?
It notes that your quote is grammatically, mechanically, or factually incorrect. It’s a way of saying, “My source is wrong.”