[@lady horatio] Right, I just followed you here from your profile because of your status, and I am very happy I did. First off! I have an opinion on the Oxford Comma. I am in favor (and I do have a reason), though I understand like honor/honour both ways are acceptable. Secondly, [@Phoenix][@Vilageidiotx][@Wade Wilson] I am a huge fan of the semicolon. I am the one who first proposed the dare of using 100 (might've been 500) of them in one's NaNo novel. I recently took a writing class, and the lady who led it -- a published author, I should mention, though not a big name by any means -- said that she knew more than one editor who says the semicolon is dead. Apparently either periods or commas are considered acceptable replacements. I've found very few places where a comma would be okay, and two separate sentences or the insertion of a word or two to connect the sentences never feels right particularly as I am very picky about the flow of text. Separate sentences often feel choppy and stilted, and if I wanted those extra words I would have used them in the first place. I will agree that semicolons can seem a bit stuffy and pompous, but when used /well/ I feel they add flair and elegance. There really is no way to precisely replace them; nothing else has the same feel. <3 My biggest issue is comma indecision. I pause here, but how /much/ do I pause? Is it a matter of phrasing, or is it a grammatical necessity? Is it grammatically incorrect to insert a comma even though I want the reader to pause? I also tend to use a lot of ellipses to indicate silences or hesitations in dialogue, though very rarely in narration. I do use the dash (and parentheticals!) a good bit, but usually it's in either dialogue or when I write as if I or the narrator is speaking. AND RIGHT THERE! That's something that always troubled me. What do you do if you're describing two instances with one word, but they have different conjugations? I am speaking, the narrator is speaking. So I/the narrator is speaking? But then I is speaking, and I is NOT speaking like that! Then again, if the narrator am speaking, the narrator am having problems too. WHAT DO?! [@Gowi] I seem to remember that a lot of people mistakenly use a hypen - instead of a dash --. Granted, without autocorrect/autoformatting or knowing the special characters the -- has a tiny break, but that's the one that's correct, I think. But there's some things about it I don't remember. I think it's a space on either side, if it's in the middle of something, and if it's at the beginning or the end (such as if someone is cut off when speaking) there's no space. But that /might/ be a slightly longer dash than the em dash? *frowning* Anyone remember? When it comes to dashes versus semicolons, my opinion is that the dash has a faster, more haphazard feel to it, while the semicolon is a very deliberate pause and indicates something more complete than marked by a comma. So I mentally hear a dash as less of a pause, instead of more as Lady Horatio mentioned. Another thing I do is start sentences with a conjunction. No, it's not technically correct. But I have always felt that it can indicate a connection to the preceding sentence, an additional thought or a contrasting idea. When I write as if talking -- forum posts are the biggest example -- I tend to be very all-over-the-place. My brain moves too fast, and I don't organize my thoughts well. As an aside, I do tend to pick up memetic mutations and then employ them freely. The best part of knowing the rules is the freedom to deliberately break them for effect. <3 Additionally, I think those on this thread might enjoy various humorous grammar books. Eats, Shoots, and Leaves by Lynn Truss was the first one I ever encountered, though I know there's more of them.