## Summary Some of the information here came from [this website](https://blog.wordvice.com/when-to-use-commas-colons-semicolons-and-dashes/). It seems like I generally use commas, em-dashes, and semicolons correctly, but I'm sure I overuse em-dashes at least. ## Punctuation ### Commas - "A, B" Connect related ideas together, especially (but not exclusively) when combined with a conjunction. >*Astronomers have known about the positions of stars for centuries, but they didn’t understand that the earth revolves around the sun.* > >*All doctors, if they care about their patients, are concerned with good office hygiene.* ### Em-dashes - "A — B" Connect related, but separate, ideas together. >*And so, when the baby was born in June — nearly two months premature — the parents were happy but quite nervous, and they still had to buy all of the baby supplies.* > >Further information on *em-dashes*: >"Em dashes can be used in pairs to replace commas when writing a parenthetical or interruptive phrase. The dashes have a slightly more emphatic feel, making the reader focus on the information that is set inside the special marks." ### Semicolons - "A; B" Connect ideas together, especially when the clauses have their own commas to separate said ideas; they tend to work better when commas alone would make it hard to parse more complex clauses. >*The universe has always called to human beings; there could be no more final frontier than space.* > >*Our family members came all the way from Denver, Colorado; Rochester, Minnesota; and even Paris, France.* > >*My main research objective is to isolate the cause of the disease, as well as to contribute to the existing literature; for this will bring an end to starvation across the continent, create new study designs related to epidemiology, and change the very paradigm of my research field.* #english #writing