The Power of Punctuation
DISCLAIMER: This program is not for you if you’re seeking a strict guide to formal punctuation rules. It offers the instructor’s personal, often unorthodox, take on punctuation based on decades of experience in the news business.
Do you spend ages worrying whether a comma should go here or there, and then doubt yourself because of the complex rules around comma placement?
Do you frequently end up with a random mess of semicolons littering the page and distracting from your message?
Did you know you could use a dash, or a colon, to create additional drama in your writing?
If you’re seeking to make a mark on the world by writing an outstanding book, or creating a popular blog, you’ll find it easier to make an impact once you discover how to use punctuation with style.
A Nontechnical Approach
While studying grammar in a formal setting is recommended, a strictly technical approach to subjects like punctuation can leave students bored and uninspired.
That’s why here you’ll find a more intuitive and flexible approach—one that focuses on communicating powerfully and beautifully, as opposed to blindly following rules.
Some of the best professional writers don’t treat punctuation as a set of rigid rules to obediently follow. They see it, rather, as a tool for making their communication more engaging and captivating.
Your school and college tutors may have discussed punctuation in a largely jargon-laden way that may have left you bored or mystified. You may even dread going back to the subject.
This course steers clear of all that. By the end, you’ll wonder why nobody told you punctuation could be so interesting.
Punctuate With Style
Many people struggle with punctuation—for instance, not knowing when it’s appropriate to use a comma, a semicolon, a dash or a hyphen.
As a result, their copy often ends up littered with punctuation that is neither useful nor necessary.
Others understand the basic rules, but don’t know how to use commas, colons, semi-colons, hyphens, apostrophes and dashes with any kind of style or flair.
This program solves both of those problems at once, clarifying the main uses of each type of punctuation while introducing you to special features that can create little known magical effects in your writing.
Special Effects
Punctuation Mastery is a non-technical guide to using commas, dashes and other types of punctuation more stylishly.
It shows how punctuation is most usefully seen as a means of producing clarity and elegance in your writing.
You’ll discover, for instance, that a comma doesn’t just help create useful pauses in a sentence, but that it can be a mighty weapon letting you express your ideas more crisply and gracefully.
You’ll discover that colons don’t only give you a neat way of introducing lists; they can be used to heighten drama and anticipation.
In fact, you’ll come to see that each little symbol you thought was so mundane has its own unique power to create special effects right across your writing.
The program adopts mostly a non-technical, intuitive approach to the subject with the aim, above all, of fostering clear and elegant writing that is easy (and pleasurable) for readers to navigate.
The problem with most punctuation classes is that they introduce you to a dense jungle of jargon that can curb your enthusiasm.
This course teaches you to look at punctuation in a more commonsensical way, so you can avoid the major pitfalls as well as write much more stylishly.
Who This Course Is For
- Corporate writers
- Communications professionals
- Marketing executives
- College and university students
- Blog writers
- Job hunters
- Journalists
- Book writers
- Bloggers
- Authors
