Teaching Minimalism in Grammar

Were you weaned on grammar worksheets? Have you spent hours dumbfounded in front of giant, photocopied lists of sentences, scouring those mine fields of blandness for appositives, conjunctive adverbs, and introductory dependent clauses? The worksheet approach may have over-trained you, creating an uncertain and slightly anxious overpunctuator. You may have, as is the case with many adults and children alike, come to view punctuation the way hunt-and-peck typists view a computer keyboard: as a tiresome process of searching for the right spot for something. More than anything, you want to get enough little marks in there, as though the sky might fall if you leave a bracketed phrase unbracketed or, (Gulp!) a “dashed” phrase dashless!

By beating you over the head with worksheets, your teachers may have inadvertently led you away from one of the most effective policies of punctuation: simplicity. Punctuation marks aren’t there to decorate your sentence, they’re there to clarify, and extra punctuation distorts meaning. The less you punctuate, the better! This chapter helps you conquer the confusion that surrounds the foreboding comma, the intimidating colon, and the ever-scary dash by learning to minimize the madness. By adopting a minimalist approach to punctuation, you will finally see these pesky marks for what they are: a useful and simple way to clarify your thinking to a reader, nothing more.