1. Commas and Semicolons The big decision!

2. Is punctuation important? A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and proceeds to fire it at the other patrons. "Why?" asks the confused, surviving waiter amidst the carnage. The panda pauses on his way out, produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual, and tosses it over his shoulder. "Well, I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up." The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation: "Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

3. Comma (,) Use a comma to link two independent clauses Put the comma after the first clause Link with one of the following coordinating conjunctions: ▫and ▫but ▫for ▫or ▫nor ▫so ▫yet

4. Comma Examples I am going home, and I intend to stay there. It rained heavily during the afternoon, but we managed to have our picnic anyway. They couldn't make it to the summit and back before dark, so they decided to camp for the night.

5. Semicolon (;) Use a semicolon when you link two independent clauses with no connecting words.

6. Semicolon examples I am going home; I intend to stay there. It rained heavily during the afternoon; we managed to have our picnic anyway. They couldn't make it to the summit and back before dark; they decided to camp for the night.

7. Semicolon (;) Also use a semicolon to join two independent clauses with one of the following conjunctive adverbs: however, moreover, therefore, consequently, otherwise, nevertheless, thus, etc.

8. Semicolon w/ conjunctive adverb I am going home; moreover, I intend to stay there. It rained heavily during the afternoon; however, we managed to have our picnic anyway. They couldn't make it to the summit and back before dark; therefore, they decided to camp for the night.

9. Practice P. 725 Exercise 1, 1-10