Writing: Within-sentence punctuation — Example 2

- [Instructor] The photograph; shows author Helen Keller teaching actor Charlie Chaplin the manual alphabet. So when I read it I paused a long time, when I saw the semicolon here, because it's there, but it felt strange, the photograph, and then to put a semicolon, a semicolon would separate two independent clauses. The photograph, for sure, is not an independent clause, it can't stand on it's own as a sentence, and, shows author Helen Keller teaching actor Charlie Chaplin the manual alphabet, that also is not an independent clause. So I definitely wanna change this thing. And one thing to think about, and this is just a good principal in general in life, is well, do you need this thing? So, or do you need any punctuation there? And if you just read it without punctuation how does it read? The photograph shows author Helen Keller teaching actor Charlie Chaplin the manual alphabet. Sounds great. No reason to put any kind of pause or anything over there. The photograph shows, so I like just no, I like no punctuation there at all. Now what are these other choices? The photograph colon, well, I would use a colon if I'm about to list a bunch of things. There's three reasons why I liked this movie colon, it was entertaining, there was a lot of action, and there was a lot of romance. Or, if you were providing some type of a definition, but that's not what's going on over here. And you would typically have an independent clause before your colon, and the photograph is not an independent clause, it's not a full, it can't stand on its own as a sentence, so rule that out. And then a dash right over here, that would be good for a parenthetical, so the photograph, and then if you were somehow, making a little bit like, hey, the photograph, which I lost yesterday, shows author Helen Keller teaching actor Charlie Chaplin the manual alphabet, then you might wanna put a dash before and after that parenthetical clause, that little aside that you make to the reader. So I'm gonna rule that one out as well. And, always go for whatever is most simple, as long as it actually makes sense.