:) ;^] :/

I think no matter what level course you are taking in writing there will ALWAYS be a review of punctuation. I am not against the review because I always need the refresher. When I write I tend to just spill it all out onto my computer. Although this technique (if you could even call it a technique) is effective for racking up the wordage, it tends to just end up being a long ramble without all the necessary punctuation for emphasis and understanding. That's where my editing time comes in, hopefully when I reread what I just wrote I can catch where I need to insert some directions for the reader. I think of punctuation as directions for readers because it tells them where to pause or to stop all together, or emphasizes certain parts of a sentence. I had one professor that referred to punctuation as road signs. This makes sense since road signs and punctuation do the same thing, provide a warning or directions how to navigate a path, whether it is on pavement or paper.

The other reading for this week was the three chapters of my news reporting text. Basically it was an introduction to journalism. Another review. The most important thing they mentioned was relevance. I know last year I learned that when you are writing for a newspaper you only have a certain number of words to get your message across. If you waste half of them on something that is not the news then you have only half to get your message across.