Quotation Marks for Emphasis?

It's really common to see quotation marks on words in advertisement to show emphasis. But what a lot of the advertisers don't know is the huge punctuation error they are making. The definition I recieved from dictionary.com says, "Either of a pair of punctuation marks used primarily to mark the beginning and end of a passage attributed to another and repeated word for word, but also to indicate meanings or glosses and to indicate the unusual or dubious status of a word." But that only confuses the brain. Things that commonly recieve quotations would include: a quote from another person, a conversation, and titles of either a book, movie, store, etc. Click here to see a site that gives good examples for this common puctuation error.

First Draft

Another fond memory of my family is when we’d clean or just hang out, sometimes, we’d burst out singing the Always Coca Cola commercial. I have 7 sisters and 5 brothers and at one point we were all squished under one roof and there was always that Coca Cola song stuck in someones head and you could hear them whistling or humming it. Walking by, one of us would hear it and started singing it too, then we’d sing as loud as we could from the room we were in, competing to be the loudest.

Revision

Another fond memory of my family is when we were all cleaning or lounging around the house, you could hear the faint whistle or hum of the "Always Coca Cola" song. With seven sisters and five brothers, all squished under one roof, it wasn't hard for one of the twelve of us to hear it walking by. Like a contagious yawn, it would get stuck in their head and it didn't take long for it to catch on. Soon enough we were all singing it from the top of our lungs, competing to be the loudest.

Grammar Post # 2

Something that I always see in writing is semicolons but don't have a full understanding of why it's there or why it's used. The exact definition of a semicolon is a mark used to connect independent clauses and indicating a closer relationship between the clauses than a period does. The semicolon can take place of a period, usually tied in with something like however, nevertheless, furthermore, etc. For example: I like going on vacation; however, I like coming home. I could take out the semicolon and replace it with a period; though, it might sound incorrect. If you are still confused about semicolons, check out this site!

My Life Sounds Like...

It was last summer and I was sixteen, spending the majority of my time in St. George with my girlfriend, Shana. I had just finished my Junior year at Lehi High School and I missed Shana and all my old friends from Dixie High School. That summer was the happiest I had been in a long time, though the thought of going home was always in the back of my head. So I decided that I wasn't ready to go . The end of the Summer was fast approaching and I decided that it was time to tell my dad that I wasn't going to be coming home. I drove up with Shana and stayed at his house for a couple of nights. The day came when it was time to go back to St. George. I gathered all the courage I could manage and took my dad to dinner. I told him what I was thinking of doing and he was calm and complacent, trying to tell me the flaws in the idea and that I couldn't leave. Then I dropped the bomb shell and told him I wasn't asking for his permission. We drove back to his house in silence. When we arrived at his house, he kicked us out along with our bags. We drove slowly back to St. George, thinking of all the things that were to come. From that day on, I didn't have others to guide or support me. I had to make decisions for myself. The song says, "Now I'm feeling like my life is finally mine. With nothing to look back to, we just continue to drive." The play list plays 30 seconds of the song but the whole song represents that day and how I felt. This year has been tough but I've managed to keep a high GPA and work full time to support Shana, myself and our dog.
The song "Gone Going" shows my feelings on both life in general and material things. I feel that people get so caught up on how they look and the things that they don't have that they soon become a slave to the dollar bill. It says in the song that we feel safe looking in the mirror because we see the man that looks familiar but it can't forever cover up your soul. It then goes on to say that these things aren't something that you can take to your grave, meaning their not something that we're going to be remembered for. Every person that was ever worth remembering made sacrifices to create value in other peoples lives.

Possessives

I've always been confused about possessive apostrophes. I was never quite sure when or where they were supposed to be placed. This website put it really simple for me! The book definition of where to put it is a little more confusing. The book says, "Indicate shared or joint possession by adding -'s to the final noun in a list. Indicate individual possession by adding -'s to each noun." If you struggle with possessives to, click on the hyperlink and it will clear it up for you!