If a period is a stop sign, then what kind of traffic flow is created by other marks? The comma is a speed bump; the semicolon is what a driver education teacher calls a rolling stop ; the parenthetical expression is a detour; the colon is a flashing yellow light that announces something important up ahead; the dash is a tree branch in the road.

Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer (ed. Little, Brown, 2008) - ISBN: 9780316028400