grammar help, quick please?

[2boysmom]

Could someone help my son with his essay?

We are wondering how to puntuate "In this case." We can't find out how to do this correctly. Thanks so much if you can help.

 

 

Finally, The Thousandth Man is an excellent poem because it speaks to the heart. Rudyard Kipling instinctively puts himself in another man’s skin. He had the ability to express well the deep feelings of the subjects of his poems. In this case; a man’s difficulty in finding a good friend.

[jibaker103]

Could someone help my son with his essay?

We are wondering how to puntuate "In this case." We can't find out how to do this correctly. Thanks so much if you can help.

 

 

Finally, The Thousandth Man is an excellent poem because it speaks to the heart. Rudyard Kipling instinctively puts himself in another man’s skin. He had the ability to express well the deep feelings of the subjects of his poems. In this case; a man’s difficulty in finding a good friend.

You want to use a comma.

[2boysmom]

Thank you! :001_smile:

[angela in ohio]

I would say:

 

He had the ability to express well the deep feelings of the subjects of his poems, in this case a man’s difficulty in finding a good friend.

[MommyThrice]

I agree with the comma. I don't know your son's age, but I would probably not use the adverb "well". It is awkward and seems to have a double-meaning next to the word "deep" ... like a deep well in the ground.

You could just omit it:

He had the ability to express the deep feelings of the subjects of his poems.

Or choose a different, more descriptive, adverb:

He had the ability to precisely express the deep feelings of the subjects of his poems.

 

If he's young, maybe you want to just leave this alone. But since it jumped out at me I thought I would mention it.

[Andrew Kern]

Semi-colons should be used when you have two independent clauses (clauses that contain a subject and a predicate and therefore could each be a sentence by itself: John fell down; Angela got up.). The other main use for them is if you have a list that is so complex commas won't do.

 

In the sentence by your son, you want to replace the semi-colon with either a comma or a colon. When in doubt, it's usually best to rely on the comma.

[Andrew Kern]

You didn't ask about this, but another suggestion I would make is to try to make it more simple and direct by reducing the number of prepositional phrases: e.g. "how hard it is to make and keep a good friend."