Writing Center consultants know how to use punctuation, and with familiarity of this writing necessity comes both love and dislike for certain punctuation marks.            

Reba Bucyznski's favorite is the semicolon. She described the mark as a healthy boyfriend-girlfriend relationship, where two clauses are together just enough of the time but yet still independent.  

"If you can use one, you're a pretty special person," she said.            

Emily Hammersborg, on the other hand, enjoys the dash.            

"I like the dash -- not the hyphen  -- the dash. It's just such a wonderful way of expounding on something when writing," she said. "Look at me, so here's a dash. It's not subdued in parentheses. I would use it all the time if I could, but it overwhelms a paper."            

Caio Santos has his own simple reason for loving his favorite punctuation mark - the colon. "I love the suspense it creates," he said.