I often wonder how many writers consider the type of or the extent to which they use punctuation in their writing before they present their work to the reader. A rule of thumb: Simplification. An occasional hyphen, a semicolon or an ellipsis can be effective. The excessive use of hyphens, parentheses, colons, semicolons, ellipses, etc. however will interrupt the flow. One could avoid extreme indulgences in this area by resorting to commas or by lending a lengthy sentence a much-needed end, with a promising guidance to a new sentence.