AP Stylebook - Punctuation

Punctuation is one of those things that I don't really think about too much when writing. It is like second nature to know where to put a comma, how to use an apostrophe in the possesive form and when it's a contraction, that an exclamation point is used in excitement, that a question mark is, well, at the end of a question, and that a period goes at the end of a sentence. Yet punctuation is a lot more complex than what it appears to be. For example, I am always confused by the use of the semicolon. Honestly, I usually only put it in when microsoft word tells me to. And hyphens, I really don't use them.
Punctuation is very important, but like learning how to be a journalist, you can't just read it from a book. It's difficult to read all these rules and then incorporate them immediately into your work. It takes time and practice on how to properly write a sentence with proper punctuation.