1. Language Training ManualTraining & Development Team

2. DAY 1 Correct use of punctuation marks4/21/2012 Private and Confidential 2 3. Comma The comma is a valuable useful punctuation device because it separates the structural elements of sentences into manageable segments. The rules provided here are those found in traditional handbooks, however in certain rhetorical contexts and for specific purposes, these rules may be broken.4/21/2012 Private and Confidential 3 4. Comma Use comma to separate independent clauses when they are joined by any of these seven coordinating conjunctions: and, but, for, or, nor, so, yet Examples: The game was over, but the crowd refused to leave The student explained her question, yet the instructor stilldidnt seem to understand Yesterday was her brothers birthday, so she took him outto dinner4/21/2012 Private and Confidential 4 5. Comma Use comma after introductory a) clauses, b) phrases or c)words that come before the main clause Common starter words for introductory clauses that shouldbe followed by a comma include after, although, as,because, if since, when, while Examples: While I was eating, that car scratched at the door. Because her alarm clock was broken, she was late for class If you are ill, you ought to see a doctor When the snow stops falling, well shovel the driveway4/21/2012Private and Confidential5 6. Comma However, dont put a comma after the main clause when adependent (subordinate) clause follows it (except for cases ofextreme contrast) Example: She was late for class, because her alarm clock was broken(Incorrect) The car scratched at the door, while I was eating (Incorrect) She was still quite upset, although she had won the Oscar(correct, extreme contrast)4/21/2012Private and Confidential 6 7. Comma Common introductory phrases that should be followed by a comma include participial and infinitive phrases, absolute phrases, nonessential appositive phrases, and long prepositional phrases (over four words). Examples: Having finished the test, he left the room. To get a seat, youd better come early. After the test but before lunch, I went jogging. The sun radiating intense heat, we sought shelter in thecaf.4/21/2012 Private and Confidential 7 8. Comma Common introductory words that should be followed by a comma include yes, however, well. Examples: Well, perhaps he meant no harm. Yes, the package should arrive tomorrow morning However, you may not be satisfied with the results4/21/2012Private and Confidential8 9. Comma Use a pair of commas in the middle of a sentence to set off clauses, phrases and words that are not essential to the meaning of the sentence. Use one comma before to indicate the beginning of the pause and one at the end to indicate the end of the pause. Here are some clues to help your decide whether the sentence element is essential If you leave out the clause, phrase or word, does the sentence stillmake sense? Does the clause, phrase or word interrupt the flow of words in theoriginal sentence? If you move the element to a different position in the sentence, doesthe sentence still make sense? If you answer YES to one or more of these questions, then theelement in question is nonessential and should be set of withcommas.4/21/2012Private and Confidential 9 10. Comma Clause: That Tuesday, which happens to be my birthday, is the only day when I am available to meet. Phrase: This restaurant has an exciting atmosphere. The food, on the other hand, is rather bland. Word: I appreciate your hard work. In this case, however, you seem to have overexerted yourself.4/21/2012 Private and Confidential 10 11. Comma Do not use commas to set off essential elements of the sentence, such has clauses beginning with that (relative clauses). That clauses after nouns are always essential. That clauses following a verb expressing mental action are always essential. That clauses after nouns: The book that I borrowed from you is excellent. That apples that fell out of the basket are bruised. That clauses following a verb expressing mental action: She believes that she will be able to earn an A. He is dreaming that he can fly. I contend that I was wrong to mislead her. They wished that warm weather would finally arrive.4/21/2012Private and Confidential11 12. Comma Examples of other essential elements (no commas): Students who cheat only harm themselves. The baby wearing a yellow jumpsuit is my niece. The candidate who had the least money lost the election. Examples of non essential elements (set off by commas): Fred, who often cheats, is harming himself. My niece, wearing a yellow jumpsuit, is playing in the livingroom. The Green party candidate, who had the least money, lost theelection. Apples, which are my favorite fruit, are the main ingredient inthis recipe.4/21/2012Private and Confidential 12 13. Use commas to separate three or more words, phrases orclauses written in a series: Examples: The constitution establishes the legislative, executive, and judicialbranches of government. The candidate promised to lower taxes, protect the environment,reduce crime, and end unemployment. The prosecutor argues that the defendant, who was the scene ofthe crime, who had a strong revenge motive, and who had accessto the murder weapon, was guilty of homicide.Please note that serial comma is only used in US English.4/21/2012 Private and Confidential13 14. Comma Use commas to separate two or more coordinate adjectives that describe the same noun. Be sure never to add an extra comma between the final adjective and the noun itself or to use commas with coordinate adjectives. Coordinate adjectives are adjectives with equal (co- ordinate) status in describing the noun; neither adjective is subordinate to the other. You can decide if two adjectives in a row are coordinate by asking the following questions:4/21/2012Private and Confidential 14 15. Comma Does the sentence make sense if the adjectives are written inreverse order? Does the sentence make sense if the adjectives are written withand between them? If you answer yes to these questions, then the adjectives arecoordinate and should be separated by a comma. Here aresome examples of coordinate and non-coordinate adjectives: He was a difficult, stubborn child (coordinate) They lived in a white frame house (non-coordinate) She often wore a gray wool shawl (non-coordinate) Your cousin has an easy happy smile (coordinate)4/21/2012 Private and Confidential15 16. Comma Use a comma near the end of a sentence to separatecontrasted coordinate elements or to indicate a distinctpause or shift: He was merely ignorant, not stupid. The chimpanzee seemed reflective, almost human. Youre one of the senators close friend, arent you? The speaker seemed innocent, even gullible.4/21/2012 Private and Confidential 16 17. Comma Use commas to set off phrases at the end of the sentence thatrefer back to the beginning or middle of the sentence. Suchphrases are free modifiers that can be placed anywhere in thesentence without causing confusion. (if the placement of themodifier causes confusion, then it is not free and mustremain bound to the word it modifies). Nancy waved enthusiastically at the docking ship, laughingjoyously (correct) Lisa waved at Nancy, laughing joyously (incorrect) Laughing joyously, Lisa waved at Nancy (correct). Lisa waved at Nancy, who was laughing joyously (correct).4/21/2012Private and Confidential17 18. Comma Use commas, to set off all geographical names, items indates (except the month and day), addresses (exceptstreet number and name) and titles in names. Birmingham, Alabama, gets its name from Birmingham,England. July 22, 1959, was a momentous day in his life. Who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC? Rachel B Lake, MD, will be the principal speaker. (When you use just the month and the year, no comma isnecessary after the year: The average temperatures forJuly 1998 are the highest on record for that month.)4/21/2012Private and Confidential18 19. Comma Use a comma to shift between the main discourse and aquotation. John said without emotion. Ill see you tomorrow. I was able, she answered, to complete the assignment. In 1848, Marx wrote, Workers of the world unite! Use commas wherever necessary to prevent possibleconfusion or misreading. To George, Harrison had been a sort of idol.4/21/2012 Private and Confidential19 20. Comma Comma abuse Commas in the wrong place can break sentence intoillogical segments or confuse readers with unnecessary andunexpected pauses. Dont use a comma to separate a subject from a verb. An eighteen year old in California, is now considered an adult(incorrect). The most important attribute of a ball player, is quick reflexactions. (incorrect).4/21/2012Private and Confidential20 21. Comma Dont put a comma between two verbs or verb phrases in acompound predicate We laid out our music and snacks, and began to study (incorrect). I turned the corner, and ran smack into a patrol car (incorrect). Dont put a comma between the two nouns, noun phrases, ornoun clauses in a compound subject or compound object. The music teacher from your high school, and the football coachfrom mine are married (incorrect compound subject) Jeff told me that the job was still available, and that the managerwanted to interview me (incorrect compound subject)4/21/2012Private and Confidential 21 22. Comma Dont put a comma after the main clause when adependent (subordinate) clause follows it (except forcases of extreme contrast. She was late for class, because her alarm clock was broken(incorrect). The cat scratched the door, while I was eating (incorrect). She was still quite upset, although she had won the Oscar(correct extreme contrast).4/21/2012 Private and Confidential22 23. The Semicolon The semicolon is another important tool you can usewhen you write. There are two ways to use thispunctuation mark: as a connector between twosentences and as a supercomma.4/21/2012Private and Confidential23 24. The Semicolon To Connect two sentences The semicolon is most often used to connect twosentences. Obviously, the sentences ought to be relativelyclose in content, but other than that you can connect anytwo sentences with a semicolon. SENTENCE; SENTENCE As a communicator, you are always putting togethercomplex terms in your prose and showing how they relateto one another. A semicolon is an economical way to jointwo sentences, and therefore two ideas, so that yourreader sees the relationship. For example, you may writeany of the following sentences:4/21/2012 Private and Confidential 24 25. The Semicolon Jim is a good typist; he makes few mistakes. The AFC corporation is an excellent company to invest in; its investmentshave risen sharply and steadily over each of the last ten years. Ms. Sanchez is a successful real estate salesperson; however, she wasunable to sell her own house. Each of the three examples above contains two sentences glued togetherby a semicolon. The second part of each sentence makes a comment onthe first. Certainly each sentence could be written as two sentences, butyou wouldnt be expressing the close relationship between two parts thatyou do when you use a semicolon. With two separate sentences, thereader must stop at the period of the first sentence and then begin to readthe second; with two sentences connected by a semicolon, the reader doesnot come to a full stop and, therefore, the relationship seems that muchcloser. Also this type of sentence allows you to express your ideaseconomically.4/21/2012Private and Confidential 25 26. The Semicolon The important point to remember is that you must have a complete sentence on both sides of the semicolon. If your second sentence begins with a conjunction (and, but, or, etc.), you do not need a semicolon because the conjunction and the comma that usually goes with it are equivalent to a semicolon. Instead, combine two full sentences with a semicolon. Sometimes, a sentence may begin with words like however, therefore, and nevertheless. If your second sentence begins with one of these words, and if it is indeed a full sentence, you still must use a semicolon to connect the two. The sentence about Ms. Sanchez illustrates this use.4/21/2012 Private and Confidential 26 27. The Semicolon A word of caution: never glue two sentences togetherwith only a comma. Grammarians call this sentence errora comma splice. Here is an example of two sentencesconnected with only a comma: The banking community became quite upset at the rise inthe prime rate, bankers felt that they would ultimately losea considerable amount of money.4/21/2012 Private and Confidential 27 28. The Semicolon A comma splice is considered ungrammatical because thereader begins reading the second sentence beforerealizing that the first sentence is completed. Readers areused to stopping at the end of a sentence, and theybecome disoriented when they find that they haveunknowingly left one sentence and entered a new one.This is why effective writers avoid the comma splice. Hereare two additional examples of comma splices: Ms. Linccini is a fine worker, she meets are her deadlines. Our sales have increased by twenty percent, our inventoryhas been reduced by thirty percent.4/21/2012Private and Confidential 28 29. The Semicolon Each of the examples above constitutes two sentences glued together with a comma. You can correct a comma splice by inserting a semicolon between two sentences, by adding a comma to your conjunction, or, of course, by punctuating them as two sentences. Whichever way you choose, however, you must make sure your final drafts do not contain comma splices. There is one instance where a comma splice is considered acceptable. Occasionally, you may have a list of items that could stand alone as full sentences. You may use commas to attach these items so long as it is clear to the reader that this is a list of relatively equal items. Here is an example: I opened the safe door, I took out the money pouch, and Iconcealed it in my desk drawer.4/21/2012 Private and Confidential 29 30. The Semicolon The example above shows a list of three items andillustrates a step-by-step process. Even though the itemsall constitute full sentences, it is acceptable to usecommas to attach them but only because they aremembers of a larger list. If you are unsure about usingcommas to connect sentences in a list, perhaps it is bestto rewrite the sentence. Do, however, stay alert for anytwo sentences in your prose that are connected by only acomma.4/21/2012Private and Confidential 30 31. The Semicolon Related to the comma splice is the run-on sentence. Run-on sentences, often called fused sentences, are twosentences punctuated as if they were one. In otherwords, a run-on is a comma splice without the comma two sentences smashed together with no punctuationbetween them. Here are two sample run-ons: Chu Lie is the foreman Joseph Garcia is the Line Boss. I knew that the new personnel policy would causeproblems the union is reacting quite vehemently.4/21/2012Private and Confidential31 32. The Semicolon As you can see, each of the two samples above iscomposed of two sentences. The writer should haveconnected the sentences with a semicolon or punctuatedthen as separate sentences. Again, you dont have toworry about such matters until the proofreading stage,but you must make sure your final draft doesnt containrun-on sentences.4/21/2012Private and Confidential 32 33. The Semicolon As Supercomma As you know, you normally separate the members of a listwith commas, as in this sentence: I have just bought shares in IBM, USAG, ITT. The commas let the reader know where one item endsand the next begins. Sometimes, however, you have a listof complex items and one (or more) of the items alreadycontains a comma. In such a case, the reader is likely toget confused about what is really a member of the listand what is not. You can avoid this confusion by makingthe semicolon a sort of supercomma.4/21/2012 Private and Confidential33 34. The Semicolon Look at the sentence below to see how the supercommaworks: Suncom Corporation has subsidiaries in four cities: New York,New York, Wilmington, Ohio, Houston, Texas, and San Francisco,California. This sentence contains so many commas, both between themembers of the list and within them, that readers are likely tobecome confused. Instead you can make the semicolon asupercomma between each of the members so that yourmeaning is clear: Suncom Corporation has subsidiaries in four citites: New York,New York; Wilmington, Ohio; Houston, Texas; and San Francisco,California.4/21/2012 Private and Confidential 34 35. The Semicolon The second sentence is clearer than the first because thereader knows exactly where the members of the list beginand end. You probably will not need to use a semicolon asa supercomma often, but if your sentence contains a listof items, one(or more) of which already contains acomma, you can clarify your meaning by using thesupercomma.4/21/2012Private and Confidential35 36. The Colon You might be surprised to learn that the colon is one of the mosthelpful and easiest to use of all the punctuation marks. You dontneed to remember six or seven rules to understand how a colonworks. In prose, a colon really does only one thing: it introduces. Itcan introduce just about anything: a word, a phrase, a sentence, aquotation, or a list. Youll notice that weve used colons in the twopreceding sentences to introduce a sentence, in the first case, and alist, in the second case. This is how simple the colon is. Lets look atsome other examples: Joe has only one thing on his mind: profit. Joe has only one thing on his mind: his stock portfolio. Joe has only one thing on his mind: he wants to get rich. Joe has three things on his mind: Stocks, bonds, and certificates ofdeposit.4/21/2012 Private and Confidential 36 37. The Colon We have used a colon in these four sentences to introduce various kinds of things: a word, a phrase, a sentence, and a list. You can use a colon in your prose in any place where you must directly introduce something. A colon gives special emphasis to whatever youre introducing because readers must first come to a stop, and so they pay more attention to it. For example, lets say you are writing a letter describing a product, and you want to emphasize above all that this product, the Jacobsen lawn mower, is reliable. You could very well write: The Jacobsen lawn mower beats its competitors especially in the key area of reliability. While this sentence gets the point across, it doesnt place much emphasis on reliability. A sentence using a colon is much more emphatic: The Jacobsen lawn mower beats its competitors especially in one key area: reliability. Notice that the second example places clear emphasis on the point that the writer is trying to communicate to his or her reader: that the Jacobsen lawn mower is above all reliable. The writer of this sentence has used the colon effectively. Perhaps the most common way to use a colon is to introduce a list of items, as in this sentence: This report reviews five main criteria to determine whether to purchase the reliability.4/21/2012 Private and Confidential37 38. The Colon IBM PC: hardware, software, maintenance agreements, service, and customersupport. If you arent sure whether you need a colon in a particular sentence, here is a handy test: read the sentence, and when you reach the colon, substitute the word namely; if the sentence reads through smoothly, then theres a good chance that you do need a colon. For example, you can read any of the example sentences above with the word namely in the place of the colon: Joe has only one thing on his mind [namely] profit. Joe has only one thing on his mind [namely] his stock portfolio. Joe has only one thing on his mind [namely] he wants to get rich. Joe has three things on his mind [namely] stocks, bonds, and certificates of deposit. This test may not work 100 percent of the time, but it is a fairly reliable indicator of whether you need a colon. One word of caution: do not place the colon after the verb in a sentence, evenwhen you are introducing something, because the verb itself introduces and thecolon would be redundant. For example, you would not write:4/21/2012Private and Confidential38 39. The Colon My three favorite friends are: Evelyn, Marlyne, and Ronni. The colon is not necessary in the sentence above because theverb does the work of introducing the three friends. You cancheck this sentence by using the test we just mentioned. Itwould seem awkward to read this sentence, "My threefavorite friends are, namely, Evelyn, Marlyne, and Ronni." Thefact that the sentence is awkward when you read it withnamely is an indication that the colon is unnecessary.Remember, the colon shows emphasis and, therefore, youwant the reader to stop at the colon before preceding on towhatever it is you are introducing.4/21/2012Private and Confidential39