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PUNCTUATION

ANEESHIA.PKTCT College Of Teacher Education

Punctuation is used to create sense, clarity and stress in sentences.

We can use punctuation marks to structure and organize your writing.

The most common of these are the period or full stop, the comma, the exclamation mark, the question mark, the colon and semi colon, the quote, the apostrophe, the hyphen and dash, and parentheses and brackets.

Capital letters are also used to help us organize meaning and to structure the sense of our writing.

The ‘Period’, ‘Full stop’ or ‘Point’

The period or full stop is probably the simplest of the punctuation marks to use.

We can use it like a knife to cut the sentences to the required length.

a) To mark the end of a sentence which is not a question or an exclamation. Example: Rome is the capital of Italy.

b) To indicate an abbreviation. Example: I will be in between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m.

c) Often you see a sentence concludingwith three dots. This indicates that onlypart of the sentence or text has beenquoted or that it is being left up to thereader to complete the rest of thesentence. Example: The Lord’s prayerbegins, ‘ our Father which are inHeaven…’

d) Full stop after a single word. Example:“Goodbye.”

“Hello.”

THE COMMA The comma represents a very short pause

between parts of a sentence.

A. Using the comma to separate phrases, words, or clauses in lists.

1. a series of phrases

On my birthday I went to the cinema, ate dinner in a restaurant, and went dancing.

2.a series of nouns.

The meal consisted of soup, fish, chicken, dessert, and coffee.

3. a series of adjectives

She was young, beautiful, kind, and intelligent.

4.a series of verbs

Tony ran towards me, fell, yelled, and fainted.

B. Using the comma to enclose comments. The comma is placed on either side of the insertion. Example: China, one of the most powerful nations on Earth, has a huge population.

C. Use the comma in ‘tag questions’.

She lives in Paris, doesn’t she?

We haven’t met, have we?

THE QUESTION MARK Use the question mark:

1. At the end of all direct questions

What is your name?

Do you speak Italian?

2. Do not use question mark for reported questions

He asked me what my name was.

She asked if I was Spanish.

THE EXCLAMATION MARK

The exclamation mark is used to express exasperation, astonishment or surprise or to emphasize a comment or short, sharp phrase.

Examples:

Help! Help!

That’s unbelievable!

What a lovely day!

b)To form the possessive Case

Example: Joseph’s parents.

Keats’s poetry.

APOSTROPHE The apostrophe is used:

a) To indicate that some letter, or letters, have been omitted from a word, or combination of words. Example:

Don’t (do not)

e’ en (even)

it’s (it is)

QUOTATION MARKS Inverted commas, single or double,

are used to mark the beginning and end of quotations.

Example:

He said, “ I am very hungry.”

Keats’s line, “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever”, is very famous.

THE SEMICOLON The semicolon represents a

longer pause than is y a comma. It is chiefly used to separate the constituent parts of a Compound sentence. Example: To ignore our fellowmen is inhuman; to hate them is diabolical; to love them is divine.

THE COLON The colon expands on the

sentence that precedes it. Example:

There are many reasons for poor written communication: lack of planning, poor grammar, misuse of punctuation marks and insufficient vocabulary.

HYPHENS AND DASHES

A hyphen joins two or more words together( e .g. x-ray, door- to – door) while a dash separates words into parenthetical statements (e. g. She was trapped – no escape was possible).

THE BRACKETS Brackets are used for inserting a

parenthetical sentence in the middle of another sentence.

Example:

Hitler killed (such was his diabolical ruthlessness) more than five million innocent Jews.

CAPITAL LETTERS Using Capital Letters:

1. At the start of a sentence.

Bali is an Indonesian Island.

2. With proper nouns ( particular persons, places and things)

Her name is Mary.

She lives in Spain.

3. With adjective that come fromproper nouns.

They live in Georgian house.

He loved Japanese films.

4. For the first and all of the mainwords in titles.

The Great Gatsby

The Heart of Darkness

5. For the pronoun “I”

In the future I hope that I will be able to visit Turkey.