Top Ten Rules of Punctuation

 

The importance of punctuation can be envisaged in its primordial role in helping the writer to understand the transitions between ideas and the reader to grasp the meaning. Wrong punctuation is able to change the desired meaning of the sentence. 

Good punctuation makes a sentence clear and easy to read and understand, because it shows the grammatical structure of the text and its meaning.

Comma (,)

It is used :

1-     To separate items in a list which is made up of the same parts speech.

e.g. The U.K. consists of England, Wales, Scotland (,) and northern Ireland.

e.g.My new friend is generous pretty(,) intelligent

            2- To enclose words used in oppositions:

e.g. Martin Luther King, the peace Nobel Prize winner, was short dead in Atlanta.

e.g. John and Inga, the couple from next door, are coming for dinner tonight.

           3- To separate independent clauses in a sentence

e.g. While I was eating, the cat scratched at the door.

           4- To separate the words spoken in direct speech from the rest of the sentence.

e.g. My father said, “ I will see you tomorrow”.

e.g. “I was able”, she answered, “to complete the assignment”.

          5- Use commas to prevent confusion

e.g. To George, Harisson had been a sort of idol.

Period or full stop (.)

1-     It is used at the end of a sentence.

e.g. John is surfing on the web site.

      2- Abbreviations

e.g. January                 Jan.

e.g. Saturday               Sat.

3- Latin Tags

e.g.                   example

i.e.                    that is to say

p.m.                 afternoon or evening

a.m.                  in the morning

 

Question Mark (?)

It has one use as it goes at the end of a question

e.g. How many people will come to the party?

 

Exclamation Mark (!)

It is used to exclaim something. They are commonly used after interjections (words or phrases that are used to exclaim, command or protest like “wow” or “oh” Exclamation mark can express the following emotions in writing:

Excitement: I can’t wait to go to USA./ oh! That hurts!

Surprise: “oh! You  already bought a new car!”

Astonishment:  wow! Your daughter is gorgeous”

Command/ imperative sentence: come here!

Quotation marks/ inverted commas

1-     To enclose words which are directly spoken.

e.g. He advised me, “ do not smoke!”

           2- To enclose direct quotations

e.g. Sapir defines language as follows: “ language is a purely human and non- instinctive method of communicating ideas”

Colon :

To introduce a list of items.

e.g. The daily newspaper contains four sections: news, sports, entertainment, and classified ads.

e.g. The three tenses are tenses are: the present tense, the past tense and the future.

Apostrophe (’)

1-     It is used to form possessives of nouns

e.g. The boy’s hat

2- It is used to show the omission of letters

e.g. He’ll go

Parenthesis (  )

1-     They are used for extra nonessential material in a sentence

e.g. The old train (drived by Emanuel) is arriving.

2- used when something is removed

e.g. “language is a purely human(…) method….”

3- References, year, page of books.

e.g. (Hudson, 1975:41)

Dash

Use the dash to emphasize a point or to set off an explanatory comment.

e.g. Our ideas for the week-end – going to a movie, having a picnic, doing home work- seemed like a lot to squeeze in.

Semicolon

Semicolon separate clauses or phrases that are related and that receive equal emphasis.

e.g. Megan said she was tired; she had stayed up late doing homework.

 

Hyphen

Used to form compound words and to join prefixes, suffixes.

e.g. Forty-two students

e.g. Re-use

e.g. self –control

e.g. a hot- water bottle.            

Exercise N°1

Punctuate the Following Sentences

1-     He is not really nice looking and yet he has enormous charm.

2-     When I was a child I could watch TV whenever I wanted to

3-     I t is a fine idea let us hope that it is going to work

4-     Mrs Solomon who was sitting behind the desk gave me a big smile

5-     I don’t like this one bit said Julia

6-     Have you met our handsome new financial director

7-     Michael in the Ferrari was conering superbly

8-     Looking straight at me he said I cant help you

9-     The men in question Harold Keene Jim Peterson and Gerald Green deserve awards

10- Several countries participated in the airlift Italy Belgium France and Luxembourg

11-Yes Jim said I ll be home by ten

12-The following are the primary colors red blue and yellow

13-The automobile dealer handled three marks of cars Volswagens Porshes and Mercedes Benz 

Exercise

Punctuate the following sentences, inserting colons and commas where necessary

1- I took five items my jacket a fishing rod a peanut butter sandwich a tooth pick and a pen knife.

2-The guest list read a s follows Rev. Bill Hinter Lady Smythe-Bottom Gordon James and Dizzy the Clown.

3-These were the reasons for his odd behaviour fear of the dark fear of confined spaces fear of spiders and way too much caffeine that morning.

4- Certain people are legends Marilyn Monroe James Dean Houdini and Charlie Chaplin.

5- He shook with fear when he saw what lay before him a rocky path a steep slippery slope a cliff edge and a fifty foot drop into the unknown.

Two: