Transcript Punctuation - University of Central Lancashire

WISER
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Along with grammar and spelling,
punctuation helps clarify meaning and
enhances ‘fluent’ reading.
Each punctuation mark has specific a job (or
jobs) to do. If it is not doing a specific job,
don’t use it.
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There are various punctuation marks but many
have just one job to do, for instance:
!
?
“ ”
.
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to indicate:
‘ ’
an exclamation
a question
speech
the end of a sentence
Others are more complex and these are the ones
we will focus on here.
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Apostrophes ’
Commas
,
Hyphen
Semi-colon ;
Colon
:
Check your understanding
A useful resource
slides 5-13
slides 14- 27
slides 28 - 32
slides 33 - 38
slide 39
slide 40 – 50
slide 51
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2 uses:
1) Show possession
(i.e. belonging to)
2) Show omission
(i.e. missing letters)
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the dog’s dinner
it isn’t cool
It is not used to show plural (i.e. more than one)
Except:
◦ at the greengrocers!
◦ in older usage: DVD’s, CD’s, TV’s - now dying out.
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Examples of misuse.
No apostrophe needed.
•taxis
•pies, pasties & sandwiches
•drinks, thanks
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No need for an apostrophe here.
•Some bananas
•Some plums
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the dog’s dinner
= the dinner of the dog
the dogs’ dinner
= the dinner of the dogs
Note:
children’s people’s
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whose safety?
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5 o’clock = 5 of the clock
Let’s go = let us go
We no longer ever write the full form in
these cases.
In most cases, it depends on the style and
purpose of writing whether we write the full
form or contracted (short) form. The full form is
generally used in formal writing.
Therefore, in academic writing we tend to use the
full form.
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Note what the missing word is.
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Isn’t = is not
Hasn’t = has not
It’s been good = It has been good
It’s being mended = It is being mended
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Remember academic style prefers no
contractions (short forms ) such as isn’t,
can’t, hasn’t, so the only apostrophes in your
academic essays should be those to show
possession.
e.g.
 the government’s policies ....
 the people’s choice ...
 society’s responsibility ....
 the policies’ supporters ....
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It’s or its? Who’s or whose?
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ALWAYS It’s = it is who’s = who is
(omission)
Its, whose - THINK: his, hers, theirs, ours, its and
whose.
(possession)
Examples:
 It’s a wonderful life.
 Who’s the daddy?
 Each moment of the year has its own beauty.
 Whose life is it anyway?
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Commas help divide up information in a
sentence into meaningful units.
Main uses:
◦ Lists
◦ Indicating extra information
 which can change meaning of the sentence
 which ‘re-names’
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Examples:
 He got figures from books, academic journals,
websites or the business press.
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This is a thorough, well-organised, wellpresented and interesting report.
He spell-checked the essay, printed it off, and
submitted it to his tutor.
Note the use of and and or before the final item in
the list.
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Commas also divide up strings of adjectives
Examples:
 It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world.
 An itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, polka-dot bikini.
 The difficult, dangerous, and expensive
journey home was unforgettable.
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a) The students who are lazy will fail their
exams.
All the lazy students, but not the others, will fail.
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b) The students, who are lazy, will fail their
exams.
All students will fail. They are all lazy.
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Which students will fail? All? Just the lazy ones?
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a) The trade unions which oppose the government’s
plans will organise a demonstration.
 a) No – only those who oppose the plans.
b) The trade unions, which oppose the government’s
plans, will organise a demonstration.
 b) Maybe not all but we do not know which ones
specifically. All the trade unions oppose the plans.
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Will all trade unions organise demonstrations?
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The phrases which give us extra information,
where the meaning changes depending on
whether they are within commas or not, are
known as defining /identifying and nondefining / non-identifying clauses.
Students who are lazy will fail their exams.
Defining /identifying (i.e. tell us which ones)
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Students, who are lazy, will fail their exams.
Non-defining/ non-identifying
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Examples:
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Gordon Brown, former Prime-Minister, yesterday
said that ...
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Bronte’s first novel, Jane Eyre, was swiftly followed
by her best novel, Villette.
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Mr X, Chief Executive of the NHS, claims that ..
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The Scilly Isles, a group of islands off the tip of
Cornwall, are very beautiful.
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Note each of these sentences is grammatical
and therefore reads sensibly without the information
within commas:
Gordon Brown, former Prime-Minister, yesterday
said that ...
Gordon Brown yesterday said that...
The commas are here acting like brackets.
Unlike the previous examples, the presence or
absence of commas will not change the
meaning. In these cases they simply clarify.
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We can include in a sentence a phrase that is
providing extra information or is, for example, a
link to the previous sentence. We show this by
putting a comma between this extra information,
and the part, which could stand alone as a
complete sentence by itself (shown underlined).
Example:
 Therefore, this business cannot be launched.
 Whenever I go to London, I like to visit the
National Portrait Gallery.
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Both ‘halves’ (not necessarily of equal length, note) of the
sentences could go in either first or second position with
no change in meaning. The commas shows where the
sentence ‘breaks’, dividing the main part, and the extra
information.
Further examples:
 However, I cannot agree with that proposition.
 I cannot agree with that proposition, however.
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Although we have been friends for years, I do not know
her address.
I do not know her address, although we have been
friends for years.
If you see him, tell him I need to talk with him.
Tell him I need to talk with him, if you see him.
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In order not to misuse commas when dividing
sentences, you need to recognise a complete,
grammatical sentence.
A common mistake is to link 2 complete
sentences with just a comma. This is known as
comma splice.
Example:
 The children had never been away from home
before, they were scared and tired.
 [The children had never been away from home
before], [they were scared and tired].
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Start a new sentence.
The children had never been
away from home before. They were scared and
tired.
Link with a semi-colon
The children had never been away from home
before; they were scared and tired.
Use a linking word
The children had never been away from home
before and they were scared and tired.
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Keeping track of the central sentence, onto
which extra information is being added, helps
to ensure the sentence is grammatical
and to decide how to divide up these extra chunks
with commas.
Before this person retired, he would work away for
weeks at a time, where there was no alcohol and
when he came home he consumed large amounts
of alcoholic drinks at the weekends, consuming far
more than the average daily allowance of
recommended alcohol.
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Note the comma splice is to be avoided in
formal writing. In other genres (e.g.
journalese, creative writing) it is not so
important to avoid it since the use of commas
can vary for creative effect.
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Hyphens link words to show the resulting new
meaning
Examples:
 The student-centred approach to teaching
◦ not a student approach, not a centred approach
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An evidence-based argument.
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He swallowed six inch nails
Or
 He swallowed six-inch nails
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Extra can have 2 meanings:
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Extra = more
◦ e.g. I did not want the extra work.
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Extra = outside of
◦ e.g. I enjoyed the extra-curricular activities on the
course.
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In the the 2 previous cases did you notice the
hyphen? An omitted hyphen in many cases
may not make too much difference because
of the context.
In some cases, however, the placing of the
hyphen will make a noticeable difference to
meaning, as in the use of extra since it has 2
meanings:
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Letter in Amnesty Magazine Nov/Dec 2009
‘Apologies for seeming facetious about a serious issue
(but it did make us laugh) and double apologies for
being pedantic, but I doubt very much that anyone in
the Maldives has ever been flogged for extra marital
sex. In fact most religions (and it is probably religion
behind this punishment) condone extra marital sex,
even when one of the parties doesn’t want it – though
they are usually amazingly censorious and punitive
about extra-marital sex’.
From Marilyn Mason, Kingston Upon Thames
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The semi-colon has 2 main uses:
Linking 2 sentences
In complex lists
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Examples:
Some of the programs are very user-friendly;
others are more difficult to learn.
This workshop is about punctuation; last week’s
was about grammar.
Think of two arms of a balance.
On each side of the semi-colon
(the pivot) there needs to be a
complete sentence.
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The lecturer did not show the diagram; the
students obviously understood.
Compare:
 The lecturer did not show the diagram. The
students obviously understood.
 The lecturer did not show the diagram, as the
students obviously understood.
All are correct ways to express this.
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A number of suspects had been held,
including Roger Hunt, the husband of the
deceased, Ruth Ellis, his wife’s best friend,
Jane Osborne, his former girlfriend, and Hugh
Thomas, an old family friend.
How many people are involved here? 7? 4?
Anything in between? Is Jane Osborne his
wife’s best friend or she his old girlfriend?
What is everyone’s relationship to the
deceased?
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A number of suspects had been held: Roger
Hunt, the husband of the deceased; Ruth
Ellis, his wife’s best friend; Jane Osborne, his
former girlfriend; and Hugh Thomas, an old
family friend.
Now there is no ambiguity. Only 4 people
were held.
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Do not overuse the semi-colon.
Do not confuse it with a comma. They have
very different jobs to do.
Do not confuse it with a colon (: ) which
introduces a list (see next slide).
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Don’t confuse the semi-colon with a colon.
A colon is for:
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introducing a list
e.g. Several people visited: the priest, the doctor,
his boss and the children.
acting rather like an equals sign
e.g. Britain is facing a huge problem: no-one can
spell!
(Note: here, you could substitute namely or i.e. in
the place of the colon).
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That is the end of the explanation of the
more complex punctuation marks.
In the following slides you can check how well
you understood the main points.
Click the mouse to display the answer and
further questions (in some cases).
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a) Mother and child have had and are continuing to
experience difficulties, the origins of which can be traced
back to the mothers childhood.
mother’s (just one mother)
b) The United States ability to undertake this operation is
admirable or foolhardy.
States’
c) Bowlbys theories were developed by researchers
including Ainsworth.
Bowlby’s
d) The seven dwarves luck was in!
dwarves’
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Would you add commas to these sentences? If so,
where?
a) Because of the difficult current economic climate the
UK grocery market was affected by rising food prices.
a) Because of the difficult current economic climate, the
UK grocery market was affected by rising food prices.
b) My sister who is a doctor advised me not to go.
b) My sister, who is a doctor, advised me not to go =
simply extra info about my sister
b) My sister who is a doctor advised me not to go = the
sister who’s a doctor advised me, not one of my other
sisters.
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Is this sentence demonstrating correct use of commas? If not,
how would you correct it?
Health needs assessment and health impact assessment are
similar terms used in current practice, both use the same
planning process, however, they differ in terminology (Hooper
and Longworth, 2002).
Health needs assessment and health impact assessment are
similar terms used in current practice; both use the same
planning process. However, they differ in terminology (Hooper
and Longworth, 2002).
OR
 Health needs assessment and health impact assessment are
similar terms used in current practice. Both use the same
planning process; however, they differ in terminology (Hooper
and Longworth, 2002).

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a) Some of the programs are very user-friendly; others are
more difficult to learn.
☺ OK
b) There are various ways to lose friends; tell them lies, stand
them up, forget their birthdays and ignore their calls.
 No. There are various ways to lose friends: tell them lies,
stand them up, forget their birthdays and ignore their calls.
(Use a colon before a list)
c) However; the issues were too complicated to explain
satisfactorily.
 No. However, the issues were too complicated to explain
satisfactorily. (Use commas to divide extra information from
the core sentence)
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a) Shane Chowen 22 who has four science levels
from City College Plymouth is the frontrunner
in the race to be the next NUS president a
contest which will be decided when student
delegates gather for a national conference in
Gateshead this week.
Shane Chowen, 22, who has four science Alevels from City College Plymouth, is the front
runner in the race to be the next NUS president,
a contest which will be decided when student
delegates gather for a national conference in
Gateshead this week.
(underlining simply shows the central, core
sentence)
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b) First it will need an elite athlete in tip-top
condition probably one from east Africa.
Second it will need to be on a fast, flat course
such as Berlin London or Rotterdam.
First, it will need an elite athlete in tip-top
condition, probably one from east Africa.
Second, it will need to be on a fast, flat
course such as Berlin, London or Rotterdam.
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c) It is important that all healthcare professionals from
different services work together and communicate clearly
if communication is poor important details can be missed
resulting in the patient being cared for incorrectly and
possibly important diagnosis being missed.
It is important that all healthcare professionals from
different services work together and communicate clearly;
if communication is poor, important details can be missed
resulting in the patient being cared for incorrectly and
possibly important diagnosis being missed.
OR
It is important that all healthcare professionals from
different services work together and communicate clearly.
If communication is poor, important details can be missed
resulting in the patient being cared for incorrectly and
possibly important diagnosis being missed.
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Smile.
You’re on
camera
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Whose
side are
you on?
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Who’s book is this?
 Whose
It’s front cover is torn so it’s going cheap.
It’s  Its front cover is torn so it’s ☺ going cheap.
There are various learning styles according to different
models. These include: converger, diverger, audio,
kinaesthetic, visual, activist, reflector and theorist.
☺
Despite being a doctor himself he never looks after his
health.
 Despite being a doctor himself, he never looks after his
health.
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Peck, J. & Coyle, M. (1999) The Student’s
Guide to Writing: Grammar, Punctuation and
Spelling. Cardiff: Macmillan
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Victor Borge made the attempt to draw on the
power of punctuation to great effect ...
http://www.evtv1.com/player.aspx?itemnum=
12478#
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Any feedback on the usefulness (or
otherwise) of this material would be warmly
welcomed.
Please contact me:
Tania Horák
[email protected] or
Ext 3055
(01772 893055)
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