Transcript Visible Speech a short course in the fundamentals Lesson

Punctuation
Visible Speech
a short course
in the
fundamentals
Lesson 12, part five
By Joe Napora
Symbols Used in This Program
Symbol Key:
=
Advance to next slide
= Return to previous slide
=
Return to the first slide
1
=
Go to Part One
2
=
Go to Part Two
3
=
Go to Part Three
4
=
Go to Part Four
5
=
Go to Part Five
Why Punctuation?
Writing is something we see
before we hear it.
When we read, we translate
the written signs [letters
made into words made into
sentences…] into sounds.
To help readers make better
sense of this translation, we
use a very few additional
signs.
End Signs
We have signs that go
at the end of
sentences. They act
something like a stop
sign.
Period .
Question
Mark ?
Exclamation
Point
!
[These signs sometimes appear within quotation marks.]
More on End Signs
End signs end the sentence. This
sentence ends with a period.
A sentence (or sometimes a single
word) that asks a question ends with
a question mark. Doesn’t it?
A sentence that indicates yelling,
screaming, a voice raised higher than
normal is indicated by an exclamation
mark. Listen!
.Periods.
Periods sometimes indicate when we
take a deep breath if we spoke the
sentence. Unfortunately, none of the
punctuation signs are consistent
indicators of how we speak. We could,
for instance, pause long when we
speak the words “for instance,” but we
wouldn’t write the sentence like this:
We could. For instance. Pause when
we speak the words “for instance,” ...
?Question Marks?
The Spanish language has a better sign
system for question marks. When you
read a question in Spanish, you know
immediately that the sentence is going to
be a question because there is an upside
down question mark at the beginning of
the sentence as well as a regular
question mark at the end.
What?
Que?
?
!Exclamation Marks!
We don’t get more emphasis
Someday the
by using more exclamation
exclamation
marks!!!!!!!!
mark may be
How many times do I have to replaced with
sentences
tell you?????
written in
Nor do we get more
BOLD and
emphasis by using more
than one question mark.
Well, maybe we do, but it’s
not good practice.
ENLARGED
type.
INSIDE SIGNS
Apostrophe
We have signs
that go within
sentences.
’
Semi-colon ;
Colon :
Quotation Marks
The most used
inside sign, the
comma: ,
Parentheses (
Hyphen Dash -Ellipses ...
)
“”
Apostrophes
The apostrophe indicates possession.
The hat belongs to the boy; therefore, it is
the boy’s hat.
If more than one boy owns the hat, then it is
the boys’ hat. [ Logically we should write it as
“the boys’s hat” but punctuation and spelling are
not very logical.]
Apostrophes are also used to indicate speed in
speech: contractions. We say it’s instead of it is,
don’t instead of do not, won’t instead of will not.
Semi-colons
The main use for the semi-colon is to join
two complete sentences that are closely
related.
John went to the store. He bought apples,
grapes, and a watermelon.
We combine these two sentences into
one, joined with a semi-colon.
John went to the store; he bought apples,
grapes, and a watermelon.
[Sometimes semi-colons separate items
in a list.]
Colons
Colons have a very limited use. People
can write for years and never use one.
Some people use them often because
they make lists. There are lists for many
things: people, dogs, cats, houses,
blouses, mouses (that’s mice, isn’t it?).
Sometimes colons function a lot like the semicolon: they join two sentences, the second
subordinate to the former.
Quotation Marks
You say something. You write it down.
You use quotation marks to indicate
exactly what you said.
You ask your friend, John, how he is doing.
“John,” I asked, “How are you doing?”
You can also write this quote other ways:
I asked, “John. How are you doing?”
“John. How are you doing?” I asked.
Quotation Marks
Quotation marks are very handy; they help
since they allow us to indicate speech as
well as sentences that we quote from other
written materials. But sometimes they
cause problems.
There are two main problems:
1) end punctuation, and
2) quotes within quotes.
Quotes Within Quotes
When we quote something, we place it
within quotation marks. But what if we
quote something that has already been
quoted?
John loves Mary.
I wrote the sentence “John loves Mary.”
We use single quotes within the double quotes.
He said, “I wrote the sentence ‘John loves
Mary’.”
End Quotes
Sometimes quotation marks come at the end of
sentences (and sometimes as the beginning).
When a sentence ends with a quotation mark, periods
cause problems [and also commas, which are not
end punctuation but are affected by the quotation
marks in the same way]).
“John loves Mary,” I said.
Here the period ends the sentence.
I said, “John loves Mary.”
Here the period is inside the quotation marks, not at the end.
This is not logical, but it’s the way we do it.
Parentheses
In drama, the play writer will often
indicate an aside, a time when an actor
will speak directly to another actor or to
the audience.
Parentheses often work like an aside.
In drama, the play writer will often speak
directly with the audience [using a technique
called an aside] to get comic effect.
Hyphens
Hyphens join words and parts of words
together to get additional meaning or to
create new words, usually new nouns or
adjectives.
brother-in-law
re-make
twenty-two
This is a hard-to-understand type of
punctuation because there are no clear rules
about how to use it.
For instance, something could just be hard to
understand.
Dashes
Dashes are just longer hyphens that can
give extra emphasis--more than a comma
can give.
Ellipses
When we don’t need to quote everything,
we must still indicate that we left out
information. In this case we use a
punctuation mark that looks like three
periods run together. We use an ellipsis.
I wrote, “When we don’t need to quote
everything….[W]e use an ellipsis.
We use square brackets [ ] to make certain
that our new sentence is correct in grammar,
capitalization, and punctuation.
Commas
Commas cause problems because
commas sometimes act like short pauses
in speaking and sometimes act like little
signs that separate items in a series, that
introduce quotes in speaking, that come
after greetings, and that do a lot of unrelated things.
More Signs
There are a few other
signs we use in
writing, most taken
from math, logic,
drafting, science, and
computer science.
&
{}
<>
@
#
$
*
%
+
=
The End
Of Parts One to Five