Punctuations

1
Punctuations

• Week 11
• Peiling Hsia

2
Punctuation

• Periods .
• Commas ,
• Colons
• Semicolons
• Question marks ?
• Exclamation points !

• Apostrophes '
• Quotation marks " "
• Hyphens -
• Dashes --
• Parentheses ( )
• Brackets

3
Semicolon ( )

• The semicolon is an important punctuation mark in
  
• English and has several uses it is particularly
  common in
• formal and/or academic writing. There are several
  common
• ways of using the semicolon.
• 1. Use a semicolon to connect sentences that
  have closely related ideas.
• 2. Use a semicolon to connect items in lists if
  the itemsin the lists contain commas.
• 3. When sentences are connected by using
  conjunctive adverbs, the semicolon comes at the
  end of the first sentence.

4
1. Use a semicolon to connect sentences that have
closely related ideas.

• Examples
• He came he saw he conquered.
• She always does her best that's one reason
  everyone admires her.
• Dave Johnson and his family recently visited a
  village near Chiangmai, Thailand Dave's wife,
  May, comes from there.
• Almost everyone has heard of the Time Square of
  New York City it's one of the most famous
  tourist attractions in the U.S.A.
• John and his wife are newlyweds they got married
  only a few days ago.

5
Special notes

• 1. Periods could also be used for these
  sentences, but the semicolons
• emphasize how closely related the sentences
  are. (If periods are used,
• the sentences seem "choppy.")
• 2. Most authorities state that when a semicolon
  is used with
• parentheses (( )) or with quotation marks ("
  "), the semicolon should be
• outside the parentheses or quotation marks
• Bill said, "I was born in a very small town" he
  went on to say that it's a friendly place with a
  population of less than 1,000.
• Ms. Jones was probably referring to the state of
  Washington (which is in the north-western U.S.)
  a reference to Washington, D.C. doesn't seem very
  logical to me.

6
2. Use a semicolon to connect items in lists if
the items in the lists contain commas.

• Examples
• She's lived in San Antonio, Dallas and Irving,
  Texas Palms, West Los Angeles, and Brentwood,
  California Arch Cape and Portland, Oregon and
  Phoenix, Arizona.
• We invited Bob's girlfriend, Annie Judy, Ahmed,
  and Simon Simon's cousins, Hugo and Peter our
  next-door neighbor, Tina, and her husband and
  three or four other people.
• For the class you'll need two diskettes, either
  formatted or unformatted paper, both for the
  printer and for your class notes and, of course,
  the textbook.

7
Special notes

• 1. Semicolons are very helpful, in sentences such
  as the ones above, in making the lists less
  confusing. Without the semicolons, the items in
  the list would be difficult to understand using
  commas alone would not separate the items
  clearly
• 2. Periods cannot be used instead of semicolons
  in
• sentences like those above.

Example We invited Bob's girlfriend, Annie,
Judy, Ahmed, and Simon, Simon's cousins, Hugo and
Peter, our next-door neighbor, Tina, and her
husband, and three or four other people. (This
sentence is confusing because the items in the
list are not clearly separated.)
8
3. When sentences are connected by using
conjunctive adverbs, the semicolon comes at the
end of the first sentence.

• Conjunctive adverbs (sentence connectors) include
  connecting words
• such as however, therefore, besides,
  consequently, nevertheless, in
• addition, accordingly, and otherwise.
• Examples
• Sandy might have been sick and unable to come to
  work however, I suspect that she took the day
  off and went shopping.
• We're expected to do all the assigned work in
  addition, we're required to read and report on
  three books that we can choose ourselves.
• The last three shipments were damaged when they
  were received consequently, all new shipments
  will be inspected just before theyleave the
  factory.
• Mike found the work very difficult and was often
  tempted to quit nevertheless, he kept on trying
  and eventually did quite well on it.

9
Special notes

• Periods can be used with conjunctive adverbs
• instead of semicolons.
• She was extremely tired. However, she finished
  her assignment.
• She was extremely tired however, she finished
  her assignment.

10
Commas ( , )

• Use commas to keep your writing clear. Omitted or
  incorrectly used, commas can cause confusion or
  even change meaning. Commas should be used with
  the following elements
• Introductory elements
• Coordinating conjunctions joining independent
  clauses
• Elements in a series
• Coordinate modifiers
• Nonrestrictive modifiers
• Parenthetic elements
• Elliptical constructions
• (http//www.mhhe.com/mayfieldpub/tsw/commas.htm)

11
1. Introductory elements
Use commas to set off transitional words and
phrases, introductory clauses, or introductory
phrases to signal where the introductory element
finishes and the main part starts.

• (1) Transitional Words and Phrases
• Place a comma after a transitional word or
  phrase that begins a sentence.
• Moreover, the opening of an export market
  would help expand the market for key escrow
  encryption.
• In addition, several companies and
  individuals have proposed commercial key escrow
  approaches.
• (2) Introductory Clauses
• Place a comma after an introductory
  dependent clause.
• Although key escrow is voluntary, critics
  say that the introduction of clipper points
  national policy in a disturbing direction.

12

• (3) Introductory Prepositional or Verbal Phrases
• Normally, use a comma after an introductory
  prepositional or verbal
• phrase. However, you may omit the comma
  after a short
• introductory phrase if no ambiguity is
  possible.
• Examples
• For the first time, researchers have used
  DNA analysis to identify
• the animal tissue in 4,000-year-old rock
  paintings.
• Despite the error the experiment was
  successful.
• Combining surface area with depth, we
  calculated the volume of
• the pond.
• (Do not place a comma after an introductory
  participial or gerund phrase if the phrase forms
  part of the subject or verb of the sentence.)
• Combining surface area with depth was our
  principal method for calculating the volume of
  the pond.

13
2. Coordinating Conjunctions Joining
Independent Clauses
Place a comma before a coordinating conjunction
that joins two independent clauses. However, if
the clauses are very short and closely related,
you may omit the comma.

• Acceptable
• In almost all illicit markets, only the tip
  of the iceberg is visible, and there is no reason
  why the nuclear-materials black market should be
  an exception.
• Unacceptable
• In almost all illicit markets, only the tip
  of the iceberg is visible and there is no reason
  why the nuclear-materials black market should be
  an exception.

14
3. Elements in a series

• Use a comma to separate items in a series.
  Although
• placing a final comma before the coordinating
  conjunction is often considered optional,
  omitting it can sometimes cause confusion.
• In a 3-or-more-element list, it's better to put
  comma between each of the items (including the
  last two), for clarity.
• Most scientific and technical writing routinely
  uses a final comma in a series to prevent
  possible ambiguities.

• As a simple example of why, consider this
  3-element grocery list written without the
  clarifying last comma