Unit Two Punctuation

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Unit TwoPunctuation

• Lecturer Yetta

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Contents

• The Comma
• The Period
• The Semicolon
• The Colon
• The Question Mark
• The Exclamation Mark
• Quotation Marks

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• The Apostrophe
• Parentheses/Brackets
• Square Brackets
• The Dash
• The Slash
• Underlining and Italics

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Focus

• The Comma
• The Semicolon
• Quotation Marks

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1. The Comma (,)

• i. To join coordinate clauses (put before the
  conjunction and, but, or, for , so , nor, or
  yet)
• We started early in the morning, and before dark
  we reached the village.
• ---The comma fault / the comma splice
• Coordinate clauses have to be jointed with a
  comma and a conjunction. One comma alone cannot
  do the job though it is possible in Chinese.

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• ii. After an adverbial clause or phrase,
  including prepositional and a participial phrase
  placed before the subject, or inserted in the
  middle of the sentence
• When the rain stopped, we continued to work.
• iii. To separate a series of words or phrases
  with the same function in the sentence
• The children sang, dance, jumped, and chased each
  other.

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• iv. To set off non-restrictive clauses and
  phrases
• Mr. Huang, who has returned from America with a
  doctors degree, is going to offer a course.
• The speaker, after glancing at his notes, began
  to talk about the next point.
• ---Restrictive clauses and phrases are not set
  off by commas
• This is the lab where students listen to tapes.

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• v. To separate the day and the year if the date
  order is month-day-year
• July 1, 1997
• ---No comma is needed if the order is
• day-month year
• 15 September 1980

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• vi. With number of 1,000 or over, commas or
  little blank spaces may be used to separate
  digits by thousands. From right to left, a comma
  is placed after every three numerals
• 1, 253,900 1 253 900
• ---Commas in numbers help with the reading the
  figure before the last comma is in thousands, and
  the one before the second comma from the right is
  in million.

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2. The Period (.)

• i. At the end of a declarative sentence, a mildly
  imperative sentence, and an indirect question.
• ---The period marks the end of a sentence. The
  word after it begins a new sentence and has to be
  capitalized.
• ii. With most abbreviations
• Mr. U.S.A. a.m.

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• iii. Three spaced periods make the ellipsis mark,
  to indicate the omission of one or more words
  within a quoted passage or to show a pause in
  conversation or faltering speech.
• He said many things, such as such as oh,
  yes, he said that he would resign from the
  committee.
• ---If a sentence ends with an ellipsis, a period
  should be used after it. The result is that four
  periods are used together.

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3. The Semicolon ()

• i. Between two coordinate clauses which are not
  linked by a conjunction.
• She doesnt like this film she is disgusted with
  it.
• ---It can be turned into two separate sentences
  without any change in meaning. Difference the
  two parts in one sentence seem more closely
  connected than they are as two sentences.

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• ii. before such conjunctive adverbs as therefore,
  however, nonetheless, otherwise, hence, moreover,
  besides
• He promised to come however, he didnt appear.
• She didnt go with them to climb the mountain
  otherwise, she would have been caught in the
  storm.
• The students gained valuable knowledge from their
  professors moreover, they learned how to do
  research work from them.
• He didnt go to the meeting therefore, he
  doesnt know what new decisions were.

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• iii. With conjunctions when the clauses contain
  internal punctuation
• He wrote a few good books when he was young and
  poor but after he became famous and rich, he
  wrote nothing worth reading.
• As he promised, de donated a large sum of money
  and this money helped with the completion of the
  project.

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• iv. To separate a series of items with internal
  commas
• Among those who joined the discussion were Miss
  Wu, a well-known writer Mr. Li, editor f the
  literary supplement of the local newspaper Dr.
  Qian, a professor of literary criticism and Ms.
  Sun, a famous historian.
• v. To join clauses with words omitted
• In this prestigious(????) university there are
  many famous professors in that smaller
  university, a few in our college, none.

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4. The Colon ()

• i. To introduce a quotation or a statement
• It will do everyone good to remember this old
  saying One will know that he does not know
  enough after he begins to learn.
• The president has made the following
  announcement students who need financial
  assistance may apply at the Student Affairs
  Office.

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• ii. To introduce an explanation, a summary, or an
  appositive
• He gave two reasons for his failure in the
  examination poor health and insufficient time
  for preparation.
• She bought many souvenirs (???) two small bronze
  statues, a carved wooden case for jewelry, and a
  kerchief with wax-printed (??) designs.

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• iii. Between the hour and the minute to show the
  time, to record the scores of games, and to end
  salutation
• There are three flights to Tokyo today at 1135,
  1620 and 2050.
• China beat Japan 32 in the womens volleyball
  championships.
• Ladies and Gentlemen (the beginning of a speech)

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5. The Question Mark (?)

• i. After a direct question
• Could you explain to me the meaning of this
  complex sentence?
• ii. After a statement turned into a question
  (said in a rising tone)
• You like it? You want to buy it?

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• iii. Between parentheses indicating the writers
  uncertainty about the correctness of the
  preceding word, figure or date
• Cao Xueqin, who wrote Dream of the Red Mansions,
  was born in 1715 (?), and died in poverty in 1764
  (?).

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6. The Exclamation Mark (!)

• i. After an exclamatory sentence, or an emphatic
  interjection, or a phrase expressing strong
  emotion
• How beautiful Yellow Mountain is!
• Help! Help! shouted the boy struggling in the
  river.
• ii. After a slogan
• Long live the Peoples Republic of China!

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7. Quotation Marks ()

• i. Double quotation marks are used to enclose
  direct questions in dialogue or from books or
  articles
• Which American poet do you like best? Bill
  asked.
• ii. Single quotation marks are used to enclose a
  quotation within a quotation
• The professor said, Confucius says, Do not
  impose on others what you do not desire
  yourself. This is a very good principle of moral
  conduct.

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• iii. For titles of articles, essays, short
  stories, short poems, songs, etc., and for
  headings of chapters or subdivisions of books
• You can find Byrons poems She Walks in Beauty
  and When We Two Parted in The Romantic Poets.
• ---Title of books, newspapers and magazines
  italicized or underlined.

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• iv. Words with special meaning are sometimes put
  between quotation marks
• Here register refers to a particular type.
• That warlord(??) was said to have been elected
  president of his country.

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• v. When other marks of punctuation are used with
  quoted words or sentences
• --- The comma and the period may be placed either
  inside or outside
• I have just finished reading his story An
  Unusual Experience, which is very interesting.
• I have just finished reading his story An
  Unusual Experience.

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• --- The colon and the semicolon are placed
  outside
• In the book there is a chapter on Peking Man
  there is also a chapter on Banbo (???) Village.
• He gave a very brief explanation of register a
  particular type of word used in a certain
  situation or a certain type of writing.

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• --- The dash (/), the question mark, and the
  exclamation mark are placed within the quotation
  mark when they are connected only with the quoted
  words, and outside when they are connected with
  the whole sentence
• She asked, What do you mean?
• Could you explain to us the meaning of
  postmodernism?
• Stop crying Im hungry! Well have lunch in a
  minute.
• The man cried, Fire! Fire!

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8. The Apostrophe ()

• i. To indicate the possessive forms of nouns and
  some pronouns
• ---Singular nouns and pronouns
• the mans idea, someones car
• ---Plural nouns
• the cats food, the students dorms

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• ---Joint possession
• Janice and Larrys daughter
• --compare
• Janices and Larrys daughters
• ---Compound nouns and pronouns
• attorney generals office, mother-in-law-s hat

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• ii. To indicate missing letter or numbers
• ---Missing letters
• cant , lets, hell, heres, maam, oclock
• ---Missing numbers
• in January of 97 in January of 1997 (formal)
• ---Do not use the apostrophe with the hyphen in
  expressions of inclusive numbers
• 1992-97 (not 1992-97)

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9. Parentheses/Brackets (())

• i. To set off parenthetical, supplementary, or
  illustrative words
• The four municipalities directly under the
  central government (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai
  and Chonqing) play a very important role in the
  national economy.
• A WTO (World Trade Organization) delegation is to
  visit China next week.
• ii. To enclose figures or letters used for
  enumeration (??)
• This book enclose consists of three parts (1)
  ancient history (2) modern history, and (3)
  contemporary history.

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10. Square Brackets ()

• i. To indicate corrections or explanations in
  quoted matter made by the writer who is quoting
• In the article he wrote, Not for a moment did
  she Emily Dickinson intend to make herself
  famous by publishing her poems.
• ii. To be used within parentheses.
• There are quite a few good translations of
  classical Chinese literary works in these two
  volumes (Anthology of Chinese Literature New
  York Grove Press, Inc., 1965).

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11. The Dash ( )

• i. To indicate a break in thought or a change in
  tone, or a speakers confusion or hesitation
• Many people went to see the match did you go?
• ii. To indicate an unfinished or interrupted
  statement.
• He is making preparations for
• For going abroad?

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• iii. A pair of dashes set off a parenthetical
  element
• All his belongings a few articles of clothing
  and a few books are here.
• iv. Sometimes to introduce a summarizing clause
  after a series of nouns
• Changes in the market, poor management, and
  miscalculated speculations these caused the
  bankruptcy of the company.

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• v. To be used like quotation marks in a dialogue
• When was Shakespeare born and when did he die?
• He was born in 1564 and died in 1616.
• vi. To introduce subheadings and authors after
  quotations
• Wang Zhaojin in Autumn in the Han Palace
• An interpretation of the Theme of the Play

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12. The Slash (/)

• i. To indicate alternatives like or
• The school gives students who have financial
  difficulties loans/part-time jobs.
• ii. To separate lines in short quotations of
  poetry being quoted in running text
• In this poem Keats wrote these famous lines
  Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all /
  Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

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• iii. To separate the numerator from the
  denominator of a fraction
• This factory now employs 2/3 of the workers it
  employed last year, but its output is increased
  by 1/3.
• iv. Sometimes it means per
• The house is sold at 5000 yuan/square meter.

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13. Underlining and Italics

• In handwriting and type written papers
  underlining has the same function as italics in
  printed matter. The following are usually
  underlined or italicized
• i. Titles of books, periodical, newspapers,
  plays, movies, operas, and long poems
• Students of English like to read the China Daily
  and the Beijing Review.

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• ii. Foreign words
• One Chinese li is equal to half a kilometer.
• iii. Words and letters referred to
• The word doctor comes from the Latin word docere,
  which means to teach.
• iv. Names of ships, aircraft and works of art
• The plot of the film is based on the tragic
  sinking of the Titanic.
• v. Emphasized words.

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• Drill 1 Punctuate the following message
• its 745 on Tuesday morning and 26 year old
  steve clarkson is going to work he puts on his
  jacket and picks up his cell phone pager and
  laptop as he leaves the house he turns on his mp3
  player and put on his headphones he is ready to go

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• Key to Drill 1
• Its 745 on Tuesday morning and
• 26-year-old Steve Clarkson is going to work. He
  puts on his jacket and picks up his cell phone,
  pager, and laptop. As he leaves the house, he
  turns on his MP3 player and put on his
  headphones. He is ready to go.

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The End