punctuation.pdf

PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author and publishers are grateful to the following for

permission to reproduce extracts and articles:

The Bodley Head, The Private World of Georgette Heyer by Jane Aitken

Lodge; Brian Bell for his article 'Exhausting Round' from The Times

Educational Supplement ; Curtis Brown on behalf of the Estate of Sir

Winston Churchill, My Early Life by Sir Winston Churchill; the Daily

Mirror for 'Mrs T'; The Dramatic Publishing Company, 123 Sharp

Hill Road, Wilton, Connecticut 06897, USA, for the play of To Kill a

Mockingbird by Christopher Sergei; Eric Chisholm for his letter

'Metaphorical mix-up' from The Times; the Express and Echo for

'Smokers'; Grafton Books (HarperCollins Publishers) for 'i thank

you god' from The Complete Poems by e. e. cummings; Hamish

Hamilton Ltd, Across the Barricades by Joan Lingard; HMSO, Proposals

for the English Curriculum (with the permission of the Controller of

Her Majesty's Stationery Office); The Hogarth Press, Cider With Rosie

by Laurie Lee; Hutchison Publishing Company, With Great Pleasure

by Alec Reid; The Independent for 'Greenies who deserve 1001

Brownie points' by Diana Hinds, 'Question of degree', 'CFC

substitutes "cause warming" ' by Nicholas Schoon, 'Conquered by

the Classics'; John Rayment, President of the Essex Society for

Family History, for 'Names in Fiction'; Jonathan Cape Ltd, Look at Me

by Anita Brookner and The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier; Optima

Books, Stress and Relaxation by Jane Maddens; Peter Fraser and

Dunlop Group Ltd, Solitude by Anthony Storr; Rachel Lindsay for

'The Congo' from Poetry for Today edited by George Mac Beth;

reproduced by permission of Rogers, Coleridge and White Ltd, In

Custody by Anita Desai, published by Penguin Books and by William

Heinemann. Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New

Society. Used by permission. Times Newspapers Ltd, 'Ship ahoy in

back garden', 'Mixed-up mongrels make work for pet psychiatrists'

by Hugh Thompson, T)avy's lamp loses its spark', 'Battle of the

bimbos' by Hugh Thompson; Veritas Publications, First Steps in

Counselling by Ursula O'Farrell.

This new edition of A Guide to Better Punctuation has been

prepared, at the invitation of my publisher, to meet the

requirements of the National Curriculum at Key Stages 2, 3

and 4, while continuing to be of interest to sixth form and

college students, and to the general public.

The text is now not only fuller but the presentation is livelier,

thanks to Tim Archbold's cartoons. In addition, I have been

permitted to use extracts from newspaper articles, published

letters, handbooks and contemporary literature to illustrate

the function of punctuation in context and to provide the basis

for a generous number of practice exercises. In many of these

exercises, I have encouraged analytical discussion and some

have been structured for pair and group work.

I hope to show that there is nothing mysterious or arcane

about the functions of the full stop, the comma, the capital

letter, the apostrophe, the exclamation mark, the question mark,

the colon, the semi-colon, inverted commas, the dash, the

hyphen, the oblique and brackets. Each has a specific contri

bution to make to written expression, and that contribution

can sometimes be a fascinating one.

The function of punctuation in writing is particularly well

expressed in paragraph 3.9 of the Department of Education

and Science's English from 5 to 16, 2nd edition, (HMSO, 1986):

Punctuation needs more attention in English teaching

than it sometimes receives. It is a systematic aspect of the

written language and essential to meaning, for it performs

two vital functions. One is the grammatical function of

making clear the relationship between parts of sentences

and of paragraphs. The other is the rhetorical function of

indicating tone, attitude, feeling and emphasis. In speech,

both these functions are carried out by such means as

Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders and we

apologise if any have been overlooked.

vii

Chapter One

pause, pitch, pace, intonation and volume, often accompanied

by facial expression and gesture. In the written language,

accurate punctuation is the necessary substitute for these

resources.

FULL STOPS, QUESTION MARKS.

EXCLAMATION MARKS

I hope that all those who use this workbook will be enabled to

punctuate their own written work with just such insight and

confidence. I hope also that they will discover that they read

the carefully written work of others with increased pleasure

and understanding.

Full stops, questions marks and exclamation marks have one

important function in common; they all mark the ends of

sentences whether those sentences are statements, questions

or commands.

This workbook is intended for class use and for individual

study. The practice exercises are designed to enable all

students to score high marks if they apply the straightforward

guidelines embodied in the text. There is a full explanation of

each point, and exercises are set at each stage to reinforce the

reader's understanding.

There is a logical progression from one unit to the next but I

have made each unit as self-contained as possible so that

students can be directed towards a particular unit if they are

persistently making errors in the use of a particular punctuation

mark. (Answers to the exercises are given at the back of the

book for the benefit of those who are studying on their own.)

Angela Burt

Exmouth 1991

Such 'end stops' are vital to the understanding of a written

text. Even a short passage becomes very confusing without

these signals; the reader needs to know where one sentence

ends and another begins if the passage is to be read with any

fluency.

You can test this by trying to read aloud without hesitation

and without preparation the short passage below.

Please send your reply to this query by return this Tuesday

we have a Board Meeting and the matter will be discussed

You can, of course, re-cast the whole item into differently

constructed sentences. The first paragraph could quite easily

become four sentences:

under 'Any Other Business' on Friday we'll be passing

through Paris too late to collect your reply personally but

perhaps we could at least have dinner together.

Once you've sorted out where the sentence boundaries are, of

course, the meaning becomes clear. A carefully punctuated

text removes ambiguities and confusions. When the structure

of each sentence is revealed, the reader's progress is made

smooth.

A family from Selsey, near Chichester, were woken at

3.30 a.m. yesterday. They found a 300-ton Danish coaster

in the back garden of their beach-front home. Oliver

Graham-Jones, 71, a vet, peered from his bedroom

window. He saw a hull with flashing lights looming a few

feet away.

Ensure that you are able to extend the courtesy of accurate

punctuation to your readers.

Moreover, you could break these four sentences down into

many more smaller sentences. Stylistically it will make the

item very boring but it will help to show that sentences are

self-contained completed statements.

full stops

Each completed statement requires a full stop at the end.

Selsey is near Chichester. The Graham-Jones family lives

in Selsey. They were woken yesterday at 3.30 a.m. Their

home is a beach-front house. In their back garden they

found a Danish coaster. It weighed 300 tons ...

The small news item below from The Sunday Times (note the

date) will provide us with a two-paragraphed example of

completed statements. Read the article carefully, noting

where the full stops come. Make sure you can see the logical

basis for punctuating the item as it has been punctuated.

Given the same information, no two writers would express

themselves in exactly the same way. As a writer, you can

control the amount of information and detail you want to put

into each sentence that you write. However, when each

sentence is complete, remember to use an 'end stop' (a full

stop, question mark or exclamation mark) as a guide to your

reader.

Ship ahoy in back garden

A family from Selsey, near Chichester, were woken at

3.30 a.m. yesterday to find a 300-ton Danish coaster in the

back garden of their beach-front home. Oliver Graham-

Jones, 71, a vet, peered from his bedroom window and saw

a hull with flashing lights looming a few feet away.

A common error is to string together completed

statements with commas instead of using full stops to

conarafo fViom

"The crew were a bit quiet about the whole thing and I

think they were certainly embarrassed," he said. A

crewman later said he thought he was in France. The

unladen Platessa, en route from Falmouth to Hook of

Holland, had gone through a gap in the sea wall. The ship

was refloated on the afternoon tide.

separate them.

V_____________________________________________ S

In Exercise 1, five full stops should be substituted for

carelessly used commas.

Exercise 4

while there are nowhere near as many children 'on the milk'

as there are 'on the papers', there are enough to give cause

for concern it is illegal for children to deliver milk at the time

it is delivered but a 'blind*eye' is frequently turned on such

breaches

Restore the sentence boundaries in this extract from an

article by Brian Bell printed in The Times Educational

Supplement.

by 9.30 a.m. Wayne was already flagging tired and listless,

he blinked a lot and often rubbed his hand over his face he

struggled on without either interest or enthusiasm

the milk float in question is not the familiar slow battery-

powered vehicle this one is a flat-bed, diesel truck and the

round is big, around 300 gallons or 100 crates the boys

hang on, rain, hail or shine, to the bar at the rear of the vehicle

and hop off nimbly with a full bottle carrier when the truck

by early afternoon the sun was shining brightly through the

classroom windows Wayne sat hunched forward over his

desk supporting his head in his arms as he struggled to keep

himself awake by 3 p.m., head cradled in his arms, he was

asleep

slows

Exercise 5

Combine each of these groups of short sentences into one

statement. You may change the order of the sentences.

at 14, Wayne is one of thousands of youngsters up and

down the country who spend their days in school teetering

on the edge of exhaustion late nights, 24-hour television,

satellite TV, the video revolution may all play a part but the

most tired pupils in schools are, surprisingly, not those

whose leisure pursuits keep them awake but rather those

with part-time jobs which leave them tired and unable to

concentrate

1) Jennifer is good at mathematics. Robert prefers history.

2) We opened the door. The cottage was deserted. We felt

frightened.

3) The cat scratched her ear frantically. I felt concerned.

There was something wrong.

4) Few people know him well. He is shy. He is hard to get to

know. He wants to be friendly. It is worth persevering.

at 14 Wayne, with parental knowledge, begins work at

4 a.m. during the winter, if there are difficulties with snow,

he may start work even earlier he is late for school most

mornings after delivering milk for four or five hours and

earning £3.50

5) Emily Bronte wrote Wuthering Heights. Her pen-name

was Ellis Bell. She had two sisters. They wrote novels.

They used pen-names.

Question marks

A sentence which is a question requires a question mark at the

end of it. Note that a question mark has its own built-in full

stop and the sentence will not require another one.

y Are you coming?

X Are you coming?.

3) I was asked for my name and address.

4) He questioned my sincerity.

5) I asked him what he was going to give me for Christmas.

Exercise 7

Rewrite these direct questions as indirect questions.

1) 'Can you hear me at the back?' the speaker asked the

audience.

2) 'Have you tidied your bedroom yet, Matthew?'

3) 'Are you allergic to penicillin?', Dr Jones asked, looking

over his glasses at his new patient.

4) 'Can you give me a hand on Sunday demolishing my

garage?' my neighbour inquired.

5) 'Will you marry me, Kate?' whispered Mike.

Note the difference between:

Are you happy?

He asked me if I was happy.

Exercise 8

Ten of these sentences are direct questions. Write them out,

correctly punctuated.

The first sentence is a direct question, where we are given the

speaker's actual words. The second sentence is an indirect

question (a form of statement), where a report is given of what

was said. The first sentence requires a question mark; the

second sentence requires a full stop.

1) He asked me if I had a large spanner he could borrow.

2) Have you got a large spanner I can borrow.

3) I wonder if you would be interested in our special offer.

4) Can I interest you in our special offer.

5) What is the time.

6) She asked me the time.

7) I couldn't believe she would wear that hat.

8) Are you going to wear that hat.

Exercise 6

Rewrite the following indirect questions as direct questions.

Punctuate carefully.

1) He wondered if I would like to appear in 'Neighbours'.

2) She asked me why I was three hours late.

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