Higher English

Paragraphing & Punctuation

What you need to revise!

• Paragraphing• Use of tense• Punctuating direct speech• Using apostrophes • Avoiding comma splices• Using semi-colons properly• Using dashes and colons• Different ways of indicating parenthesis• Starting sentences with conjunctions

Paragraphing

TOP TIPSTopicPersonTimePlaceSpeaker

Use of tense

• Max was at work…he was in the middle of a debate…At the same time Max puts on his jacket to leave…

Punctuating direct speech

• There must be punctuation to separate the words spoken, from the explanation of who has spoken / how the words are spoken.1. “It better be the bloody queen” he said out

loud…2. “…It’s what you pay me for.” I reply with a

pleasant smile.

• Rules of paragraphing apply within speech.• There should be a new line taken for every line of

speech.

ApostrophesOwnershipOmissions

1. The ‘carers’ would also turn off the patients call bell and leave them.

2. Nearly half of all girls, from the age of seven, read a girls magazine each week.

3. …a young child’s drawing’s dotted around the room.

4. All I could make out over my mothers shoulder was a line of bold black type…

5. Its a new day. 6. …20-year-old’s smoking weed?

Comma Splices1. I couldn’t distinguish his face, it was too dark.

2. I admired him a lot, he knew exactly what he wanted to do.

3. I can’t remember the last time I cried for so long, I cried so much I just couldn’t cry any more.

4. I am alone, I have been for the last five months and fourteen days.

5. …I was beginning to calm down a little, we went through the usual name, age, future hopes and dreams just like the hundreds of other auditions…

Semi colonsAnd when they’re not hiding, they appear in random, senseless places...

…I read the first two words; Dear Descendant, I was so taken aback by those words…

At the shop, I bought: soap, strawberries, paper and a book.

I bought horrible-smelling, blue soap; juicy, red, Scottish-grown strawberries; pure white, lined paper and a long, boring book.

Colons and Dashes1. It would breach the five licensing objectives of the

Scottish Licensing Act 2005. These are preventing crime and disorder, securing public safety, preventing public nuisance, protecting and improving public health and protecting children from harm.

2. It was getting hot again, a change to the raw, bitter cold I experienced a few hours ago when it was dark.

3. You have the same cheeky grin as your dad, it’s the kind of smile that can make you do the most daring of things...

4. Today she looks different, a hint of sadness shows as she sighs…

5. It looked like a child’s painting that had come to life. Green grass that went outside the lines…

Parenthesis

1. These horror movies or any violent games are also related to or to blame for other crimes for example sixteen year old Suzanne Capper in December 1992.

2. In my dream, or nightmare I would say is the correct term, he was standing at the end of my bed.

3. For example, Edinburgh (which already has Saint James Gillespies (which is an EME with a GME section), but could do with more schools), Elgin and Peebles.

4. At the end of the Ice Age, some 10,000 years before the present wolves were an apex predator…

Conjunctions

1. As I came to the top of the staircase I stopped. And stood there gathering myself before I faced what I had to do.

2. She’s always sleeping around but Stephanie’s father is oblivious along with everyone else.

3. I start along the bookshelves searching for any hint of information when I notice a desk at the far end beneath the window…