PUNCTUATIONClark Erwin-Billones

English Language Fellow

Minsk State Linguistic University

Punctuation marks are the traffic signals of language: they tell us to slow down, notice this, take a detour, and stop.

-Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves

WHY IS PUNCTUATION SO DIFFICULT TO USE?

Which Style Guide to Use? (according to Wikipedia)•Oxford style and Chicago style for general publishing

and readership

•USGPO style or AGPS style for government

publications

•AP style for journalism

•APA style and ASA style for the social sciences

•CSE style for various physical sciences

•ACS style for chemistry

•AMA style for medicine

•Bluebook style for law

Just for Journalism

■ The BBC News Style Guide: by the British Broadcasting Corporation.[5]

■ The Economist Style Guide: by The Economist (UK).[6]

■ The Guardian Style Guide: by The Guardian (United Kingdom).[7]

■ The Times Style and Usage Guide, by The Times.[8]

■ The Associated Press Stylebook, by The Associated Press.[9]

For the UK■ Butcher's Copy-editing: The Cambridge Handbook for Editors,

Copy-editors and Proofreaders, Judith Butcher, Caroline Drake, Maureen Leach. 4th ed. 2006 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press ISBN 978-0521847131

■ Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage. Ed. Jeremy Butterfield. 4th ed. Oxford University Press, 2015. ISBN 978- 0-19-966135-0 (hardcover). Based on Fowler's Modern English Usage, by Henry Watson Fowler.

■ The King's English, by Henry Watson Fowler and Francis George Fowler.

■ New Hart's Rules (2005 ed.).

■ The Complete Plain Words, by Sir Ernest Gowers.

■ Usage and Abusage, by Eric Partridge.

Variations in Terms

British

■ Full stop .

■ 6.35

■ Brackets ()

■ Square brackets []

■ Exclamation mark !

■ “Quotations often go inside the punctuation”.

American■ Period .

■ 6:35

■ Parentheses ()

■ Brackets []

■ Exclamation point !

■ “All quotations go outside the punctuation.”-Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves

ISSUES WITH THE ‘What is difficult about using it?

“I discovered to my horror that

most British people truly do not

know their apostrophe from their

elbow.”

-Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves

What are the apostrophe’sthree jobs?

1. To form a possessive

Bob’s cat

2. Mark missing letters

You’re

3. Pluralizing some lower case letters

Dot your i’s and crossyour t’s‘

The Apostrophe ‘

Which sentences are correct?

1.One weeks notice.

2.Two week’s notice.

3.Look at that mans dog.

4.She was born in the 1980’s.

5.The 60s were great!

■None of them are correct.

■One week’s

■Two weeks’

■Man’s dog

■80s

■‘60s

Disagreements about the ‘

Why?■ It’s Charles’ car.

■ It’s Charles’s car.

■ A difference in style/preference

What?■ Jesus’ story

■ Jesus’s story

■ Some sources said historical people’s names should not be marked with the ‘s, but instead s’

■ Moses’ instead of Moses’s

The Comma Question

■ Commas cause the most confusion in regard to punctuation usage

■ There are many different situations that use a comma and there are many people who use them incorrectly

■ Commas are also a common stylistic choice and that use further adds to their drama and misuse

,

The Comma ,

Some 8 year old children in the UK are told to use commas:

■ In a list

■ Before dialogue

■ To mark out additional information

-Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves

The Punctuation Guide Comma Rules■ Mechanical uses of the comma

■ Numbers

■ Jr. and Inc.

■ Degrees and certifications

■ Direct address

■ Dates

■ Geographic references

■ The listing comma

■ Setting off nonrestrictive or nonessential information

■ Commas based on sentence structure

■ Compound sentences

■ Simple sentences

■ Complex sentences

■ Compound-complex sentences

Common and Important Duties for Commas…

■ Separate a list in place of adding and (cats, dogs, pigs)

■ Dates, cities, etc.

(August 5, 2016, Berlin, Germany)

■ Offer a pause (Wait, don’t go)

■ Used commonly before reported speech

■ He said, “I didn’t want to study punctuation.”

■ Clarifies meaning (Eats shoots and leaves)

It’s Common to Use Commas in Compound Sentences

■ Commas come before a conjunction in compound sentences

■ He said that it was snowing out, but we decided to go the party.

FANBOYS

■ For

■ And

■ Nor

■ But

■ Or

■ Yet

■ So

It’s Common to Use Commas With Dependent Clauses

■ Commas go after a dependent clause if it is at the beginning of a sentence.

■ Don’t use a comma in the sentence if the dependent clause is at the end.

■ At the start, the movie was not that interesting, but it got a lot better.

■ The movie got a lot better at the end.

Commas and Nonessential Information

■ Use commas around nonessential information.

■ What is nonessential?

■ My cat, who plays all the time, lives in the U.S.

■ Don’t use commas at all if the information in the sentence is essential.

■ My cat that stays with my friend lives in the U.S.

■ The word that often signal something essential.

What’s Happening Here?

1. The night was dark, cool and quiet.

2. Moo Moo is a big giant panda.

3. I am, of course, a punctuation lover.

4. He ordered a drink, and then changed his mind.

1. Replaced ‘and’ with a comma

2. Be sure about what the comma modifies

3. Comma separates additional/nonessential information

4. Comma provides a pause before a conjunction

The Yearbook Comma

Which is correct?

■ Prize winning author, Svetlana Alexievitch, will appear at the UN.

■ The prize winning author, Svetlana Alexievitch, will appear at the UN.

■ The prize winning author, Svetlana Alexievitch, will appear at the UN.

This one because there is no apposition (def. placing a word next to another to qualify or explain the first).

The Oxford Comma (Serial Comma)

■ The last comma that comes in a series such as…

The most important things to bring are water, food, and books.

■ Mostly a style choice, but there are situations where the lack of one can cause confusion…

He likes his parents, Donald Trump and Queen Elizabeth.

She was applying to jobs at the Department of Education, State and Health and Human Services.

WHEN IN DOUBT, LEAVE IT OUT

Anonymous advice about the comma if you are

unsure where to use it and can’t find any

information about that usage and you know

you overuse it

DO YOU USE THESE?

: ; - …

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE

COLON?

What is the purpose of the :?

The Colon: It’s Not Only In Your Body

■ She had one rule: avoid using bad punctuation.

■ The Yes! colon which makes you wait for something more

■ I went on a bike ride: I rode from Belarus to Hungary.

■ The ah… colon meaning that’s so interesting

■ Men are stupid: women are crazy.

■ The opposition colon

■ Grammar: using it for all the right purposes

■ Separating titles and subtitles

-Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves

The Semicolon;

■ Combines two independent clauses

■ Can take the place of but, for, and, or, yet, nor, so.

■ In lists with separating commas

■ As a replacement for ellipsis along with a comma

Women are allowed to leave; men must stay.

She likes mustard; she adds it to everything.

She has visited Berlin, Germany; Minsk, Belarus and Rome, Italy.

In 1999, he had 10 cats; five years later, 25.

The Semicolon;

Stronger than a comma, but weaker than a period

Bad news for the semicolon…

It’s biggest rival = the em dash

WHAT IS -?

Dashes—3 Types

Hyphen -

To connect compound words:

■ Back-to-back

■ Part-time

■ Post-Napoleonic

■ Pre-2000

Names:

■ Erwin-Billoneshttp://www.dashhyphen.com/

The En Dash -(wide as N)

■ Used instead of ‘through’ or ‘to’

■ Between numbers4-7

The Em Dash— as wide as the M

■ Used in place of a comma, parentheses or a colon but with more emphasis

■ And less formal than a colon

■ She owned many cats—24—and you could tell just by looking at her.

■ The safe was found in the wall—empty.

Final Advice

■ Check style guides….MLA, APA, AP

■ Be consistent…

If you use quotes like this, “blah, blah, blah”. Use them like that throughout your entire text and follow the same rules for your commas usage

■ Discuss punctuation and teach it

Some knowledge is better than no knowledge. Decide on what you want to grade and recommend resources.

Writing Sample

■A woman, without her man, is nothing.

■A woman: without her, man is nothing.

Dear Jack

I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we’re apart. I can be forever happy --will you let me be yours?

Dear Jack

I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men I yearn! For you I have no feelings whatsoever. When we’re apart I can be forever happy. Will you let me be?Yours,

References■ Purdue Owl Writing Guide. Retrieved 02.09.2016:

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/1/6/

■ The Punctuation Guide. Retrieved 02.06.2016: http://www.thepunctuationguide.com/index.html

■ Strunk. W. (1918). The Elements of Style. Retrieved 02.06.2016: https://en.wikisource.org/

■ Truss, A. (2003). Eats, Shoots & Leaves. Penguin Group, New York.

■ Walsh, B. (2013). Yes, I Could Care Less: How to be a language snob without being a jerk. St. Martin’s Griffin. New York.

Photo Credits:

■ Cybertext Newsletter. A Lighthearted Look at How Punctuation Can Change Meaning. Retrieved 02.10.2016: https://cybertext.wordpress.com/2012/11/22/a-light-hearted-look-at-how-punctuation-can-change-meaning/

■ Mashable.com. 16 Unfortunate Uses of Punctuation. Retrieved 02.10.2016: http://mashable.com/2012/09/24/misuses-punctuation/#pcYbjgAklEqn