Grammatically Correct: The writer's essential guide to punctuation ...

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PUNCTUATION • With regard to capitalization, style guides differ. Some say to always start the text that follows the colon with a lowercase letter; others say to begin it with uppercase if it's an independent clause, and lnwerca_se if it's a sentence fragment. Whichever style you choose, be consistent. However, if you have chosen to go with lowercase, make an exception in the following situations: 1. If you feel the text that follows the colon is important enough to merit the emphasis of capitalization. For example: If the lead-in words are relatively trivial and your real point begins after the colon, you may decide that beginning this part of the sentence with lowercase would inappropriately subsume it. 2. If the colon is introducing a series of sentences of equal weight. For example: Our procedures were as follows: First, we obtained a list of all eligible participants. Second, we contacted all those who lived within a ten mile radius of the study site, and asked if they would be willing to take part. Third, we mailed out packets, consisting of the questionnaire and a stamped return envelope, to all subjects who agreed to participate. The words Second and Third begin with uppercase, so First should be capitalized as well. If it were written lowercase, the information it introduces would not appear to have equal standing with the other information. 105
Period(.) There's not much to be said about the period except that most people don't reach it soon enough. -WILLIAM ZINSSER, On Writing Well The period has two main functions: • Ending a sentence • Indicating abbreviations ENDING A SENTENCE Dear John, 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 mefor 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? Gloria Dear John, 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, Gloria -ANoNYMous (Note circulating on editors' forum on the Internet) The period's basic role in ending a sentence is obvious enough, but there are a few situations that bear mention. 106
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The WRITER'S ESSENTIAL GUIDE to pun
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C R E D T S American Psychological
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The En Dash 162 2-Em and 3-Em Dashe
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Readers may wish to know when to sa
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P A R T 0 N E Spelling In this age
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Misspellings COMMONLY :MISPELLED WO
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SPELLING Haemorrhage and manoeuvre
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SPELLING may spell these words the
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SPELLING Did you spot the errors in
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The car comes with duel airbags. Th
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SPELLING it doesn't, the ending wil
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SPELLING Philbert knew he would hav
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SPELLING effect these might have on
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SPELLING EIAE, OE For words origina
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SPELLING alternate spellings is the
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Hyphenation I worked with [William
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a dead on guess/a dead pan manner d
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SPELLING If one part of a compound
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SPELLING tively) unique constructio
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SPELLING With a fraction that inclu
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Frequently Misused Words Homonyms (
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PROBLEM WORDS common usages for eac
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PROBLEM WORDS Parents are assured t
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PROBLEM WORDS things that make a re
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PROBLEM WORDS fairness, some words
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ight of way passerby rights of way
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SOME WORDS OF ITALIAN ORIGIN THAT E
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PROBLEM WORDS HEBREW WORDS ADD IM (
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COUNTER- DE- DIS- DYS- E- Opposite
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PROBLEM WORDS construction (uncommu
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P A R T T H R E E Punctuation The w
Page 64 and 65: Basic Sentence Structure In order t
Page 66 and 67: The storekeeper/looked at the money
Page 68 and 69: SENTENCE FRAGl\1ENT PUNCTUATION A s
Page 70 and 71: PUNCTUATION The commas in the follo
Page 72 and 73: In Part II of the exam, answer ques
Page 74 and 75: PUNCTUATION Exception If both the i
Page 76 and 77: PUNCTUATION If no comma appeared af
Page 78 and 79: PUNCTUATION She waited impatiently
Page 80 and 81: PUNCTUATION SETTING OFF PARENTHETIC
Page 82 and 83: PUNCTUATION Exception If a parenthe
Page 84 and 85: PUNCTUATION Zelda apparently has on
Page 86 and 87: For example, compare the following
Page 88 and 89: PUNCTUATION Ensure that the power s
Page 90 and 91: PUNCTUATION The panel consisted of
Page 92 and 93: She wore a pale green dress. [pale
Page 94 and 95: PUNCTUATION Do not set a quoted ele
Page 96 and 97: Semicolon (;) It was her prose that
Page 98 and 99: PUNCTUATION Put semicolons between
Page 100 and 101: PUNCTUATION USE SEMICOLONS IF COMMA
Page 102 and 103: PUNCTUATION this disk; and the revi
Page 104 and 105: PUNCTUATION intentions, but on its
Page 106 and 107: Colon(:) The colon acts as a signal
Page 108 and 109: PUNCTUATION Only one thing would sa
Page 110 and 111: PUNCTUATION reconcile the last sent
Page 112 and 113: PUNCTUATION Aside from the impact o
Page 116 and 117: DON)T INCLUDE A PERIOD FORA GRAMMAT
Page 118 and 119: PUNCTUATION If you are not obliged
Page 120 and 121: PUNCTUATION GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES Opti
Page 122 and 123: Here are the topics that will be co
Page 124 and 125: PUNCTUATION Of course St John River
Page 126 and 127: PUNCTUATION Muriel said, "Once I wa
Page 128 and 129: INDICATING UNCERTAINTY PUNCTUATION
Page 130 and 131: 'Are you guilty?' said Winston. PUN
Page 132 and 133: DRAWING ATTENTION TO A POINT PUNCTU
Page 134 and 135: Hyphen(-) This section looks at the
Page 136 and 137: No a-do i-vy i-dea tax-i a-bout e-n
Page 138 and 139: Consider the following sets of word
Page 140 and 141: PUNCTUATION This sentence is fine i
Page 142 and 143: PUNCTUATION DO NOT USE A HYPHEN WHE
Page 144 and 145: The salesman was fast-talking. The
Page 146 and 147: PUNCTUATION 'So he is, to be sure,'
Page 148 and 149: Slash(/) The slash (also known as t
Page 150 and 151: PUNCTUATION The tent offers suitabl
Page 152 and 153: PUNCTUATION Dalgliesh said: " 'Now
Page 154 and 155: • Working in digressions • Maki
Page 156 and 157: PUNCTUATION if you ask me, but that
Page 158 and 159: PUNCTUATION BETTER: A validity coef
Page 160 and 161: PUNCTUATION • It is permissible t
Page 162 and 163: Dashes Dashes come in several sizes
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PUNCTUATION Several of the neighbor
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PUNCTUATION but I am sure that you
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And when I found the door was shut,
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"How was I supposed to-" she sputte
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PUNCTUATION the discussions of the
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PUNCTUATION a quote. Another use is
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PUNCTUATION or editorial comment, i
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PUNCTUATION words italics mine, ita
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PUNCTUATION By Mrs Hurst and Miss B
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"Aces drawn after a deuce are high?
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PUNCTUATION 'Oh, but I think,' said
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PUNCTUATION it would look as if the
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it in quotation marks to alert the
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PUNCTUATION 6s and the closing ones
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PUNCTUATION Perhaps it would be bet
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ORIGINAL QuoTATION: Dear Theo, PUNC
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PUNCTUATION 'No, dear. Not Homer, t
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PUNCTUATION came to his room, inser
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Apostrophe(') The apostrophe often
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PUNCTUATION In other cases, the con
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the people's choice the alumni's lo
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Achilles' heel Euripides' plays Gra
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\ PUNCTUATION of the term itself. W
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P A R T F 0 U R Grammar The very me
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Agreement Between Subject and Verb
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Problem Category 1: The Subject, th
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GRAMMAR but that would slightly alt
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Pat, like the others, was determine
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DISTRACTING PREDICATE NOUNS GRAMMAR
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the components are included my cous
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Headquarters~ waiting for an answer
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GRAMMAR A generation ago, no one in
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GRAMMAR realize that there is more
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GRAMMAR that constitute a multimedi
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Achieving Parallel Structure The ve
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GRAMMAR The bankruptcy proceedings
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GRAMMAR It may be necessary to eith
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GRAMMAR action will follow; for exa
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GRAMMAR Rebecca seizing life with h
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GRAMMAR Dangling modifiers occur wh
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GRAMMAR The suspect's condition was
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The following sentences contain squ
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GRAMMAR that represents the entity
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GRAMMAR should be obvious that you
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GRAMMAR 4. Old King Cole was a merr
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GRAMMAR WHEN DO YOU USE WHO AND WHE
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GRAMMAR of spider; hence, it is not
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GRAMMAR • Its is the possessive o
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GRAMMAR Although the termjree-jorma
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AGREEMENT BETWEEN PRONOUN AND ANTEC
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GRAMMAR • Collective nouns are th
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GRAMMAR person plural. Many readers
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Bugbears and Betes Noires: Some Gra
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GRAMMAR Virtually every modern styl
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GRAMMAR Overdoing this type of sent
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P A R Y F I V E Style A sentence or
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Ann's Conscience, which up till thi
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STYLE • Question marks and exclam
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STYLE In some cases, if a person or
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STYLE with a consonant sound, prece
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ALLCAPSANDSMALLCAPS STYLE If your w
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Italics Italic type serves to make
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Come the crucial seventh, the Filmm
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use, to take them down into the mar
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STYLE all. If you are expected to u
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STYLE woman with a pretty figure ..
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STYLE PASSIVE: The letter received
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STYLE car is traded in every jour y
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STYLE not unintentionally distract
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STYLE BETIER: The following are sug
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STYLE Would any writer describe a p
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STYLE Many modern readers would not
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STYLE The clinician can play an imp
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STYLE Obviously you cannot use this
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Writing With Finesse BEN . ... But
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STYLE ensure randorrmess), and calc
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inwardleaning heads, smoking steadi
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STYLE behind altering them can be d
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STYLE of these types of help while
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STYLE First paragraph: Introductory
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STYLE all situations. Therefore, re
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STYLE tation. Although it is prefer
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STYLE the accent phonetically at al
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During my first tournament, my moth
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STYLE jump out at you: illogical co
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sentence with, 262-263; subordinati
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ending in y, 43-44, 197, 199-200; o
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