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

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P A R T F 0 U R Grammar The very mention of the word "grammar" makes some writers quail, evoking an image of unfathomable, rigid and often arbitrary rules but tressed by a mountain of terrifying terminology. In fact, for the most part grammar consists of sensible conventions designed to support unambig uous and meaningful expression. Grammar is concerned with the form and sequence of words in a sentence, and it's often the case that if a rule isn't followed, some uncertainty or misinterpretation could result. Achieving clear expression shouldn't be the only motivation for ob serving the rules. Unconventional grammar may be taken as an indica tion of carelessness or ignorance on the part of a writer, with the result that readers may end up viewing the content itself less seriously. Thus, even though some conventions undeniably are based more on tradition than on logic, the mere fact of their existence means that it is usually in a writer's interests to abide by them. This chapter does not review all the parts of speech, since any compe tent English speaker intuitively understands most aspects of sentence structure. Instead, the focus is on a few topics that present frequent stumbling blocks to even educated and articulate users of the language. These topics are agreement between subject and verb (ensuring that these words match each other in form), parallel construction (ensuring 201
GRAMMATICALLY CORRECT grammatical similarity between elements that play similar roles), posi tioning of modifiers (ensuring that a word or group of words meant to describe a subject doesn't act on the wrong part of the sentence) and use of pronouns (ensuring the correct form of the words used to repre sent nouns). A final section looks at how some aspects of grammar thought by many to be unshakable rules may in fact often be safely disregarded. 202 \
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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
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Basic Sentence Structure In order t
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The storekeeper/looked at the money
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SENTENCE FRAGl\1ENT PUNCTUATION A s
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PUNCTUATION The commas in the follo
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In Part II of the exam, answer ques
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PUNCTUATION Exception If both the i
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PUNCTUATION If no comma appeared af
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PUNCTUATION She waited impatiently
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PUNCTUATION SETTING OFF PARENTHETIC
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PUNCTUATION Exception If a parenthe
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PUNCTUATION Zelda apparently has on
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For example, compare the following
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PUNCTUATION Ensure that the power s
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PUNCTUATION The panel consisted of
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She wore a pale green dress. [pale
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PUNCTUATION Do not set a quoted ele
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Semicolon (;) It was her prose that
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PUNCTUATION Put semicolons between
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PUNCTUATION USE SEMICOLONS IF COMMA
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PUNCTUATION this disk; and the revi
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PUNCTUATION intentions, but on its
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Colon(:) The colon acts as a signal
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PUNCTUATION Only one thing would sa
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PUNCTUATION reconcile the last sent
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PUNCTUATION Aside from the impact o
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PUNCTUATION • With regard to capi
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DON)T INCLUDE A PERIOD FORA GRAMMAT
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PUNCTUATION If you are not obliged
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PUNCTUATION GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES Opti
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Here are the topics that will be co
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PUNCTUATION Of course St John River
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PUNCTUATION Muriel said, "Once I wa
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INDICATING UNCERTAINTY PUNCTUATION
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'Are you guilty?' said Winston. PUN
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DRAWING ATTENTION TO A POINT PUNCTU
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Hyphen(-) This section looks at the
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No a-do i-vy i-dea tax-i a-bout e-n
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Consider the following sets of word
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PUNCTUATION This sentence is fine i
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PUNCTUATION DO NOT USE A HYPHEN WHE
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The salesman was fast-talking. The
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PUNCTUATION 'So he is, to be sure,'
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Slash(/) The slash (also known as t
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PUNCTUATION The tent offers suitabl
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PUNCTUATION Dalgliesh said: " 'Now
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• Working in digressions • Maki
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PUNCTUATION if you ask me, but that
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PUNCTUATION BETTER: A validity coef
Page 160 and 161: PUNCTUATION • It is permissible t
Page 162 and 163: Dashes Dashes come in several sizes
Page 164 and 165: PUNCTUATION Several of the neighbor
Page 166 and 167: PUNCTUATION but I am sure that you
Page 168 and 169: And when I found the door was shut,
Page 170 and 171: "How was I supposed to-" she sputte
Page 172 and 173: PUNCTUATION the discussions of the
Page 174 and 175: PUNCTUATION a quote. Another use is
Page 176 and 177: PUNCTUATION or editorial comment, i
Page 178 and 179: PUNCTUATION words italics mine, ita
Page 180 and 181: PUNCTUATION By Mrs Hurst and Miss B
Page 182 and 183: "Aces drawn after a deuce are high?
Page 184 and 185: PUNCTUATION 'Oh, but I think,' said
Page 186 and 187: PUNCTUATION it would look as if the
Page 188 and 189: it in quotation marks to alert the
Page 190 and 191: PUNCTUATION 6s and the closing ones
Page 192 and 193: PUNCTUATION Perhaps it would be bet
Page 194 and 195: ORIGINAL QuoTATION: Dear Theo, PUNC
Page 196 and 197: PUNCTUATION 'No, dear. Not Homer, t
Page 198 and 199: PUNCTUATION came to his room, inser
Page 200 and 201: Apostrophe(') The apostrophe often
Page 202 and 203: PUNCTUATION In other cases, the con
Page 204 and 205: the people's choice the alumni's lo
Page 206 and 207: Achilles' heel Euripides' plays Gra
Page 208 and 209: \ PUNCTUATION of the term itself. W
Page 212 and 213: Agreement Between Subject and Verb
Page 214 and 215: Problem Category 1: The Subject, th
Page 216 and 217: GRAMMAR but that would slightly alt
Page 218 and 219: Pat, like the others, was determine
Page 220 and 221: DISTRACTING PREDICATE NOUNS GRAMMAR
Page 222 and 223: the components are included my cous
Page 224 and 225: Headquarters~ waiting for an answer
Page 226 and 227: GRAMMAR A generation ago, no one in
Page 228 and 229: GRAMMAR realize that there is more
Page 230 and 231: GRAMMAR that constitute a multimedi
Page 232 and 233: Achieving Parallel Structure The ve
Page 234 and 235: GRAMMAR The bankruptcy proceedings
Page 236 and 237: GRAMMAR It may be necessary to eith
Page 238 and 239: GRAMMAR action will follow; for exa
Page 240 and 241: GRAMMAR Rebecca seizing life with h
Page 242 and 243: GRAMMAR Dangling modifiers occur wh
Page 244 and 245: GRAMMAR The suspect's condition was
Page 246 and 247: The following sentences contain squ
Page 248 and 249: GRAMMAR that represents the entity
Page 250 and 251: GRAMMAR should be obvious that you
Page 252 and 253: GRAMMAR 4. Old King Cole was a merr
Page 254 and 255: GRAMMAR WHEN DO YOU USE WHO AND WHE
Page 256 and 257: GRAMMAR of spider; hence, it is not
Page 258 and 259: 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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