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

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SPELLING effect these might have on the tone of your vvriting. Some dictionaries may endorse spellings that would send a majority of copyeditors lunging for their red pencils. It is worth mentioning here that dictionaries can be roughly categorized as either "prescriptive" or "descriptive." The former act as guardians of the language, strictly upholding conventional rules of spelling and word usage, and are conservative about adding new entries. Descriptive dictionaries, on the other hand, attempt to reflect language as it is used, whether supported by tradition or not. They are thus more flexible in incorporating unconventional spellings (along with slang, jargon and new terms) on the grounds that it is their responsibility not to decree but to record how words are being used in the real world. Both approaches have validity: Clearly, without the maintenance of standards the clarity of the language would degenerate; on the other hand, language is a fluid entity that changes year by year, driven more by common usage than by linguistic pundits. (Consider how quaint many terms that were in standard usage just a few decades ago now seem.) Hence, whether certain spellings are considered errors or acceptable variants may depend on what source is being used. AMERICAN/BRITISH DIFFERENCES Many of the variant spellings in the English language are due to the differing styles of the United States and Britain. For staunch upholders of either the American or the Anglo tradition, the "right" way to spell something will be unambiguous; however, in many parts of the world the path is murkier. (Canadians in particular, with geographical proximity to one country and historical ties to the other, have adapted a hybrid style that borrows from both.) The following describes several categories of differences between American and British spellings. In general-there are many exceptions-American style is to remove letters not necessary for pronunciation, while British style is to retain traditional spellings, which are often more complex. 17
GRAMMATICALLY CORRECT OR/OUR ENDINGS Some words end in or for American style, our for British style. humor/humour honor/honour endeavor I endeavour (Canadians take note: Even with British style, certain derivative words such as humorous, honorarium and laborious do not take the u.) ERIRE ENDINGS Some words end in er for American style, re for British style. center I centre fiber/fibre theater /theatre IZEIISE ENDINGS Some words end in ize (or yze) for American style, ise (or yse) for British style. analyze/analyse paralyze/para lyse organize/organise realize/realise EDIT ENDINGS Some past tense constructions that take ed for American style take t for British style. burned/burnt dreamed/dreamt spoiled/spoilt SINGLE/DOUBLE CONSONANTS For some words where the root ends in l, p, s or t, American style leaves the consonant single before an ed or ing ending, and British style doubles it. benefited/benefitted canceled/ cancelled kidnaped/kidnapped focusing/focussing grueling/gruelling worshiping/worshipping DROPPING/RETAINING E For some words where the root ends in e, American style is to drop the e before a suffix, British style is to retain it. 18 acknowledgment/ acknowledgement aging/ageing usable/ useable
Page 2 and 3: The WRITER'S ESSENTIAL GUIDE to pun
Page 4 and 5: C R E D T S American Psychological
Page 6 and 7: The En Dash 162 2-Em and 3-Em Dashe
Page 8 and 9: Readers may wish to know when to sa
Page 10 and 11: P A R T 0 N E Spelling In this age
Page 12 and 13: Misspellings COMMONLY :MISPELLED WO
Page 14 and 15: SPELLING Haemorrhage and manoeuvre
Page 16 and 17: SPELLING may spell these words the
Page 18 and 19: SPELLING Did you spot the errors in
Page 20 and 21: The car comes with duel airbags. Th
Page 22 and 23: SPELLING it doesn't, the ending wil
Page 24 and 25: SPELLING Philbert knew he would hav
Page 28 and 29: SPELLING EIAE, OE For words origina
Page 30 and 31: SPELLING alternate spellings is the
Page 32 and 33: Hyphenation I worked with [William
Page 34 and 35: a dead on guess/a dead pan manner d
Page 36 and 37: SPELLING If one part of a compound
Page 38 and 39: SPELLING tively) unique constructio
Page 40 and 41: SPELLING With a fraction that inclu
Page 42 and 43: Frequently Misused Words Homonyms (
Page 44 and 45: PROBLEM WORDS common usages for eac
Page 46 and 47: PROBLEM WORDS Parents are assured t
Page 48 and 49: PROBLEM WORDS things that make a re
Page 50 and 51: PROBLEM WORDS fairness, some words
Page 52 and 53: ight of way passerby rights of way
Page 54 and 55: SOME WORDS OF ITALIAN ORIGIN THAT E
Page 56 and 57: PROBLEM WORDS HEBREW WORDS ADD IM (
Page 58 and 59: COUNTER- DE- DIS- DYS- E- Opposite
Page 60 and 61: PROBLEM WORDS construction (uncommu
Page 62 and 63: 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
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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
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PUNCTUATION • It is permissible t
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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
Page 336 and 337:
ending in y, 43-44, 197, 199-200; o
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