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

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SPELLING EIAE, OE For words originally spelled with ligatures, American style is to drop the silent vowel, British style is to keep it. anesthetic/ anaesthetic encyclopedia/encyclopaedia medieval/mediaeval estrogen/ oestrogen fetus/foetus maneuver /manoeuvre MORE PHONETIC/MORE TRADITIONAL American style is to simplify spelling, whether by dropping silent endings or by using more phonetic constructions; British style is to retain traditional spellings. catalog/catalogue check/cheque omelet/ omelette draft/draught program/programme plow/plough A question that might arise for writers striving for consistency is, must one go exclusively one way or the other? If you have committed yourself to doubling the l in cancelled, need you also use re endings and oe ligatures? The answer is, unless you are expected to abide rigidly by a particular style guide, it's usually acceptable to use different styles for different words as long as you spell each individual word consistently. You should, though, treat all words in the same category alike-for example, if you are spelling valour with a u, do the same for flavour. Note that, regardless of your style choice, you must always use the original spelling for proper nouns. Thus, for example, even if using American spelling, be sure the British political party appears as Labour, not Labor; if using British spelling, be sure the complex in New York appears as the Rockefeller Center, not Centre. OTHER SPELLING VARIATIONS Exercise Outside of American/British differences, there are quite a few words that have acceptable variants within North America (and in other parts of the world as well). For example, every word in the following list is spelled correctly-but can be spelled correctly another way as well. Change it to its other acceptable form. 19
GRAMMATICALLY CORRECT accidentally adviser artifact balaclava bandanna bannister bull rush caliph cantaloupe Answers accidentiMiy 0 adviser e art+fact k balaelava bandanRa banRister bul~rush f cali~ cantaloupe dietitian dissension enroll espresso fulfill gelatin hankie license liquefy c dieti-t:ian dissen§ion enrol~ X 5presso fulfil~ e gelatin 1\ y hank+e c licen§e i liquefy memento moniker mustache nerve-racking numbskull orangutan phony pygmy raccoon 0 memento c moniker 1\ 0 mustache 1\ w nerve-racking 1\ numeskull 0 orangutan 1\ e phony 1\ pygmy raceoon skeptical skullduggery stony sulphur tendonitis tuque whiz woollen yogurt c skeptical skulkfuggery e stony 1\ f sul~ur i tendenitis 0 h*que z whiz 1\ wool~n h yogurt 1\ As with the review of misspellings on page 3, this exercise is less concerned with the specific words shown here than with raising your awareness of alternate spellings in general. There are a few words with similar variations (double or single ls or ns;jinstead of ph; y or ey endings), but for the most part, what distinguishes these 20
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 26 and 27: SPELLING effect these might have on
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
Page 76 and 77: 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
Page 306 and 307:
STYLE Many modern readers would not
Page 308 and 309:
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
Page 334 and 335:
sentence with, 262-263; subordinati
Page 336 and 337:
ending in y, 43-44, 197, 199-200; o
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