Write Right - Defence Academy of the United Kingdom

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The colonConscience: the inner voice which tells us someone may bewatching.H L MenckenFowler considered the colon's special function was ‘to deliver the goodsthat have been invoiced in the preceding words.’ The colon indicates afuller pause than the semicolon and is now used almost exclusively toprecede lists, summaries or quotations. Normally in English you shouldmake sure that what you write before the colon is grammaticallycomplete:The Warsaw Pact comprised 7 countries: the USSR, EastGermany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania andBulgariaHe briefly outlined a few of the problems facing the project: lack ofagreed guidelines, disputes within management, shortage of staff,rising costs and collapsing moraleHowever, DW convention allows us to use a grammatically incompletestatement before the colon when it is used to introduce sub-paragraphs,but only provided that the statement is completed grammatically by eachsubsequent sub-paragraph in its entirety. No such sub-paragraph mayeither have a heading or contain an additional sentence. Subparagraphs,whether consisting of single words, phrases or clauses,must all be of similar construction.The colon can also be used to separate 2 statements in order toemphasise the contrast between them:Man proposes: God disposes.23
The semicolonThe semicolon marks a longer pause than a comma, but a shorter onethan a full stop. It is useful:As a means of avoiding confusion in lists.The guests included Colonel Blanchard, leader of theexpedition; Major Fielding, his chief assistant; Captain Buck,the technical adviser; ...To separate 2 or more clauses which are of more or less equalimportance and are linked as a pair or a series.The idea of including ethnic groups in emerging governmentsis both bold and potentially fruitful; moreover it is nowpossible.To emphasise a contrast.On this occasion I will let your insubordination gounpunished; but in future I will not be so lenient.If you are uncertain about the semicolon, avoid it; however correctly usedit can be a very effective punctuation mark.24
Page 1 and 2: VI S UE TNI S U
Page 3: The comma……………………
Page 6: Here are some objectives that effec
Page 12 and 13: The sentence and the paragraphShort
Page 14 and 15: Clichés, metaphors and similesClic
Page 16: Foreign wordsSome originally foreig
Page 19 and 20: SlangNew slang flows into the langu
Page 21: PunctuationPunctuation is the use o
Page 27 and 28: The dashWar does not determine who
Page 29 and 30: The full stop‘Where shall I begin
Page 34 and 35: Geographical titles or regions. Fra
Page 36: Pairs and snaresadverse (unfavourab
Page 39 and 40: A hundred words which aresometimes
Page 41: Some rules that aren’t really rul
Page 44 and 45: Past tenseI spoke to him yesterday.
Page 46 and 47: SingularPluralfirst person subject
Page 48 and 49: DW conventionsThis is a quick refer
Page 50 and 51: Signature block 1. Use a signature
Page 52: Recommended readingJoint Service Pu

Write Right - Defence Academy of the United Kingdom

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