punctuation in action

Let’s eat brother!

Let’s eat, brother! Punctuation Saves Lives!

Managing Internal Communication

Facilitated by: Ashak Hossan

Answers

1 Full Stop a - 2 Commas b ? 3 Semicolon c ; 4 Colon d : 5 Apostrophe a ! 6 Hyphen b A'

7 Dash c - 8 Brackets d , 9 Inverted Commas a ‘x’ / ‘’x‘’

10 Exclamation mark b []{}() 11 Question mark c .

Exercise Sheet:02

. Full stops are used:

To mark the end of a sentence that is a complete statement:

• My name’s Ashak and I was in the ERP Training. • After leaving office, he went to home.

To mark the end of a group of words that don’t form a conventional sentence, so as to emphasize a statement:

• I keep reliving that moment. Over and over again.

In some abbreviations, for example etc., Dec., or p.m.:

• The coffee morning will be held on Thursday 15 Sept. in the Conference Room.

• There’s a wide range of sandwiches, pies, cakes, etc. at very reasonable prices.

Full

Sto

p

, Using commas in direct speech

Mr. Moshiur replied, ‘No problem.’

Using commas to separate clauses

Employees who have young children,

may take the education facilities.

Using commas to mark off parts of a sentence

His latest presentation, Presentation Skills & PowerPoint, opens next month.

Using a comma with 'however‘

However you look at it, existing stakeholders are likely to lose out.

Co

mm

as

; The main task of the semicolon is to

mark a break that is stronger than a comma but not as final as a full stop.

Comma(,) < Semicolon (;) < Full Stop (.)

Sem

ico

lon

: To introduce a list:

The price includes the following: freight cost, C&F cost, LC cost, and space cost.

Before a quotation, and sometimes before direct speech:

They shouted: ‘Our employees are suffering! We need leave assistance!’

Co

lon

’ Apostrophes showing possession:

Singular nouns and most personal names (We met at V&V’s party.)

Personal names that end in –s (He joined Mr. Mamun’s team in 2013.)

Plural nouns that end in –s (he work is due to start in two weeks’ time/The mansion was converted into a girls’ school)

Apostrophes showing omission

I’m - short for I am

he’ll - short for he will

Ap

ost

rop

he

- Hyphens in compound words:

(mother-in-law, good-hearted.)

Compound adjectives:

(quick-thinking, good-looking)

Compound verbs (spot-check)

Phrasal verbs (build-up)

Compound nouns (chat-room)

Hyphens joining prefixes to other words (pre-eminent)

Hyphens showing word breaks (hel-met)

Hyp

he

n

– A dash is used:

In pairs, to mark off information or ideas that are not essential to an understanding of the rest of the sentence:

(My son – where has he gone? – would like to meet you.)

To show other kinds of break in a sentence where a comma, semicolon, or colon would be traditionally used:

(Things have changed a lot in the last year – mainly for the better.)

Das

h

( ) [ ] Round brackets

(also called parentheses) are mainly used to separate off information that isn’t essential to the meaning of the rest of the sentence.

(There are several books on the subject (see page 120)

Square brackets:

(Square brackets are mainly used to enclose words added by someone other than the original writer or speaker, typically in order to clarify the situation:)

He [Team Member] can’t prove they did it.

Bra

cket

s

‘x’ / ‘’x‘’

Inverted commas can be single - ‘x’ - or double - ‘’x‘’. They are also known as quotation marks, speech marks, or quotes.

‘What time will he arrive?’ he asked.

Inve

rte

d c

om

mas

! An exclamation:

Hello! How are you?

Direct speech:

‘Look up there!’ he yelled.

Excl

amat

ion

mar

k

?

A question mark is used to indicate the end of a question

Qu

est

ion

mar

k

Bullet points are used to draw attention to important information within a document so that a reader can identify the key issues and facts quickly.

The text introducing the list of bullet points should end with a colon:

If the text that follows the bullet point is not a proper sentence, it doesn’t need to begin with a capital letter and it shouldn’t end with a full stop, for example:

Tonight's agenda includes:

• annual review of capital gains issues

• outstanding inheritance tax issues

Lists of bullet points will have more impact if each one begins with the same word class (or part of speech) and if they are all of a similar length. Action verbs are a good choice for the first word,

Bu

llet

po

ints

Source: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/