Punctuations Limhathung_Handout-2
Lack of punctuations and over use of punctuations can alter meaning and may lead to
ambiguity.
A woman without her man, is nothing
A woman: without her, man is nothing
No commas:
This initial workshop identified the work scopes and phasing generated several different
sourcing strategies for those work scopes and proposed selection criteria to compare the
sourcing strategies to best benefit the [project].
Commas added (option 1 – single comma after ‘work scopes’):
This initial workshop identified the work scopes, and phasing generated several different
sourcing strategies for those work scopes and proposed selection criteria to compare the
sourcing strategies to best benefit the [project].
Commas added (option 2 – multiple commas to separate phrases related to the workshop’s
outcomes):
This initial workshop identified the work scopes and phasing, generated several different
sourcing strategies for those work scopes, and proposed selection criteria to compare the
sourcing strategies to best benefit the [project].
It’s likely that the final example was what the author meant, but a reader who wasn’t at the
workshop can only guess as to what happened there. If the author had added commas, the meaning
would be clear and unambiguous to any reader who didn’t attend the workshop.
Punctuations: Punctuation refers to the use of symbols such as periods/full stop, commas,
question marks, apostrophe, brackets, colon, dashes, ellipses, exclamation mark, hyphen,
quotation marks, semicolon, slash/strokes, solidus to organize and structure written language.
It helps to convey meaning, to indicate pauses, and to clarify the relationships between words
and phrases in a sentence.
The importance of using proper punctuation is to avoid AMBIGUITY, MEANING
ALTERATION, and to get clear EMPHASIZATION of the meaning.
Apostrophe (‘): An apostrophe is used mainly in two forms,
i) Form contractions: A contraction is a shortened form of words by omitting one or
more letters. In such process the apostrophe is added in place of the omitted
letters.
Example- It’s my car - It is my car
I Can’t move out from the place – I cannot move out from the place
He’d’ve bought the house – He would have bought the house
They didn’t pay the bill – They did not pay the bill
We’ll – We will, They’ve – They have, Aren’t – Are not,
However, an apostrophe is not used in all case of letters omission, such as in clipping and
Abbreviation. A clipping is also a shortened form of words similar to contraction, Gym-
gymnasium, pro-professional, phone-telephone, ad-advertisement that happens only in in
the root word/main word. The difference is, in contraction when there is an omission of
letters only in modal-auxiliary verbs and it is attached to another word.
Form possessiveness: A possessive means the object belongs to the person that is referred
to. An apostrophe is added at the end of the word followed by s letter to make possessive
word.
Example- That is Jack’s house
At my brother’s place
When the noun (Irrespective of singular or plural noun) ends with the letter S, only
Apostrophe is used at the end of the word without additional S.
Example- James’ book (in singular noun)
Teachers’ program (in plural noun)
In compound words and compound phrase, a possessive marker (i.e the apostrophe) is used
at the end of the last word.
Example- Sister-in-law’s home
Son-in-law’s cat
Jack and Jill’s room
Cat and dog’s kennel
Comma(,): A comma is a versatile punctuation that serves to separate items of lists in a
series, connect independent clauses, and clarifying meaning. It is used to keep a pause while
reading.
Example- Mr. Sanchez won from the lottery a car, a fridge, a television, a radio and a bicycle.
(Connects list of items)
Lisa speaks French. Juliet speaks Italian. I speak Russian.*
Lisa speaks French, Juliet speaks Italian, and I speak Russian.
I want to go out but I want to study.
I want to go out, but I want to study (Connects independent clauses with a
conjunctions)
Let’s eat grandma.*
Let’s eat, grandma (clarifies meaning/thoughts)
Semicolon (;): A semicolon is used to joined two complete sentences, but only when the two
sentences are closely related to each other. It is paused longer than a comma.
Example- It was a boy: his name was Chris
Jim is a good typist; he makes few mistakes
Tolkien published The Hobit in 1937; the first volume of The Lord of the Rings
followed in 1954.
Women’s conversation is cooperative; men’s is competitive.
Colon (:): A colon is used to indicate that what follows it is an explanation or elaboration of
what precedes it.
Example- She was sure of one thing: she was not going to be a housewife.
Shahrukh, Akshay, Govinda, Amir khan: all these are great actors.
Charles Dicken wrote: “it was the best time of all times.”
Hyphen (-): Hyphen is used to join two or more words that functions as a single adjective
(compound word) before a noun, compound numerals.
Example- She gave him a good-night kiss.*
She gave him a good night kiss.
She is wearing a light green dress.*
She is wearing a light-green dress.
She is a Well-known writer
It looks like Chocolate-cover peanuts
She is a Kind-hearted woman
Twenty-one
Fifty-three
Full stop/period (.): A period is used to mark a declarative and imperative sentence. It is also
used to make abbreviation. Use only one period if the sentence ends with an abbreviation.
Example- That boy is my friend.
Please bring me a cup of coffee.
U.S.A
He likes trekking, camping, singing, swimming, and writing etc..*
Ellipsis(…): It is called omission or suspension marks. It is used to mark an unfinished
sentence stopped abruptly by the writer.
Slash/oblique (/): It is used to separate alternatives, an option.
Example- He/she has to bring their own tiffin.
Capitalization: The initial letter of a word in a sentence should always be capitalized. And a
proper noun should always be capitalized.
The boy scored a goal. He was a good player.
Question mark(?): It is used indicate a mark question being asked.
Quotation marks (“”): Quotation marks are used to quote a statements.
Exclamation mark(!)
Parenthesis (): It is used to give extra additional information.
Dash (-): It marks a long suspension of pause in the sentence.
Exercise: A sentences and a paragraph.
