Главная>Учебники и самоучители 1-25 26-50 51-75>Чеснокова Г.В. "Методические рекомендации по письменной практике."
Чеснокова Г.В. "Методические рекомендации по письменной практике."
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Описание: Методические рекомендации по письменной практике: пунктуация и механика (для студентов старших курсов факультета английского языка) включают основные правила и разнообразные задания для получения студентами навыков верного употребления разделительных знаков и других графических способов смыслового членения выражений в английском языке.
Книга на английском языке.
Год выпуска: 2000
Содержание:
Preface
Chapter 1. Punctuation
1.1. End Marks
1.2. The Comma
1.3. The Semicolon
1.4. The Colon
1.5. The Apostrophe
1.6. The Dash
1.7. Parentheses
1.8. Brackets
1.9. The Slash
1.10. Ellipsis Marks
1.11. Quotations and Quoting
Chapter 2. Mechanics
2.1. Hyphenation and Word Division
2.2. Capitals
2.3. Abbreviations
2.4. Numbers
2.5. Underlining for Italics. Titles
Appendix. Common Revision Symbols
Bibliography
Preface
The guide we suggest is more of a practical source. The first part of it illustrates the uses of punctuation marks. By giving sentences from prominent writers for both examples and exercises, we hope to show the full range of possibilities for punctuation in contemporary writing. If you study the examples carefully, you will gain understanding of how to use each punctuation mark in your own writing. Besides learning how to use punctuation correctly, you will see how punctuation can give you the freedom to write new kinds of sentences and express ideas in more effective ways.
Surely, there is one supreme rule: that punctuation is best which best serves to make writing subtle, supple, delicate, nuanced and efficient. Of course you can write using only periods and commas for punctuation. You can cook using only salt and pepper for seasoning. But why do it when there are so many seasonings pleasing to a mature palate? -George Will
The second part of the guide is dedicated to mechanics - conventional rules such as the one requiring capitalisation or the first word of a sentence. You need to follow the conventions so that your writing will look the way formal writing is expected to look.
Finally, the book is followed by the appendix which is a compact reference guide aiming to help students understand the corrections made by the instructor.
CHAPTER 1. PUNCTUATION
The purpose of punctuation is to help make clear the meaning of printed or written language.
Correct punctuation is based, in varying degrees, on three things: (1) thought or meaning, (2) the structural patterns of the sentence, (3) the conventions of the age. The practice of writers may be codified into a number of rules or principles. These rules or principles govern a very large number of typical situations in writing. At times, certain marks are optional, depending on the decisions of publishers or on levels of usage; on the whole, however, a university student will succeed if he or she follows codified usage. When in doubt, one can always resort to common sense.
1.1 END MARKS
Using the Period
Periods are used to mark the end of a declarative sentence, a mild command, or an indirect question: e.g. I wish I owned a couple of acres of land now, in which case I
would not be writing autobiographies for a living. -Mark Twain
Please do not smoke.
Junior asked Susanna whether she wanted any more pancakes.
Periods are used to mark the end of some abbreviations:
Titles Mr., Capt., Hon., Ms.
Degrees B.A., Ph.D., M.D., B.Sc.
States Calif., N.Y., Tex. (But not in postal abbreviations - CA,
NY, TX)
Names of Political U.K., U.S.A., C.I.S. Entities:
Months Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec.
Names T. S. Eliot, John F. Kennedy
Other Uses A.M., B.C., A.D., vol., St., Ave.
Generally, you don't need periods with acronyms (pronounceable words, such as UNESCO, WHO, formed from the initial letters of a multiword title), with capital-letter abbreviations of technical terms, or with abbreviated names of agencies and organisations:
CBS TVA IBM
NATO ID IQ
FM CIA VISTA
Periods are used to mark letters or numerals used in vertical lists:
e.g. Woven into the history of the human race is the history of its four great religions: 1. Buddhism
2. Judaism
3. Christianity
4. Islam
Periods are not used after another period or other end mark:
e.g. To please our customers, we have ordered scarce materials from Home Supplies Company, Inc.
We don't want customers saying, "Why don't you have what I want?" Please give me a wake-up call at 6:00 A.M.
EXERCISE
Use the periods correctly:
1. The instructor asked when Plato wrote The Republic?
2. Give the date within one century
3. The exact date is not known, but it is thought to be around 370 BC.
4. Dr Arn will lecture on Plato at 7:30 PM.
5. The area of the lecture hall is only 1600 sq ft.
Using the Question Mark
A question mark is used to mark the end of a direct question: e.g. Would you feel better as someone else? -Alice Walker
A question mark is used to indicate uncertainty within a statement: e.g. Socrates (470?-399 B.C.), the Greek philosopher and teacher, was
condemned to death for his unpopular ideas.
Note: Don't use a question mark within parentheses to express sarcasm or irony. Express these attitudes through sentence structure and diction:
Faulty *Her friendly (?) criticism did not escape notice.1
Revised Her criticism, too rough to be genuinely friendly,
did not escape notice.
EXERCISE
Revise the following sentences so that question marks (along with other
punctuation marks) are used correctly.
1. In Homer's Odyssey, Ulysses took seven years to travel from Troy to Ithaca. Or was it eight years. Or more?
2. Ulysses must have wondered whether he would ever make it home?
1 A star marks an unacceptable utterance.
3. "What man are you and whence?," asks Ulysses's wife, Penelope.
4. Why does Penelope ask, "Where is your city? Your parents?"?
5. Penelope does not recognise Ulysses and asks who this stranger is?
Using the Exclamation Point
The exclamation point is used to mark an expression of strong feeling:
e.g. Poor Columbus! He is a minor character now, a walk-on in the middle of American history. -Frances FitzGerald
Because exclamation points make a special appeal to the reader, you should use them sparingly. If oh introduces an expression of strong feeling, put the exclamation point at the end of the expression. Never use more than one exclamation point after an exclamation:
e.g. Oh, this is unspeakable!
"Great guns!" he shouted in consternation.
EXERCISE
Revise the following sentences so that exclamation points (along with other punctuation marks) are used correctly. If a sentence is punctuated correctly, circle the number preceding it.
1. As the firefighters moved their equipment into place, the police shouted, "Move back!."
2. A child's cries could be heard from above: "Help me. Help."
3. When the child was rescued, the crowd called "Hooray."
4. The rescue was the most exciting event of the day!
5. Let me tell you about it.
REVISING: END PUNCTUATION
Insert appropriate punctuation (periods, question marks, or exclamation points) where needed in the following paragraph.
When visitors first arrive in Hawaii, they often encounter an unexpected language barrier Standard English is the language of business and government, but many of the people speak Pidgin English Instead of an excited "Aloha" the visitors may by greeted with an excited Pidgin "Howzit" or asked if they know "how fo' find one good hotel" Many Hawaiians question whether Pidgin will hold children back because it prevents communication with the haoles, or Caucasians, who run businesses Yet many others feel that Pidgin is a last defense of ethnic diversity on the islands To those who want to make standard English the official language of the state, the Hawaiians may respond, "Just 'cause I speak Pidgin no mean I dumb" They may ask, "Why you no listen" or, in standard English, "Why don't you listen"
1.2. THE COMMA
The comma is the most frequently used internal mark of punctuation. Of all the marks of punctuation, it has the widest variety of uses.
Using Commas with Dates, Addresses, Greetings, Names, and Large Numbers
Commas are used with full dates (month, day, and year) but are omitted with partial dates (month and year):
e.g. Gas had first been used by the Germans on October 27, 1914,
when they fired a prototype of modern tear gas from an artillery near Ypres. -Paul Fussell
In June 1985 Beth Henley was working on her fifth play. Exceptions: No comma is used to separate parts of a date that begins with
the day:
e.g. The atomic bomb was first dropped on 6 August 1945.
Commas are required between most of the elements in place names and addresses:
e.g. Miami, Dade County, Florida
Writing Lab, University of California, Riverside
Exceptions: Do not use a comma to separate a street number from the name of the street: e.g. 15 Amsterdam Avenue
Do not use a comma to separate a state from zip code: e.g. 5625 Waverly Avenue, La Jolla, California 92037
In a complete sentence, a comma must follow the last element of place names, addresses, or dates:
e.g. He shot himself twice, once in the chest and then in the head, in a police station in Washington, D.C., with the cops looking on. -Red Smith
July 4, 1776, was the day the Declaration of Independence was signed.
Commas are used to set off the names of someone directly addressed in a sentence:
e.g. A few weeks ago, Mr. Taplow, I spoke to you on the telephone about the possibility of a summer job.
Commas are used after the greeting in a friendly or informal letter, and after the closing in a letter of any kind: e.g. Dear Mary,
Dear Uncle Paul, Sincerely, Yours truly,
Commas are used to set off titles or degrees after a person's name:
e.g. Barbara Kane, M.D., delivered the commencement address.
But Jr., Sr., and /// may be written without commas: e.g. Sammy Davis Jr. Started his singing career at age four.
Oliver III glanced across at me.
The comma is used after the last part of a proper name when the last part comes first: e.g. Lunt, George D.
Commas are used to mark groups of three digits in large numbers, counting from the right:
e.g. Antarctica is 5,400,000 square miles of ice-covered land.
EXERCISE
In the following sentences, insert any commas needed with dates, place names, addresses, and large numbers.
1. The earthquake of October 9, 1871 whose epicenter was near Wilmington Delaware delivered what for this area was the most intense earth shock in historical times. -John McPhee
2. I was in New Orleans when Louisiana seceded from the Union, January 26 1861 and I started north the next day. -Mark Twain
3. She lost her father, William Thomas Bishop, eight months after her birth on February 8, 1911 in Worcester Massachusetts. -Robert Giroux on Elizabeth Bishop
4. On the morning of June 5, 1962 the Queen Elizabeth brought my wife and me from Cherbourg to New York for the film premiere of Lolita. -Vladimir Nabokov
5. Miss Davis was born on April 2 1908 in Lowell Massachusetts in a gray clapboard house built on Chester Street by her grandfather Favor, who was descended from fighting Huguenots and was himself a belligerent abolitionist. -Janet Planner on Bette Davis
6. The new assembly plant cost $7 525 000 by the time it was completed.
Using Commas with Conjunctions
The comma is used before a conjunction (and, but, for, or, nor, so, yet) linking two or more independent clauses:
e.g. Canadians watch America closely, but most Americans know little about Canada.
Cowards never started on the long trek west, and the weak died along the way.
Note: Some very brief independent clauses may not require a comma.
e.g. We dickered and then we made a deal. -Red Smith
I have seen the future and I'm tired of it. — Gerald Nachman If one or both of the independent clauses have internal punctuation
(especially commas), a writer might choose to separate the two clauses with a semicolon and a coordinating conjunction so that the reader can easily see the main division in the sentence.
e.g. Genetically, we are nearly identical to mankind fifty thousand years ago; and some of us delight in the continuity represented by this, while others may be appalled. -Edward Hoagland
EXERCISE
In the following sentences, underline the coordinating conjunctions and insert a comma in the right place.
1. Children have never been very good at listening to their elders but they have never failed to imitate them. -James Baldwin
2. I was now twelve years old and the thought of being a slave for life began to bear heavily on my heart. — Frederick Douglass
3. The Closerie des Lilas was the nearest good cafe when we lived in the flat over the sawmill at 113 rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs and it was one of the best cafes in Paris. -Ernest Hemingway
4. One might argue that Carpenter had mishandled the re-entry but to accuse him of panic made no sense in light of the telemetered data concerning his heart rate and his respiratory rate. -Tom Wolfe
5. People put up with less rockiness in a marriage now and the opportunity to dissolve a bad marriage in a rather easy fashion tips plenty of marriages that are not nearly all that bad into court. -Edward Hoagland
The comma alone should not be used between two independent clauses (the comma splice):
e.g. The beams have rotted: they can no longer support the roof.
[or] The beams have rotted, so they can no longer support the roof. [or] Since the beams have rotted, they can no longer support the roof.
"I plan to travel to England," my friend said happily. "I want to visit Shakespeare's birthplace."
When a conjunctive adverb joins the independent clauses in a compound sentence, it is preceded by a semicolon:
e.g. Petra was absent on Friday; consequently, she missed the chemistry test.
Note: The use of a comma to join coordinate clauses is more common in novels, stories, and some types of journalistic writing than it is in serious expository
prose. Although it is hard to make general statements here, it is safe to say that this practice is the exception, not the rule.
In serious discussions - with which we are primarily concerned here - the comma is used by most writers to join coordinate clauses in the following situation:
• When the series of statements takes the form of a climax: e.g. I came, I saw, I conquered.
The leaves are turning to gold, squirrels are fattening, hunting time is near.
• When the statements form an antithesis, or are arranged in the "it was not merely this, it was also that" formula:
e.g. It was more than an annoyance, it was a pang. -Winston S. Churchill To allow the Mahdi to enter Khartoum would not merely mean to return the whole of the Sudan to barbarism, it would be a menace to the safety of Egypt herself. - Lytton Strachey
EXERCISE
Identify the errors in the sentences that follow. Any sentence that is incorrect contains no more than one error.
1. "Answer only the first five questions," he said, "The testing time is extremely limited."
2. We will leave for Japan immediately, therefore, we will complete that project in the fall.
3. "The next chapter is easy," said the teacher, "The main ideas are clearly marked."
4. Our friend from Oregon visited our family recently; however, he left early, for he wanted to travel throughout New England.
5. "The nine o'clock class has been cancelled," said the teacher. "It has been rescheduled for a later time."
6. "Why are you crying?" she asked, "Are you lost?"
7. No one expected her to become a numismatist, she had never been interested in coins.
8. When you finish your homework, please read that novel, it is a science fiction story with a horrifying ending.
9. The children, who were playing innocently in the park, saw the accident, however, they were too frightened to relate the details of the mishap.
10. George arrived in New Jersey on Tuesday, therefore, he visited his cousins in Passaic.
11. The plane left Boston on schedule, it arrived in New York very late because of a snow storm.
12. "Please open the door," she cried, "I cannot walk a step farther tonight."
13. She left early; however, she arrived late.
Using Commas with Coordinate Items in a Series
Commas are used to separate three or more items in a series, including the last two items when they are joined by a coordinating conjunction. e.g. Brood-canopied green, orange, purple, and red umbrellas shield produce from the sun. -John McPhee
She loved life, liberty, and the happiness of being pursued. It is at this point of the conjunction, that usage differs. Some writers omit the comma before the final item in the series if the item is preceded by a conjunction. This omission is acceptable if it does not cause any confusion. In informal writing there is a progressive tendency to discard the comma before the conjunction, except for clearness, as the writing grows less formal. In journalistic writing, the comma is regularly omitted. To avoid possible misreadings, however, it is a good idea not to omit this comma. e.g. I would hold my laugh, bite my tongue, grit my teeth and seriously erase even the touch of a smile from my face. -Maya Angelou The comma should not be used before a conjunction within a series of just two items: e.g. The manager was genial but shrewd.
She checked my weekly sales and asked to speak with me.
Exception: You may use a comma to set off a contrasting phrase:
e.g. She liked running her own business, but not working on week-ends.
Sometimes writers will use a series that has no coordinating conjunction between the last two items.
e.g. Now she stops, turns, glowers. -John McPhee
Only the very young and the very old may recount their dreams at breakfast, dwell upon self, interrupt with memories of beach picnics and favorite Liberty lawn dresses and the rainbow trout in a creek near Colorado Springs. -Joan Didion
Commas are not required if the items in the series are all joined by coordinating conjunctions.
e.g. I'd like to be considered good and honest and reasonably accurate. -Red Smith on sports writing
EXERCISE
Insert commas as necessary to separate items in series in the following sentences.
1. Our fire escapes were densely inhabited by mops short lines of washed socks geranium plants boxes of seltzer bottles and occasional dramatic scenes. -Kate Simon
2. Meteorologists were commissioned to make detailed portraits of New Jersey's coastal temperatures humidity precipitation fogs thunderstorms tornado potentialities and "probable maximum hurricanes." -John McPhee
3. She had no confidence in books written in English paid almost nothing for them and sold them for a small and quick profit. -Ernest Hemingway on Sylvia Beach
4. It used to be understood that no matter how low your estimate of the public intelligence was how greedily you courted success or how much you debased your material in order to popularise it, you nevertheless tried to give the audience something. -Pauline Kael on contemporary movies
Commas are used between coordinate adjectives but are not used between noncoordinate adjectives. In your own sentences with adjective series, you can apply two tests to determine whether the adjectives are coordinate: The adjectives are coordinate and should be separated by commas if you can reorder the adjectives without changing the meaning, or if the word and can be inserted between the adjectives without changing the meaning. e.g. I was a very shy, timid kid. -Red Smith
The Committee room was almost empty except for a few elderly, small-faced ladies sitting in the rear. -Lillian Hellman The smithy stood under the spreading chestnut tree. In the phrase shy, timid kid, you can reorder the adjectives to timid, shy kid without changing the meaning; and you can also join them with and (shy and timid kid). Therefore, you would put a comma between the two adjectives.
A safe practice is to omit the comma with numerals and with the common adjectives of size and age: e.g. The little old lady
A large red-haired girl Four tiny black dogs
Commas can be used to set off adjectives in special ways. Many contemporary writers use adjectives somewhat more freely than the examples shown indicate. They may let adjectives follow the nouns they modify, or they may separate them from the nouns (still within the same sentence). Or, they may place adjectives before the noun but set them off in some way. The result is a particularly modern rhythm. This rhythm is marked by commas. e.g. It was a Texas barbecue, Houston-style. -Tom Wolfe
The few girls who managed it were never quite the same again, a little more defiant, a little more impudent. -Kate Simon I remember the emeralds in shop window, lying casually in trays, all of them oddly pale at the center, somehow watered, cold at the very heart where one expects the fire. -Joan Didion
EXERCISE
Insert commas in the following sentences:
1. He felt cut off from them by age by understanding by sensibility by technology and by his need to measure himself against the mirror of other men's appreciation. -Ralph Ellison
2. The ox was solid black stood five feet high at the shoulder had a five-foot span of horns and must have weighed 1,200 pounds on the hoof. -Richard B. Lee
3. Nothing is more essential to intelligent profitable reading than sensitivity to connotation. -Richard Altick
4. She was wearing a full-skirted low-cut velvet gown.
5. Under the circumstances, only an intelligent discreet and experienced official should be assigned to the case.
Using Commas After Introductory Elements
For clarity and ease of reading, some introductory clauses and phrases are set off by commas from the independent clauses that follow them. These include adverb clauses and phrases, participial phrases, absolute phrases, appositive phrases, etc. e.g. ADVERB CLAUSE: If Ernest Hemingway had written comic books,
they would have been just as good as his novels. -Stan Lee
After the rains came, the country turned green.
ADVERB PHRASE: For nearly a year, I sopped around the house, the Store, the school and the church, like an old biscuit, dirty and inedible. - Maya Angelou
PARTICIPIAL Jogging through the park, I was unexpectedly
PHRASE: caught in a downpour.
ABSOLUTE PHRASE: His hat pushed back on his forehead, he walked down the road whistling. -Maya Angelou
APPOSITIVE A student of human frailty, she probably knew
PHRASE: deep in her soul that he was one of life's
losers. -Russell Baker
Note: To accelerate the pace of their sentences, some writers skip the comma after an introductory adverb or short introductory phrase:
Today students protest individually rather than in concert. -Caroline Bird.
Throughout the 1930s the number of addicts remained about the same in both England and the United States. -Edward Bunker
EXERCISE
Insert commas as necessary after the introductory elements in each of the following sentences.
1. Having listened to his story the judge nodded and then dismissed the case.
2. When my breast began to swell with horrifying rapidity I searched the sewing machine drawers for clothes and ribbons to tie around them, to stop them. -Kate Simon
3. With so many trees in the city you could see spring coming each day until a night of warm wind would bring it suddenly in one morning. -Ernest Hemingway
4. In my senior year in theological seminary I engaged in the exciting reading of various theological theories. -Martin Luther King, Jr.
5. Like so much of this country Banyan suggests something curious and unnatural. -Joan Didion
Using Commas with Absolute Phrases
Commas are used to set off absolute phrases from their independent clauses (for the introductory position, see above):
e.g. The Loop has electronic sensors embedded every half-mile out there in the pavement itself, each sensor counting the crossing cars every twenty seconds. -Joan Didion
She stood there, her damp face glowing with happiness, and asked us all to be seated.
Using Commas to Prevent Misreading or to Mark an Omission
In some sentences words may run together in unintended and confusing ways unless a comma separates them. A comma is used in such sentences even though no rule requires one:
Confusing *Soon after she left town for good. [A short introductory phrase does not require a comma, but clarity requires it in this sentence.]
Revised Soon after, she left town for good.
Commas are used to indicate omissions within a sentence: e.g. To err is human; to forgive, divine. [Note that is, the verb omitted, is the same as the one stated.]
EXERCISE
Insert commas in the following sentences to prevent misreading.
1. Though happy people still have moments of self-doubt.
2. In research subjects have reported themselves to be generally happy people.
3. Yet those who have described sufferings as well as joys.
4. Of fifty eight subjects reported bouts of serious depression.
5. For half the preceding year had included at least one personal crisis.
Using Commas with Nonrestrictive Elements
Clauses and phrases that provide information about the noun they modify but are not essential to understanding the meaning of the noun within its sentence are called nonrestrictive. That is, they are said not to restrict the meaning. Such clauses and phrases must be set off from the rest of the sentence with commas:
e.g. I borrowed books from the rental library of Shakespeare and Company, which was the library and bookstore of Sylvia Beach at 12 rue de I'Odeon. -Ernest Hemingway
In this sentence the underlined adjective clause modifies the noun Shakespeare and Company. It provides information about the noun, but it seems to be added to the sentence, rather than being integral to its meaning. It does not affect the central idea of borrowing books. Hence, it is a nonrestrictive clause and must be set off with commas. Notice that adjective clauses following a proper (capitalised) noun will nearly always be nonrestrictive and thus require commas:
e.g. Elizabeth Black well, who attended medical school in the 1840s, was the first American woman to earn a medical degree.
Many clauses and phrases, however, are essential to understanding the meaning of the noun. These are called restrictive and are not set off with commas.
e.g. The glory which is built upon a lie soon becomes a most unpleasant encumbrance. -Mark Twain
The example has an adjective clause modifying the noun glory. The clause is restrictive because it identifies the particular kind of glory that soon becomes an encumbrance. Since the clause does restrict the meaning of the noun and is integral to the meaning of the sentence, it is not set off with commas. The restrictive-nonrestrictive distinction is one drawn with several sentence elements. Appositives and participial phrases, in particular, merit some examples.
A name that follows a common noun or noun phrase is restrictive and should not be set off by commas:
e.g. The philosopher Alfred North Whitehead once wrote that the history of philosophy was a series of footnotes to Plato.
4*
But when the name comes first, the common noun that follows it is nonrestrictive and should be set off by commas:
e.g. Francois Truffaut, the film director, died of cancer in 1984.
EXERCISE
Identify the errors in the sentences that follow. Any sentence that is incorrect
contains no more that one error.
I. Virginia Woolf's novel, Mrs. Dalloway, is seldom studied in high schools.
2. Everyone, who wishes to pass this test, should attend the help session.
3. When you visit Mystic Seaport, a replica of a 19th century fishing village, you will see interesting nautical relics.
4. Did you know that London's Saint Paul's Cathedral located at the head of Ludgate Hill was designed by Sir Christopher Wren?
5. Her brother Ted, looking out of the window, noticed the injured animal first.
6. The city that she loves is San Francisco.
7. Baker, a biographer of Hemingway, taught at Middlebury College.
8. Mrs. Malaprop is a famous character in Sheridan's play, The Rivals.
9. Any athlete, who participates in the Olympics, should be honoured.
10. Her cousin Louis who is an enthusiastic lacrosse player attends Temple University.
11. Dickens' novel, A Tale of Two Cities, is set in London and Paris.
12. All passengers, who are travelling with United Airlines, should prepare to depart.
13. Because my sister, Evelyn, is a bright child, my parents sent her to a local Montessori school; my sister Jane is also bright, but she refuses to attend the school.
14. The old man, watching a television programme, fell asleep in the den.
15. Everyone who knew him liked him.
16. All students who plan to attend the track meeting should buy tickets immediately.
17. Vitus Bering shipwrecked in 1740 on Bering Island was found years later preserved in snow. -Annie Dillard
18. Fleas and rats which were in fact the carriers are not mentioned in the plague writings. -Barbara Tuchman
19. I took along my son who had never had any fresh water up his nose and who had seen lily pads only from train windows. -E. B. White
Using Commas with Contrast Phrases
Commas are used to set off contrast phrases. Some writers use a special sentence pattern that sets up an obvious contrast. These sentences generally end with a negative phrase (beginning with not or no or nothing). These negative phrases are always set off with commas:
e.g. Home in the rue Cardinal Lemoine was a two-room flat that had no hot water and no inside toilet facilities except an antiseptic container, not uncomfortable to anyone who was used to a Michigan outhouse. -Ernest Hemingway
She spoke with a slight accent, nothing like the cadences I heard on Lafontaine, not marked enough to mimic. -Kate Simon
EXERCISE
Editing Commas - A Review
In the following passage from Peter M. Lincoln's "Documentary Wallpapers", we have deliberately introduced some errors in punctuation. Remove all misused commas, add any that are needed, and leave any that are correctly used.
Many early American homes were decorated with block-printed wallpapers. Imported from England, and France, the papers made the arrival of ships from abroad an exciting event for Colonial homemakers. Merchants, looking for sales, advertised that papering was cheaper than whitewashing, and, they urged would-be customers to examine the endless variety of brightly coloured patterns. Indeed by today's standard the colours in many Colonial papers seem vibrant, intense, and, even gaudy. One wonders whether the citizens of Boston Massachusetts and Providence Rhode Island, yearned for bright reds, greens, and blues because of the grey, New England winters.
The process of reproducing historic wallpapers requires the finesse of a craftsman. To establish a particular paper's full pattern, the expert may have to fit together the fragments of surviving samples, that he finds in museums in the attics of old houses and even under layers of other papers. He determines the original hue of the colours in various ways: he runs chemical tests, or, he matches a fragment to a fresh original in some museum, even then he must be careful before proceeding to the next step printing the design. As a final precaution therefore he makes, a blacklight examination knowing it may reveal otherwise indistinguishable elements of the pattern.
One of the leading experts in America is Dorothy Waterhouse cofounder of Waterhouse Hangings. She first became interested in historic wallpapers in 1932 when she was restoring, an old house on Cape Cod Massachusetts. While stripping the walls in one room she got down to the eighth, and bottom layer of paper. She became very excited, she knew it had to be over 140 years old. That discovery was the first of many. Today she has a collection of some three hundred historic wallpapers, all carefully stored in her Boston home.
1.3. THE SEMICOLON
The semicolon is not simply an alternative to the period, colon or comma. With it a writer can signal special relationships between independent clauses, and can increase the readability of long sentences that contain several commas.
You may use a semicolon to join independent clauses if the second clause restates or sets up a contrast to the first: e.g. Insist on yourself; never imitate. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
We know through painful experience that freedom is never
voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the
oppressed. -Martin Luther King, Jr.
Although a period would be acceptable in each of these examples, the semicolon emphasises how closely the two clauses fit together. A comma followed by and would be correct but misleading, because and signals additional information, not restatement or contrast. Similarly, the semicolon in the next example could be replaced with a comma and but, but the semicolon makes the contrast sharper and more immediate: e.g. The college is primarily not a place of the body, nor of the feelings, nor of the will; it is, first of all, a place of the mind. –Alexander Meiklejohn
You may use a semicolon to join two independent clauses when the second begins with or includes a conjunctive adverb (however, nevertheless, moreover, consequently, etc.): e.g. Shakespeare's plays are four hundred years old; nevertheless, they still speak to us.
Commas are optional with thus, then, and some other one-syllable conjunctive adverbs; and commas are usually omitted when therefore, instead, and a few other adverbs fall inside or at the ends of clauses: e.g. She skipped first grade; thus she is younger than her classmates.
She skipped first grade; she is therefore younger than her classmates.
I did not buy the book; I borrowed it instead.
You may use a semicolon before a conjunction to join a series of independent clauses or items that contain commas: e.g. By laughing at our faults, we can learn to acknowledge them
graciously; and we can try to overcome them in a positive, even cheerful way, not grimly and disagreeably.
if you knew grammar you were special. You had prestige, power, access to magic; you understood a mystery; you were like a nuclear physicist. -Peter Elbow
A million babies a year are born in Egypt; and Cairo, like Mexico City or Jakarta, is jammed with youngsters. -Edward Hoagland
Everything was cheap: apples, peaches, sweet potatoes and corn, ten cents a bushel; chickens, ten cents apiece; butter, six cents a pound; eggs, three cents a dozen; coffee and sugar, five cents a pound; whisky, ten cents a gallon. -Mark Twain
Although a period could acceptably replace each semicolon in the first three examples, the semicolon lets the reader know that the information in each clause is part of a continuing series.
EXERCISE
Insert semicolon as needed in each of the following sentences.
1. A President's power over the bureaucracy depends, in part, on respect born of fear during the first term it depends, in part, of the idea that a President may run again. -George Will
2. At the arterial end of a capillary, blood pressure is greater than osmotic pressure therefore, water leaves the capillary along with oxygen and nutrients that diffuse from the capillary. -Sylvia Mader
3. Women's rights is not only an abstraction, a cause it is also a personal affair. -Tony Morrison
4. We cannot establish instant security we can only build it step by step. - Margaret Mead
5. To take off a uniform is usually a relief, just as it is a relief to abandon official speech sometimes it is also a sign of defiance. -Alison Lurie
1.4. THE COLON
The colon is a formal mark that mainly serves an introductory purpose.
The colon is used after an independent clause to introduce a list:
e.g. Success depends on three things: talent, determination, and luck.
Note: Do not use a colon after such as, including, or a form of the verb to be: e.g. On rainy days at camp, we played board games such as Monopoly, Scrabble, and Trivial Pursuit.
One morning I woke up to find that someone had taken all of my valuables, including my watch, my camera, and my money.
Still in my locker were my toilet kit, my flashlight, and my wallet - now empty.
The colon is used to introduce an example or an explanation related to something just mentioned:
e.g. The animals have a good many of our practical skills: some insects make pretty fair architects, and beavers know quite a lot about engineering. -Northrop Frye
The colon is used to introduce one or more complete sentences quoted from formal speech or writing. Commas may also be used, but a colon provides greater pause and emphasis:
e.g. In the opening sentence of his novel Scoromouche, Rafael Sabatini says of his hero: "He was born with the gift of laughter, and a sense that the world was mad."
The colon follows the salutation in a formal letter:
e.g. Dear Mr. Mayor: Dear Ms. Watson: To Whom It May Concern:
The colon separates hours from minutes when the time of day is shown in numerals: e.g. 8:40 6:30 11:15 .
The colon separates titles and subtitles, and the parts of Biblical citations:
e.g. Charles Dickens: An Introduction to His Novels
Eros and Civilisation: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud
Isaiah 28:1 - 6
1 Corinthians 3:6 - 7
EXERCISE
Insert a colon as needed in each of the following sentences:
1. All the poisonous snakes known to North America were in residence there rattlers, copperheads, cottonmouths, and corals. -Tom Wolfe
2. When an old woman in a nursing home was asked what she really liked to do, she answered in one word "Eat." -Malcolm Cowley
3. After all, turkey tastes very similar to haddock same consistency, same quite remarkable absence of flavor. -Michael J. Arlen
4. The Fifth Amendment is, of course, a wise section of the Constitution you cannot be forced to incriminate yourself. -Lillian Hellman
5. Almost anything can trigger a specific attack of migraine stress, allergy, fatigue, and abrupt change in barometric pressure, a contretemps over a parking ticket. - Joan Didion
1.5. THE APOSTROPHE
Unlike other punctuation marks, which separate words, the apostrophe (') appears as part of a word to indicate possession, the omission of one or more letters, or (in a few cases) plural number.
To form the possessive of nouns and abbreviations that do not end in s, they use an apostrophe plus -s:
e.g. a girl's hat Bill's car a team's mascot
NATO's future the C.O.'s orders Dr. T.'s patients
men's activities children's toys Ms. Park's watch
If a singular noun ends in s (as in James) you may form the possessive by adding an apostrophe plus -s (James's apartment) or by adding just the apostrophe (James' apartment). Custom calls for the latter form with Zeus, Moses, and Jesus: e.g. Zeus' thunderbolts, Moses' staff, Jesus' teachings.
To form the possessive or plural nouns ending in s, they just add an apostrophe:
e.g. players players' uniform
animals animals' eating habits
the Joneses the Joneses' car
To indicate that two people possess something jointly, they add an apostrophe, and -s if necessary, to the second of the two nouns: e.g. Ann and James' apartment
Tim and Susan's wedding album
To indicate that two people possess two or more things separately, they use the apostrophe, and -s if necessary, with both of the nouns: e.g. Paul's and Marysa's cars Kitty's and James' tests
To form the possessive with singular compound nouns and word groups, they add an apostrophe plus -s to the last word:
e.g. my sister-in-law's career the editor in chief's policy
the council president's address
To form the possessive of certain indefinite pronouns, they add an apostrophe plus -s:
e.g. someone's coat no one's fault everybody else's jokes
With indefinite pronouns that do not take the apostrophe, the possessive is formed with of:
e.g. the plans of most, the hopes of many, the triumphs of few.
The possessive case is used with nouns or pronouns followed by gerunds: e.g. The crowd's cheering could be heard a mile away.
Everyone who hears the young violinist admires the girl's playing.
EXERCISE
Form the possessive case of each word or word group in parentheses:
Example:
The (men) blood pressures were higher than the (women).
The men's blood pressures were higher than the women's.
1. In the myths of the ancient Greeks, the (goddesses) roles vary widely.
2. (Artemis) function is to care for wild animals and small children.
3. (Athena and Artemis) father, Zeus, is the king of the gods.
4. In ancient Athens the myths of Athena were part of (everyone) knowledge and life.
5. (Athena and Poseidon) skills are different, and each promises a special gift to the Athenians.
6. The other gods decide that the (Athenians) lives depend more on Athena than on Poseidon.
An apostrophe, and -s when necessary, is used in common phrases of time and measurement: e.g. . four o'clock five dollars' worth
two weeks' notice a day's work
our money's worth a stone's throw
An apostrophe is used to mark the omission of a letter or letters in a contraction:
e.g. I have finished. I've finished.
He is not here. He's not here.
This does not work. This doesn't work.
They will not stop. They won't stop.
You should have written. You should've written.
An apostrophe is used to mark the omission of numbers in dates: e.g. the election of '92 '67 Chevy the Great Crash of '29
EXERCISE
Form contractions from each set of words below. Use each contraction in a complete sentence.
1. she would 6. she will
2. could not 7. hurricane of 1962
3. they are 8. is not
4. he is 9. we would
5. do not 10. will not
An apostrophe is used to mark plurals of letters and figures: e.g. Give me two 7s.
Write your q's so they don't look like g's. Professor Oxfam gives too many D's.
Note: Do not use the apostrophe and -s to form a possessive when the construction would be cumbersome:
e.g. WEAK: *Questions about the candidate's husband's financial
dealings hurt her campaign.
EDITED: Questions about the financial dealings of the candidate's husband hurt her campaign.
EXERCISE
Improve the punctuation in the following passage by adding or removing apostrophes wherever necessary.
Everyone is talking about Frank Smiths novel. Its plot seems to be based on something that happened to him during his freshman year. Its weird to read about characters youve seen in class or in the students lounge. I dont think there are many of his classmate's who wont be annoyed when they discover theyve been depicted as thugs' and moron's. Its as if Frank thought that his experiences were the same as everyones - Juanitas, Murrays, and Mikes. That kind of thinking can be overlooked in someone whos in his early teen's but it isnt all right for someone in his twenties'.
1.6. THE DASH
Dashes are used for setting off material from the rest of a sentence. The material set off usually causes a noticeable break in the sentence's rhythm or meaning. Dashes are used to set off text either in the middle or at the end of a sentence. In very informal writing, such as quick notes or letters to close friends, the dash can become a substitute for other punctuation. In most formal or college writing, however, it is used sparingly - and then for special effect.
A dash or dashes are used to introduce a word, phrase, or a clause that summarises or restates what comes just before:
e.g. But ideas - that is, opinions backed with genuine reasoning - are
extremely difficult to develop. -Wayne Booth
Dashes are used to set off a series of specific items:
e.g. The wings of the natural extant flying vertebrates - the birds and
the bats - are direct modifications of the preexisting front limbs.
- Michael 1 Katz
A dash or dashes are used to set off an interruption that is important to the meaning of the sentence but not grammatically part of it:
e.g. It matters not where or how far you travel - the farther commonly
the worse - but how much alive you are. -Henry David Thoreau
A dash or dashes are used to emphasise nonrestrictive elements: e.g. The qualities Monet painted - sunlight, rich shadows, deep
colours - abounded near the rivers and gardens he used as subjects.
A dash is used to indicate an unfinished thought or an unfinished remark in dialogue: e.g. If she found out - he did not want to think what she would do.
"I was worried you might think I had stayed away because I was influenced by - "He stopped and lowered his eyes. Astonished, Howe said, "Influenced by what?" "Well, by - "Blackburn hesitated and for answer pointed to the table. -Lionel Trilling
When the dash is used to indicate an unfinished remark, it should be followed only by quotation marks, not by a comma or period.
If two dashes set off a parenthetical remark that asks a question or makes an exclamation, put the question mark or the exclamation point before the second dash:
e.g. During the American bicentennial of 1976, Canada's gift to the United States was a book of superb photographs of - what else?
- scenery. -June Callwood
EXERCISE
Insert dashes in the appropriate places in the following sentences:
1. All pupils brought their dinners in baskets corn dodger, buttermilk and other good things and sat in the shade of the trees at noon and ate them. -Mark Twain 2. The entrepreneur individualistic, restless, with vision, guile and courage has been the economists' only hero. -John Kenneth Galbraith
3. I would have evaded and for how long could I have afforded to delay? learning the great lesson of school, that I had a public identity. –Richard Rodriguez
4. Polar explorers one gathers from their accounts sought at the Poles something of the sublime. -Annie Dillard
5. The fighters in the ring are time-bound is anything so excruciatingly long as a fiercely contested three-minute round? but the fight itself is timeless. –Joyce Carol Oates
1.7. PARENTHESES
Parentheses ( ) enclose interrupting material in sentences. Like that put between dashes, a parenthetical insertion interrupts the flow of a thought. Parentheses make the interruption less emphatic than dashes do, but since they do in fact break up the sentence, you should use them sparingly.
Parentheses are used to enclose words, phrases, or complete sentences that offer a side comment or help to clarify a point:
e.g. Why would parents want to go to such expense (treatment with biosynthetic HGH costs roughly $ 10,000 a year), cause their children pain (the shots hurt a bit), and risk unknown long-term side effects? -Thomas Murray Parentheses placed within a sentence do not change any other punctuation, and a parenthesised sentence within a sentence (such as the shots hurt a bit) does not need a capital or a period. But a free-standing parenthetical sentence needs both:
e.g. No Allied leader would have flinched at assassinating Hitler, had that been possible. (The Allies did assassinate Heydrich.) -Michael Levin
Parentheses are used to enclose numerals or letters introducing the items of a horizontal list:
e.g. Motherhood is in trouble, and it ought to be. A rude question is long overdue: Who needs it? The answer used to be (1) society and (2) women. -Betty Rollin
Parentheses are used to enclose numerals clarifying or confirming a spelled-out number:
e.g. The law permits individuals to give no more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) to any one candidate in a campaign.
Distinguishing Dashed, Commas, and Parentheses
Dashes, commas, and parentheses may all set off nonessential information such as nonrestrictive modifiers and parenthetical expressions.
• Dashes give the information the greatest emphasis:
e.g. Many students - including some employed by the college -disapprove of the new work rules.
• Commas are less emphatic:
e.g. Many students, including some employed by the college, disapprove of the new work rules.
• Parentheses, the least emphatic, signal that the information is just worth a mention:
e.g. Many students (including some employed by the college) disapprove of the new work rules.
EXERCISE
Insert parentheses at the appropriate places in the following sentences.
1. There was a joy in going to town with money in our pockets Bailey's pockets were as good as my own and time on our hands. -Maya Angelou
2. Only a few months before Xavier's death, a "rare disease" my mother's mysterious phrase had knocked off his wife, Sara. -Edward Rivera
3. The highest satisfaction of the sightseer not merely the tourist but any layman seer of sights is that his sight should be certified as genuine. -Walker Percy
4. The ship had come from the Black Sea port of Caffa now Feodosiya in the Crimea, where the Genoese maintained a trading post. - Barbara Tuchman
5. If current biological determinism in the study of human intelligence rests upon no new facts actually no facts at all, then why has it become so popular of late? -Stephen Jay Gould
1.8. BRACKETS
Brackets ([ ]) are used to insert a clarifying detail, comment, or correction of your own into a quotation:
e.g. "In the presidential campaign of 1993 [1992], Bill Clinton defeated George Bush."
"When we last see Lady Macbeth [in the sleepwalking scene], she is obviously distraught."
"Most remarkably, the Motherhood Myth [the notion that having babies is instructive and enjoyable] persists in the face of the most overwhelming maternal unhappiness and incompetence." -Betty Rollin
Brackets are used to note a misspelling in the quotation with the Latin word sic ("thus"). This will indicate that an error appeared in the original and was not made by you:
e.g. According to the newspaper report, "The car slammed thru [sic] the railing and into oncoming traffic."
But don't use sic to make fun of a writer or to note errors in a passage that is clearly non-standard or illiterate.
Note: Do not use brackets when inserting comments into your own writing. Use parentheses or dashes.
Brackets are used to enclose parenthetical material within a text that is already in parentheses:
e.g. We drove through Borrego Springs (years ago [maybe 1938] when
we still were youngsters) on our way to Indio. But try to avoid constructions that call for this intricate punctuation.
EXERCISE
Insert brackets as necessary in the following sentences.
1. Perhaps Alvarez is justified in claiming, "He Mark Twain greatly exaggerates flaws in Cooper's prose style just to get an easy laugh from readers."
2. Soon alter John Muir went away to college at the University of Wisconsin, he wrote home, "1 was at once led and pushed and whirld sic and tossed about by new everythings everywhere." (Sic here indicates that the misspelling is in the original quoted material, not in the present writer's book or manuscript.)
3. Santayana says, "Religion lay on him Dickens like the weight of the atmosphere, sixteen pounds to the square inch, yet never noticed nor mentioned."
4. "That Texaco station just outside Chicago is one of the busiest in the nation,"
said a company spokesperson.
5. In the opinion of Arthur Miller, "There is no more reason for falling down in a
faint before his Aristotle's Poetics than before Euclid's geometry"
6. "This song, which was composed by Bailey in 1928 1930, reflects the influences of his five years in New Orleans." [The second date represents your correction of a mistake in a sentence written by someone else.] 7. "The most popular recording of the song featured Bix Dandy on the trumpit trumpet." [The second spelling represents your correction of a misspelling in a passage written by someone else.]
1.9. THE SLASH
A slash or virgule (/) is used to indicate alternative items:
e.g. Every writer needs to know at least something about his/her audience.
No space is left before or after a slash used in this way.
A slash is used to mark off lines of poetry when you run them on as if they were prose:
e.g. Coleridge introduces the mariner in the very first stanza: "It is an
ancient Mariner, / And he stoppeth one of three." One space is left before and after a slash used in this way.
EXERCISE
Insert slashes as needed in the following sentences:
l. The country is made up of dry but varying terrain, with coastal lowlands rising to an inland plateau that is generally about 3,000 feet 910 meters high and reaches to the highlands in the north and west. [Feet and meters are alternative units of measurement.]
2. Many readers have sensed a reluctant turn away from death in Frost's lines "The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep."
3. I don't know why some teachers oppose pass fail courses.
4. Elinor Wylie satirically advises, "Live like the velvet mole; Go burrow
underground."
1.10. ELLIPSIS MARKS
Ellipsis marks (ellipses) are three spaced periods that are used to indicate omissions within quotations.
Three spaced dots are used to signal the omission of a word or words from the middle of a quoted sentence:
e.g. And so the writer . . . suffers, especially in the creative years of youth, every form of distraction and discouragement. -Virginia Woolf
In all cases the material left out should be nonessential to the meaning of what is quoted. Here, for example, the words omitted are "Keats, Flaubert, and Carlyle."
In typing, one space is left before the first dot, between each pair of dots, and after the last one.
A period and three spaced dots are used:
a. to show that the end of a quoted sentence is omitted:
e.g. Thoreau wrote: "We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn. ..."
The period follows the last quoted word without a space, and the fourth dot comes before the closing quotation mark. Normally it is possible to cut off the end of a quoted sentence in this way only if what remains makes a complete sentence.
b. to show that you have omitted one or more whole sentences:
e.g. "In other words," as Percy Marks says, "the spirit of football is wrong. 'Win at any cost' is the slogan of most teams, and the methods used to win are often abominable. ... In nearly every scrimmage the roughest kind of unsportsmanlike play is indulged in, and the broken arms and ankles are often intentional rather than accidental."
An entire line of spaced dots is used to signal that a line (or more) of poetry has been omitted: e.g. Under the cooling shadow of a stately elm
Close sat I by a goodly river's side,
Where gliding streams the rocks did overwhelm;
I once that loved the shady woods so well, Now thought the rivers did the trees excel And if the sun would ever shine, there would I dwell.
-Anne Bradstreet, "Contemplations," no. 21
Sometimes ellipses are used to show dramatic pauses in a sentence.
e.g. NASA had just announced that he no longer had . . . the right stuff. - Tom Wolfe
EXERCISE
To practice using ellipsis marks to show omissions from quotations, follow each
instruction below, using the following paragraph by Stewart Udall.
The most common trait of all primitive peoples is a reverence for the life-giving earth, and the native American shared this elemental ethic: the land was alive to his loving touch, and he, its son, was brother to all creature. His feelings were made visible in medicine bundles and dance rhythms for rain, and all of his religious rites and land attitudes savored the inseparable world of nature and God, the master of life. During the long Indian tenure the land remained undefiled save for scars no deeper than the scratches of cornfield clearings or the farming canals of the Hohokams on the Arizona desert. - Stewart Udall
1. Quote the first sentence from the paragraph, but omit the words its son (and punctuation as necessary). Show the omission with an ellipsis mark.
2. Quote the paragraph, but omit the second sentence. Show the omission with an ellipsis mark.
1.11. QUOTATIONS AND QUOTING
Quotation marks - either double (" ") or single (' ') - mainly enclose direct quotations from speech and from writing.
Quoting Words, Phrases, and Short Passages from Prose
Double quotation marks (" ") are used to enclose any words, phrases, or short passages quoted from speech, writing, or printed matter:
e.g. After the murder of the old king in Shakespeare's Macbeth, Lady Macbeth imagines there is blood on her hand and cries, "Out, damned spot!"
Quotation marks are not used in the indirect reporting of discourse:
e.g. The lieutenant said that her platoon had finished ahead of schedule.
In dialogue (conversation) a new paragraph starts each time the speaker changes:
e.g. "What shall I call you? Your name?" Andrews whispered
rapidly, as with a high squeak the latch of the door rose.
"Elizabeth," she said. "Elizabeth." -Graham Greene, The Man Within
Note: When you quote a single speaker for more than one paragraph, put quotation marks at the beginning of each paragraph but at the end of only the last paragraph. The absence of quotation marks at the end of each paragraph but the last tells readers that the speech is continuing.
Single quotation marks (' ') are used to enclose a quotation within a quotation:
e.g. At the beginning of the class, the teacher asked, "Where does Thoreau speak of 'quiet desperation,' and what does he mean by this phrase?"
EXERCISE
Insert single and double quotation marks as needed in the following sentences. Circle the number preceding any sentence that is already correct.
l. Why, the lecturer asked, do we say Bless you! or something else when people sneeze but do not acknowledge coughs, hiccups, and other eruptions?
2. She said that sneezes have always been regarded differently.
3. Sneezes feel more uncontrollable than some other eruptions, she said.
4. Unlike coughs and hiccups, she explained, sneezes feel as if they come from inside the head.
5. She concluded, People thus wish to recognise a sneeze, if only with a Gosh.
Using Quotation Marks with Other Punctuation
To introduce a quoted sentence with a phrase, a comma is used:
e.g. According to G. B.Shaw, "Economy is the art of making the most of life."
To introduce a quoted sentence with a clause, a comma or colon is used:
e.g. In his first inaugural Address, Lincoln asked: "Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people?" Winston Churchill said, "To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war."
Some writers use a comma after a short introductory clause and a colon after a long one. Other writers use a comma before quoting informal speech and a colon before quoting formal speech or writing.
The general practice is not to use a comma before a quoted part that is woven into the sentence,
e.g. Communism, he remarked, was not "in the American grain," - a fine phrase of William Carlos Williams; for, as he continued, "There is an American grain, and I wish to live with it, and I will not live against it knowingly." -Van Wyck Brooks, Opinions of Oliver Allston.
Quotation marks are used to introduce a quoted word or phrase or any quoted words introduced by that:
e.g. According to Jung, the "something greater" is the unconscious, which he defines as "a natural phenomenon producing symbols that prove to be meaningful."
The professor said Jung's theories have been "seminal." Margaret Atwood writes that "in fact, a character in a book who is consistently well-behaved probably spells disaster for the book."
To end a quoted statement that is followed by a tag, a comma is used:
e.g. "It's time for you to leave," said Mimi.
But the comma is not used if the quoted sentence ends in a question mark or an exclamation point:
e.g. "What's your problem?" John asked. "Get out!" she yelled.
To set off an interruptive tag, a pair of commas is used: e.g. "Ideas," writes Carl Jung, "spring from something greater than the
personal human being."
The word "spring" is lower-cased because it simply continues the quoted sentence.
To end a quoted statement that ends a sentence, a period is used:
e.g. The governor stated, "I will not seek reelection."
A closing comma or period goes inside the closing quotation mark:
e.g. "High school" writes Ellen Willis, "permanently damaged my self-esteem."
A closing semicolon or colon goes outside the closing quotation mark:
e.g. The customer wrote that she was "not yet ready to buy the first edition"; it was too expensive.
A question mark or an exclamation point is placed inside closing quotation marks when the quotation itself is a direct question or an exclamation. Otherwise, these marks are placed outside:
e.g. He asked, "Who is she?" [Only the quotation is a question.] "Who is she?" he asked. [Only the quotation is a question.] Did he ask, "Who is she?" [A quoted question within a question takes only one question mark - inside the quotation marks.] Did he say, "! know her"? [The entire sentence asks a question; the quotation makes a statement.]
She screamed, "Run!" [Only the quotation is an exclamation.] Curse the man who whispers, "No"! [The entire statement is an exclamation; the quotation is not.]
Quoting Long Prose Passages
A prose quotation of more than four typed or hand-written lines is separated from the body of your paper by blocking - indenting ten spaces from your left margin and single-spacing or double-spacing according to the preference of your instructor:
e.g. In his 1967 study of the lives of unemployed black men, Eliot
Lebow observes that "unskilled" construction work requires more experience and skill than generally assumed.
A healthy, sturdy, active man of good intelligence requires from two to four weeks to break in on a construction job. . . . It frequently happens that his foreman or the craftsman he services is not willing to wait that long for him to get into condition or to learn at a glance the difference in size between a rough 2 x 8 and a finished 2 x 10.
A paragraph indention is not used when quoting a single complete paragraph or a part of a paragraph. Paragraph indention is used only when two or more complete paragraphs are quoted.
Quoting Verse
Unless your instructor specifies otherwise, poetry of four lines or more should be double-spaced and indented ten spaces. Retain the original divisions of the lines:
e.g. William Blake's "The Tiger" begins with the lines: Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
If the lines are long, you may indent fewer than ten spaces.
Quotations of three lines of poetry or less may be written like the regular text - not set off. A slash (with a space before and after) is used to separate lines:
e.g. An example of Robert Frost's incisiveness is in two lines from "Death of the Hired Man": "Home is the place where, when you have to go there, / They have to take you in."
EXERCISE
Practice using quotation marks in quoted dialogue, poetry, and long prose passages by completing each of the exercises below. 1. Write a short sketch of dialogue between two people. 2. Write a sentence thai quotes a single line of poetry.
3. Write two sentences; each quoting the same two lines of poetry. In one, place the poetry lines in the text. In the other, separate the two lines from the text. 4. Write a sentence introducing a prose passage of more than four lines, and then set up the quotation appropriately.
Special Uses of Quotation Marks
Quotation marks are used to define words: e.g. As a verb, censure generally means "find fault with" or "reprimand."
Quotation marks are used to set off common words and phrases that are not taken at face value:
e.g. When a man and woman decide to live together without being married, are they "living in sin"?
Quotation marks are used to identify a word that is treated as a word:
e.g. In the America of the 1990s the word "liberal" has become a political insult.
EXERCISE 1
Use quotation marks and any other punctuation needed in the following
sentences:
l. What writer asked, Who has deceived thee so oft as thyself
2. Did Ambrose Bierce define a bore as a person who talks when you wish him to listen
3. Alexander Pope wrote, True wit is nature to advantage dressed, what oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed
4. The history of the earth says Rachel Carson has been a history of interaction between living things and their surroundings.
5. Continual means going on with occasional slight interruptions. Continuous means going on with no interruption.
6. Perhaps the poet John Donne was right when he wrote: One short sleep past, we wake eternally / And Death shall be no more.
7. My roommate torments me by repeating trite sayings like better safe than sorry.
EXERCISE 2
Rewrite each of the following sentences to remedy any punctuation errors.
1. George Washington was born in 1732 in Virginia he was raised on a farm established by his great-grandfather.
2. Washington had a big nose and pock-marked face, however he was still considered a handsome man.
3. Washington said this about the war of independence: "Our cause is noble it is the cause of all mankind."
4. At fifteen, Washington became a surveyor his first job was to survey the six- million-acre estate of his neighbour, Lord Fairfax.
5. Washington wanted to return to Mount Vernon after the Constitutional Convention his colleagues persuaded him to become the country's first president.
6. Washington's vice president John Adams was sworn in on April 21, 1789, Washington was sworn in as the first president on April 30, 1789.
7. The British Parliament passed several measures unjust to the American colonists Washington became active in the resistance movement.
8. Washington lost nearly all his teeth a French dentist made him a set from carved rhinoceros ivory.
9. Washington held the first presidential barbecue in 1793, he roasted a five- hundred-pound ox for the party.
10. The U.S. national capital is named for him, many American colleges and towns bear his name.
CHAPTER 2. MECHANICS
2.1. HYPHENATION AND WORD DIVISION
Hyphens have two uses: (1) to break a word at the end of a line; and (2) to join words to form a compound word.
As much as possible, avoid dividing words. If you must divide a word between the end of one line and the beginning of the next, follow the following guidelines.
Divide words only between syllables. (Consult a dictionary if necessary.): e.g. go-ing, height-en, mus-cu-lo-ture
One-syllable words should not be divided.
Note that not all syllable breaks are appropriate for word division. Use the following rules to decide when and how to divide words.
Try not to divide the last word on a page. In the act of turning the page, the reader may forget the beginning of the word.
Any division should leave two or more letters at the end of a line and three or more letters at the beginning of a line.
Break words with prefixes or suffixes between the root and the prefix or suffix:
e.g. re-vision, dis-satisfied, com-mitment, pro-crastinate honor-able, philos-ophy, proba-tion, ego-ism
Break compound words between the joined words:
e.g. self-interest
Try to avoid dividing proper names.
Try not to separate a name and the initials that go with it.
Make sure a word division will not confuse readers:
e.g. Confusing *Her walking out of class was an act of her-
oism.
Clear Her walking out of class was an act of hero-
ism.
Confusing *He claims that stealing never bothered his con-
science. Clear He claims that stealing never bothered his
conscience.
Some compound words are written as one word, others as separate words, and still others as hyphenated words. Some words have more than one acceptable spelling (percent and per cent, for example); the important thing is to use one spelling consistently:
e.g. moonshine, postmaster, shipboard vice versa, place kick like-minded, once-over, father-in-law, take-it-or-leave-it
Hyphenate compound modifiers before a noun:
e.g. after-school activities, cream-filled cupcakes, fast-growing business
Do not hyphenate compound modifiers that follow a noun:
e.g. activities after school, cupcakes that are cream filled
Do not hyphenate compound modifiers that are made up of an adverb ending in -ly and adjective:
e.g. rapidly growing business
Hyphenate spelled-out compound numbers from twenty-one through ninety-nine.
Hyphenate compound numbers used as modifiers or nouns:
e.g. a twenty-one gun salute
Thirty-five graduated with honours.
Hyphenate compounds made up of prefixes and proper names:
e.g. un-American, anti-American, pro-American
Hyphenate compounds beginning with ex- or self-: e.g. ex-husband, self-motivated
EXERCISE 1
Underline the correct form for the words indicated. Use a dictionary when needed.
1. (Summertime, Summer-time, Summer time) pleasure builds (year-round, year round) memories.
2. The (thunderstorm, thunder-storm, thunder storm) drove many people off the (golfcourse, golf-course, golf course) into the (justopened, just-opened, just opened) (clubhouse, club-house, club house).
3. The (foxhound, fox-hound, fox hound) was (welltrained, well-trained, well trained) not to chase rabbits.
4. The (twentyone, twenty-one, twenty one) dancers did not know how to (foxtrot, fox-trot, fox trot).
EXERCISE 2
Each of the following may require the addition of one or more hyphens. Add one as needed. If an entry is correct as it stands, write Correct.
1. The long distance runners looked buoyant as they passed the fifteen mile mark.
2. Organised by a well known sponsor, the race had attracted a number of world renowned athletes to compete before an all European audience.
3. Over three-quarters of the contestants were from Germany and Russia.
4. Many had come from medium sized towns with populations ranging from twenty one thousand to over fifty five thousand.
5. The front runners moved so fast that even spectators on ten speed bicycles had trouble keeping up with them.
6. After the race the winner told reporters of his long term plans for acquiring more trophies.
2.2. CAPITALS
Experienced writers generally agree on when to use capitals, but the conventions are constantly changing. Consult a recent dictionary if you have any doubt about whether a particular word should be capitalised.
Capitalise the first word of a sentence, including sentences enclosed in parentheses:
e.g. The Constitution provided that states be equally represented in the Senate, but that the House of Representatives be elected on the basis of population. (Slaves were counted as three-fifths of a person.)
Note: Capitalisation of questions in a series is optional. Both of the following examples are correct:
e.g. Is the population a hundred? Two hundred? More? Is the population a hundred? two hundred? more?
Also optional is capitalisation of the first word in a complete sentence after a colon. Just be consistent throughout an essay.
Capitalise the pronoun I and the interjection O:
e.g. How, O ye gods, can I control this joy?
Capitalise proper names. Proper names are names of specific persons and places, as well as specific groups - religious denominations, ethnic groups, political parties, and so on: e.g. Most of William Shakespeare's plays were presented first at the
Globe Theatre in London.
Jerusalem is considered a holy city by Jews, Christians, and
Moslems.
Many native American writers come from Texas and New Mexico.
The University of California has nine campuses.
Do not capitalise university or other kinds of institutions when the reference is general rather than specific:
e.g. Billy was fortunate enough to be admitted to several universities.
Proper Nouns the West, a Westerner the Republican Party the Senior Class of Ivy College Clifton Street the Mississippi River General Terms west of the river a republican government a member of the senior class my street, the street the Mississippi and Ohio rivers
Capitalise B.C., A.D., words designating a deity, and sacred books: e.g. in 273 B.C.
the Messiah, our Maker, the Trinity, Yahweh, Allah, Buddha, Jesus "Praise God from Whom all blessings flow." the Bible, the Koran
Note 1: The abbreviation B.C. ("before Christ") always follows a date, whereas A.D. (anno Domini, Latin for "year of the Lord") precedes a date. Note 2: Pronouns referring to God are usually capitalised:
e.g. From Him all blessings flow.
Capitalise trade names. Trade names identify individual brands of certain products. When a trade name loses its association with a brand and comes to refer to a product in general, it is not capitalised. Refer to a dictionary for current usage when you are in doubt about a name:
e.g. Scotch tape Xerox
Chevrolet Bunsen burner
But: nylon, thermos.
Capitalise personal titles when they precede proper names but generally not when they follow proper names or appear alone:
e.g. Professor Otto Osborne Otto Osborne, a professor of English
Doctor Jane Covington Jane Covington, a medical doctor
Senator Robert Dole Robert Dole, senator from Kansas
the Reverend Ann Cole Ann Cole, the minister
Exception: Many writers capitalise a title denoting very high rank even when it
follows a proper name or is used alone:
e.g. Lyndon Johnson, past President of the United States the Chief Justice of the United States
Capitalise degrees after a name:
e.g. Jeffrey E. Tyndale, Ph.D., J.D.
Capitalise a term denoting kinship when it is used before a name, used as a name and when not preceded by a possessive pronoun or the word the: e.g. Used as After Father died, Mother carried on the business.
But After my father died, my mother carried on the business.
In all titles and subtitles of works, capitalise the first and last words and all other words except articles (a, an, the), to in infinitives, and connecting words (prepositions and coordinating and subordinating conjunctions) of fewer
than five letters. Capitalise even these short words when they are the first or last
word in a title or when they fall after colon or semicolon:
e.g. The Sound and the Fury Management: A New Theory
"Courtship Through the Ages" "Once More to the Lake"
A Diamond Is Forever An End to Live For
"Knowing Whom to Ask" File Under Architecture
Learning from Las Vegas Only when I Laugh
Note: Always capitalise the prefix or first word in a hyphenated word within a
title. Capitalise the second word only if it is a noun or and adjective or is as
important as the first word:
e.g. "Applying Stage Make-up" Through the Looking-Glass
The Pre-Raphaelites Capitalise historical events, periods, and monuments:
e.g. World War II, the Great Depression, Lincoln Memorial
Capitalise holidays, weekdays, and months: e.g. Independence Day, Passover, Ramadan, Monday, January
Capitalise compass directions to refer to specific geographical areas: e.g. the Northeast, Southerners
Do not capitalise compass directions when they are used generally:
e.g. Southern exposure, western life
Capitalise names of specific courses:
e.g. I registered for Sociology 101 and Chemistry 445.
Note: Do not capitalise studies (other than languages) that do not name specific courses:
e.g. I am taking English, sociology, and chemistry.
EXERCISE 1
Supply capitals as needed below. Change capital letters to lowercase as necessary.
1. Dr. Outback, an Australian expert in Animal Behaviour, lectures occasionally on Marsupial psychoses.
2. The Hostess, my aunt Zora, cried, "help yourself to the fried chicken," in a voice so shrill and strange that the dinner guests suddenly lost their appetite.
3. Captain Kaplan, united States army, arrived on wednesday to find that he was late for the tour of Buddhist temples.
4. When she registered for Chemistry, amaryllis was told that she would need to take Algebra 101.
5. Susan Curall, m.d., attended the meeting of the American Medical association and returned home before thanksgiving day.
6. In the Twentieth Century, many of the qualities associated with people of the American south have disappeared.
7. Augustus Caesar, who was born in 63 b.c. and died in a.d. 14 is a character in Shakespeare's Tragedy Antony and Cleopatra.
8. Though the printer lived for a while on Magoni avenue, he moved to Detroit last August.
9. The Salk Vaccine has all but eliminated Polio, according to an article in a Medical Journal.
10. She wanted to become a Lawyer, she explained, because she saw a direct connection between the Law and Morals.
EXERCISE 2
Improve each of the following by capitalising where necessary:
1. the grand canyon extends over 270 miles from east to west, measures 18 miles from rim to rim at its widest point, and reaches a depth of approximately 1 mile.
2. the canyon has been formed over billions of years by a combination of forces, including wind, erosion, and, in particular, the action of the mighty Colorado river.
3. some of the canyon's most spectacular sights are to be found within grand canyon national park, which lies in northwestern arizona.
4. to protect the canyon from commercial development, president theodore roosevelt declared it a national monument in 1908; then, in 1919 the congress of the united states proclaimed it a national park.
5. today the park attracts visitors from all of the fifty states as well as from countries far and near, including japan, south korea, france, and Canada; the tourists prefer to arrive in July and august.
6. all who view the canyon marvel at the extraordinary rock formations, many of which have impressive names like thor temple, dragon head, and cheops pyramid.
7. according to one report, the canyon received its present name from major John wesley powell, who in 1869 was the first to travel through the canyon by boat, a brave man, he had lost part of an arm in the civil war.
8. he began the journey in Wyoming with nine companions and four boats; he ended the journey three months later at the virgin river near lake mead with only three boats and six men.
9. modern tourists have an easier time, hiking along well-marked trails or riding in automobiles to scenic spots like powell memorial and hopi point.
10. like the other national parks in the united states, grand canyon national park is maintained by the national park service of the u.s. department of the interior.
EXERCISE 3
Capitalise words as necessary in the following sentences, or substitute small letters for unnecessary capitals. Consult a dictionary if you are in doubt. If the capitalization in a sentence is already correct, circle the number preceding the sentence.
1. Under Henry Cisneros, former mayor, San Antonio, texas, became a thriving city in the southwest.
2. The city has always offered much to tourists interested in the roots of Spanish settlement of the new world.
3. The alamo is one of five Catholic Missions built by Priests to convert native americans and to maintain Spain's claims in the area.
4. But the alamo is more famous for being the site of an 1836 battle that helped to create the republic of Texas.
5. Many of the nearby Streets, such as Crockett street, are named for men who gave their lives in that Battle.
6. The Hemisair plaza and the San Antonio river link new tourist and convention facilities developed during mayor Cisneros's term.
7. Restaurants, Hotels, and shops line the River. the haunting melodies of "Una paloma blanca" and "malaguena" lure passing tourists into Casa rio and other excellent mexican restaurants.
8. The university of Texas at San Antonio has expanded and a Medical Centre has been developed in the Northwest part of the city.
9. Sea World, on the west side of San Antonio, entertains grandparents, fathers and mothers, and children with the antics of dolphins and seals.
10. The City has attracted high-tech industry, creating a corridor of economic growth between san antonio and austin and contributing to the texas economy.
2.3. ABBREVIATIONS
Abbreviations are used frequently in informal writing, but few are appropriate for the more formal writing done in college. When you do have occasion to abbreviate, there are two important rules to follow: (1) use only abbreviations your readers will recognise, and (2) use the forms given in the dictionary.
If you use an abbreviation your readers may not know, use the full word for the first reference, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Then use the abbreviation for subsequent references: e.g. In 1962, Watson and Crick won a Nobel Prize for discovering the
structure of deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA). They found that DNA
has the form of a double helix.
Following are some conventions covering the acceptable use of abbreviations. Notice that some abbreviations have periods, and others do not. (See "The Period".) When capital letters are separated by periods, do not skip a space after the period (B.A.), except for initials of a person's name (T. S. Eliot).
Keep in mind that technical writing, such as in the sciences and engineering, generally uses a great many more abbreviations. And abbreviations are common in source citations in all disciplines.
Standard abbreviations are used for titles immediately before and after proper names:
Before the name After the name
Dr. James Hsu James Hsu, M.D.
Mr, Mrs., Ms., Hon. D.D.S., D.V.M., Ph.D.
St., Rev., Msgr., Gen. O.S.B., S.J., Sr, Jr.
(Note that the title Ms. is followed by a period, even though it is not actually an abbreviation: Ms. Judith Boyer.)
Such abbreviations as Rev., Hon., Prof., Rep., Sen., Dr., and St. (for Saint) are used only if they appear with a proper name. Spell them out in the absence of a proper name: e.g. We learned to trust the doctor. We learned to trust Dr. Kaplan.
The abbreviations for academic degrees - Ph.D., M.A., B.A., and the like -may be used without a proper name:
e.g. My brother took seven years to get his Ph.D. It will probably take me just as long to earn my B.A.
Terms that help to specify a date or a time of day are abbreviated: e.g. 350 B.C. 8:30 A.M.
A.D. 1776 2:15 P.M.
Note: The capitalised abbreviations above are often set in small capital letters in publications: B.C., A.D., A.M., P.M. In your papers use B.C. and A.D. and either A.M./P.M. or a.m./p.m.
Dates or measurements in formal writing are not abbreviated:
e.g. Not The average American man is 5 ft. 9 in. tall and weights
178 Ibs. But The average American man is 5 feet 9 inches tall and
weights 178 pounds.
Exceptions: Long phrases such as miles per hour (m.p.h.) or cycles per second (c.p.s.) are usually abbreviated, with or without periods: e.g. The speed limit on that road was once 75 m.p.h. (or mph).
In formal writing, avoid using abbreviations for the days of the week and the months of the year: e.g. Sunday August
The United States of America are abbreviated as "U.S.A." When abbreviating United States as an adjective, write "U.S." alone:
e.g. the U.S. Supreme Court U.S. elections
In writing to a U.S. address from outside the country, or in writing your own return address on a letter going from the U.S.A. to another country, write "USA" (undotted) on a separate line:
e.g. 28 Foster Street
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
When they form part of an address, names of U.S. states, provinces, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico are abbreviated with just two capital letters and no periods.
e.g. Austin TX
Long Beach CA
In writing of the U.S. capital, they use the abbreviation D.C. for District of Columbia when it follows the city's name: e.g. Washington, D.C.
Geographical names or designations are not abbreviated in formal writing when they are not part of an address:
e.g. Not *We moved from 5th Ave. In NY to Wilshire Blvd. in LA
But We moved from Fifth Avenue in New York to Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.
You may, however, use Mt. before the name of a mountain, as in Mt. McKinley, and St. in the name of a place, as in St. Louis.
You may use undotted abbreviations in referring to well-known people, common technical terms, firms, and other organisations: People JFK, LBJ, FDR
Organisations YMCA, CIA, FBI
Corporations IBM, NBC, CBS
Technical terms DMA, GNP
Reserve Inc., Bros., Co. or & (for and) for official names of business firms:
e.g. The Sontini brothers operate a large moving firm in New York City. Santini Bros, is a large moving firm in New York City.
Generally, reserve common Latin abbreviations such as i.e., e.g., and etc. for use in source citations and comments in parentheses:
i.e. Id est: that is
cf. Confer: compare
e.g. Exempli gratia : for example
et al. Et alii: and others
etc. Et cetera : and so forth
N.B. Nota bene : note well
vs. (or v.) Versus : against, in opposition to
c. (or ca.) circa : about (used with dates)
e.g. He said he would be gone a fortnight (i.e., two weeks). Bloom et al., editors, Anthology of Light Verse Trees, too, are susceptible to disease (e.g., Dutch elm disease).
Some writers avoid these abbreviations in formal writing, even within parentheses:
e.g. The cabs of some modern farm machines (for example, combines) look like aeroplane cockpits.
Use no. and $ only with specific numbers: e.g. no. 36 (or No. 36) $ 7.41
The abbreviation for number may either be capitalised or not (No., no.).
Avoid using abbreviations for the names of academic subjects and the subdivision of books:
e.g. French 205 biology chapter 10 page 45
Exception: In parenthetical citations of books and articles, "page" is commonly abbreviated as "p." and "pages" as "pp."
EXERCISE 1
Each of the following may include incorrectly written abbreviations. Make any necessary changes.
1. We plan to spend part of our vacation on a Miss. Riv. steamboat and the rest in the Cascade Mts.
2. The Rev. Ann Proctor, Doctor of Divinity, will be one of the speakers; her talk is scheduled to begin at 7:15 P.M.
3. If all goes well, we should arrive in St. Lou. on Fri., Aug 9.
EXERCISE 2
Revise the following sentences as needed to correct inappropriate use of abbreviations for nontechnical writing. Circle the number preceding any sentences in which the abbreviations are already appropriate as written.
1. On Fri., Oct. 26, 1990, astronomers announced the discovery of the largest galaxy in the universe.
2. Measuring 6 million light-yrs. across, the galaxy is sixty times the size of the Milky Way.
3. A light-yr. - i.e., the distance that light can travel in one year in a vacuum - is 5.89 trillion mi.
4. Jeffrey R. Kuhn, Juan M. Uson, & Stephen P. Boughn studied the galaxy at the Kitt Peak Natl. Observatory in AZ.
5. The work of Drs. Kuhn, Uson, and Boughn has brought distinction to astronomers of the U.S.A.
EXERCISE 3
Spell out all inappropriate abbreviations in the following paragraph. If an abbreviation is appropriate in its context, leave it as it is.
The advantages of a grad. degree are not lost on me. With a Ph.D. I might become a college prof., a job that would allow me to work only in the P.M., so I wouldn't have to get up before 11:00 A.M., and only on Tues., Wed., and Thurs., my favourite days. Or I could get an M.D. and become a dr. Though I might have to work long hrs., I could earn plenty of $ and, by serving in a professional association like the AMA, could have a lot of influence. I know about these advantages because my two older bros. are Prof. Giordano and Dr. Giordano. I also know how hard they had to work for their degrees, so I think I'll stick with poli. sci. courses and look for a nice, safe govt. job after I get my B.A.
EXERCISE 4
Place an X by the following that are not acceptable in formal writing, a V by those that are acceptable.
1. Main St.
2. Mister and Mrs. Smidt
3. Minneapolis, Minn.
4. Eng. 199 in the Dept. of English
5. page 10 in Chapter 11
6. Chas. Lorenzo
7. Alfred Ginsberg, Junior
8. Friday and Saturday, May 16 & 17
9. 6 pounds, 7 oz.
10. $4.98 a pound
11. handle w/care
2.4. NUMBERS
Experienced writers vary in writing numbers out or using figures. In scientific and technical writing, all numbers are usually written as figures. In business writing, all numbers over ten are usually written as figures. In other academic and general writing - the subject of this chapter - numbers are more often spelled out.
A number is spelled out when it begins a sentence:
e.g. Eighty-five dignitaries attended the opening ceremony. Two hundred dignitaries had been invited.
Rearrange the sentence if spelling out the number would require more than two words:
e.g.. The opening ceremony was attended by 157 dignitaries. Invitations were sent to 218 dignitaries.
A number that can be written in one or two words is spelled out:
e.g. A batter is out after three strikes.
The firefighters worked without relief for twenty-two hours. A hyphenated number may be counted as one word.
Numerals are used if spelling out a number would require more than two words:
e.g. The stadium can hold 85,600 spectators.
Exception: Round numbers over a million, or two numbers used as modifiers may be expressed in a combination of figures and words:
e.g. 26 million 2.45 billion eight 20-cent stamps ten 3-year-olds
When you use several numbers together, they should be consistently spelled out or consistently expressed in figures: e.g. One out of ten [or] 1 out of 10
Numerals are used for addresses, dates, exact times of day, exact sums of money, and exact measurements such as miles per hour, scores of games, mathematical ratios, fractions, and page numbers:
e.g. 22 East Main Street
October 7, 1999
44 B.C.
11:15 A.M.
$4.36
65 mph
a ratio of 2 to 1
5 7/8
page 102
However, when a time of day or a sum of money is given as a round figure, spell it out: e.g. Uncle Ben always gets up at six.
I reached the border at around eight o'clock
He used to earn two dollars for ten hours of work.
It's hard to believe that fifty cents can no longer buy a cup of
coffee. Exceptions:
• The day of a month may be expressed in words when it is not followed by a year:
e.g. June fifth; October first
• When the word o'clock is used for the time of day, also express the number in words:
e.g. two o'clock
EXERCISE 1
Each of the following may include incorrectly written numbers. Make any necessary changes. If an entry is correct as it stands, write Correct.
1. 1st, however, we must attend a meeting of the Young Women's Christian Association that is expected to attract an audience of 2.5 hundred members in Alexandria, Virginia.
2. All of the speakers have said they will contribute 3/4 of their honorarium to the Association.
3. The combined amounts should come to exactly seven hundred dollars and seventy-two cents.
4. Following the meeting, we will head west, doing our best to make time with a speed limit of sixty-five mph.
EXERCISE 2
Place an X by the following that are not acceptable in formal writing, a V by those that are acceptable.
1. May thirteenth
2. Twelve thirteen Jefferson Street
3. seven P.M.
4. six thousand votes
5. 300 B.C.
6. five hundred and ten bushels
7. December 24th, 1997
8. five million dollars
9. Friday, June 13
EXERCISE 3
Revise the following sentences so that numbers are used appropriately for nontechnical writing. Circle the number preceding any sentence in which numbers are already used appropriately.
1. The planet Saturn is nine hundred million miles, or nearly one billion five hundred million kilometres, from Earth.
2. Saturn revolves around the sun much more slowly than Earth does: a year on Saturn equals almost thirty of our years.
3. Thus, Saturn orbits the sun only two and four-tenths times during the average human life span.
4. It travels in its orbit at about twenty-one thousand six hundred miles per hour.
5. 15 to 20 times denser than Earth's core, Saturn's core measures 17,000 miles across.
6. The temperature at Saturn's cloud tops is minus one hundred seventy degrees Fahrenheit.
7. In nineteen hundred thirty-three astronomers found on Saturn's surface a huge white spot 2 times the size of Earth and 7 times the size of Mercury.
8. Saturn's famous rings reflect almost seventy % of the sunlight that approaches the planet.
9. The ring system is almost forty thousand miles wide, beginning 8,800 miles from the planet's visible surface and ending forty-seven thousand miles from that surface.
10. Saturn generates about one hundred thirty trillion kilowatts of electricity.
2.5. UNDERLINING FOR ITALICS. TITLES
Underlining and italic type indicate the same thing: the word or words are being distinguished or emphasised. In your papers use a ruler or the underscore of the keyboard to underline. If your typewriter or word processor can produce italic type, consult your instructor about whether to use it. Many instructors prefer underlining.
Italics or underlining are used to emphasise a word or phrase in a statement:
e.g. If an inspired guess turns out to be correct, it is not reported as an
inspired guess. - Isaak Asimov Use this kind of emphasis sparingly. When overused, it loses its punch.
Words, letters, numbers, and phrases named as words are underlined:
e.g. Some people pronounce th, as in thought, with a faint s or f sound. Carved into the middle of the column, twenty feet up, was a mysterious Z. Try pronouncing unique New York ten times fast.
Underlining may also be used instead of quotation marks in definitions:
e.g. The word syzygy refers to a straight line formed by three celestial bodies, as in the alignment of the earth, sun, and moon. Neither the term sexism not the term racism existed fifty years ago. -Casey Miller and Kate Swift.
Italics or underlining are used to identify a foreign word or phrase not absorbed into English:
e.g. The scientific name for the brown trout is Salmo trutta. [Note: The Latin scientific names for plants and animals are always underlined.]
What a life he led! He was a true bon vivant.
The Latin De gustibus non est disputandum translates roughly as "There's no accounting for taste."
But: Some words that may seem foreign have become a part of the English language:
e.g. faux pas, amigo, karate
A dictionary will say whether a phrase is still considered foreign to English.
The names of ships, aircraft, spacecraft, and trains are underlined:
Queen Elizabeth II [a ship] Spirit of St. Louis [an aeroplane] Challenger [a spaceship] Apollo XI [a spaceship] Orient Express [a train]
EXERCISE
Each of the following may require the addition or removal of underlining. Make any necessary change. If an entry is correct as it stands, write Correct.
1. Carol and Alex have named their motor-boat The Calex.
2. They wanted to call it Paradise, but couldn't agree whether the last consonant should be an s or a c.
3. They also argue about whether the drink known as a frappe is the same as the one called a frost.
4. But they do see eye to eye on some things, like yoga and karate classes, pasta and pizza, and the way to spell harassment.
5. When their first child was born, Alex gave Carol a dozen roses with a card explaining that the English word mother derives from the Middle English word moder and is akin to the Latin word mater.
6. Carol gave Alex a copy of the first edition of All Quiet on the Western Front.
Usage varies greatly in regard to the use of italics for the titles. The principles or statements of usage in this section refer to more or less formal usage. Newspapers, as a rule, do not use italic type. The New York Book Review uses quotation marks for titles of books. The Saturday Review does the same thing, both for books and for musical composition. Harper's Magazine italicises the titles of books, magazines, and newspapers, but uses quotation marks for titles of musical compositions. Time uses italics for the titles of newspapers, magazines, books, motion pictures, and musical compositions. If you are writing for publication, the only sure guide is the style sheet to the magazine you are aiming at.
The following rules are usually observed in college papers of a formal nature.
Italics or underlining are used for the titles of books, scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, government reports, plays, musicals, operas or other long musical compositions, films, television shows, radio programmes, long poems, sculptures, pamphlets, and published speeches. Note, however, that the Bible and its divisions are not underlined. Also, titles of book chapters, essays, articles, stories, and short poems are enclosed in quotation marks, not underlined. Song titles and paintings may be either enclosed in quotation marks or underlined: e.g. The Grapes of Wrath [book]
The American Scholar [journal]
Newsweek [magazine]
New York Times [newspaper]
Uniform Crime Reports for the United States
[government publication]
Hamlet [play]
Oklahoma [musical]
The Barber of Seville [opera]
Star Wars [film]
Roseanne [television show]
Morning Pro Musica [radio programme]
Song of Myself [long poem]
Note: Be careful to underline marks of punctuation only if they are part of the
title:
e.g. Did you read Catch-22? (not Catch-22?)
In titles of newspapers the name of the city is underlined only when it is part of the title:
e.g. Manchester Guardian New York Times
When giving the title of a periodical in your text, you need not capitalise or underline the article the, even if it is part of the title: e.g. She has the New York Times delivered to her in Alaska. Omit the article entirely in source citations.
Note: Do not use both underlining and quotation marks unless the title includes an underlined title:
e.g. "Experience" [essay]
Gone with the Wind [novel]
"On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Again" [poem]
Italics or quotation marks are not used in a title of your own unless it includes a reference to another title:
e.g. What to Do with Nuclear Waste
Bull-fighting in Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises Art and Sex in Pope's "Rape of the Lock"
EXERCISE 1
Each of the following titles requires capitalisation and may also require
underlining or quotation marks. Make the necessary changes.
1. carmen [opera]
2. politics and leadership [speech]
3. my old kentucky home [song]
4. Washington post [newspaper]
5. what freud forgot [essay]
6. 60 minutes [television show]
7. the will of zeus [history book]
8. john brown's body [long poem]
9. the mismatch between school and children [editorial]
10. natural history [magazine]
11. solutions to the energy problem [your report]
12. the role of fate in Shakespeare's romeo and Juliet [your essay]
13. imagery in the battle hymn of the republic [your essay]
14. barefoot in the park [play]
15. the age of innocence [novel]
EXERCISE 2
Underline (italicise) words and phrases as needed in the following sentences, or circle any words or phrases that are underlined unnecessarily. Note that some underlining is correct as given.
1. Of the many Vietnam veterans who are writers, Oliver Stone is perhaps the most famous for writing and directing the films Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July.
2. Tim O'Brien has written short stories for Esquire, GQ, and Massachusetts Review.
3. Going After Cacciato is O'Brien's dreamlike novel about the horrors of combat.
4. The word Vietnam is technically two words (Viet and Nam), but most American writers spell it as one word.
5. American writers use words or phrases borrowed from the Vietnamese language, such as di di mau ("go quickly") or dinky dau ("crazy").
6. Philip Caputo's gripping account of his service in Vietnam appears in the book A Rumour of War.
7. Caputo's book was made into a television movie, also titled A Rumour of War.
8. David Rabe's plays - including The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, Streamers, and Sticks and Bones - depict the effects of the war not only on the soldiers but on their families.
9. Called poet laureate of the Vietnam war, Steve Mason has published two collections of poems: Johnny's Song and Warrior for Peace.
10. The Washington Post has published rave reviews of Veteran's Day, an autobiography by Rod Kane.
EXERCISE 3
Underline words as necessary in the following sentences. Put an X over words unnecessarily underlined. Place a C over words correctly underlined.
1. The cotton gin is often associated with the industrial revolution.
2. Newsweek reviewed the new play Heaven Cannot Wait.
3. The author's last novel, The Green Summer, is based upon a story in the Bible and is a fine work, not to be missed.
4. The painting is titled Arrangement in Gray and Black.
5. The limousine was used in a motion picture entitled The Years of Hope.
6. The motion picture The Killers is based on a short story by Hemingway.
7. Jack London's short story "To Build a Fire" is published in the latest edition of the anthology America's Great Tales.
8. The periodical Harper's has an article on the modern opera Streets of the City.
9. He made his i's with little circles over them instead of dots.
10. While on the train The Northern Star, she saw a large moose (Alces americana).
APPENDIX. COMMON REVISION SYMBOLS
ab Problem with abbreviation
agr Error in agreement
ap Apostrophe needed or misused
awk Awkward construction
cap Problem with capitalisation
coh Coherence lacking
cs Comma splice
d Inappropriate diction
div Incorrect word division
dg (dang) Dangling modifier
frag Sentence fragment
gr Error in grammar
hyph Problem with hyphenation
image Inappropriate image
ital Italicise or underline
mix Mixed construction
mng Meaning unclear
num Problem with number
p Error in punctuation
para Faulty parallelism
pass Misuse of passive voice
prep Improper use of preposition
red Redundancy
rep Unnecessary repetition
sexist Sexist language
sp Misspelled word
vague Vague statement
vf Incorrect verb form
vt Incorrect verb terse
ww Wrong word
Transpose these two elements
# Separate with a space
_ Close up the space
X Obvious error
A Something missing
? Manuscript illegible or meaning unclear
60
BIBLIOGRAPHY
To make a definite statement of bibliographical sources for this guide would be impossible, for it represents a synthesis of materials compiled during several years. I am obviously in debt to:
1. Axelrod, Rise B. and Cooper, Charles R. The St. Martin's Guide to Writing. - 3rd edition. - New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991. - 710 p.
2. Compton, Carol. Improving Composition Through a Sentence Study of Grammar and Usage. - 7th printing. - Cambridge and Toronto: Educators Publishing Service, Inc. - 1987. - 185 p.
3. Fowler, H. Ramsey and Aaron, Jane E. The Little, Brown Handbook. - 5th edition. - New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1992. - 824 p.
4. Heffernan, James A. W. and Lincoln, John E. Writing: A College Handbook.
- 4th edition. - New York, London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1994. - 773 p.
5. Kierzek, John M. and Gibson, Walker. The Macmillan Handbook of English.
- 5th edition. - N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, 1964. - 490 p.
6. Watkins, Floyd C. and Dillingham, William B. Practical English Handbook.
- 9th edition. - Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1992. - 508 p.
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