PUNCTUATION
Whatis this thing calle d love?
Whatis this thing called,love?
What? Isthis thing called love?
Whatis this thing calle d?' Love '?
'W hat i s this th ing called?' ' Love.'A Full stops, sentences, paragraphs
A sentencebeginsw itha capital letter andendsw it h a
fullstop (US'period'), questionmark or exclamation
mark, Sentences are joined together to formparagraphs.
The sentences ina paragraph are relatedto each other
andhavethesametheme or subject. When thetheme
changes, a newpar agraphis used.
Sentences can be asshortas two words, butone or two
lines is an averagelen gt h. If you frequently write more
thant hree or f ourlines w it hout afull stop ,ask yourself:
couldanyone findmy sentences difficultto read?
haveI joinedtogethertwo sentencesthat should be
separate?(1.0below)
did Iw riteandw henI should have used a fullsto p?
If your sentences arevery short(one line orless on
average),ask yourself:
could I combinetwo sentences tomake acomplex,
but equallyclear, sentence? (1.1 oppos ite)
1.0 Practice
A It is possibleto combinetw o sentences in many
ways,buta commaalone cannot jointw o sentences.
Which of t hese sentencesare corr ect?Whichof them
need fullstops to divide theminto two or more
sentences? Insert fullstops in the place of commas
where necessary.
Example
l icatchedthe sold iers ma rchpast ,schentheyhadgOlwI
scen thacktomy!nitillg.
Incorr ect. The correct punct uation is:
Iicatchcdthe soldiersmarch past .' Fhen theyhadgone.
One duvhe mar rie dacabaretdancer , th is woman
ulrr-advhadtwodal,ghters.
2 She wassurp rise dtoseehe r father , who hadco me
homeearlier thanusual.
3 I th ink that a teacher's methodis veryimportant,would
I havelearnedasmuch withanothe r tea cher?
.... Iseemtohavelo stNaomi'saddress. I wo nderify Oll
couldhavea loo k tosecifyou'vegot it.
.5 Cinde rellawasin he r room, she co uldn't helpthinking
abou tthebov whohad hought herthe Coke , he r father
camein and-asked herhowthe d iscohadbe en.shetold
himabout thebov,andhow she didn'tevenknowhis
name , finally she "to ldhe r fatherthe wo rstofit,thatshe
hadforzottb enhe rlu cvclc, whe n sheleftthe disco so me
time around midnight,suddenlvthe r e was arin g atthe
doorbe ll, it wasthe hoy whohadbo ughthe r the Coke,
andhe hadhe rbicvclc withhim, ' this hike's much too
small fory ou',he said,'shall I adj llstthesad d le ' O r
be tter std!'ifyou'llheIll)'girlfriend, I'll buyyOIla ne w
mounta inhike .'
B In thefollowing text,somecommas are used
correctly,whileothercommasareusedincorrectly in the
place of fullstops. Use fullstopsandcapitalletters,then
divide the textinto three paragraphs. The firstparagraph
is anintroduct ionto thetheme,the second tellsthe
sto ry, and the thi rd isthew riter's (rathercurious)
concluding comment.TIle FakirsofIndia are distinguished by theirattempts
to demo nstrateth eir resistance to pain andprivation,
so me havebee n frauds, and somehaveshown
remarkablepowerso f mindOVt Tmatter, demonstrating
thatall pleasureand pain is .\1aya, or illusion, at t he
e ndofthe19 thc e ntu ry FakirAgastiyao f Bengal
provedthe mentalcontrolhepossessed ove r hisbody
by raising hisle ft armabovehishead andleavingit in
tha tpositio nuntil he diedin19 I 2, gradually,theblood
circulatio ndi minishedtoalmost nothingand rende red
the armcompletelynumbandrigid ,e venthe jo in t
lock ed , andAgastiyawaslaidtorestw ith his armin
the samepositio n, the onlypoeticto uch to an
ot he rw ise po intle ssexercisewas thedecisionby a
birdtonest in the palmofhis hand, w het her the
accum ulating bird-limese t solidove rtheyears and
helpedtosup por t his armisunkno w n andopen(Q
after-di nnerspeculatio n,Writingsub-ski lls• 29