Thefollowingsentencesallcontainlists.Supply the
co mm as or semicolons,asappropriate.Makesurethat
them eaning isabsolutely clearandunambiguous.
1 Almosthalf t heclub,,; 11 be pla\;og in the doubles
tournament: six wo me n including mysel fPeterBate s
andJohn' Vade the twins uud of cour seth e team cap tain
with his partn e r.
:2 \ Vhile workingat the hosp ital shewas overworked
expl oited a ndconstantly criticizedat thesa me time as
be ing nnderpanlunderv aluedandtaken fo r granted.
3 Whe ny O Ilco me to oneofOUftheatreworkshopsyou
canexp ect a wholerainbowof activities:musicand
sin gingcircusski llsindlldingj ugg ling\"egetariancooking
mimea ndacrobaticsimprovisatio nandabove alla warm
gn Hlpcxpcrk-ucc.
o Colons
1.0 Joining sentences
A coloncan be usedbetweentw oideas that arevery
closelyconnected. Itdoes not separatetwosentences
like asemicolondoes; i n fact, itactslike alinkingwordin
thew ay it connectsth em, soisnotfollow ed by acapit al
letter. Acoloncan have the samemeaningasa number
of linkingwords,asillustratedin thefollowingexercise.
Writea phraseafterthecolon tocompletethe unfinished
sentences(numb ered1-8).Inyourfinishedsentence ,
thecolo nsho uld havethemeaningof the linkingword
givenso you donotneedto use the linkingword.
nenl Utie
Thericeris polluted:there is(J!Japerfacforyupst ream.
He11/IiStluu:cbee n eery allgr y:hedidn 't evell say
goml" igh r.
1 IthinkM arvis inlove :
:2 I' msureIwill passmy exa ms:
Indeed/illfact
He co mesfromlUIathleti c fa m ily:bothhi s parelltsarc
Olympic{f.yl1111asts.
ThericerisIlwn~thanpolluted :it isanopell scice r.
.3 Silviais intereste din anima ls:
4 Thedre ss was elegant, se ns ualandprovocative :
Sotu«a resu lt
ButI{casilldisgu iseichenImetthem:ofCOIlI~'ethe y dhlll't
recof!.lIi:.e mc.
The riceris polluted:lchyarc theyslcimmingillit?
Thericeris polluted :th erearc no fish ,am/theducks 110
10llgers ust mthere.
,5 Hewasbittenbv acobra:
6 I had a te rrible hangm'e r thismor ninjj:Colonsi.V a mel y IandthatisIinotheru..' o rclsI
forexa m p le
Empress'\'u 's eldestS O ilcame toafast" 'u -typeemf:she
hadh immurde red.
The liL:er ispolluted: don 'td rin kth e tente r.
7 SuddenlyIremembered my gra nd mother'sadvice :
H She thinksshe's a model :1.1 Proverbs
Writeyourownproverbs.
PUllctualion is like a referee 'sicliistlc:toomuchawlit
interruptstheJlmc; too littleawlthe resu ltis chaos.
Fullstopsare like releasefromprison:theycomeatth e end
ofa sentence.
StudyingEnglishislike _
2 Lil"isIike _
3 T ruth islike _
4 Fash ionis like _
5 \Ione)' isIike _
6 Food is like _81.2 Otheruses
A It is possible to followa colonwithsomethingless
than asentence;in this case, thecolonmeansand that
is...ornamely.
Th ere 's01le thingthatIlobodyunderstands:death.
Often, thecolonis used in this way to introduce alist.
Someastronomersarcl)(lIiicula rly interestedinthebod ies
th at makeup 0 111'solarsyste m: theSIlIl ,.\10 011,planets,
cometsaiu! oth ersmallerobj ects.
Sebast ianCOiltributesthreeth ings to theclass:energy , hard
scork:andase llseofhumour.Whatgoesbeforethecolonshouldbe able to stand
alone, like acompletesentence. A colonmustnot
separatea verb or aprepositionfromitsobject.
)( UnfO/ilUmtely ,Sebastianu nderstands 'lOthillg about:
gralllllUlr, punctu c t ton or pronnnctat ton.)(
./ UlIj(ni ll1lately, Sebastianu ndcrstmulsIwthingabou t
g ralllllw r, punctuationo rpmnuncintton. ./
BA coloncan alsointro d ucedirectspeech (1) or a
quotation(2).Inbothcases, acommais normally used
rath er thana colonwhenthespeechorquotation is only
one line long,or shorter(3, 4).
I The paintericho re-didth e sigHouts ide the [Jog
allllDuckpubIt'asberatedbyth eland lordtcllO
toldhim: 'There s.Jwuldbe e(l"alspacesbetween
"Dog" and"and"and"an d" and"Duck".'Writingsub-skills • 35