Advanced Writing with English in Use

Punctuation

2 Anothergoodpointmadeby[ ohnMclrermottis
thefollowin§!,:'Americallusage requiresac%nill
thesalutationofa letter(Dearj ohn:)ich e reBritish
Ellglish prefers(JC011l11l 0 ornothing.'
3 G ret aC arboll;asfamollsfort heline,'l ican ttohe
alone.'
4 " rhe llaskedu;hysheteaslCCarlnggrassseedsill
herhair,Carboreplied,'I icantto be(/lmcn.:

1.3 Practice

Add colonsandcommaswhereappropriateto th ese
sentences. (Lookbackat 1.1Listson page 34first. )

1 Hosewall no longer had the strength and e nergyo f his
yout handsohis gamebe cam emo r e econo mical nothing
waswasted.
2 The string quartetIplaywith comprisestwovi olin sa
violaanda cellohutm)' jazzq ua rtethasrath e r an
u nusuallme -up doublehass violinpiano andte nor
saxophone.
.3 Butnow aftera bath a changeofclothe sand a drinkthe
thought returne dto me how wasFoxtongo ing to reac t
when hefoundthat Ihadescaped?
4 I'vejustdecid ed to emigrate toCanada itsoun dslike
the pe rfe ctso lution.
.5 The re arefour things we would need to knowmor e
abo utbe f o rewe could offe r yo ua job we wo uld ne ed to
ques ti on yo ufu rt he raboutyour educatio n yo ur f:unily
background yourexperienceandyo ur plans for the
fut ure.

E Dashes

Dashes may beusedin threedifferent ways, all oft hem
characteristicofinformalwriting. They shouldbe
avoidedin formalwriting.

1 A singledash can be usedin the placeof a colon.

Thericeris polluted-there's apapcrfnctoruupst rea m.

2 A singledash can alsobe used to addan afterthought
(somethingyou hadforgottento say).
lleusedtobeeenjgoodat tennis-findgolftoo,of
course.
It can also mark a deliberatepause in orderto
emphasizea finalphrase whichis veryimportantto
the meani ngofwhat wentbefore.
lleusedto be uenjgoodatt e nnis-orso he says.

3 A pair of dashes - likethis - can be usedin informal
writing to do the samejob asa pair of brackets.
" 'he llI'mreadymydriver- usuflllya me mberofthe
band-p icksmeup.

36 • Writ ing sub-skills

Practice

Punctuatet hefollowingsentences,using dashes

w herever appropriate andanyotherpunct uation mark

necessary.

1 N owatlas t hereinrnvhands was ahoo k whosee nt ire

snhjectwasrailwayt rainsill India intheHJ4 0s

2 The people he re arealwayshappy and smilingwhich is

more thancanhe saidfo rEdward

3 Binoculars musthe heldsteadilywhich means re sting

the moryoure lbows on a solidsupport

4 The w riterofthis novelis hy ing to te ll us how important

it i s forusto keepin touch with our ownvi olenceand

aggressio nat le astIthinkthat'sw hatshe'stryingto say

.5 On the blinkofa totalhreakdown he metLauriehis

fou rt handgreatest love who wasto inspireso meofhis

most moving composi tio ns

F Hyphens

Hyphens can jointwoor morewordstogether.

green-eyed ncentn-one

b ig-head ed nineteeneighty-four

half-ca ten three-quarters

broad- shoulde red seeen-eigh ths

out -of-dateillf o r11lat io ll (lNolls-Ho yce

state-o!-the-alitechnology theMason-Dixonline

t henorth-southdi eidc

Hyphens can also be usedto add aprefixto a word ,

especially

w henthewordstarts wit ha capital letter

un-Ame rica n.

w hen thewordbegins withthe lettert he prefixends

with

re-edit.

with t heprefixesex-, anti-,andpro-

ex-husba1/(/.

2 Whenan adjectiveis made up oftwo or morewords

(as in theexamplesabove) ahyphen is used, butnot

when thesamecombi nationofwordsisnotan

adjective.

She is a three-year-oldgirl.

but -

tllyd aughte r isthreeyearsold.

He 's gotapart-timejo b.

h ilt

He 'slcorkingpartt ime.

1\ncentieth-cent uruproblem.

but

Iliceintheticentiethcentury.