Improve_Your_Punctuation.PDF

Varying Your Sentences It is important to vary your sentence structure. If all your sentences are simple ones consisting of one ...

(past). The next sentence is slightly longer and contains an object as well. She (subject) gripped (finite verb) the table (obje ...

This sentence starts with a phrase; the verb ‘would’ and the subject ‘she’ have been inverted in this construction. In the follo ...

ordinate. Each clause must contain a subject and a finite verb. Each sentence must contain at least one main clause. If there is ...

The following sentence uses the conjunction ‘or’ to link the clauses. (She must leave soon) or (it would be too dark to see). Us ...

It is certainly not necessary to include the ‘I’ in each clause. The first four main clauses are separated by commas and the las ...

This is wrong. It should be: My name is Bob. I live in London. or My name is Bob and I live in London. The two clauses could als ...

◆ To separate a subordinate clause in the middle of a main clause. The dog, who was barking loudly, strained at his leash. ◆ Aft ...

Before she could open it, she heard a noise. Main clause:... she heard a noise. Adverbial clause of time:... she could open it S ...

Be careful with the construction in the above sentence. ‘Who’ has been used twice. You can only use ‘and who’ if it follows a su ...

While she was trying to open the door, a light appeared at the window and she screamed. Main clause:... a light appeared at the ...

Newspapers often omit words to make their headlines more eye-catching. Look at the following: Murdered by her son MP found guilt ...

co-ordinating conjunctions but they must not be overused in this way or they lose their effect. They can be used for emphasis or ...

Either of the above examples would be acceptable although the second one has a stronger emphasis. At last he met her again. But ...

‘Is there anyone there?’ he called. ‘Where are you?’ It is also sometimes effective within a narrative to create a particular ef ...

Practising what you’ve learnt Identify the phrases and clauses in the following sentences. (a) The match was cancelled because ...

Colouring Your Writing The remaining parts of speech can be used to enhance your writing.AdjectivesandAdverbsaremodifiers. To mo ...

She was wearing ablue dress. They had adelicious meal. Theclever boy passed his exams. Listing the adjectives If there is a list ...

Comparing adjectives Adjectives can be used to compare one thing with another and to show varying degrees. Look at the following ...

If the adjective ends in a single consonant, remember to double it before adding the ending. If the adjective ends in ‘y’, remem ...