Improve_Your_Punctuation.PDF

Claire passed the test with flying colours; Laura failed. ‘Laura failed’ stands in stark contrast to the previous sentence. Ther ...

Commas only, could have been used provided the last one was preceded by ‘and’. However, as each name is rather long, it is bette ...

loses its effect. Use it sparingly andneveruse it instead of a comma or full stop. It can be used for emphasis but not too frequ ...

Square bracketsare used when words within a quotation are not part of the original material. The lecturer stated, ‘I consider th ...

She asked if I had change for a pound. However, if the actual question she asked is used, a question markisrequired. ‘Do you hav ...

He was given a new bike for Christmas. Now he’s set to win the Olympics! You mustnotuse a full stop as well as an exclamation ma ...

Handling Apostrophes and Abbreviations Apostrophes have two purposes. They can be used to show possession or to indicate the omi ...

In some cases, particularly in names, the extra ‘s’ can be omitted when there is a single ‘s’ at the end of the word. His Achill ...

Examples Singular Plural child children foot feet goose geese man men mouse mice tooth teeth woman women Words that donotend in ...

Abbreviating words When writing in a formal style, do not abbreviate words unless you are using dialogue. Omitting letters If yo ...

Gloucestershire Glos. Lincolnshire Lincs. Nottinghamshire Notts. Staffordshire Staffs. Counties that have their own abbreviation ...

Doctor Dr Mister Mr Mistress Mrs Road Rd Saint St Street St No full stop is required after a contraction. Using initial letters ...

Checklist ◆ An apostrophe is used to show possession or when letters are omitted. ◆ The apostrophe goesbefore the ‘s’ when the n ...

Writing Dialogue Within a short story, a novel or even a biography, dialogue can be written either as direct speech or as indire ...

◆ The punctuation mark always goesinsidethe inverted commas. Looking at examples ‘I don’t want to go,’ she said. He replied, ‘It ...

‘I know where the treasure is hidden,’ remarked Esther. ‘It’s beneath the apple tree in Bingham’s Wood.’ Here, two separate sent ...

paragraph even if it is only a single word. When the speech is finished, start a new paragraph when you return to the narrative. ...

Quoting within a speech Occasionally a quotation may be incorporated within the direct speech. This will also need inverted comm ...

‘‘For GCSE we’re studying ‘Romeo and Juliet’, ‘Far from the Madding Crowd’ and ‘Anthology of War Poems’,’’ Peter told his mother ...

‘said’ is the past tense so the past tense is used in ‘was going’ and ‘said’. Look at the following examples: Ben Williamsreport ...