Improve_Your_Punctuation.PDF

Writing a play Inverted commas are not required when writing a play. Stage directions are shown in italics or brackets. The char ...

Practising what you’ve learnt Correct the following passage: Alan stared at his wife in dismay are you sure your pregnant he a ...

Avoiding Common Mistakes It is important always to check your work to make sure you have not made any careless mistakes. Revisin ...

The governmentis planning to hold a referendum. The teamwas playing very well. The following words are also singular: each every ...

If ‘Jack and Mary’ were replaced by the pronoun ‘they’, the plural form of the verb would automatically be used. If you are in d ...

Yourfish and chips is on the table. Salt and pepper seasons food. A roll and butter goes together. Roast beef and Yorkshire pudd ...

Subject Object Ime you you he, she, it him, her, it we us they them Peter andI are going shopping. There are two subjects in thi ...

The problem usually arises when there are two subjects or two objects. To check you have the correct word, remove one of them to ...

They are tautologies.Oneof the words is sufficient. Equally absurd are the following: A round circle A circle is, of course, rou ...

Amalapropismis a word that is used in mistake for one that sounds similar. It usually results in nonsense and Sheridan used it t ...

Following is a list of other words which are often confused. already (before a time) all ready (everything prepared) altogether ...

here hear Here (place) is your tea. Ican’thear (verb) you. allowed aloud He wasallowed (verb) to stay up late. She spokealoud (a ...

This should be: She felloff her horse. Coping with homonyms Homonyms are words that have the same spelling but may be pronounced ...

Correcting common mistakes Following is a list of common mistakes: ◆ It’s = it is or it has. ◆ Its possessive doesnothave an apo ...

It looksas if it will be sunny. not It lookslike it will be sunny. ‘Like’ should be followed by an object (noun or pronoun). Pat ...

There should beless sugar in that recipe. This year there arefewer teachers at the school. Using the possessive form ‘Theirs’ an ...

The reason he was tired wasthat he had been driving all day. or He was tired because he had been driving all day. Frequently the ...

Checklist ◆ Don’t use commas instead of full stops. ◆ Make sure your nouns and verbs agree. ◆ Avoid tautologies and malapropisms ...

Improving Your Style You have now been shown how to vary your sentence construction. Your sentences should be organised into par ...

Starting the paragraph Kate sat dejectedly in the airport lounge and stared around her. Two teenagers were chattering excitedly ...