Punctuation
1.1 Joiningsentences
Writingveryshortsentences - likewritingvery long
sentences- can givea badimpression.Longsentences
are difficult to read , and only the best writerscan
structure them well. Short sentences can look like a
child'sw riting, or can suggest that thew riteris not
capableof using morecompl exgrammatical struc tures.
A Rew rite thefollowin g pairsof sentencesas single
sentencesin threedifferentways:
a usinga presentparticiple(-ing)
b usinga conjunction
c usinga relative clause
Lucysaw an udvertisemenrinTimeOut.She was
inunediutel vinterested.
a Sedng(/11odccrtiscm entinTimeO ut ,l.u cu rca!)
immediatelyinteres ted.
hA sSOOIlasLllcysa n:theadcerti sementillT imeO ut ,
site lcas inte rested.
c Lileylcas iUl1llcdiatelyinterestedillth e adccrtlsement
that siteSfI!I.JillTillieOut.
:2 Lucy waslooking for an adventure.Sheanswere dthe
udvr-rtisc-mc-nt.
a L ooki ng.
h Since..
C L uct],U;/IO.
3 Sheapp roache d the de sertisland. She was imp ressedhy
itsb ca ut v.
-t They !()l;1H1a good placeto camp.Theypitchedthe tent
there.
,5 Lucv needed tofindfoodin o rde r tosu rvive.She
le arned to fish.
BAnotherway of linkingtwoshortsentencesis with a
past participle.Rewrite the followingpairsofsentences
as singlesentences usinga pastpartic iple.
1 I was excitedaboutth ejobint e rview.I wokeupIIIi.Uly
time sin thenight.
Excitedabou tth e j obinlercietc,I uiokeupnUlllYtimes
ill the /light.
2 lle wasfright en edh~'th e<Ulon~l 11 ouspho necalls.ll e
wenttothepolk-c.
3 The stamps were collectedby myfather.Theyare worth
a fortune.
-! Childrenmusthe accompaniedby an adult. If t heyarc
not. theywillhe refusedadmission.
In orderto link two sentences in this way,the past
particip lemusthaveapassivemeaning .In thesentences
below , it mightbe necessaryto transforma clause int o
th e passivein orderto achieve the link.
GreeceIascinutr-s me.I goth e re e\'erysum me r.
I (lIIlfasc i/UltetlhyGrecce. I goth ereeeeryslimmer.
Fasci nat ct!byGrcccc, I go thereeGel1)stlm me r.30 • Writing sub-skills5 I fo und the film horing.I l e ftth ecinem aand went toa
cafe.
f Adog attackeda wo man.Shereceivedno compensation
fo rhe r inj uries.
7 Dian ais weari ngan expensivecoat.La u re nBacallwore
thesa me coatinThe Big Sleep.
S I\\"011thegameof chessbv usiuga cleve rgamhit.I had
learn tth e gambitfrom~igelShort.B Commas
1.0 Parenthesisand relativeclauses
A Parenthesisin themiddleofa sentence
Whenpart of a sentence appearsin bracket s,you can
readthe sentencewithoutthe wordsin bracketsand it
will still make sense.
SC1I 1 Ul(mo re than allY otherSl )OI 1811 UIII)Icaslocedbythe
Braz ilian people.
The mainidea of this sentence is:
SCllllateaslovedbythe BrazilianI'coI}le.
Commascan be usedfor parenthesisin the same way
as bracket s.
Selilla, //lore then allYotherspovtsnum,letlSlor etlbyth e
B razili anpeopl e.
In thefollowingsentences,the materialbetweenthe
commasis not the mainidea of the sentence.Although
thewords in parenthesis give extrainformatio n, the
sentencewouldstill make sensewithoutit.
Catherine, h a ri "? set outheforedau:n, teas thefirstto
reach thepeak.
Mainidea-
Catherineums thefirstto reachth e peak.
More than one parenthesis can occurin a sentence.
Fabia nadecided,OIlhem i ll{!,about the deer, thatshe
would,afterall, climbth e1110111lta;u.
Mainidea-
Fabiana decidedthatshe u;ouldclimbthemmmtaiu.
Write the mainideain these sentences.
a \\'e all agreedthat, inviewofth e conditionofour
fect, we wouldspendthenext day touringthevillages,
h The dee r, whichstood, silently gazing at us,about 30
metresaway, werenot disturbedhyourp resence.
c Afte r manyyears of study, years which I bel ieveI
have the rightto descri be asbo thlong andpainfu l,
mvbrother Mat th ew, aboutwho m\'011willhearmore
late r, finallybecamea good enoughtru mpetplavcrto
join the army.