week 9 punctuation and personal style

8/14/2019 Week 9 Punctuation and Personal Style

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Punctuation and Personal StyleMethodology, Week 9 (Thursday)


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Purpose Of Punctuation In

To give written words the intended meaning andexpression of the spoken words .

Converting spoken words into a written form is an important process.

If you fail to convey the exact intended meaning of what someone said

you are essentially conveying the message in a different form - and that

may have consequences! Consider the famous story of Mrs. Abington,

the actress who played in the first performance of Sheridan School for

Scandal. After the show she found a note, in her dressing room, left by

her rival actress Mary Robinson. The note said the following:


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Important Points

1) As just mentioned, an alteration in the punctuation may change the meaning of a sentence.

Example:

A1) Your hand, Anne.B2) Your hand, Anne?

These two phrases have different meaning which are indicated by

the punctuation marks . In spoken language, phrase A1 wouldindicate a statement while phrase B2 is an inquiry. In writtenlanguage, if you dont convey meaning correctly by using theappropriate punctuation - and at the right position in thesentence - you will undoubtedly convey a different idea.


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Important Points

2) Good punctuation shows that a student or a writer hasa

Good knowledge of grammatical structure . And to understandthe latter, you should obviously understand a simple sentence,a complex sentence and the meaning of each punctuation

mark and where to use them.

3) It is sometimes difficult for Korean students to feel the trueimportance of punctuation because 1) punctuation points are notreally important for Korean writers and 2) it is possible to be agrammatical writer in English without understanding a lot aboutpunctuation marks. However, clear punctuation is important

because it can help you move from being an ok English


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Important Points 4) No exact rules to guide the usage of punctuation.

No two writers will ever punctuate a passage or piece of writing inthe

same manner. Just like an artist, punctuation varies with theauthors taste

and style (or creativity). But they will all conform to general principles to

convey the same meaning. You can choose whether to use a semi-colon

or a comma sometimes but you must always start a sentence

with acapital letter and end with a full stop (or a question or exclamationpoint).

Here are some things you have no little choice about:


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General Usage

Comma: There are a number of different uses for commas inEnglish.

Commas are used to:

- Separate a list of items . This is one of the most commonuses of a

comma. Notice that a comma is included before theconjunction 'and' &

but which comes before the final element of a list. This(called an

Oxford comma, is an American usage and is not standard inBritish


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General usage

Comma, continued: to introduce a direct quote(although a

colon also works in this way). Examples: The boy said, "My father

is often away during the week on business trips."

Question Mark : The question mark is used at the end of aquestion. Examples: Where do you live? How long have they

beenstudying?

Exclamation Point: The exclamation point is used at theend of


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General usage

Semicolon: There are two uses for a semicolon in English.Semicolons are used to:

- Separate two independent clauses. One or both of theclauses are

short and the ideas expressed are usually very similar.Examples: He

loves studying; He can't get enough of school.

- To separate groups of words that are themselvesseparated by

commas . Examples: I took a holiday and played golf,which I love;

read a lot, which I needed to do; and slept late, which Ihadn't done

for uite a while.


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General usage

Colon : A colon can be used for two purposes:

- To provide additional details and explanation .Examples:

He had many reasons for joining the club: to get inshape,

to make new friends, to lose some weight, and toget out of

the house.

- To introduce a direct quote (a comma can also beused


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Apostrophe

The apostrophe is the most commonly mixed uppunctuation mark even by English writers. The usesof the apostrophe are as follows:

- To indicate omitted letters. Example: the

apostrophe represents IT IS, with the second iomitted. This is a very important point because manypeople (native English speakers) do not use theapostrophe correctly in this way and will make errorslike its all over or, the hyper correct,

shirts on sale.

- Indicates a possessive in a singular noun.Example : The boys hat

- Indicates time or quantity. Example: in one weekstime. Two weeks notice.


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General usage

- Features in Irish names, such as ONeil and OCasey.

- Indicates the plural of letters. Example: how many ms are in omit?

Also indicate the plurals of some words. Example:what the dos and donts of writing? There are toomany sentences starting with ands and buts thesedays arent there?*

..


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Activity 1: Change the meaning

1) The travel agent called Joan Gordon Ellen Carterand me.

c) How many people did the travel agent call?d) Re-write the sentence to show that the agent called five people.e) Re-write the sentence to show that the agent called three people.

2) Roger was born in France on September 7, 1970he went to Canada to work with his brother.

i) What happened on September 7, 1970? j) Re-write the sentence to show when Roger was born.k) Re-write the sentence to show when Roger went to Canada.


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Activity 2:Punctuation riddle

Joe had a ticket for a trip from Chicago to Toronto. Add punctuation to each paragraphto make it true.

3) Joe walked into the plane before the flight attendantclosed the door he walked out when the plane landedwhere was Joe he was in Toronto.

5) Joe walked into the plane before the flight attendantclosed the door he walked out when the plane landedwhere was Joe he was still in Chicago.


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Activity 3: run-on sentences

In one of our earlier classes (the grammar lesson) wetalked about a run-on sentence. Can you rememberwhat a run-on sentence is and is not? Here is a

newediting symbol: ( .. ) R . Re-write the run-ons:2) The geography in my hometown is interesting the land to

the east is flat and good for farming to the west it is hilly

and rocky.

3) The common occupations in my hometown are university

employee and government worker many people also make

electronic equipment others sell insurance or work in

stores.


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Activity 4: read and punctuate

Make groups of 3 or 4. Assign a reader and give each groupan article or poem to read. Have group mates listen and addpunctuation as they hear the reader's rhythm and intonation.Ask them to listen for pauses and full stops. When theyfinish, they should compare and discuss. Its possible that

some students may make choices that reflect validpunctuation rules but are not in the text. These stylisticchoices are important for them to note as well.

As a follow-up, if you have time, you can talk about (or

TPS)the differences or similarities between different genres.

Thepoem as compared to the bio, for example.

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