MADRYN LAB PUNCTUATION & CORRECTION CODE

Teacher: Ceci Figueroa

PUNCTUATION

It is a system of devices which writers use in a conventional way to clarify the relationships among words and
groups of words. These devices called ‘punctuation marks’ or ‘symbols’ have their own meaning.

Apostrophes ( ‘ )

a. My mother’s job – the earth’s orbit – London’s weather (genitive forms)

b. Didn’t – I’m – can’t – April ’95 (to show contractions)
c. b’s instead of d’s – born in the early 1970’s (for the plural of letters, numbers and words)

Brackets – Parentheses ( )

a. Walt Disney (1901-1966) – He owes thirty dollars and ten cents ($30, 10) (to enclose supplementary
information or comments, figure that confirm numbers expressed in words)

Capital Letters (A, B, C, D, E, etc.)

a. My friend Susan asked, “Is man an angel?” (first word of a sentence/direct questions/proper names)
b. I believe in God. I thank Him for His blessings. (pronoun I / words designating the Deity)
c. Tuesday – June – Easter – Christmas – Independence Day (days / months / holy days / holidays)
d. Texas – Rotary International – The Middle Ages – World War II – The Titanic – Spanish – Nike – President
Kennedy – Colon Theatre – Neolithic Age – Venus (cities, countries / organizations / historical periods and
events / ships, aircrafts, etc. / nationalities / language / trademarks / titles preceding the name /
historical documents / theatres / geographical areas / prehistoric divisions / astronomical names)
e. Dear Sir / Madam – Yours sincerely – Sincerely yours (first word of salutation – complimentary close)

Colon ( : )

a. He had three pleasure: eating, drinking, smoking. (before a list)

b. The party was a failure: very few people came. (before explanations)
c. 8:30 – Corinthians 3:6 – Dear Sir: (the time / biblical references / after salutation in formal letters)
d. Grammar: Verb Tenses (separates titles and subtitles)
e. In the words of Dr Johnson: ‘When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life’ (to introduce quotations)

Commas ( , )

a. Mr. Kim, who was lying behind the tree, was dead. (in non-defining relative clauses)
b. When she found out the truth, she cried. (after adverbial clauses in initial position)
c. The leaves were red, gold, green and brown. (in a series or list, usually NOT between the last 2 items)
d. I spent the day playing chess, watching TV, and talking about the next general elections. (in a list even
between the last two items if these are long)
e. The weather, however, improved. – Honestly, she disappointed me. – you know, of course, the way to school.
– That question, on the other hand, remains open. – They were to tell you the truth, in love with the same
woman. (separates connectors, sentence adverbs)
f. No, I didn’t. – it’s a fine day, isn’t it? (after Yes-No answers / before tag questions)
g. John said, ‘It’s late’ – ‘It’s late,’ John said. (after a reporting verb / after a sentence to be reported)
h. Transplant these trees, or they will dry. (can be used to separate two main clauses joined by conjunctions)
i. The film was so boring, we left before the end. (after adverbial clauses when ‘that’ is omitted)
Dash ( - )

a. The film was so boring - we left before it ended. (in informal writing instead of : or ;)
b. I’ll do the job now – no, I’ll have lunch first. (in informal writing before afterthoughts)
c. 8:00 – 10:30; Mon – Sat (indicates ‘from’ … ‘to’)

Exclamation mark ( ! )

a. Get out of here! - Help! - Police! – I once spent a pleasant (!) night outdoors in the rain. (to show emphasis;
to indicate irony)

Italics (when handwriting, we underline the words)

a. We saw the film Gone with the wind. - We saw a picture of The Queen Mary. – She reads The Times. (for
names of films, ships, titles of books, newspapers, magazines, etc.)
b. The word receive is often misspelt. – The g in foreign is silent. – The last 3 in the address is barely legible.
(words, letters, and figures when referred to as words, letters, figures)
c. Mens sana in corpore sano. – I’m not leaving; you are leaving. (foreign words and expressions; words that
need emphasis)

Period – Full stop ( . )

a. He needs help. Help him. (at the end of sentences except questions and exclamations)
b. sth. – M.A. – U.S.A. – Nov. – e.g. – (after abbreviations, initials, contracted forms)

Question mark ( ? )

a. Who threw the bomb? – ‘Who threw the bomb?’ he asked. (after a direct question, after a question quoted
within a sentence)
b. Is the composition good in style?, form?, meaning? (after each interrogative element within a sentence for
emphasis)
c. We studied the poems of Chaucer who lived from 1343 (?) to 1400. (enclosed in brackets to indicate doubt
or uncertainty)

Quotation marks: Double (“ “) – Single (‘ ‘)

a. The word ‘disinterested’ is sometimes used to mean ‘uninterested’. (to refer to a word)
b. “Hello,” she said. – ‘Hello,’ she said. (in direct speech we can use either double or single q. marks)
c. “Good heavens,” thought Jane. “What shall I do if he says ‘hello’ to me?” (for a quotation inside a quotation
we use the kind of quotation marks that we are not using for the main quotation)

Semicolon ( ; )

a. Some people work best in the morning; others do best in the evening. (often used instead of a full stop,
when the sentences are grammatically independent but closely connected in meaning)
b. You may use the sports facilities on condition that your subscriptions are paid regularly; that you arrange
for all necessary cleaning to be carried out; that you take care of all the equipment; … (to separate items in
a list, particularly when these are grammatically complex)

PRACTICE TIME!! Punctuate this text.

the last successful nurse

in 1987a student nurse saw an elderly woman sitting on the edge of a bed in the hospital where she worked time

for your bath said the nurse ive already had one replied the old woman who looked confused the nurse led the

woman to her bath took off her clothes and washed her thoroughly when they returned to the ward the nurse

said someone has got into your bed its my twin sister replied the old lady ive come to visit her
 CORRECTION CODE

This is a code that we can use when correcting written exercises.

 D. neg. Double negative  P.of.v. Point of view

 Agree. No agreement  Ref. Reference

 S.f. Short form  Form Form

 D.s. Double subject  Inf. Informal vocabulary

 Frag. Sentence fragment  Prep. Preposition

 W.w. Wrong word  Plag. Plagiarism

 W.c. Wrong connector  Subj? Subject is missing

 W.o. Word order  T.S. Topic sentence

 Sp. Spelling  St. Structure

 P. Punctuation  U.n. Uncountable noun

 C. Capital letter  ! ! ! Unbelievable!!!

 Tn. Verb tense  Colloc. Collocation

 Gr. Grammar  ? ? Not clear

 Something is missing  D.m. Dangling modifier

 // New paragraph, new sentence

 No parallelism

 T A Try this section again, paraphrase

 Passive? Why passive?

  Indentation
 Leave a margin.
 A.p. Apostrophe
PRACTICE TIME!! Each of the following ‘rules’ violates the principle it expresses. Write down
the code and correct the mistakes.

1. A verb have to agree with its subject; people always makes this mistake.

2. Don’t use no double negatives.

3. A double subject it should not be used.

4. Order word should not be violated.

5. Discriminate careful between adjectives and adverbs.

6. Punctuation is very important, don’t use a comma when a semicolon is more appropriate.

7. About sentence fragments. You should avoid them.

8. In the writing centre, they say vague pronoun reference is unacceptable.

9. In most cases, the passive should be avoided.

10. Is important not to omit the subject.

11. Avoid choppy sentences. Reread what you write. Check spelling. Use a dictionary. Edit.

12. Be careful with –ed endings that have been drop.

13. Its important to use apostrophe’s correctly.

14. Watch out for irregular verbs that have came to you in the wrong form.

15. A writer must be careful not to shift your point of view.

16. When dangling, watch you modifiers.

17. You haven’t to use haven’t as the negative od ‘have’ in the Simple Present.

18. Use a diccionary to check spellings.

19. If you add an ‘s’ to adjectives, the sentences will be wrongs.

20. Always fallow these advice: uncountable nouns have no plural.

21. Other important rule: ‘other’ + plural noun; ‘another’ + single noun.

22. A very important rule is to avoid unnecessary repetition of unnecessarily repeated words.

23. Another important is: don’t omit words.

24. After write a preposition, the verb that follows ends in –ing.

25. Do not inventate words; use a bilingual dictionary first, and then a monolingual one.

26. Teachers wonder, why do students use direct questions when they shouldn’t do that.

27. Write parallel structures and why aren’t you careful with punctuation?

28. Avoid wordy sentences, do not embroider your thoughts, ideas and opinions with large words and flowery

phrases, with complicated language that in fact sounds so pretentious and ornate that obscures the idea

that lies beneath.

29. And avoid starting sentences with ‘and’.

30. Write good sentences involves using –ing or to-infinitive verbs as the subject of a sentence.

31. A thing you should avoid is the use of indefinite, vague words.

32. Last but not least, avoid clichés.