Punctuation and its

effect on the reader

Why punctuate?
A panda walks into a caf. He orders a sandwich,
eats it, then draws a gun and proceeds to fire it
at the other patrons.

Why? asks the confused, surviving waiter amidst
the carnage, as the panda makes towards the exit.
The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife
manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

Well, Im a panda, he says at the door. Look it
up.

The waiter turns to the relevant entry in the
manual and, sure enough, finds an explanation.
Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal,
native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.
Know your puncs!

The Key
to
success
The Comma
Commas are used for:
Lists - To avoid confusion, use commas to
separate words and word groups with a series of
three or more.
Separating adjectives - Use a comma to separate
two adjectives when the word and can be inserted
between them.
Separating a main clause from a subordinate
clause - Use a comma to separate two strong
clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction-and,
or, but, for, nor. You can omit the comma if the
clauses are both short
In direct speech - Use commas to introduce or
interrupt direct quotations shorter than three
lines.

Text analysis
Look at the text below. Discuss in pairs where the commas have
been used and why:
So far, so good. Seems to be safe.
Have to be quiet in our nests of sacks up the back here. Were pretty
sure no one will find us, though. The owners have built a brand new
garage for their gardening and farm equipment, and their house is
away at the end of the garden. This old shed never gets a look-in.

Anyway, its jammed with stuff. You can hardly squeeze through the
door. To get to our cubby, you have to push past a whole lot of
broken-down machinery, old chairs, suitcases, a chest of drawers, a
mouldy leather bag of golf clubs, boxes of glass jars, a roll of carpet
and some wooden tea chests. There are massive cobwebs floating of
the ceiling. Dad calls it a circus trapeze because there are dead
insects trapped in it, swinging back and forth in the breeze. Coils of
rope and wire, lanterns and bits of rusty tools hang like bats from
the rafters. The walls and even the fireplace are built out of
kerosene tins. Dad says this means its old. He calls it heritage. Dad
reckons its one of the last original buildings in the area from the
time before a lot of this land was cut up into five- and ten-acre
blocks. So Ive called our shed Heritage hotel.

The semi-colon and colon
A semi-colon is used:
to link two separate sentences that are closely
related
The children came home today; they had been
away for a week.
in a list that already contains commas
Star Trek, created by Gene Roddenberry; Babylon
5, by JMS; Buffy, by Joss Whedon; and Farscape,
from the Henson Company.
The Colon
Use a colon
Before a list.
I could only find three of the ingredients: sugar, flour and
coconut.
Before a summary.
To summarise: we found the camp, set up our tent and then the
bears attacked.
Before a quote.
As Jane Austen wrote: it is a truth universally acknowledged, that
a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a
wife.
Where the colon is used in place of the following or thus.
There are only three kinds of people: the good, the bad and the
ugly.
Instead of a semicolon between two strong clauses when the
second clause explains or illustrates the first clause and no
coordinating conjunction is being used to connect the clauses.
e.g I enjoy reading: novels by Stephen King are
among my favourites.
The Dash
Use a dash
for emphasis
The book was great a really good read.
for explanation or addition
In place of brackets or commas.
The Colour Of Magic the first of the
series was written in 1989.

Ellipsis
Use an ellipsis
to indicate missing words in a
quotation
"the sight was awesome...truly amazing"

Parenthesis
Use round brackets (aka parenthesis) for
additional information or explanation
1. To clarify or inform.
Jamie's bike was red (bright red) with a yellow
stripe.2)
2. For asides and comments
The bear was pink (I kid you not).
Use square brackets for editorial information, etc
1. To amend or supplement the given details
His first book [The Colour Of Magic] was
written in 1989.
2. To replace phrases for clarity or brevity
[The treaty] decreed that no bear should be
painted pink.
The Hyphen
Use a hyphen with some prefixes and suffixes
1) To avoid multiple letters.
re-evaluate [re-evaluate]
2) If the root word is capitalised.
pre-Christmas, anti-European
3) With specific prefixes and suffixes.
self-sacrificing, all-seeing, ex-wife, vice-
chairman, president-elect
4) To avoid ambiguity or awkward pronunciation.
un-ionised [unionised], re-read
5) Where a list of words each have the same
prefix or suffix. pre- and post-recession, over-
and under-weight

The Hyphen
Use a hyphen to form compound words
1) For clarity.
sit-in, stand-out, Mother-In-Law
2) In compound adjectives that modify what they
precede.
blue-chip company, devil-may-care attitude, up-to-the-
minute news
Use a hyphen with fractions, numbers and initial
letters
1) With fractions and numbers between 21 and 99.
one-half, sixty-four, twenty-eight and three-quarters
2) Words that start with a capital letter
X-ray, T-shirt, U-Turn
Use a hyphen to divide words at the right hand
margin.

The Question mark
End a sentence with
a Question Mark
End direct questions, requiring a
response, with a question mark.
May I borrow your copy of the book?
What did you think of the play?
Text analysis
Discuss the use of question marks in this extract:
Manfred's ears were still ringing from the explosion as he
trudged past Christmas trees in shop doorways, and
bakeries breathing out the aroma of cinnamon, honey and
nuts. Snow had fallen on the fake palms of a nativity scene,
giving it a wintry, fairytale air. Around him, people crowded
into the narrow cobblestone streets, hurrying to buy
presents. Saint Nicholas slid past on a horse-drawn sleigh, a
small angel sitting beside him. Sleighbells jingled, the
angel's trumpet blared. It was that fir, tinsel and brass
time of year.
Manfred paused at the statue in the town square. It was a
man, running, pointing to a thing unseen. The horror in the
man's face always made Manfred wonder - why? Why was
that face familiar? Whose was it? And what had happened
in 1405? That was the date at the base of the statue -
1405.

The Exclamation mark
This is used to add emphasis to the
statement .
e.g. I loved the play!
It may also suggest someone is
shouting
e.g.' Don't! he cried
The Inverted Comma
Use quotation marks
1. for direct speech
Janet asked, "Why can't we go today?"
2. For quotes inside quotes, use single quotation marks.
Billy said, "So then John told her 'I don't want to go today'
and Janet cried."
3. for words that are defined, that follow certain phrases
or that have special meaning
1) Stating a definition.
'Buch' is German for book.
2) Following phrases such as entitled, marked and the term.
The book was signed 'Terry Pratchett'.
3) Special meanings, noting inaccuracies or misnomers, etc.
The 'free gift' actually cost us forty pounds.