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WHERE YOU MAY GET IT WRONG
WHEN WRITING ENGLISH PunCtuatIon
7 PUNCTUATION
The use of right punctuation marks in the right place is very important for the meaning of what you write in English. My experience shows that the use of punctuation marks does not have a universal character. In other words, different languages employ these signals in different ways and for different purposes. Punctuation marks might be the same across languages, but their use might be quite different.
Not only that. The way punctuation marks are used might be different between the varieties of the same language. As if that is not enough of a problem for learners of English, different outlets within the same variety may employ different ways of using them. You will learn a lot about these differences if you compare, for instance, the way the BBC employs them with that of The New York Times. It will also be interesting, for instance, to compare their use by the BBC and The Times of London. This means that each publishing house, academic journal, media outlet and institution may have special instructions to authors on the use of punctuation.
But it will be much more revealing if you compare the way a prominent non-English media outlet, such as television, radio or newspaper, employs these marks with the way the BBC or The New York Times use them. The samples with erroneous use of punctuation marks examined in this book demonstrate this difference. My hope is that as we examine the errors and provide the right solutions, you will pick up enough knowledge on how punctuation marks are used in English, the areas where you may get it wrong, and how to identify and then rectify these errors.
The following guide is not an alternative to correct punctuation. The best guideline is to use your common sense. Try always to remember that incorrect punctuation can change the meaning of your sentence. Incorrect punctuation does not help the reader to track what you want to say. Punctuation marks are there to help you express your thoughts clearly. If they fail to help you make clear what you want to say, it is better not to have them. Clarity in writing should be your top priority. When you lose track when writing a sentence, it is best to give up and start fresh. It is no use fighting your way through with syntax in English.
If your sentence is too long and too involved, it needs to be broken apart and replaced with shorter sentences. The same applies to punctuation. Excessive and unnecessary use of punctuation marks in a sentence makes it very hard to read.
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Punctuation marks add balance and rhythm to your sentence. They are the signposts, telling the reader where to pause (comma, semicolon and colon), stop (period and question mark), or deviate from the direct and smooth flow of your sentence (dash, parentheses and brackets).
Punctuation marks are tools that help writers to put a pause in the flow of their thoughts.
The length of the pause depends on the kind of punctuation mark a writer employs.
GUIDE TO PUNCTUATION MARKS
Here are the types of punctuation marks we use in English. Please get acquainted with them before you move to the exercise in which erroneous samples are analyzed and suggestions provided on how to correct them.
7.1 The Apostrophe (’)
We use this for possession (genitive) and contraction (see Chapter 5).
7.1.1 We also use the apostrophe plus (s) to denote decades:
Gordon Brown, Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer, announced a budget surplus of $19 billion, the biggest since the booming 1980s, for the year ending March 31. (NY Times) 7.1.2 We use the apostrophe for plurals from numerals or letters (size 6’s; F-16’s):
Latin Democracies Do Not Need F-16’s (NY Times headline)
Size 6’s from different manufacturers are not exactly the same. (BBC)
7.1.3 We use the apostrophe in expressions like 60 days’ notice, 12 years’ imprisonment. But we write: 60-day notice, a 20-year sentence:
Ames’s Wife Draws Sentence Of Five Years’ Imprisonment (NY Times headline) Six-days’ notice is, in my judgment, a sufficient time. (NY Times)
7.2 Brackets
There are four types of brackets in English:
• (…) round brackets/brackets (BrE), parentheses (AmE)
• […] square brackets (BrE), square brackets (AmE)
• {…} braces (BrE), braces (AmE)
• <…> angle brackets (BrE), angle brackets (AmE)
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WHERE YOU MAY GET IT WRONG
WHEN WRITING ENGLISH PunCtuatIon
Here is a summary of how different brackets are used in English with examples from mainstream British and American publications:
7.2.1 Parentheses are used mainly to set off structurally independent elements. They usually lead to a pause in the writer’s thought. In general, parentheses enclose an explanation or clarification of a construction the writer sees as difficult for the reader to understand:
Portugal’s three main political parties have given their blessing to new austerity measures in return for a €78 billion ($115 billion) bailout. (AP)
7.2.2 Do not use the dash and the parentheses together to indicate an aside or an abrupt interruption in the flow of a sentence:
The fact that only a very, very small group of trusted officials had this information – (even members of the executive board were not informed) – means that there were no serious discussion of the project.
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