My class and I have been working on grammar and punctuation. Now I don't know about everyone else in my class, but I for one am horrible at both. In order to make an essay or any form of writing sound professional, it has to be grammatically correct. This includes: commas, quotation marks, semi colons, parentheses, italics, capitals, periods, hyphens, apostrophes, and so much more.
A comma is used before a co-ordinating conjunction that joins independent clauses. It is used after an introductory adverb clause and it is also used to separate items in a series.
Quotation marks are used to identify the speaker or writer and when you introduce a quotation, you have to consider using verbs other than “says”. Distinguishing between short and long quotations is crucial. It is also important not to introduce a long quotation into the middle of your own sentence. You must always remember to quote exactly!
Semicolons are used to link independent clauses not joined by co-ordinating conjunctions, and they should join those independent clauses to things that are closely related in meaning.
Parentheses are used around subordinate material, and what is in parentheses is usually less essential to the meaning of the sentence.
Italics are used to italicize the name of a ship, plane, train, film, radio, television program, CD, play, or books.
Capitals are used to quote sentences within a sentence, but not for a quoted phrase. Use a capital for a rank or title preceding a proper name, or for a title substituting for a proper name.
Periods mark the end of your sentence, and they prevent run on sentences.
Hyphens have several uses: to attach certain prefixes to root words, to tie compound adjectives into a single unit, to join some compound nouns, and to indicate a span of dates or page numbers.
An Apostrophe is used to indicate the omitted letters or numbers in contractions, and to make digits plural. Also the most common way to indicate the possessive of a singular noun is to add an apostrophe followed by an s.
Now this may not sound very difficult, but I have only listed a few things to help make any form of writing grammatically correct. There are still several more out there that I haven’t listed. I personally find grammar and punctuation incredibly difficult and that’s where I tend to lose marks in essay’s and other writing assignments. My teacher decided to give my class an assignment on punctuation that had to be handed in at the end of the period. The instructions were to insert periods, question marks, quotation marks and also capitalize pronouns and words at the beginning of sentences. Quotes had to be italicized and we were not to change any words. When I received this assignment I was terrified because I knew I wasn’t going to do very good. I did the best I could and when I got my mark back, I wasn’t surprised by it. With my fifty-seven percent, I learned that I should focus more on grammar and punctuation so in the future I can get a better mark.
To anyone out there that cringes whenever they receive a grammar or punctuation worksheet, I just want to tell you that from personal experience that it is incredibly important, and it will help you receive a better mark in the future.
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