One Step Ahead ..

Series Editor: John Seely

Titles in the series onestepahea

CVs and Job Applications Judith Leigh
Editing and Revising Text JoBillingham

Punctuation
Essays and Dissertations Chris Mounsey
Giving Presentations Jo Billingham
Law in Everyday Life John Seely
Organizing and Participating in Meetings Judith Leigh
Presenting Numbers, Tables, and Charts Sally Bigwood and
Melissa Spore
Publicity, Newsletters, and Press Releases Alison Baverstock Robert Allen
Punctuation Robert Allen
Spelling Robert Alien
Cartoons by Beatrice Baumgartner-Cohen
Words John Seely
W riting for the Internet Jane Domer
W riting Reports John Seely

Acknowledgements
I have benefited greatly from access to the British National Corpus, a com­
puter database o f 100 million words o f English collected by a consortium o f
publishers and academic institutions from a wide range o f printed and
spoken sources. This invaluable material provided me with an enormous
amount o f evidence o f punctuation practice, which played an important
role in the writing o f this book.

I should like to thank my colleagues in the One Step Ahead series: in particular
the series editor, John Seely, for his advice and encouragement, andAlysoun
Owen and Helen Cox at Oxford University Press for their support and help.

Jenny Ollerenshaw and Lucinda Coventry read an earlier version o f the text
and made some usefiil suggestions, for which I am grateful. Thanks are also
due to Sarah Barrett for the far from easy task o f copy-editing.

I cannot close these acknowledgements without thanking the cartoonist,

Beatrice Baumgartner-Cohen, for her sensitive and imaginative realization
in visual form, in this book and in the companion book on English spelling,
o f the thoughts that pass through the mind in writing about these aspects
o f the written language. I hope readers will enjoy them as much as I have.

Robert Allen
Edinburgh OXTORD
October 2001 U N IV E R S IT Y PRESS
OXFORD
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford 0x2 6dp
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
Contents
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide in
Oxford New York
Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai
Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi
Sao Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto
Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press
in the UK and in certain other countries
Published in the United States
by Oxford University Press Inc., New York Part A 6
© Robert Allen 2002
The moral rights of the author have been asserted About this book 6
Database right Oxford University Press (maker)
First published 2002 1 What is punctuation for? 8
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, 2 Why punctuation matters 10
or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate
reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction
outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, 3 Helping yourself 15
Oxford University Press, at the address above
You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover 4 Building paragraphs and sentences 19
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
5 Punctuating sentences 26
Data available
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Allen, R. E. 6 Punctuating speech and quotations 40
Get ahead in punctuation /Robert Allen.

Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. 7 Punctuating words and phrases 44
1. English language—Punctuation. I. Title
PE1450A53 2002 428.2—dc21 2002029794
8 Special uses o f punctuation 51
ISBN 0-19-860439-4
10 9 8 7 6 5 4
Design and typesetting by David Seaboume
Printed in the UK by Ashford Colour Press Ltd, Part B: Reference section 55
Gosport, Hampshire
Part B Contents 55

Further reading 96

Glossaiy 98

Index 102

5
 British and Am erican punctuation
Part A
This book is mainly about British punctuation. The principles
About this book are much the same in American English but there are some dif­
Watch out for
this sign:
AmE =American
ferences. For example, quotation marks are used differently
English

When there is an important difference between British and

American English, this is mentioned.

These differences have become more important because o f the

This book sets out to answer three key questions about influence o f American English throughout the world, for exam­
punctuation: ple to learners o f English and to users o f the Internet, where
American technology predominates.
Three key questions ■ What is it for?
In spite o f the advantages enjoyed by users o f American
■ W hy does it seem so complicated?
spelling, in Britain people will expect you to use British
■ How can you improve yours? spellings and will normally regard American usage as unsuit­
able or incorrect.
I f you are reading this book, you w ill probably realize that
punctuation matters and that you can improve yours. This is
true for practically eveiyone. Many people are scared by it A note on the exam ples
because they see it as a sort o f code—a myth that this book w ill
seek to dispel. Punctuation is a tool, or rather a set o f tools. In this book, nearly all the examples o f punctuation are taken
They are there to help you, and as with actual tools you will from real writing, and even the very short ones are based on
need to use some o f them more than others. actual usage. They are not made up.

Chapters 1 and 2 describe what punctuation is for and why it This approach, by drawing on real experience in actual usage,
matters. illustrates good and bad punctuation much more clearly and
effectively than the invented examples you often find in books
Chapter 3 gives you practical advice on how to help yourself
o f this kind.
to use punctuation correctly and effectively.

Chapters 4-7 give you the strategies for organizing your writ­ Seeking and using real examples from real English also formed
ing by means o f punctuation. an important part o f the plan in organizing this book. Many o f
the issues we shall look at are familiar (for example the confu­
Chapter 8 lists some special uses o f punctuation: for example, sion between semicolons and colons), but hard evidence o f
in abbreviations and in writing dates and addresses. what is actually being written can provide many important
clues about the day-to-day difficulties people encounter.
At the end o f the book there is a Reference section which gives
you basic information organized under headings based on each
o f the major punctuation marks. This part o f the book serves as
a checklist, and also describes some o f the more common
errors in eveiyday punctuation.

6 7
 In writing, the full stops, commas, semicolons, and so on do 1 What is punctuation
What is punctuation for? the same job as the spaces, columns, and special signs on a
for?

timetable and the graphics and other ways o f organizing the

information on a web page.

How can p unctuation help your w ritin g ?

There are six main ways in which punctuation can make your A six-point plan for
writing clearer: making punctuation
work for you
Getting it in perspective
■ Full stops, commas, semicolons, and colons mark out the
Chapters 4
Some punctuation guides make the mistake (in my opinion) o f basic structure o f what you are writing. and 5.
starting with a passage o f English from which all the punctua­
tion has been removed. The idea is that you can’t make head or ■ Dashes and brackets can show groups o f words that form a
See Chapter 5.
tail o f it, or at least that you stumble over it and scratch your smaller group on their own within a sentence.
head; but in every case that I have seen it’s possible to work out
what’s going on. In fact it’s quite fun. The point is that poor ■ Question marks, exclamation marks, and quotation marks Chapter 4 and
punctuation makes things difficult for the reader. show that what you are writing is something other than a (for quotation
simple statement by the writer. marks) Chapter 6.

Don’t be alarmed by Punctuation is not a kind o f code, but is there to make what
punctuation. It’s not ■ The apostrophe and hyphen can link related words and
you write clear and easy to read. You should only use it as far as See Chapter 7.
a code, but a way of show other special functions.
making your writing you need it in your writing as part o f the process o f communi­
clearer. cating w ith your readers. It is useful, and it is important, and
■ Full stops can show that a group o f letters form an
people expect it to be accurate. But we shouldn’t make exces­ See Chapter 8.
abbreviation.
sive claims for its importance or regard it as a fundamental
part o f language in the way that grammar (for example) is.
■ An apostrophe can show that letters are missing in a word. See Chapter 7
beginning on
Punctuation has a single and practical purpose: to make writ­ We can stun all this up by saying that punctuation operates at page 44.
ing clear and easy to understand. Think o f your writing as a two levels:
set o f information rather like a rail timetable or a page on an
Internet website. All the information can be there but i f it is ■ at sentence or phrase level, marking out structure: See especially
badly laid out it will be confusing and hard to understand. Chapter 5.
■ at word level, linking or separating individual words.
See especially
Chapter 7.
and punctuation has two main roles:

■ to separate sentences (as full stops do) or separate parts o f

sentences (as pairs o f commas do);

■ to link groups o f words into one sentence (as semicolons and

colons do).

8 9
 2 In speech, humans use their voices not just to express sounds
Why punctuation matters but to express them in certain ways and in certain relation­
ships to one another, giving special emphasis to important
words, using intonation, and varying the volume (or dynam­
ics) o f their utterances. There is all the difference in the
world between ‘Get away’ said softly with a smile and a
wink and the same words shouted with a scowl.

In writing we do not use the voice and we cannot use into­

nation and volume as a means o f making our meaning
How old is it? clear. These roles are taken on by punctuation. The
following longer extract (from Tom’s Midnight Garden
How old is it? 10
How old is punctuation? W ho invented it? What on earth for? by Philippa Pearce) shows how the natural pauses
Punctuation as a
substitute for tone
and rises and falls o f the voice are represented in
ofvoice 10 I f you look at inscriptions in Latin or Greek or other ancient writing by commas, semicolons, dashes, and other marks:
languages on archaeological monuments and remains, there is
no punctuation at all, apart from spaces (and sometimes dots) Tom was silent, turning over in his mind what Hatty had just
The superhighway 12
between words and in some cases not even these. So for quite a said. He was beginning to change his mind about climbing the
long tim e people managed without any form o f punctuation. wall, because he saw that there could not be— for him— the In emails, we can
Why then do we get so hung up about it now? danger that there had been for James. He might possibly fall express moods by
using ‘emoticons’
off the wall, but a fall, even from such a height, could neither
made from
There are several reasons. The ancient languages were heavily bruise nor break him. punctuation marks.
inflected, i.e. they had special word endings to show the func­ For example, :-)
He said to Hatty, ‘I’m going to see if there really is a nest expresses happiness
tion o f every word in its sentence. And the language you see in
behind the sundial; I’m going to walk along that wall.' and :-( expresses
inscriptions on ancient monuments was based on often- sadness or
repeated formulas that would have been familiar to the people disappointment.
reading them. So spaces between words, and occasionally dots These are sometimes
The way in which Hatty said, ‘Oh, Tom!’ made Tom feel warm called ‘smileys’.
to mark the ends o f sentences, were all that was needed.
and kind. He patted her hand. ‘Don’t worry. It’s all right for me.’
But the ways in which language is used have changed enor­ He climbed, by means of the laddering branches of the
mously over the centuries. In modern times, many more espalier pear, to the top of the wall. In spite of all he had told
people can read and write than used to be the case, and reading himself, he felt a pang of horror when he stood upright upon
and writing form an essential part o f our everyday lives. Can it. The wall top was so narrow— nine inches, in some places
you think o f a day when you did not read or write something? weathered away to even less by the crumbling of brickwork;
quite bushy plants grew along it, over which Tom would have
to step; and on either side of that narrow, hazardous path the
Punctuation as a substitute for tone of voice wall face went sheer and far: down to the orchard on one side;
on the other, down to the garden, where Hatty stood, her
The natural form o f communication between human beings is pale face upturned to him. Tom knew, however, that he must
speech. People could speak long before they could write, and not look down, if he were to keep his head and walk that wall
language developed as a sequence o f sounds that could be top. He lifted his eyes and stepped resolutely forward.
heard but not, at that stage, visualized or recorded.

10
2 Why punctuation | Early printing How does p unctuation help you? 2 Why punctuation
matters

Wherever there is writing, some form o f punctuation is not far Eveiyone knows instinctively that punctuation is important, Punctuation is a
behind. As far back as the eighth century, during the rule o f the and it is easy to become afraid o f it. People see it as some kind tool and is there to
help you.
emperor Charlemagne, a Northumbrian scholar named Alcuin o f code that only very clever people can master. But that’s not
developed a new system o f spelling and punctuation for use in true. Punctuation matters because it’s a useful tool that is all
biblical texts and sacred liturgies. The invention o f printing in the more useful i f you use it properly. But there’s a lot you can
the 15th and 16th centuries meant that written texts would be learn; and what you can’t learn you can master by practice.
circulated much more widely than handwritten manuscripts
could be, and some regulation o f the words on the page was Some people even think that punctuation is more important It helps you to get
essential. The early printers, for example two Venetians called than spelling, and one can see why. You can usually understand your meaning across.
Aldus Manutius (the second the grandson o f the first) and a piece o f writing that contains a lot o f spelling mistakes, but
William Caxton in England, played an important part in devel­ it’s not easy to understand writing that has perfect spelling but
oping a regular system o f punctuation for their printed work. is badly punctuated. The way you use the main tools o f punctua­
tion, the full stop, the comma, the colon, the semicolon, and so
on directly affects the meaning and clarity o f what you write.
The superhighw ay
Punctuation has a special place among the key features o f lan­
See Part B,
Most recently, the development o f electronic communications, guage. Unlike grammar and spelling, it is not a part o f the beginning on
especially faxes, email, and text messaging, has made written structure o f language. It is a set o f tools that enable you to page 55.
communication between people almost as instant as spoken organize what would otherwise be a continuous string o f
conversation. This form o f communication therefore tends to words. Historically, it is closely related to the structure o f writ­
be conversational in style, and punctuation has an important ten language, and most o f the special names (period, comma,
role to play in replacing the intonation we would use in speech. colon, apostrophe) originally referred to types o f sentence and
phrase and only later to the special symbols used to mark
them. For example, colon was a term for a clause, and comma
was a term for a phrase.

You could say that punctuation is to writing and printing what

stitching is to a piece o f clothing. Stitches hold a garment
together and help to give it its shape, and punctuation, in a
sense, holds together the words on a page. It is there to help us.

Are there fixed rules?

There are some rules in punctuation: for example, you always

begin a sentence with a capital letter and end it with a full stop.
That is an old rule that has not changed. Other rules have
changed over many years and continue to change. There are
fashions in punctuation, and different types o f writing call for
different styles o f punctuation.

12 13
 2 Why punctuation
Helping yourself 3
There is a minor character in Dickens’s Nicholas Nicldeby called
matters
Mr Curdle, who claims to have proved

that by altering the received mode of punctuation, any one of

Shakespeare’s plays could be made quite different, and the
sense completely changed.

And in a modem edition o f Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the

Roman Empire (a work first published in the second half o f the
eighteenth century), the editor tells his readers plainly that
Punctuation is there to help you
I have taken the liberty of repunctuating and reparagraphing
Gibbon throughout. By today’s standards, a reader would have The key test o f clear effective punctuation is whether you
every right to complain that Gibbon used too much punctua­ notice it or not. I f the writing reads well, you probably won’t be
Making choices 16
tion and too few paragraphs. aware o f all the commas and full stops and semicolons for most
o f the time.
Punctuation is there This sort o f editorial intervention is needed because styles o f Tips
to help both writer punctuation have changed over the centuries. Some older writ­ This is the effect you need to achieve on people who are read­ • Use punctuation
and reader make to make your
ing is smothered in commas and semicolons, and can go on for ing what you write; the less they notice how you have
sense of a text. writing clearer.
most o f the page without starting a new paragraph. Nowadays punctuated it the more successful you have been.
• Use a style that
we tend to be more sparing in the use o f commas and semi­ suits you and your
colons, and to divide writing into smaller paragraphs. The Punctuation is there to help you, and should not be seen as a readers.
reason is partly a matter o f fashion, but there is a lot o f varia­ kind o f ordeal like a compulsory question in an exam. • Note the ways
tion in styles, and publishing houses can differ widely in their other people use
punctuation.
approach to some issues (notably the comma). Use the punctuation marks that you are most comfortable
with. For most o f the time these will be full stops and commas, • Use the tip boxes
in this book to
which you really can’t avoid. help you.

Try to get the balance right: too many punctuation

marks are confusing, like too many signs on a motor­
way, while too few can make your w riting hard to
follow.

When you have no choice

Sometimes the choice o f punctuation marks is

straightforward, and there is only one that is right.
For example, a sentence that is a statement always
ends in a full stop, a question ends in a question
mark, and direct speech always has quotation
marks round it.

14 15
 3 Helping yourself M aking choices

Tips Most people need guidance when there is a choice o f punctua­

• Don’t agonize tion, for example between commas and semicolons. The
over choices:
often more than choices are not always clear-cut, and i f you can’t decide it’s
one possibility often a sign that either choice w ill work. Remember that punc­
will do. tuation is a practical matter. In the end, what matters is that
• Use the tips to your writing is clear to read.
help you.

For example, when I was writing the first sentence in the previ­
ous section, first o f all I wrote it like this:

Sometimes the choice of punctuation marks is straightforward:

there is only one that is right.

Then I read it again and thought that the colon was too strong,
and produced a kind o f anticlimax, so I rewrote it like this:

Sometimes the choice of punctuation marks is straightforward,

and there is only one that is right.
■ Make a note o f bad punctuation as well as good, for example
I f I had gone on to give a list o f various punctuation marks in in personal and business letters you receive. See how it
the same sentence, then a colon might have been justified. But affects your understanding o f what is written. W hen you
I didn’t, and the sentence ended fairly simply. come across something that is unclear in what you are read­
You try
ing, see if changing the punctuation makes it clearer.
A checklist for your If you have problems making choices, whether between
writing commas, semicolons, and colons, or between commas, ■ Read through your own writing and see i f you can make
Do your sentences dashes, and brackets, there are several things you can do to changes that would bring out the meaning more effectively.
begin with capital
help yourself:
letters and end in
full stops?
• Are your ■ Look at the guidance given in Chapters 1-3 o f this book. Different styles
sentences the
right length? ■ Notice punctuation when you are reading, and choose differ­ The punctuation used in this book falls somewhere between
® Do you have too ent types o f reading: novels, non-fiction, newspapers, the formal and informal styles; for example, you w ill probably
many commas? find more semicolons than you are used to using (there is one
informal writing, and so on. See how the punctuation differs
• Could you use in a very formal piece o f writing, such as a report or text­ in this sentence).
more semicolons
and colons? book, from that in much more informal writing, such as a
letter from a friend. The chances are that the more formal Noticing these differences w ill help you to decide:
• Are your
quotation marks writing will contain more semicolons and colons, while the
and apostrophes informal writing w ill have a lot more commas. ■ which approach suits you and your readers best;
in the right
positions?
■ how punctuation helps to make writing clear.

16 17
 3 Helping yourself Remember that the approach you find most suited to you is

You try
likely to be the one that makes your writing clearest for your
readers. The amount and type o f punctuation you need w ill
Building paragraphs and
Look at different
types of printing
and see how the
change with the type o f writing you are doing. sentences
punctuation differs. You are likely to need less guidance on punctuating informal
English because it doesn’t matter so much, as long as you are
understood. Some punctuation rules, for example on showing
direct speech, are mostly confined to special areas o f writing
such as creative writing.
The m ain units of w riting CONTENTS
Tip You are most likely to need guidance when you are writing
You need to be material, such as job applications, business letters, and reports,
especially careful There is more to punctuation than a lot o f commas, full stops,
when writing to that is regarded as ‘formal’ and should follow set conventions and other signs that mark your writing. The way you arrange
impress people, e.g. and avoid the looser informalities o f language that are associ­ your writing in sentences, paragraphs, and larger sections is also
in job applications, ated w ith casual speech and conversation. Most o f the guidance
when you will be important to getting your message across clearly. This book will
judged on your in this book has this priority in mind. help you to organize your writing at various levels: from word to
presentation. word, from sentence to sentence, and from page to page.

Things you can learn The largest text unit in an ordinary piece o f writing, such as a
letter or short report, is the paragraph. In longer and more
Punctuation follows rules that you can learn. For example: form al writing, such as books and long reports, there are larger
divisions into chapters and sections.
See pages 21,26, ■ full stops at the end o f sentences;
and 57.
Each paragraph should contain a complete concept or train o f
See pages 27 and ■ commas: the difference between single commas and thought, or—i f you are writing a story or narrative—a single
59. commas used in pairs; event. When you move on to a new thought or idea, you should
start a new paragraph. Remember that some paragraphs can be
quite short. Getting the balance right is important, because too
See pages 37 and ■ colons used in lists;
66. many paragraphs make your writing disjointed and disturb the
flow o f the information you are giving, whereas too few para­
pages 40 and ■ quotation marks in direct speech; graphs make your writing hard to read and can make your
75. arguments too dense.

See pages 45 and ■ hyphens, e.g. the difference between twenty-odd people and Hierarchy of main units in writing
85. twenty odd people;

See pages 46 and ■ apostrophes, e.g. the difference between the boy’s work and
78. the boys’ work.

18 19
 Organizing w ords into sentences Statements 4 Building paragraphs
and sentences

What is a sentence? A sentence usually contains a verb that expresses the action or A sentence usually
contains a verb
state that the sentence is all about, but it doesn’t have to con­ like is, was, goes, or
Unlike paragraphs, which are a way o f organizing w riting into tain a verb, especially in less formal writing or for special took. But you can
units o f thought, sentences are units o f language in speak­ effect. Here is the beginning o f a modem novel (The Good have sentences
without verbs.
ing as w ell as writing. People often agonize over exactly Terrorist, by Doris Lessing). The first sentence contains a verb
what is and is not a real sentence, and some grammars (was) but the next two sentences do not; in a sense they
spend several pages trying to define the term, but the ‘borrow’ the verb from the first sentence without stating it:
important point is what a sentence does.
The house was set back from the noisy main road in what
A sentence can do several things: seemed to be a rubbish tip. A large house. Solid.

■ It can make a statement Some questions and exclamations can be single words such as
You try
Really? or Nonsense! Notice all the
It was half past four in the afternoon. different types
These are called In more formal writing, such as reports and business letters, and lengths of
simple sentences. sentences in
For longer sentences your sentences would normally be complete and contain a your reading.
I It can ask a question
with several sections, verb. This is because o f the type o f information or statement
see page 29. you are concerned with: much less like ordinary conversation
Will you be all right?
(which is full o f partial and incomplete sentences) and more
like a series o f formal arguments.
I I t can express a command or order
What is special about a sentence, whether or not it contains a
Come and sit here. verb, is that it begins with a capital letter and ends with a full
stop, and expresses a complete thought. These features are
I It can express an exclamation always essential:

That hurt! No poet is ever completely lost. He has the secret of his child­
hood safe with him, like some secret cave in which he can
kneel. And, when we read his poetry, we can join him there.

Questions

If a sentence asks a question, you put a question mark at the You will find more on
question marks in
end instead o f a full stop: the Reference
section beginning
Where shall I put the chair? on page 55.
Do you remember her?
Will you help me with this?

20 21
4 Building paragraphs But questions that are reported in so-called ‘indirect’ speech, 4 Building paragraphs
Choice depends a lot on the context. At the end o f a longer
and sentences and sentences
i.e. by someone referring to what the original speaker said, sentence that begins as a statement, for example, it is more
after a verb like say, ask, and enquire (often called indirect ques­ natural to regard the whole thing as a statement and omit the
tions), should not have a question mark: question mark:

You can find more Where shall I put the chair? Tim and Mary are visiting next week and I wondered if you would
about this type of
sentence in the like to meet them.
section on indirect but
speech on page 42.
I asked her where I should put the chair. Exclamations

A question can consist o f a short phrase or even a single word, An exclamation can be an order, a cry o f surprise, an expres­
especially in written versions o f conversations: sion o f a feeling such as enthusiasm or regret, or a wish; in fact,
any group o f words that is addressed strongly and directly to
‘Tomorrow?’ the reader. Exclamations, by their nature, often lack a verb.

Some sentences that are put in the form o f questions are in fact In all these cases, you put an exclamation mark at the end: You will find more on
exclamation marks
instructions, and have a corresponding intonation in speech. In
in the Reference
these cases it is usual to omit the question mark in writing or What nonsense, letting politics upset a personal relationship! section beginning
print, for example in notices and handouts: As if she could forget! on page 73.
The music’s too loud! Please turn it off!
Watch out! Would those wishing to attend the talk on Georgia on Tuesday Aren’t they beautiful!
Not all questions end leave their names with one of the staff before they leave.
in a question mark.
If only he had said something!

On the other hand, some sentences that are put in the form o f An exclamation, like a question, can consist o f a short phrase
statements are really invitations that can be regarded as ques­ or single word:
tions: for example those beginning with an introductoiy
phrase such as I wonder if/whether.... This kind o f sentence is Good!
essentially conversational, and would normally occur in writ­
ing only in personal letters or notes or similar casual contexts. Quiet!
In these cases a question mark is optional:
It’s quite common in informal writing to use several exclama­
Beware! I wonder if you would like to meet them tomorrow. tion marks together for special effect, e.g. Go away!! or They’ve
Question marks can
got ten children!!!
come at the end of I wonder if you would like to meet them tomorrow?
sentences that don’t
look like questions. But in more formal writing you should stick to single exclama­
I f the invitation is put in a form that is more like a statement in
tion marks.
indirect speech, you should omit the question mark:

I was wondering if you would like to meet them tomorrow.

22 23
4 Buildingparagraphs How long should sentences be? But I decided that the two parts o f the second sentence are too 4 Building paragraphs
and sentences
closely connected to split them, and also that the two sen­
This is a question that people often ask about sentences and tences belong together, although this results in a paragraph
writing style, especially in relation to compound and complex that is rather longer than average.
sentences which by their nature tend to be longer than simple
ones. The occasional shorter- or longer-than-average sentence is
harmless and often effective. What matters is the overall effect
o f a sequence o f sentences. Generally speaking, sentences
should not be so short that what you write becomes jerky and
difficult to read, nor so long that the reader will find it hard to
keep track o f what you are saying.

In the next chapter we w ill see how three key punctuation

marks—the comma, semicolon, and colon—can help to organ­
ize sentences and make them flow better.

It also depends quite a lot on the type o f writing you are doing.
In formal writing, such as reports and business letters, sen­
think about the tences need to be more carefully constructed because they are
most appropriate
style of writing for usually carrying an argument or important point. On the whole
your reader. they are longer in this kind o f writing, whereas in informal
writing—for example in personal letters—you would normally
expect to write shorter sentences because what you are saying
is likely to be easier and more entertaining to read, more like
conversation, and there is less at stake in the communication
with your reader.

Have you noticed the length o f my last sentence? W hen I read

it over again I considered doing two things:

■ dividing it into two sentences at the word because (although I

would have had to reword that part);

■ making a new paragraph at the start o f that sentence.

24 25
 You use semicolons to link two main clauses to form one 5 Punctuating
Punctuating sentences sentence sentences

Many people are

When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport; when a uncertain about
whether to use a
tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity. comma or a
semicolon ora colon.
You use colons to link parts o f a sentence when the second The rest of this
chapter will help you
part leads on from the first to understand their
roles and which you
His words rang in her head: everything’s fine, everything’s fine. choose in particular
types of sentence.
CONTENTS In this chapter we w ill see how you can use punctuation to con­
trol the structure and shape o f whole sentences and make
them clear to the reader. W e can call this the ‘macro-level’ o f W hen to use com m as
punctuation, rather like a macro-climate relating to large geo­
graphical areas. In a later chapter we w ill see how punctuation Pairs of commas
operates at a ‘micro-level’ to control, link, and separate individ­
ual words and phrases within sentences. We w ill look first at commas used in pairs, because they
When to use colons 36 can occur in simple sentences as well as compound and
complex ones.
Using punctuation to organize sentences
You use a pair o f commas to mark o ff words that make up a
How long a sentence can be without becoming awkward to separate group within a sentence and form a kind o f aside, Use commas in pairs
of commas 38 read depends a great deal on how you use the punctuation rather than being an essential part o f the sentence. to mark off extra
words and asides.
marks that can help you to organize it.
Punctuation works This is veiy common with qualifying words such as however, of
at macro and micro The punctuation marks that you need to use most o f the time course, and asfar asyou are concerned:
levels.
are the fu ll stop (.), comma (,), semicolon (;), and colon (:).
The universe that we know, of course, is a tiny fragment of the
For questions, see You should end every sentence with a full stop. I f it is a ques­ actual universe.
page 21. tion, you should end it with a question m ark (?), and i f it is an
Serious pollution, however, is a relatively rare event.
exclamation, you should end it with an exclamation m ark (!).

There are two very important rules to remember with pairs o f

You can use commas in two main ways:
commas:

■ pairs o f commas to separate optional elements or ‘asides’

■ to put in the second comma. I f you leave it out it makes the
from the main structure in any type o f sentence
sentence confusing to read and can affect the meaning:
This would, at a stroke, reduce the rise in prices.
\ / The mistake, which they admitted, has proved costly.
■ single commas to organize the parts o f longer sentences
X The mistake, which they admitted has proved costly.
People do what you pay them to do, not what you ask them
to do.

26 27
 The second sentence is incomplete without the second Single commas in longer sentences 5 Punctuating
sentences
comma, but as far as it goes it suggests that ‘they’ admitted
that the mistake had proved costly rather than that they had As a general guide, remember that commas are used to mark Tip
made the mistake in the first place. points in the sentence where there is a break in the flow o f
meaning. This is usually reflected in the grammar o f the sen­
If you remind yourself that pairs o f commas used in this way tence, and usually also in the way you would speak it. So it is
do the same job as brackets, it w ill be more obvious that you often a good idea, when you are writing, to say the sentence to
need both commas, just as you need both brackets. yourself, or even out loud. This w ill give you a good idea o f
where the commas should go. It is important to recognize
■ to put the commas in the right place, especially in sentences when commas are necessary, usually to avoid misunderstand­
where there is another comma, for example after a linking ing or to support the grammar o f the sentence, and when they
word such as and or but. You can test this by seeing how are optional, producing a different effect depending on
the sentence looks without the part that is separated by whether you put them in or not.
the commas:
There are three main kinds o f sentence: simple, compound, and
The Bank said it understands their problem, but unless complex. These three types have different patterns o f grammar.
payment is received by the end of the month, it might be
forced to repossess the property. Simple sentences

A comma before but is quite legitimate, but the comma after A simple sentence has one main verb and subject (together In the examples,
month calls for a first comma before unless, because the part called a clause): the subject is in bold
type, and the verb
to be separated o ff is ‘unless payment is received by the end is underlined.
o f the month’. I f you leave this part out, the sentence makes Words are our servants.
no sense:
Compound sentences
X The Bank said it understands their problem it might be
forced to repossess the property. Compound sentences are those that have two parts joined by a You try
linking word such as and or but. You often need a comma in Try reading the
sentence aloud and
The correct punctuation in this case is: sentences o f this type, but not always. The main test is whether
notice whether you
there is a break in the flow o f the sentence that would be make a pause: if so,
The Bank said it understands their problem but, unless expressed by an actual pause in speech. you need a comma
payment is received by the end of the month, it might be
forced to repossess the property. If the sentence is continuous in sense and you would not nor­
mally make a pause after the first part, you probably don’t
Then the sentence still makes sense when the separated part need a comma:
is left out:
She pushed the branches through and then squeezed through
✓ The Bank said it understands their problem but it might the stile herself.
be forced to repossess the property.
Not long after th e y came for her and killed her too.

(This is more likely to happen when the linking word is and.)

29
 5 Punctuating I f there is a slight break between the two parts o f the sentence, A comma after receiver would be quite correct and would put a
sentences
this is a sign that you need a comma: pause in the sentence at that point. That is why it is important
to think about how you want the sentence to sound to the
Tip
Tip There are old pilots and foolish pilots, but no old foolish person reading it. You usually need a
You need a joining pilots. comma when a
word (such as and or clause beginning
but) in compound W egre not all perfect, but wesan do something perfect. Some sentences need several commas because they have sev­
with so (or so that)
sentences: See page eral o f the features we have mentioned: and giving a result or
38 for what to do consequence comes
when there is no (This is more likely to happen when the linking word is but,
Beyond, in the distance, a great ridge rose high, running from at the end of a
joining word. especially when there is no verb in the part after but.) sentence:
one side of the window to the other.
You can deal with
The comma is especially important when the subject o f the much of the
sentence changes or is repeated: coursework during
Without the use o f commas the following sentence would be the day, so your
difficult to follow: evenings are free.
The end of term came, and David passed his examinations.

The interviewer hesitated, and when he asked the next She had never been able to believe, in some corner of her, that
question he sounded faintly embarrassed. anybody, particularly not a member of the working class, could
obey an order to destroy a house.

Complex sentences
You need a comma before a subordinate clause that comes at Reminder
Complex sentences are those that have a subordinate clause, the end o f a sentence when there is a definite break in the flow A subordinate
o f the sentence: clause is one that
i.e. one that cannot stand on its own and is joined to a main cannot stand on its
clause by a word or phrase such as if, because, although, as soon as, own in a sentence,
or so that. It’s better to try to take more of an interest and make inter­ e.g. one beginning
esting videos, because if you’re a creative person I think you with if or because

You usually need a comma when the subordinate clause comes can make creative videos.
at the beginning o f the sentence: He reached over and pulled Shelley towards him, so that he
could put his arm round her waist.
In the examples, the As soon as the quests had gone, she rushed to the
subject is in bold telephone.
type, and the verb is Tip
But i f the sense is continuous and you would not normally
underlined. When the main
If I ask an engineer how a steam engine works, I have a pretty pause in speech, you can omit the comma; clause has not or
fair idea of the general kind of answer that would satisfy me. another negative
A hospital cleaner in Barnsley works part-time because she’s word in it, a comma
is often needed to
But here too you can leave the comma out when the rhythm o f got two small children. make the meaning
the sentence is continuous and the subject o f the sentence dean
remains the same (he in the example below): We will not necessarily
be able to prevent
As he lifted the receiver he saw Hilary was standing at the such cases from
happening again,
door. because human
beings are full
of frailties.

30 31
 Note that a subordinate clause can be introduced by a verb 5 Punctuating
Tip sentences
ending in -ing or -ed (or -t or -en in some verbs: these are all In the second example, you can also omit that altogether and say:
called participles). In these cases the same rule about including What have they done with the money I gave them?
a comma applies: If you can do this without wrecking the sentence, you know that you are dealing with
clause is one that
cannot stand on its a defining type of relative clause and that there shouldn’t be a comma before it.
own in a sentence. She lay back in the bed, watching the play of moonlight upon
the window and listening to the water below. The words that looks like a boat and that I gave them are needed to
convey the meaning because they identify the particular thing
The waters ran on, tinkling like a musical box.
(the house and the money) you are talking about.
Determined to prove her brother’s innocence, she studied to
be a lawyer in the evenings and worked as a waitress by day. The other type o f relative clause is the non-defining type.
In this type, the clause is introduced by which or who and adds
Tip
additional information that is not an essential part o f the
If the verb refers not to the subject of the sentence (e.g. she in the last example) but structure o f the sentence.
to something else, or to nothing specific in the sentence (as with given in the
following example), the comma is much more important:
In this type o f relative clause, you need a pair o f commas:
Given that 27 million people recently watched the BBC1 television tribute to Queen
Elizabeth, the British fascination with royal-watching seems undiminished.
The money, which totals several millions, comes from You need commas
anonymous donors. with a ‘non-defining’
clause because
Relative clauses the clause has the
It makes perfect sense to leave out the words between the role of an aside
There is a special type o f subordinate clause called a relative commas and just say: (See page 27).
See the glossary
on page 98 for clause. Relative clauses are introduced by who, which, or that.
more help with The money comes from anonymous donors.
these terms.
There are two types o f relative clause, depending on the job it
has to do: i.e. the which-clause adds purely optional information. This type
o f clause is called ‘non-restricting’ because it does not ‘restrict’ Beware!
■ defining or restricting clauses: or identify the thing being talked about in any way; it just tells An -ing clause can be
restricting too, just
you more about it by the way. (Note that you cannot use that in
like a thot-clause, and
■ non-defining or non-restricting clauses. this type o f clause.) just as in a restricting
that-dause there is
Note that there is another way o f adding the additional infor­ no comma:
A de fin in g clause identifies the word or phrase it relates to
mation without using which, and that is by using a verb ending The man cleaning the
and is an essential part o f the sentence. In this type, you can
windows looked up at
use that instead o f which or who, and there is no comma before in -ing in a so-called ‘non-finite’ relative clause:
that moment.
which/who/that: (The words 'cleaning
The money, totalling several millions, comes from anonymous the windows’ are
No comma is needed Have you seen the house which/that looks like a boat? donors. equivalent to ‘who/
before a ‘defining’ that was cleaning
clause. What have they done with the money which/that I gave them? the windows’
Commas are needed in this type o f construction too, because and identify the
the -ing clause is functioning as an aside and not as part o f the particular man being
main structure o f the sentence. spoken about.)

32 33
 5 Punctuating Relative clauses with which and who need special care, as they You could write this as two separate sentences, but the idea
sentences (unlilce ones that) are capable o f being defining or non­ contained in them would come across as two distinct thoughts
defining in type. For example: rather than one thought expressed in two ways:

Watch out! The children, who are sitting examinations, will not be These few hundred yards are my village. Here I am known and
Take special care travelling at their normal time. recognized and greeted and safe.
with who and which
clauses. The children who are sitting examinations will not be travelling At the beginning o f the 21st century, semicolons are veiy
at their normal time. unfashionable. People tend to avoid them in ordinary writing,
and it is the punctuation mark you are least likely to come
The meaning is different in these two sentences. In the first across i f you riffle through a modem novel (some writers for
sentence, the commas make the words ‘who are sitting exami­ children avoid them on principle as ‘too difficult’). This is a pity
nations’ into an aside that does not form the main part o f the because, i f well used, semicolons can play an important role
sentence. The essential meaning is therefore that ‘the children in organizing sentences and making the meaning clearer and
(i.e. all the children being talked about) w ill not be travelling at more effective.
their normal tim e’.

Without the commas, as in the second version o f the sentence,

the words ‘who are sitting their examinations’ become a
restrictive or identifying clause, and the meaning is that these
particular children, rather than all o f them, will not be travel­
ling at their normal time.

You could also use a non-finite -ing clause o f the kind we saw
above, and put:

Watch out!
In this kind of
The children sitting examinations will not be travelling at their
sentence, make sure normal time.
your commas match
your meaning!

W hen to use sem icolons

Reminder Semicolons are used to divide sentences into longer parts, and
People are waiy o f semicolons because they are not sure about
semicolon is; have the same structural role as linking words such as and or
colon is: when to use them instead o f commas or colons; so they tend to
but have in compound sentences. Each part is like a smaller
use commas all the time. Note that I have just used a semicolon
sentence in itself, but there is a close connection between the
in the sentence before this one; and I am using one again in
parts that might be lost i f you use two separate sentences:
this sentence. You can see, I hope, how effective they can be in
joining two connected statements that are better expressed as
These few hundred yards are my village; here I am known and
one sentence than as two but need a stronger link than the
recognized and greeted and safe. comma provides.

34
 Note that sentences don’t have to be very long to need 5 Punctuating
| 2ndpart | | Impart ^2ndpart sentences
semicolons:

This is Wednesday; we meet on Friday. Colon checklist

The rich don’t have children; they have heirs.

Use a semicolon to Use a colon to
The main difference is this: a semicolon is meant to produce a ■join two sentences
In the last sentence, you could use a comma, but the effect with one leading
balance between the two parts o f the sentence, whereas a
created by the slight pause between the two statements would on to the other;
a make a stronger colon produces an effect whereby the meaning in the second
be lost: ■introduce a list;
division than a part leads on from the first part. There are several ways in
comma; a introduce speech
which this can happen:
• make a strong
The rich don’t have children, they have heirs. ora quotation,
division in a colon =
sentence that ■ The first part can be a general statement and the explanation!
It is very useful to have a semicolon up your sleeve when you
already has second part an elaboration or explanation o f it:
commas.
want to make a stronger division in a sentence that already has
a lot o f commas in it (both this extract and the one below are I have three children: two are grown up but the
from River Boy by Tim Bowler): youngest still lives at home with me.

He was being made to feel more part of the family:

She looked up at him, expecting him to speak, but he didn’t;
the children kissed him goodnight, like a third parent.
he just held her, his eyes staring over her head; then— just as
suddenly— he let her go.
■ The second part can be a list o f something
introduced or mentioned more generally in the
Here is a longer example: first part:

There are two modes of transport in Los Angeles: car and

She saw pictures of him playing with her in the garden when
ambulance.
she was very small, letting her climb all over him, pretending
she was too strong for him; pictures of him taking her to hos­
■ The first part can introduce something quoted in the second
pital the time she fell from the swing and hurt her leg; pictures
part:
of him teaching her to ride a bike, holding on to the saddle to
steady her and calling out encouragement when he realized This meeting is the result of a small ad which he had placed in
she was afraid. the New Statesman. It said: ‘Polish gentleman, 50s, political
refugee, seeks intellectual woman for marriage.’

His words rang in her head: everything’s fine, everything’s fine.

W hen to use colons
■ The two parts can describe a cause and its effect, or a prem­
ise and its conclusions:
I f people are confused about when to use a semicolon instead
o f a comma, they can be even more confused about the choice You can have your cake and eat it: the only trouble is you
between semicolon and colon. Their roles overlap, and so there get fat.
w ill often be cases where you could use either; but the effect
w ill be different.

36 37
 Sem icolons and colons linking statem ents The effect o f using brackets, and especially dashes, is to Punctuating
sentences
produce a more informal and relaxed style in the manner o f
It’s veiy important to remember that you use a semicolon or conversation. For this reason they are often preferable in
informal writing, such as personal letters. Tip
colon and not a comma to link two clauses, i.e. two separate
Brackets and
statements each having its own grammatical subject (the car dashes are often
and this in the example below) and not linked by a joining word Brackets are a useful option when the words you want to interchangeable, but
separate off do not fit the grammar o f the sentence as a whole, dashes have a more
(conjunction) such as and or but:
conversational effect.
e.g. they form a complete sentence in themselves:
Tip X It’s a pity the car is left-hand drive, this is a bit inhibiting.
You can use a His subsequent conversion to Christianity (he was born into
comma to join two >/ It’s a pity the caris left-hand drive; th is is a bit inhibiting.
statements when the the Jewish faith) again alienated some of his audience.
first is negative (i.e. it
contains a word An alternative that is often better is to put in a joining word
and when you want to add words to explain or elaborate on
such as not or never) such as and, hut, or because:
and the second is something you have already mentioned: Tip
given as a positive There is another kind
alternative to it: It’s a pity the car is left-hand drive, because this is a bit of bracket, a square
The only piece of furniture I have so far acquired is a very tiny bracket, that you can
I don’t hate men,
inhibiting.
desk on which I have laid out my papers (this journal, my Hindi use when you want
ljustwishthey'd grammar and vocabulary, Olivia’s letters). to add a comment of
try harder. But when there are more than two statements you can often your own to explain
treat them like a list and use commas: something that
might otherwise be
unclear in what you
✓ The French want to attack, the Americans want to bomb, are writing:
and the British want to have another meeting. She stood listening to
the steady buzz-buzz
[of the phone],
imagining the kitchen
where it was ringing.
Brackets and dashes as an alternative to pairs of
com m as

Reminder You can use round brackets (technically called parentheses) or a

You will find pair o f dashes instead o f commas to mark o ff words that do not
information on
pairs of commas belong to the main part o f the sentence:
used in this way on

If u
page 27. The money (which totals several millions) comes from anony­
mous donors.

Left to itse lf— and that is what it is when it dies— the body
tends to revert to a state of equilibrium with its environment.

38
 Direct speech 6 Punctuating speech
6 Punctuating speech and and quotations

quotations Direct speech is the exact quotation o f another person’s

words, and in this case the quotation marks go outside other
Tip
Notice the position
of a question mark
punctuation: or exclamation mark
when the direct
I hope he’s not really hurt,’ she said. speech comes at the
end of the sentence:
‘How long will it take us to get there?’ he asked. Charles said: ‘Must
you go in?'

CONTENTS Quotation m arks The usual punctuation mark at the end o f the quoted words b The question mark
before mention o f the speaker (after hurt in the first example belongs to the
Quotation marks 40 direct speech.
above) is a comma. But i f the speech is a question or exclama­
In some kinds o f writing you need to quote other people’s ■You don’t add a full
Direct speech 41 tion, a question mark or exclamation mark is used instead, as
words, such as conversations, extracts from other writing, or stop at the end.
Indirect speech 42 in the second example.
well-known sayings and quotations. In these cases you need to Did Charles say ‘Must
use quotation marks. yougoin?7
Because of their When the speech is interrupted by mention o f the speaker, it
There are two
appearance,
Quotation marks tell the reader that the words between can be resumed either as a new sentence (as in the first exam­ questions here.
quotation marks are ple below) or, when the sense is continuous, after a comma (as
also called inverted them are what someone else has said or written, and so you
commas, but since in the second example):
only use them when you are giving the exact words in their
they don't behave at
original form.
all like commas this is ‘So that’s what real life is like,’ Jinny said. ‘No money and a
a less helpful name.
Quotation marks can be either single (‘ ’) or double (“ ”). In mountain of runner beans.’

You always use printing style, it is more usual to use single quotation marks in ‘Copperfield,’ said Mr Micawber, ‘accidents will occur in the
quotation marks in British practice and double quotation marks in American prac­ best-regulated families.’
pairs, like brackets.
tice, although there is some variation. Double quotation marks
It’s important to put
quotation marks in tend to be more common in informal writing on both sides o f When the quotation is a short phrase or group o f words con­ AmE
the right places in the Atlantic. tained within the structure o f the main sentence, the quotation
relation to other In American English
punctuation. marks go inside other punctuation: double quotation
Quoted words can be either another person’s words (this is marks are used as
called direct speech) or phrases within sentences. The punctua­ Only in Britain could it be thought a defect to be ‘too clever the main ones and
AmE they always go
tion rules, especially in relation to other punctuation in the by half’. outside other
sentence, are different in these two types o f quotation. punctuation:
All he said was ‘how uncomfortable’, and quickly lowered his
Only in Britain could it
Tip
eyes as if afraid of embarrassing me.
be thought a defect to
Double quotation marks have the advantage of making things dearer when be “too clever by half."
there are apostrophes in the sentence, which can be confused with closing If you put one quotation inside another, the inside one has The choice between
quotation marks:
double quotation marks if the main ones are single: single and double
“You’ll need to give me two weeks’ notice," she told him sternly. quotation marks is
the other way round:
‘What do you mean, “news”?’ she asked.
“What do you mean,
‘news?’ she asked.

41
 The question mark belongs to the question beginning with People’s opinions and decisions are sometimes given in a
‘what’ and so it comes at the end o f that question before the form that is rather like direct speech but doesn’t have quota­
You will find more single closing quotation mark. tion marks:
examples of all
these rules in the People in the country didn’t know they were born, he thought.
Reference section
on page 75. Indirect speech Dreams about loss and death, she says, help us explore our
fears about mortality.
There is another way o f setting down other people’s words, and
this is called indirect speech. In indirect speech, the person In these sentences, ‘he thought’ and ‘she says’ are not report­
speaking or writing reports what another person said, not ing actual words used by the people concerned; rather, the
quoting the actual words but putting them into the context of words are those o f the writer and ‘he thought’ and ‘she says’
their own sentence, often with a linking word such as that, if, are a kind o f aside, not referring to something actually said at a
or whether. In the examples below, the sentence is given first in particular moment but put in to show that the words represent
the form o f direct (quoted) speech and then in the form o f indi­ a summary o f what someone else thinks.
rect (reported) speech, so that you can see the difference
clearly: Because it is an aside, it is separated from the rest o f the
sentence by a pair o f commas.
Tip d ire c t:‘I hope he’s not really hurt,’ she said.
Direct speech
gives the actual indirect: She said (that) she hoped (that) he wasn’t really hurt. ]
words used
Indirect speech
reports what The word that after said in the second version is optional, and
someone said in is usually omitted in conversational English (as it is after hoped
the words of as well).
another speaker

direct: ‘How long will it take us to get there?’ he asked,

indirect: He asked how long it would take to get there.

Remember that you do not use quotation marks in indirect

speech, only in direct speech:

X She said ‘she hoped he wasn’t really hurt.’

X He asked ‘how long it would take to get there.’

Notice also that in indirect speech the tense (past, present, or

future) o f the action can change to suit the time o f the report­
ing verb (here, said): in the first example, hope becomes hoped
and he’s not becomes he wasn’t; and in the second example will is
changed to would.

42 43
 Punctuation that links w ords 7 Punctuating words
Punctuating words and and phrases

Here are examples o f punctuation that links words:

phrases
Hyphen

The hyphen is used to form compound words, especially when Watch out!
these are made up o f three or more individual words that have for the difference
between hyphens
a special combined meaning:
and dashes. They
Linking and separating w ords may look the same
man-of-war in ordinary writing,
but in printing and
As w ell as helping you to organize sentences and paragraphs,
jack-in-the-box word processing
punctuation serves to show the connections between individual they are different
words and phrases. This is the micro-level, like a micro-climate, characters.
If the individual words retain their own meanings, they are
that we talked about in an earlier chapter. Punctuation helps See the Reference
often spelt without hyphens: section on page 69.
to make the meaning clearer when words come together in
different relationships.
balance of payments
For macro and
micro levels, a man of God
see page 26.

Compounds consisting o f two words are now usually

unhyphenated when they are written separately, or else they
are spelt as one word:

table lamp

pork pie Watch out!

In printing and
houseboat word-processing,
you use an en-rule,
which is longer than
But you sometimes need to use a hyphen when the position o f
a hyphen, when the
the compound can make its role unclear, especially before link has the stronger
another noun: notion o f‘to’ or
'between’. The main
uses are in a range of
a balance-of-payments crisis numbers or with
(= a crisis in a country's balance o f payments: without the names that are
sharing in
hyphen the reader might understand it as a ‘payments crisis’)
something:
See pages 34-6.
Some punctuation marks link words: for example, hyphens a pork-pie hat
and apostrophes. Others separate words, especially commas. (= a hat having the shape o f a pork pie) the war of 1939-45
ajoint English-French
venture

44 45
7 Punctuating words a ground-to-air missile Most business names that were once regarded as possessive 7 Punctuating words
and phrases and phrases
(= a missile fired from the ground into the air) forms now omit the apostrophe, e.g. Lloyds Bank. But not all: e.g.
Lloyd’s of London (the insurance underwriters). Check the correct
And notice the following: form o f each name as used by the business itself.

The apostrophe is also used to mark missing letters in so-called

It was a town of a thousand-odd inhabitants.
contractions, e.g. didn’t, we’ve, and o’clock. The first two types are
(The meaning would be veiy different without the hyphen!)
conversational in style and are used mainly in less formal writ­
ing, although they are becoming more and more widely
He had applied for a small-business loan.
acceptable in print (and are used in this book, for example).
(The hyphen shows that it was a loan for small businesses and
not a small loan for any business.)
Remember that the apostrophe marks the missing letter or let­
ters, and should be placed where that letter would be in the
full form. A common mistake is to put
Apostrophe
X did’nt You can find more
For apostrophes in You use an apostrophe to show a possessive word, i.e. one that X could’nt, etc. information about
names ending ins deals with ownership or possession. The rule is to ad d ’s, or just this use in the
(suchasChor/es's) Reference section on
and other special an apostrophe to a plural word ending in s: The correct forms are pages 82-3.
cases, see the
Reference section ✓ didn’t
the boy’s books (one boy)
on page 79.
✓ couldn’t, etc.
the girls’ books (plural: more than one girl)

the children’s shoes (plural but not ending in s) because the apostrophe replaces the missing o in not.

Note that when a plural word ends in a letter other than s Watch out! See the Reference
Watch out!
for the difference between its and it's: section on page 95.
Do not use an (e.g. children above, and other words such as women and people)
apostrophe in The box has a label on its (= possessive) side.
ordinary plurals,
you ad d ’s and not s’. You only have s’ when the plural form
already ends in s. It's (- it is) difficult to read the label.
e.g. apple’s, video's.
See the Reference
section on page 84. In g ram m ar, a possessive form doesn’t have to be about actual
ownership in the conventional sense, but can cover all sorts of Punctuation that separates w ords
relationships:
Here are examples o f punctuation that separates words:
‘You have not had thirty years’ experience, Mrs Grindle-Jones,’
he says witheringly. ‘You have had one year’s experience
thirty tim e s.’ Commas with nouns

This rule is explained The apostrophe plus s marks the possessive and sets up a link The comma is the key to marking o ff words you want to sepa­
in more detail in the between year (or years) and experience. Note the difference between rate or keep distinct:
Reference section on
pages 78-9. the two forms: the apostrophe before the s denotes a singular year
and the apostrophe after the s denotes plural years. The room had a table, an armchair, a built-in wardrobe, and a
comfortable enough bed.

47
7 Punctuating words Commas with names 7 Punctuating words
In this sentence the commas mark o ff items in a kind o f list. and phrases
and phrases
You don’t have to put a comma before the and that marks the
The Oxford last item in the list (poor housing in the example below): You do not use a comma when a noun denoting a person is
comma followed by the person’s name:
They are hit hardest by traffic fumes, factory pollution and
Some publishing
houses use this final poor housing. Their brother John had come to stay.
comma in all cases.
Oxford University But when the grouping o f nouns is more complex, when for President Bush will undergo minor surgery today.
Press is one of them,
and so the practice is example there are pairs o f nouns that go together or there are
often called the compound nouns, it is advisable to use a comma before the But you use a pair o f commas when a name or description fol­
'Oxford comma’. final and to make the relations between words clear: lows as an aside:

We ordered bacon and eggs, sausage and chips, and ice cream
Their brother, John, had come to stay.
to follow.

The effect o f the commas is to suggest ‘their brother, who by

Commas with adjectives the way was called John’.

When you have a series o f adjectives (words that describe), The Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, denied that Egypt was
you usually separate them with commas when they all refer to building a chemical weapons plant.
the same sort o f thing, such as a physical state or someone’s
character:
Here, the word President is used as an ordinary word and not as
He was a stubborn, prickly old man. a title. The name has the status o f additional information.

But sometimes it is more effective to link two adjectives You need commas when a name or designation is followed by a For more about
brackets, See the
with and: description: Reference section
beginning on
He was a stubborn and prickly old man. Her father, a local policeman, had something to say about it. page 67.

You do not normally need any kind o f link when the adjectives
have different types o f reference; if, for example, one refers to
colour and the other to size: Brackets and dashes

The car stopped at a bright little cottage. You can also use brackets and dashes, more informally, as you For more about
dashes, see the
can with other asides: Reference section
But notice the value o f the comma in a sentence like this one: beginning on
Her father— a local policeman — had something to say about it. page 69.
His first, angry urge was to smash the glass. Her father (a local policeman) had something to say about it.

The comma shows that the first urge was angry, whereas the
later urges were not (or not necessarily) angiy. Without the
comma the sentence would imply a series o f angiy urges o f
which this was the first.

49
 8
7 Punctuating words Commas that avoid confusion
and phrases

Commas are very useful in keeping words apart that might

Special uses of punctuation
mean something different i f read together. There are three
types o f special danger that you can watch out for:

Watch out! ■ words that can be adverbs or prepositions, such as across,

beyond, inside, and over

Notice the difference between the two uses o f inside in the

following sentences:
Like most useful tools, some punctuation marks are put to CONTENTS
Inside the house a party was going on.
extra uses that are quite separate from their main roles o f Full stops in
Inside, the house had been completely refurbished.
organizing words and sentences. For example, they are used in abbreviations 51
In the first sentence, inside is a preposition governing the abbreviations and dates, and are an important part o f Internet
house, and there is no comma. addresses. numbers 52
Punctuation in dates 52
In the second sentence, inside is an adverb qualifying the
whole sentence, and you need a comma. Without a comma, Punctuation in
Full stops in abbreviations addresses 53
the reader could be led into thinking that inside was a prepo­
sition, as it is in the first sentence. The rest o f the sentence When to use capital
Abbreviations made up o f initial letters (called initialisms) letters 54
makes it clear that this isn’t the case, but by then your
have traditionally contained full stops:
reader may well have stumbled.
Checklist
B.B.C., e.g., Ph.D.
■ adverbs, such as only and usually, that can refer to different There are four main
parts o f the sentence. The position o f the comma can maVp kinds of abbreviation:
The purpose o f the full stops is to show that a group o f letters is
a difference: initialisms made
something other than a normal word. As abbreviations become from first letters: BBC,
On that day only, new applicants can call in person. more common and familiar, so it becomes more and more VDU, i.e.
On that day, only new applicants can call in person. usual to omit the full stops: shortenings, usually
the beginnings of
In the first version, only refers to the date, whereas in the words: Mon., Tues.,
BBC, eg, Ph D Lieut.
second, it refers to the applicants.
contractions in
Abbreviations that consist o f the first few letters o f a word which the middle of
■ words that make an idiom but that sometimes need their the word is left out:
(called shortenings) are still usually spelt with a full stop,
separate meanings, e.g. sick and tired, now or never: Dr, Mrs
because they are more likely to be mistaken (if only momentar­
acronyms, based on
He felt sick, and tired of waiting. ily) for words in their own right:
the first letters of
words, that are words
Without the comma, the separate meaning o f ‘sick’ is lost, in their own right:
Mon. (= Monday), co. (= company), beg. (= beginning),
and the words will be understood as a phrase ‘sick and tired’. radar, nimby (= not in
no. (= number) my back yard). Strictly
Say it now, or never mention it again. speaking, acronyms
are not abbreviations
Again, omission o f the comma might cause temporary mis­ and they never have
understanding. full stops.

50
51
 8 special uses of Single-letter shortenings usually keep the full stop: Punctuation in addresses 8 Special uses of
punctuation

b. 1956 (= born in 1956) Postal addresses

d. 2001 (= died in 2001)
p. 32 (= page 32, in references; also pp. = pages) Commas are used to separate the parts o f a postal address
when these are written on the same line:
Tip Contractions (shortenings with the middle part o f the word
There is a lot of left out) tend to omit the full stop: 27 Glenorchy Terrace, Edinburgh, EH9 2DQ Tip
variation of style in Note that it is usual
abbreviations. now to omit the
Decide your own Dr, Mr, Mrs, Ms, actg (= acting) But commas are often omitted from an address written on comma between the
style and stick to it. separate lines, for example on an envelope: house number and
the street name.
Punctuation in num bers 27 Glenorchy Terrace
Edinburgh
Various conventions are used to organize the written form
o f numbers:

■ Commas mark o ff thousands in longer numbers,

e.g. 1,500,000.

■ Full stops mark decimal points in fractions and financial

figures, e.g. 10.5%, £24.99.

'KmE ■ Full stops (or, especially in American practice, colons)

separate hours and minutes in expressions o f time, “7
e.g. 9.30 a.m., 12:15 p.m.

Internet addresses
Punctuation in dates
Full stops divide the parts o f an Internet website or email
kmE Dates usually need no punctuation when they are written in full: address, and the whole address comes after the prefix ‘http’
(= hypertext transfer protocol) separated by a colon and two
n American practice
t is usual to put 17 August 2002 forward slashes:
he month first,
ollowedbythe day: Tip
When the three parts are all written as numbers you normally http://www.oup.co.uk
18.77.02. Use the askoxford
need full stops or slashes between them:
website for answers
http://www.askoxford.com to your queries
17.8.02 or 17.08.02 or 17/8/02 or 17/08/02 about language
In email addresses, the person or group addressed comes first,
followed by an ‘at’ sign @ and the domain name:

sales@oup.co.uk

52 53
 The correct placing o f full stops is veiy important in Internet
addresses. To avoid possible confusion, many people om it the
full stop at the end o f a sentence when such an address comes
Part B: Reference section
at the end: Contents
Visit our website at www.askoxford.com

W hen to use capital letters

Always begin a new sentence with a capital letter, even i f the Full stop (.) 57
sentence is not ‘complete’:
Comma (,) 59
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
Semicolon (;) 65
Someone watches over us when we write. Mother. Teacher.
Shakespeare. God. Colon (:) 66

You should also use capital letters for other reasons: Brackets)) [] 67

■ in names o f people and places, e.g. Kate, Sanjay, Florence, Dash (—) 69
St Kitts & Nevis, Mount Everest, the Irish Sea;
Slash (/) 70
■ for the main words in titles o f books, plays, pieces o f music,
Question mark (?) 71
pictures, newspapers, etc., e.g. Love Among the Single Classes,
The Times, Flight of the Bumble Bee, Hunters in the Snow; Exclamation mark (!) 73

■ in titles o f people, e.g. the Archbishop ofWestminster, His Majesty Quotation marks (“ ” *’) 75
the King;
Apostrophe (’) 78
■ in words for particular institutions, e.g. the Government,
the State, the Crown, the Church, the Labour Party, Islam; Hyphen (-) 85

Omission marks (...) 88

■ in geographical descriptions that are recognized names,
e.g. Northern Ireland (but northern England, which is purely Capital letters 89
geographical):
Avoiding common punctuation errors 89
■ in names o f special days and festivals, e.g. the Ascension,
Christmas Day, Hanukkah. Further reading 96

Glossary 98

Index 102

54
In Part B, we will look at punctuation from the other end. Each Full stop (.) Full stop
punctuation mark has its own heading followed by a description
o f its main roles. When roles overlap, you w ill find a reference to This is also known as a period, point, full point, or stop. The term Come, the full
another heading, either in this section or in Part A. period dates from the 16th century and originally meant a com­ stop.
plete or well-formed sentence; then in the 17th century it came
Shakespeare, TheMerchantof
Use this section to check the main features o f each punctuation to be applied to the punctuation mark that ended it, along with Venice, m.i (1596)
mark. At the end o f this section there is a trouble-shooting the other names mentioned. The name full stop (now the most
checklist o f common errors, which lists the main pitfalls familiar term in everyday use) occurs in Shakespeare (see the No iron can stab
people fall into and refers you to other parts o f the book where quotation to the right), where it is used as an exhortation from the heart with
a particular problem is dealt with in more detail. one speaker to another to cut short his speech.
such force as a
full stop put just
Full stop in sentences
at the right place.
IsaacBabel (Russianwriter,
The main use o f the full stop is to mark the end o f a sentence 1894-1939)
when this is a statement. In a short sentence it is often the only
punctuation mark that is needed:

Joe counted the rest of the money in the box and frowned.

A full stop can also mark ‘incomplete’ sentences when they

lack a verb or have words that are understood, as in the open­
ing o f Nice Work by David Lodge (1988):

Monday, January 13th, 1986. Victor Wilcox lies awake, in the

dark bedroom, waiting for his quartz alarm clock to bleep.

Or in this statement from Bill Gates o f Microsoft o f what busi­

ness is all about:

I think business is very simple. Profit. Loss. Take the sales,

subtract the costs, you get this big positive number.

So called ‘elliptical’ sentences o f this kind are common in liter­

ature for special effect:

It was a dream breakfast. Bacon and egg and sausage and

beans and tomatoes. All steaming hot. A rack of toast with
marmalade and butter in dishes. And a big mug of tea.

We’re here on holiday. For a rest. We can do without people

crashing in through the kitchen window.

57
 When the sentence is a question or exclamation, you use a Full stop in other uses
question mark or exclamation mark instead. Both o f these
marks include a full stop in their forms (see question mark, Full stops are used to mark o ff units o f money (£24.99, $100.50),
page 71 and exclamation mark, page 73). to show decimal fractions (17.5%), and to separate hours and
minutes in showing time (12.30 p.m.; but in American English a
colon is used, e.g. 12:30 p.m.).
Full stop in abbreviations
Full stops are also used to separate the parts o f an email
The use o f full stops in abbreviations is gradually disappearing, address or website name:
because the original intention o f showing that a group o f let­
ters is not an ordinary word but a collection o f initials is no http://www.oup.co.uk
longer so important. Abbreviations are increasingly spelt with­
out full stops when they consist entirely o f capital letters (AGM, sales@oup.co.uk
NNE, TUC) or a mixture o f capital and small letters (BSc, Dr, Ms).

But full stops are still usual when the abbreviation is made up Com ma (,)
entirely o f small letters, because in this form they are less
immediately recognizable as abbreviations rather than words The term comma dates from the 16th century and is derived Maybe, as a
(a.o.b„ p.m., t.b.a.). from a Greek word komma, which literally meant ‘a piece cut general rule, the
o ff’, and came to be used o f a phrase or group o f words and
Abbreviations consisting o f the first few letters o f words, often fewer commas a
then the punctuation mark associated with them.
called ‘shortenings’, are usually spelt with a full stop at the end person used, the
(co., Oct., Tiies.). The comma works primarily as a separator. Its main role is to more ruthless a
indicate the structure o f sentences and to make their meaning tyrant he would
I f an abbreviation with a full stop comes at the end o f a sen­ clear by showing which words belong together and which do
tence, you do not need to add another full stop, unless another prove to be if
not. It usually represents the natural breaks and pauses that
piece o f punctuation, such as inverted commas or a bracket, you make in speech, and can mark groups o f words, or phrases, placed in a
come after the abbreviation: Bring your own pens, pencils, rulers, as well as single words: position of power.
etc. but Bring your own things (pens, pencils, rulers, etc.). NicholsonBaker, Room
Temperature(1990)
There is a special kind o f abbreviation, called an acronym, that The comma separating phrases
goes one stage further than an ordinary abbreviation and
becomes a word in its own right. Acronyms are often written You often need a comma to mark o ff parts o f a sentence that
with small letters, can form plurals, and are pronounced as syl­ are linked by words such as and, but, and yet (called conjunc­
lables rather than as the sequence o f letters from which they tions), and also by so-called ‘subordinating’ conjunctions such
are made. Examples include radar (= radio detection and rang­ as if and although. This is especially important when the subject
ing), scuba (= self-contained underwater breathing apparatus), o f the sentences changes or is repeated:
and names o f organizations such as Nato (= North Atlantic
Treaty Organization). Because acronyms are fully-fledged The interviewer hesitated, and when he asked the next ques­
words, they do not have full stops. tion he sounded faintly embarrassed.

58
The use o f a comma in these cases is especially important when A comma is used to introduce direct speech, especially when
the sentence is fairly long: this is continued after a reporting verb such as say or ask:

If we moor a tiny boat at some fixed point in the pond, the A former headmistress once said, ‘If Constance had nothing
boat will bob up and down rhythmically as the waves pass else to read, she’d read the label on a jam jar!’
under it.
A comma can help to avoid ambiguity or momentary misunder­
It is not normally correct to join the clauses o f a compound sen­ standing:
tence without a conjunction (the so-called ‘comma splice’):
Inside, the house was both smaller and larger than it looked.
X His was the last house, the road ended with him.
She had loved, herself, as a young girl.

You should either put in a conjunction such as and, or use a

When an adverb or adverbial phrase such as already, moreover,
semicolon:
still, yesterday, personally, or next day comes at the beginning o f a
sentence, you need to put a comma after it when there would
His was the last house, and the road ended with him.
be a natural pause in speaking:

or
Personally, I have always looked upon cricket as organized
loafing.
His was the last house; the road ended with him.
On the plus side, death is one of the few things that can be
It is also incorrect to separate a subject from its verb with a done as easily lying down.
single comma:
Crucially, his confessions of major fraud were ignored.

X Those with the lowest incomes and no other means, should As a townee, she’d had little experience of the countryside.
get the most support.
Still, he did at least show encouraging signs of intending
to leave.
This should be
The same applies to subordinate clauses that come at the begin­
Those with the lowest incomes and no other means should get
ning o f a sentence. These can be based on present participles
the most support.
(forms ending in -ing) or begin with a word such as although,
when, if, or because:
A comma also separates parts o f a sentence that balance or
complement each other:
Putting the plates down, Bella sat in a chair and pulled Jinny
towards her.
The meeting is not cancelled, only postponed.
If Jane does not get well soon, we will call the doctor.
It was getting warmer, but not yet warm enough for their
picnic. When our vital interests are challenged, we will act.
A comma is especially important after the word however when But you do not use commas when the clause identifies a person
this comes at the beginning o f a sentence and means ‘by con­ or thing you have just mentioned and is an essential part o f
trast’ or ‘on the other hand’ : the meaning:

However, a good deal of discretion is left in the hands of area What happened to the man who called last week?
managers.

But you do not use a comma after however when it comes before The comma separating words
an adjective or adverb and it means ‘no matter how much’ :
A comma is used to separate adjectives o f the same type (i.e. cov­
However large it was, it was not going to be large enough ering the same range o f meaning) that come before a noun:
for this.
They were behaving like horrible, craven infants,

an idyllic, unspoilt countryside

The comma used in pairs
The comma can be replaced by and between a pair o f adjectives
You use commas in pairs to mark o ff parts o f a sentence that to make a stronger effect:
are asides or not part o f the main statement:
They were behaving like horrible and craven infants.
The universe that we know, of course, is a tiny fragment of the
actual universe. When the adjectives have a different range o f reference (for
Despite his good intentions, however, all thought of Alice example, size and colour), and could not normally be separated
slipped from his mind. by the word and, it is usual to om it the comma:

But memories, she knew, must be painful for him. y He was wearing his baggy brown jacket.
She felt she had, at last in India, come to the right place. X He was wearing his baggy and brown jacket.

Remember that pairs o f commas do the same sort o f job as • / She gave him an old Dutch painting.
brackets, and you need both commas just as you need both X She gave him an old and Dutch painting..
brackets. (On this point see page 67.)
But you can put a comma in to give extra emphasis to each o f
You also use commas to separate a relative clause (one begin­ the adjectives, and this is quite common in descriptive writing:
ning with which, who, whom, or whose) when this is adding extra
information and the sentence would make sense without it: They were put down in a wide, dark road.

The money, which totals more than half a million, comes from
three anonymous donors. (The effect o f the comma is to make the sentence equivalent to:

They were put down in a wide road that was also very dark.)
But note that you always leave the comma out when the last Sem icolon (;)
adjective has a strong connection with the noun, so that the
two words effectively make a set term or phrase (in the exam­ The term dates from the 17th century and, as its name sug­ At a comma, stop
ples, foreign correspondent, old lady, and grey seal): gests, literally means ‘half a colon’, although this literal a little. At a semi­
meaning is a little deceptive in regard to its m odem function.
colon, somewhat
the newspaper’s new foreign correspondent
The main role o f the semicolon is to mark a division that is more.
a little old lady RichardHodges (1644)
stronger than a comma but less strong than a full stop.
a beautiful grey seal
The two parts o f a sentence divided by a semicolon should bal­
Commas are used to separate items in a list or sequence. You do ance each other, rather than lead from one to the other (in
not need a comma before and in the last item, although some which case you probably need a colon):
people put one and this is not incorrect:
To err is human; to blame it on the other party is politics.
It is as though we were to speak of dogs, lions, weasels, bears,
hyenas, pandas, and otters all in one breath. The rich don’t have children; they have heirs.

An alternative is to include a comma in this position only when Charlotte had gone on to university; Luke was now at sixth-
it is needed to add clarity: form college.

For breakfast they had tea, toast and marmalade, and eggs. You will find the semicolon especially useful to make a
stronger division in a sentence that already contains commas:
(The final comma clarifies the special link between toast and
marmalade, which is effectively a phrase in its own right.) He’d rather that I’d stayed at home, and then he would
continue to make jokes about me being the last housewife in
Omit the comma between nouns that occur together in the captivity; or else that I had found some trendy, highly-paid job
same grammatical role in a sentence (called apposition), when in the media.
the second identifies the first. Very often it is a name:
There was more fresh meat and vegetables, and an improve­
ment in the food supply, so that not so many people died of
Her friend Helen had also been playing on the beach.
starvation or diseases caused by malnutrition; transport
Their dog Gruff would be waiting at the gate. improved, so that food shortages in a particular area could
be remedied.
But you need a pair o f commas when the second noun is
treated as a piece o f extra information and is not part o f the You could write the last piece as two separate sentences, but
main structure o f the sentence: the balance between the two statements would not be so clear.

They could see the holiday house, Rose Cottage, in

the distance.
 In some older printing, you sometimes see a dash after the
coion Colon (:)
colon when a formal list o f items is displayed beneath on sepa­
rate lines. This is unnecessary but not wrong.
The ancient The term dates from the 16th century and is derived from a
reformers of lan­ Greek word kolon meaning ‘a limb’ and in grammar ‘a clause’;
You can use a colon to give more emphasis or drama to a state­
like other names it later came to denote the associated punctua­
guage invented ment in direct speech:
tion mark. (It is a different word from the one referring to
three manner of the intestines.)
She suddenly burst out: ‘Guy’s very unhappy. What can we do
pauses ...T h e
for him?’
second they W hile a semicolon links two balanced statements, a colon leads
from the first statement to the second. Typically it links a gen­
:alled colon. In American English, a colon is sometimes used instead o f a
eral or introductoiy statement to an example, a cause to an
George Puttenham(1589) comma after the initial greeting in a letter:
effect, or a premise to a conclusion. (In many cases a conjunc­
tion such as so or for example could be introduced between the
Dear Dr Harvey:
two halves.)

When we parted he offered me a choice: maintenance for

myself and the children, or the house and all its contents Brackets () []
outright, and nothing else.
The term dates in this meaning from the 18th century, and is a
Dear old Grandpa: he’d only been here twenty minutes and he
development o f the term used in building, which dates from
was bored already.
the 16th centuiy. The form comes from a Latin word bracae
I feel angry: do I look angry? meaning ‘breeches’, which the Romans are thought to have
acquired from their neighbours in Gaul.
But the difference between semicolon and colon is not always
clear-cut. In a sentence like the one below you could easily The brackets you will use most often in writing are round
replace the colon with a semicolon to give a stronger sense o f brackets or parentheses () and square brackets [].
balance between the two statements:
You use round brackets:
That is not what a scrupulous, principled government does:
that is what a weak, cynical, vacillating government does. ■ to add an explanation or extra comment:

Each age finds its own killer (in our day, for example, the
You also use a colon to introduce a list o f items. You can inter­
cigarette and the motor car).
pret the idea o f a ‘list’ quite broadly; it doesn’t have to be a list o f
physical things in the conventional sense but can, for example, This can sometimes be a complete sentence:
consist o f descriptive words as in the second example below:
Personal cleanliness was improved by an increase in the
production of soap and of cotton clothing (the latter could
The very wealthy employed a variety of servants: cooks, but­
be washed more easily and more frequently than woollen
lers, footmen, grooms, chambermaids, housemaids, laundry
garments).
maids, and scullery maids.

The best thing a pilot can be is careful: sober, meticulous,

receptive, and careful.
■ to show words that are optional or reflect doubt in the D ash( _ ) Dash
writer’s mind:
The reason for the name, which dates from the 16th century, is In modem wit
The dust has yet to settle on this contentious issue but a
uncertain. It may be connected with the idea o f a ‘dash’ or all printed trash
consensus (perhaps incorrect) seems to be emerging.
‘stroke’ o f the pen, but this meaning o f the word dash is not
is Set off with
recorded until a later date.
■ to give references and statistical information, such as a num’rous breaks
person’s dates or the source o f a quotation:
In formal printing there are two types o f dash, although not - - and dashes
William Hogarth (1697-1764) satirized the scandal in his many people are aware o f the difference. There is a so-called
famous caricature Gin Lane. en-rule (-) and a longer em-rule (—). The em-rule is the one JonathanSwift (1733)
used as a dash in general use, while the shorter en-rule is used
To be or not to be, that is the question (Shakespeare, Hamlet)
for some special purposes (e.g. to mark a range o f dates or num­
bers, as in 1801-2 and pages 51-9, and to link words when the
Note that punctuation coming at the end o f the part in brack­
notion is ‘between’, as in American-Chinese hostility).
ets goes outside the brackets when it belongs to the sentence as
a whole, and inside them when it belongs to the words inside,
Note that, in printing, both these dashes are longer than a
especially when these form a separate sentence beginning with
a capital letter: hyphen.

It is worth knowing the difference if you do a lot o f word-

Jean Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829), the great French
processing, because most programs are able to distinguish
biologist and early evolutionist.
them (although you may have to use a special combination o f
In 1742-3 the output of British spirits was 8 million gallons keystrokes).
(including 7 million gallons of gin).
But there is no real distinction in ordinary writing, where the
He grinned. (He’d had a lot more to drink than she had.)
dash is done freehand and varies considerably in length. You
use this either singly or in pairs for several purposes:
There is another kind o f brackets, square brackets, but you
w on’t need to use these much except in more formal writing
■ A single dash can introduce words that explain or elaborate
and editing. They are mainly used to put in extra information
on what has gone before:
to clarify a point that might otherwise be unclear or ambigu­
ous to the reader: Each school can, once again, become what it was always meant
to be— a building that has four walls with tomorrow inside.
Kate had said that after Joanna had been to see her, she felt
You can also use a colon here, but the dash is more relaxed
much better about it all.
and conversational in style.
Is it Kate or Joanna that felt much better? It could be either, But individuals do not evolve— they can only grow, reproduce,
and so the reporting sentence needs an addition such as: and die.
Here you could use a semicolon instead, but the effect would
Kate had said that after Joanna had been to see her, she
again be more formal.
[Kate] felt much better about it all.
■ A single dash can also introduce an extra point or after­
■ in some abbreviations: Question mark
thought:
a/c (= account)
She had always imagined he would go on for years— and perhaps
he would. c/o (=care of)

Familiarity breeds contempt— and children. km/h (= kilometres per hour, as an alternative to kph)

■ You use a single dash when you want to break o ff a state­ ■ instead o f a dash to show a range o f places or dates:
ment without completing it. This is normally only done in the financial year 2001/2
giving direct speech, especially in fiction: the London/Paris flight
‘It’s just I think it would have been a bit nicer if— ’
At phrase and sentence level, the slash is conventionally used
(A full stop at the end o f a sentence ending like this is to show the ends o f lines in poetry when this is written in con­
optional.) tinuous form:

■ You can use a pair o f dashes to mark asides and added com­ Tyger Tyger, burning bright / In the forests of the night
ments that do not form part o f the main statement. Dashes
form a more distinct break than commas would and usually The slash (here called a forward slash) is also used to mark o ff
have a more casual or conversational feel: the parts o f an Internet domain name or website (and a double
slash is used after the colon o f the initial prefix http):
It sounded— yes, that was it— like something heavy being
dragged across the stony yard in front of the cottage. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news
Then too— after an involuntary cry of shock— he had lowered his A reverse slash (called a backslash) is used more generally in
eyes as if afraid of embarrassing me. computing to mark o ff different levels in the path name o f a
file, beginning with the name o f the drive and ending with the
file name:
Slash ( / )
C:\my documents\personal\invitation.doc
The more formal printing name for this is oblique (from Latin
obliquus, meaning ‘sloping’) or solidus (a Latin word for a coin cor­
responding to our shilling), and it is sometimes also called stroke. Question m ark (?)

The slash has a number o f special uses at word level: Main uses

■ to mark alternatives to or in certain contexts: You normally use a question mark to show that what you have
said is a question:
Dear Sir/Madam

name of parent/guardian Are they arriving tomorrow?

he/she Where shall I put the chair?

is that you?

Who will cure the nation’s ill?

71
It is sometimes used when the question is put in the form o f a Exclamation mark (!)
statement, to reflect a rising intonation in speech:
You use an exclamation mark to show in writing something
She told you that? that is normally said loudly or strongly in speech. There are
several reasons you might do this:
Surely they are the same?

I wonder if I might interrupt you? ■ to attract attention:

■ to tell someone what to do;

You do not use a question mark when the question is expressed
in indirect speech, i.e. it is reported rather than expressed in
■ to express surprise:
the original words used:
■ because you think something is interesting or exciting.
He asked what time it was.
The most common uses are to express in writing words that do
But you do use a question mark in so-called ‘tag questions’ such the following in speech:
as did she? and aren’t you?, which are really emphatic statements
put in the form o f questions: ■ call someone or attract their attention:

John! Where are you?

She didn’t agree, did she?

You’re much better now, aren’t you? ■ give a command or warning:

Do as I say!

Watch out!
Double question marks
But don’t use an exclamation mark in an instruction that is
Using more than one question mark (??, ???, and so on) to expressed as a statement with a verb such as advise, urge,
express a strong feeling or doubt in a question that doesn’t and recommend
expect an answer (a so-called rhetorical question) is acceptable
in informal writing but should not be used in reports, business We urge you to take immediate action.
letters, and other more formal contexts:
I recommend that you write a letter of complaint.
What sort of people are they??
■ indicate a strong feeling o f absurdity, surprise, approval,
dislike, regret, etc., especially after how or what:
A single question mark in round brackets is a standard conven­
tion used to express a doubt about something, such as a date: How extraordinary!

What an appalling suggestion!

Julius Caesar was born in (?) 100 bc and murdered in 44 bc.
Aren’t they strange!

And then he kissed her!

Why, Andy, you’ve been hurt!

73
■ express a wish or a feeling o f regret: Quotation marks (* ’ “ ”) Quotation marks

I’d love to see the children!

These are also called inverted commas. Their chief role is to indi­
If only you had said! cate speech and quotations, in which words used by someone
else are quoted in their original form. In writing it is common
■ in speech, indicate someone calling out or shouting: to use double quotation marks (“ ”), although in printing prac­
tice varies between the double and single style (").
‘Bert!’ he shouted, and jumped down the stairs three at a time.
Single quotation marks are more usual in British printing and
The exclamation mark also occurs in literature, especially in
double marks in American printing, but the distinction is not
poetry, to express a strong feeling or idea that the poet wants
always so clear-cut in general usage.
to share with the reader (or hearer):
The rules given here are based on British practice, and any dif­
O, weep for Adonais! (Shelley)
ferences in American English are noted.
All too soon the tiny breakfast, Trolley-bus and windy street!
(Betjeman) It is important to know the difference between direct speech
and indirect speech:
You do not normally need to use the exclamation mark in this
way in normal writing, but you can use it in informal writing to Direct speech gives the words as spoken:
add emphasis to an interesting or noteworthy point you are
making (the equivalent o f would you believe it? or yes he really did, ‘Don’t call me soft,’ he said, and kicked her on the ankle.
etc.). It is usual to put the exclamation mark in round brackets
immediately after the word or phrase that you are highlighting: Indirect speech turns the words used into a ‘reported’ form so
that they come from the writer and not the person who origi­
There are ten (!) children in the family now. nally used them:

This, and the use o f double exclamation marks or a combina­ He told her not to call him soft, and kicked her on the ankle.
tion o f exclamation mark and question mark, should only be
used in personal letters and other informal types o f w riting You use quotation marks in direct speech, but not in indirect
such as emails: speech.

My goodness, I was angry!!! In direct speech, the quoted words form the main structure o f
the sentence, built round a verb such as say or ask. The closing
Are you being serious?!
quotation mark normally comes after a final full stop, or after
any other punctuation that forms part o f the quotation, such as
It is veiy important, as a matter o f good style, not to be tempted
an exclamation mark or question mark:
to use exclamation marks just to add an artificial sense o f drama
or excitement to a piece o f writing that is essentially routine or
He went back to the kitchen, saying: ‘I’ve done some soup and
straightforward.
a salad.’

‘Well?’ he said at last. ‘Isn’t it for me?’

75
Quotation marks w h en the quoted speech is followed or interrupted by a report­ ■ to indicate a word that has a special status, or is one that Quotation marks
ing verb such as say, shout, etc., the punctuation that divides the your readers might not recognize (either at all or in the
sentence is put inside the quotation marks: meaning you are using). In this type, the writer w ill often
go on to explain the term (and in the following example
‘If people can be taught evil,’ she beams, ‘they can be taught certainly should):
kindness too.’
The aptest name for my approach to understanding how
things work is probably ‘hierarchical reductionism’.
When your writing includes several speakers having a conver­
sation or exchange, the words start on a new line when there is
I f a quoted word or phrase comes at the end o f a sentence or
a change o f speaker:
coincides with a comma, the punctuation that belongs to the
sentence as a whole is placed outside the quotation marks,
Harriet said: ‘When do you suppose Callard heard?’
because the quotation is not part o f the main structure:
‘Yesterday, I should think.’
It is technically incorrect to talk about bat ‘radar’, since they
Then he may still contact you.’
do not use radio waves.
‘Oh yes, I’m not worrying.’
It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has
‘If he doesn’t, what will you do?’ ever produced the expression ‘as pretty as an airport’.

‘I don’t know. I haven’t thought.’

In American English, however, it is usual to place quotation
marks outside the sentence punctuation (and note the more
Notice that the identities o f the speakers are not normally
characteristic double quotation marks):
repeated each time. The reader has to keep track o f the alter­
nating speakers and may need to refer back to the beginning o f
Thomas Henry Huxley once defined science as “organized
the conversation. This is an accepted convention, but i f the
common sense.”
exchange continues for a long time it is a good idea to help
readers by reminding them occasionally o f which speaker is
When a quotation occurs within a quotation, the inner quota­
which. I f there are more than two speakers, you need to do this
tion is put in double quotation marks if the main quotation is
more often.
in single marks (or vice versa, especially in American practice):

The rules are slightly different when you include words as a British ‘What do you mean, “news”?’
quotation within a sentence and these do not form the main
part o f the sentence. American “What do you mean, ‘news’?”

There are several reasons you might want to do this: In the following example, the writer is quoting what a person
(called Phipps) said, and Phipps himself is quoting what some­
■ to quote a word or phrase from someone else, or one that one else said:
you have already used and want to discuss further:
‘He said,’ said Phipps gleefully, “‘Yes, they have more money.”’
These ‘captains of industry’ often risked their entire
fortunes. This is a fairly unusual alignment that tends to occur mainly in
fiction. In ordinary writing it is best avoided whenever possi­
ble, as it can be quite confusing to the reader.

76 77
Apostrophe Apostrophe (’) I f the noun is plural (i.e. it denotes more than one person or
thing) and ends in -s you add an apostrophe after the s:
The term is recorded from the early 17th century and comes
from a Greek word apostrophos meaning ‘turning away’ and the cats’ paws (several cats)
hence ‘omission’ or ‘elision’, which is the meaning relevant
here. Like other names for punctuation marks, apostrophe origi­ the Smiths’ house (a family o f people called Smith)
nally referred to the process involved and only later to the
I f the norm is plural and ends in a letter other than -s, the pos­
mark used for it. It was commonly used in Greek and Latin to
sessive is formed by adding’s:
mark dropped letters in manuscripts (for example, tertius
meaning ‘third’ was written as t’cins), and this is the use o f the
the children’s clothes
apostrophe that was first adopted in English in the 16th cen­
tury, especially by the early printers. the people’s cars

The use o f the apostrophe to show a possessive form (as in the the sheep’s hoofs
man’s head) is much later, however. It occurs only rarely in the
(In the last case, there is no way o f knowing whether there are
First Folio (1623) o f Shakespeare in this role, and it appears in
several sheep or only one, and so it is often better to rephrase
modem editions o f his plays because editors have changed the
this type o f possessive to make it clear what you mean.)
convention. Some people claim that the possessive fo r m ’s is
historically a contraction o f his (e.g. Henry his name = Henry’s
The apostrophe is rapidly disappearing in company names and
name) but this is not correct: it is derived from an Old English other commercial uses, e.g. Lloyds Bank, Citizens Advice Bureau. In
inflection that involved the adding o f a final -s to mark a pos­
each case you should follow the practice o f the organization
sessive form.
itself regarding its name.
The rules for using apostrophes as possessive markers have
Adding another -s to names that already end in -s (such as James)
always been unstable (and continue to be), and the main con­
can make an awkward sound, and this often leaves people
ventions were established as late as the 19th century. Indeed,
unsure about what to do.
some grammarians o f that time questioned the possessive use
because it did not involve an omission o f letters; so this was There is a simple rule you can follow:
still regarded even then as its primary function.
■ W hen you would pronounce the name with an extra -s in
speech, then add a n ’s:
Apostrophes in possessive words
James’s, Dickens’s, Thomas’s, The Times’s
Despite its shaky history, the main role o f the apostrophe in
modem English is still to show possession or association, as in ■ W hen you would normally pronounce the name without the
Penny’s house and the bank’s address. extra -s, then just add an apostrophe without the extra s:

I f the noun is singular (i.e. it denotes one person or thing) you Bridges’, Connors’, Mars’, Herodotus’, Xerxes’
form the possessive by adding’s:
■ W ith French names ending in (silent) -s or -x, ad d ’s:
the cat’s paws (one cat)
Dumas’s, le Roux’s
the bus’s windows (one bus)
The modified word is then pronounced with a final -z.
Mary’s hair

78
Beware o f confusing who’s (= who is or who has) and whose (= of know what your readers’ attitude to contracted forms is likely
whom): to be (e.g. some companies have a more informal writing style
as a matter o f course).
✓ Who’s (= who is) there?
The most common contractions are based on a pronoun
✓ Who’s (= who has) done this?
and verb:
X Who’s (* who is or who has) turn is it?
Fullform Contraction
✓ Whose turn is it?
I am I’m
An apostrophe should not be used in the pronouns hers, its, I had I’d
ours, yours, and theirs:
I have I’ve
X a friend of our’s I w ill or shall I’ll
✓ a friend of ours I would I’d
X the house is their’s you are you’re
\ / the house is theirs you had you’d

you have you’ve

A common mistake is to confuse its, which is a possessive word,
and it’s, which is a contraction i f ‘it is’ or ‘it has’: you w ill or shall you’ll

X The dog was licking it’s paw. you would you’d

\ / The dog was licking its paw. he is he’s

✓ It’s (= it is) time to go. he had he’d

✓ It’s (= it has) been raining. he has he’s

he w ill or shall he’ll

Apostrophes in contractions he would he’d

it is it’s (but beware o f confusion with the pos­

You need an apostrophe to mark letters that have been omitted sessive its: see page 95)
in forms known as ‘contractions’ (e.g. they’ve, wouldn’t). There
it had it’d (awkward and best avoided)
are not many o f these left in modem English. Although they
are found increasingly in print (in this book, for example), they it has it’s
are still widely associated with the informality o f speech, and
it w ill or shall it’ll (awkward and best avoided)
some more traditionally-minded people frown on them in
more formal contexts. For this reason it is advisable to use the it would it’d (awkward and best avoided)
full forms in documents in which it is important to make a
she is she’s
good impression, such as CVs and job applications, unless you
she had she’d
 dare not daren’t

she will or shall she’ll did not didn’t

she would she’d do not don’t

they are they’re does not doesn’t

they had they’d had not hadn’t

they have they’ve has not hasn’t

they will or shall they’ll have not haven’t

they would they’d is not isn’t

may not mayn’t

Note that the contractions based on have are only used when
might not mightn’t (very informal)
have is an auxiliary verb, i.e. it is used with another verb to
form a special tense: need not needn’t

ought not oughtn’t

✓ He’s bought a new car.
should not shouldn’t
X He’s a new car.
w ill not won’t
✓ They’ve got a cheek.
would not wouldn’t
X They’ve a cheek.
Notice that the apostrophe comes between the n and the t
In more casual English, this rule is applied flexibly when the
because it stands for the missing letter o:
contracted word is have, and it is possible to say, for example:
X does’nt
✓ I’ve a new car.
✓ doesn’t
✓ We’ve several of those.
Some words used in poetiy and literature are shortened or con­
There is another group based on a verb + not. The verb is always tracted with an apostrophe, e.g. e’er (= ever), tho’ (= though), o’er
one that can be followed by not, i.e. an auxiliary or ‘modal’ verb (= over). These words are not normally used in ordinary writing.
like be, can, do, have, or ought, or one o f the verbs dare and need
which behave in a special way:
Words that are shortened by omission o f letters from the
Fullform Contraction beginning o f longer words do not need an apostrophe when
they are established in their own right, e.g. cello (= violoncello),
flu (= influenza), plane (aeroplane).

An apostrophe is also used in some Irish names beginning with

0, e.g. O’Connor, O’Donnell. Note that the letter following the
apostrophe should be a capital letter.

82
Apostrophe Apostrophes in plural forms An apostrophe is needed to make a possessive form o f an Hyphen

abbreviation:
An apostrophe is used to show a plural in a limited range o f
words: The BBC’s decision to go ahead with the broadcast was widely
criticized.
■ short words ending in a vowel, especially o, that might not
be recognized otherwise:
Hyphen (-)
do do’s
(because dos looks odd and does would be confusing) The word and the device both date from the 16th century. The
name is derived from a Greek word huphen meaning ‘together’.
■ pronouns used as nouns: The ancient Greeks also used a linking hyphen, except that it
The cats were all she’s was a curved sign under words rather than a straight line put
(because she is not primarily a noun and shes would be between them.
unfamiliar)
The hyphen was used much more widely in the past to indicate
words that were formed from other words (e.g. in compound
Beware o f using an apostrophe in a word that is neither a posses­
forms such as to-day and with-out). In modem English its use is
sive nor a special case but an ordinary plural. You sometimes see
much more restricted, and the so-called ‘spelling’ hyphen, in
this on shop signs, and so it is sometimes known as the ‘grocer’s
which the hyphen is a regular feature o f a particular spelling, is
apostrophe’. Words ending in -o are especially vulnerable to this
fast disappearing. This development is very welcome, because
error (probably because o f confusion with the do’s type), but you
it means that the hyphen can enjoy a more effective and useful
also find it in quite harmless words such as apples and pears:
role on those occasions when it really is indispensable.
X video’s for hire
Strictly speaking, a hyphen is shorter than a dash (in printing,
X apple’s 30p a pound about half the length), but in writing there is often little notice­
able difference. Usually, however, there is no space on either
Avoid this at all costs: it is one o f the key stigmas that will side o f a hyphen as there is with a dash.
mark you as illiterate.
The dash and the hyphen have very different roles. While the
dash has an essentially separating role at sentence level, the
Apostrophes in abbreviations hyphen has a linking role at word and phrase level. There is a
lot o f variation in general usage, and dictionaries show differ­
It is no longer necessary to use an apostrophe to form the ent practices from case to case. This can be confusing, but the
plurals o f abbreviations and single letters, except when clarity following guidelines w ill help you to use hyphens in ways that
calls for it: are useful and consistent.

The hyphen has three broad roles:

Several MPs were standing around.

Dot your i’s and cross your t ’s ■ as part o f a word’s spelling (the spelling hyphen);

■ as a means o f Unking words that belong together in a

sentence (the syntactic hyphen);

84 85
 ■ to mark the division o f a word that has to be split at the end ■ to separate a prefix from the main word in order to avoid
o f a line o f print. confusion, e.g. to distinguish re-cover (= provide with a new
cover) from recover and re-sign (= sign again) from resign;
The last o f these is largely confined to printing practice, and we
can ignore it here. Most word-processing programs cater for ■ to join a prefix to a name or designation, e.g. anti-American,
lines o f different length, making it unnecessary to divide words ex-president;
in this way at all. I f you are interested in the subject, you can
look out a dictionary that deals with this aspect, such as the ■ to stand for a common second element in all but the last
Oxford Spelling Dictionary. word o f a list, e.g. two-, three-, orfourfold.

The sp ellin g hyp hen is used to form compound words (i.e. A syntactic hyp hen is used to clarify meanings in groups o f
words made from other words put together, such as house-plant words when the associations are not clear or when there are
and table-lamp). But in this role it is much less common than it several possible associations:
used to be, and tends to be used only when there is some spe­
cial need, for example when the compound is a long one or Few people these days can afford to buy hard-covered novels.
when letters come awkwardly together, e.g. free-for-all, multi­ The meeting was attended by fifty-odd people.
ethnic, and right-handed.
The effect of these changes was to reduce disease-carrying
Straightforward noun compounds are much more often spelt pests.
either as two words (boilingpoint, credit card, focus group, garden
They seem to have a couldn’t-care-less attitude.
parly) or as one. This is true when several consonants come
together, which used to be a reason for putting in a hyphen
You should also use a hyphen to clarify the meaning o f a com­
[database, earring, breaststroke, radioisotope).
pound that is normally spelt as separate words, when it is used
But you often need a hyphen when the words m a k in g the com­ before another noun:
pound have a grammatical relationship with one another, e.g.
dive-bomb (based on ‘to bomb by making a dive’), house-warming Some journals are published quarterly, with the object of pro­
(based on ‘warming the house’), punch-drunk (based on ‘drunk viding up-to-date findings.
from a punch’).
Notice that when the compound comes after the verb, and not
There are two cases in which a compound spelt as two words is before the noun, you can spell it as separate words:
made into a hyphened form or a one-word form:
Some journals are published quarterly, with the object of pro­
■ when a verb phrase such as take off and climb down is maHp viding findings that are up to date.
into nouns (take-off, climbdown);
You do not need a hyphen in a combination o f adverb ending
■ when a noun compound is made into a verb (e.g. a date stamp in -ly and adjective qualified by it, even when it comes before
but to date-stamp). the noun: a highly competitive market, abundant recently published
material.
A spelling hyphen is also used:
But when the adverb does not end in -ly, you normally need a
■ to join a prefix ending in a vowel (such as co- and neo-) to
hyphen in order to make the meaning clear: a well-known
another word (e.g. co-opt, neo-realism), although one-word
woman, an ill-judged remark.
forms are becoming more usual (cooperate, neoclassical);
 Capital letters
Omission marks (...) Capital letters

Omission marks (also called ellipsis) are a series o f dots (usually Capital letters are used to spell proper names, i.e. names o f
three) to show that something has been left out. There are two people and places, e.g. London, Concorde, the English Channel
main uses:
Some words have capital initial letters even though they are
■ to show that a word or words have been omitted from a quo­ not proper names. The rules for these are given on page 54.
tation so as to make it shorter or more convenient:

Others ... comforted themselves with the homely proverb, Avoiding com m on punctuation errors
that, being hanged at all, they might as well be hanged for a
sheep as a lamb. The following are punctuation errors that people often
make. The list cannot be exhaustive, and it is a good idea to
In the original version (Dickens, Bamaby Rudge, chapter 53), add your own recurring problems so that you have a personal­
the quotation began ized checklist.

Others had been desperate from the beginning, and com­ There are references to other parts o f the book for further
forted themselves [etc.], information in some cases.

■ to mark an interruption at the end o f a sentence, either to

show that a speaker did not finish it or to leave the conclu­ Using too many commas
sion to the reader’s imagination. This use is most common
in stories and narratives: Do not use commas when you don’t need to. As a general rule
they mark the pauses you would make in speech, and i f there is
‘If I don’t pee I’l l ...’ no pause there is often no need for a comma. Too many
commas in a piece o f writing make it disjointed and distract
You can also use a dash for this type o f omission: the reader. I f you find yourself using a lot o f commas it may
mean you need to rephrase your sentence:
There’s so many folk it’s more like a party. With lots of beer
and home-made bread and cheese and ham and some of my By last night, the Defense Secretary, William Perry, said, there
mother’s special cakes and — would be over 200 tactical aircraft in the area.

■ Notice that an omission that comes at the end o f a sentence This sentence contains one aside (‘William Perry’) within
still has three full stops, not four, and you don’t add a full another (‘the Defense Secretary ... said’). Rather than juggle
stop i f you have used a dash. This is because the sentence these commas, it would be better to reorder the sentence:
has not been finished: but the next sentence (if there is one)
begins with a capital letter in the normal way. By last night there would be over 200 tactical aircraft in the
area, Defense Secretary William Perry said.

One comma instead o f four!

 Separating tw o main clauses with a comma Avoiding common
Tip punctuation errors
(the ‘comma splice’)
If your punctuation seems awkward it's often a sign that you should rephrase.
Here you could say:
Main clauses coming together in the same sentence should not be
separated by a comma: ✓ Most support should go to those with the smallest
incomes and no other means.
X God has us here only on loan, we are transitory in this vale
of tears.
In fact this way o f casting the sentence makes the essential
I f you want to keep the comma, you need a linking word such point, about where the support should go, much better.
as and. Otherwise, use a semicolon i f the two parts balance or a
colon i f the second part leads on from the first (see pages 34-7). Here is another example:

✓ God has us here only on loan, and we are transitory in this X Complete and utter oblivion, is the usual fate of a crackpot.
vale of tears.
✓ Complete and utter oblivion is the usual fate of a crackpot.
or
Again there is the option o f rephrasing the sentence:
✓ God has us here only on loan; we are transitory in this vale
of tears.
✓ The usual fate of the crackpot is complete and utter
oblivion.
Alternatively, split the sentence into two:

✓ God has us here only on loan. We are transitory in this vale

Putting a comma before a that clause
of tears.

When a clause introduced by that comes after a verb such as

say, know, insist, or argue, you should not put a comma before
Putting a comma between subject and verb
that (which is a conjunction in this role):

It’s often tempting to put a comma between the subject and X Many observers have argued, that some form of planning
verb o f a sentence when the first part is longer than usual. This
is incorrect: is essential.
✓ Many observers have argued that some form of planning
X Those with the smallest incomes and no other means, should is essential.
get most support.
But you can have a pair o f commas i f an aside comes before the
✓ Those with the smallest incomes and no other means should
get most support. that clause:

✓ The report stated, for example, that science should be

taught to all pupils in some form or other.

91
p“ at9i o n ™ ! ° mittin9 one comma from a pair of separating commas But when the quotation is not a full sentence o f speech but a
short phrase or group o f words contained within the structure
This is a very common error, especially in longer sentences that o f the sentence, the quotation marks go inside the sentence
have other commas. Remember that a pair o f commas mark o ff punctuation:
something that is not part o f the main statement in a sentence,
and so you need both, just as you need both round brackets or Only in Britain could it be thought a defect to be ‘too clever
both dashes to separate words from their surroundings. by half’.

X The year is bound to involve lots of changes, all of which, I

believe will be positive for everyone, (comma omitted after Using quotation marks in indirect speech
believe, probably because the writer was nervous o f having
three commas close together; but they are needed) You only use quotation marks when you are giving the exact
✓ The year is bound to involve lots of changes, all of which, I words someone else has said or written. I f you are using indi­
believe, will be positive for everyone. rect speech, i.e. the type that can be introduced by a word like
that, if, or whether after the reporting verb, you should not use
X English life, while very pleasant is rather bland. quotation marks:

✓ English life, while very pleasant, is rather bland.

✓ ‘Max, can I borrow your leather jacket for a couple of
weeks?’ asks Cordy.
X He has chosen, instead to face one of two possible scenarios.
X Cordy asks Max if ‘he can borrow his leather jacket for a
X He has chosen instead, to face one of two possible scenarios.
couple of weeks.’
✓ He has chosen, instead, to face one of two possible scenarios, ✓ Cordy asks Max if he can borrow his leather jacket for a
(two commas)
couple of weeks.
or

✓ He has chosen instead to face one of two possible scenarios.

Using too many dashes
(no commas)
or Dashes are informal in tone and produce a loose sentence
structure. In everyday writing this is often more natural and
✓ Instead, he has chosen to face one of two possible scenarios. acceptable, but the effect can be too casual for more formal
(instead at the beginning, followed by a comma) writing.

It is often better to use pairs o f commas instead o f pairs o f

Putting quotation marks in the wrong place in relation to dashes, and semicolons or colons instead o f single dashes.
other punctuation

Remember that sentence punctuation comes inside quotation

marks in direct speech;

‘Dad?’ she said. ‘Did you say there aren’t any other houses?’

92
 Confusing singular and plural forms in possessives (’s and s') Confusing it’s and its

Remember that a word ending in a letter other than -s forms a Use it’s (with an apostrophe) to mean ‘it is’ or ‘it has’:
possessive by adding’s, whether it is singular or plural:
It’s raining.
the city’s cathedral
It’s been raining.
women’s rights

the oncoming car’s headlights (one car) Use its (without an apostrophe) as a possessive word (meaning
‘belonging to it’):
You add an apostrophe without an -s when a plural noun
already ends in -s: The cat was licking its paws.

the bosses’ offices

Omitting hyphens that are needed to clarify the meaning
the oncoming cars’ headlights
Hyphens are used much less than they used to be in ordinary
spelling. But sometimes a hyphen is needed to make the mean­
Using an apostrophe in plural nouns (the ‘grocer’s ing clear and avoid another possible meaning:
apostrophe’)
He would be in charge of a group of French-speaking tourists.
An apostrophe should not be used to form an ordinary plural:
When I was a small-boat owner, I saw the little creature on
X a pound of tom ato’s several occasions:

X a pair of handle’s It is important to re-view the films every so often.

For more examples, see page 87.

Using an apostrophe in yours, hers, theirs, etc.

You do not use an apostrophe in these cases:

X a friend of our’s

✓ a friend of ours

95
 Books on punctuation and related matters
Further reading G. V. Carey, Mind the Stop* (London, 1939): an old book that is
still useful

Eric Partridge, You Have A Point There: A Guide to Punctuation and

Its Allies* (London, 1953, reprinted many times): a longer and
more detailed study that is informative and entertaining,
though at times idiosyncratic

Titles marked * are available as paperbacks Robert Allen, Spelling (Oxford, 2002, in the same series as
this book)

Dictionaries and style guides

Reference books on language
A standard household dictionary gives you guidance on aspects
o f punctuation that affect the spelling o f words, especially Tom McArthur, The Oxford Companion to the English Language
hyphenation and capitalization, and includes many abbrevia­ (Oxford, 1992): includes historical articles on punctuation
tions in common use. The following are published by Oxford;
similar dictionaries are published by Chambers Harrap, David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language*
HarperCollins, Penguin Books, and others. Choose one that (Cambridge, 1995): has sections on the conventions o f writing
suits you best, and bear in mind that you may need more than and printing, with historical background and illustrations
one for different purposes.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary (revised tenth edition, Oxford, 2001) Websites

The Oxford Compact English Dictionary (second edition, Oxford, www.askoxford.com has much information on the everyday
2000): a shortened version o f the Concise, which some readers use o f language, with a ‘better writing’ section that includes
may find easier to use for quick reference tips on common errors and guidance on related matters
such as spelling and plain English. There is also a facility for
The Oxford Spelling Dictionary* (second edition, Oxford, 1995): a putting questions by email to the Oxford Word and Language
listing o f words and their inflections, with guidance on Service (Owls).
hyphenation and word division in printing

The Oxford Guide to Style (Oxford, 2002): includes guidance on

punctuation and hyphenation

Pocket Fowler’s Modem English Usage* (Oxford, 2002): an updated

and shortened version o f the famous book written by
H. W. Fowler, with many articles on punctuation and related
matters, edited by the present writer
 a sentence that contains a subordinate
Glossary complex sentence
clause, i.e. one beginning with because, if,
which, etc. See page 30 and subordinate
clause below.

compound sentence a sentence with two parts joined by a

linking word such as and or but. See
page 29.

consonant any o f the letters b, c, d,f, g, h,j, k, I, m, n,

p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, z. The letter y is a conso­
Technical terms are explained at the point in the text where nant when it is sounded as in year and
they are used. They are listed here with definitions for general yoke, but is a vowel in words such as
information. Explanations o f the punctuation marks themselves rhythm and tyre.
can be found in the Reference section beginning on page 55.
contraction See abbreviation above.
abbreviation a shortened form o f a word or phrase,
direct speech speech that quotes the actual words
including initialisms (BBC, TUC, etc.), short­
used: see indirect speech below and
enings (Apr., Sat., etc.), contractions (M rjn r,
page 41.
etc.), and acronyms (Nato, nimby, etc.).
Acronyms are treated as words in their own indirect speech speech given in a form that reports
right. See page 51. what someone has said without quoting
the actual words, e.g. She said I was right
acronym See abbreviation above.
as distinct from You are right,' she said. See
adjective a word that describes another word, e.g. page 42.
blue, horrible, pleasant
inflection a change to the ending o f a word to
adverb a word that qualifies a verb or adjective, make it fit its grammatical context,
e.g. quickly, very. A word such as only can be e.g. -ed and -ing in verbs or -s and -es
an adjective (as in the only one) and an forming plurals o f nouns
adverb (as in i only asked).
initialism See abbreviation above.
capital letter a large form o f a letter, e.g. A,B,C, used
intonation the changes o f pitch and tone in
chiefly to begin a sentence, for the first let­
ordinary speech, which help to clarify
ters o f proper names, and in abbreviations
the meaning, e.g. indicating that a group
clause a group o f words that contains a verb and o f words is a question, and show the
forms part o f a sentence. A main clause speaker’s attitude
makes sense by itself whereas a subordinate
main clause See clause above.
clause is dependent on the rest o f the sen­
tence to make sense. In the sentence She was noun a noun that names a person or thing,
a child when her mother died, she was a child is a e.g. house, George, happiness
main clause and when her mother died is a
paragraph a distinct piece o f writing beginning on
subordinate clause.
a new line (often indented, i.e. set in
 from the margin) and conveying a single subordinate clause a part o f a sentence that contains a
idea or theme verb but cannot stand by itself, e.g. one
beginning with if, because, or which.
past participle a form o f a verb used with he or have, See clause above.
such as killed, burnt, or spoken, or as a
kind o f adjective, as in the burnt cakes syllable a part o f a word that can be pronounced
separately, e.g. but and ter in butter
phrase a group o f words that forms part o f a
sentence, not usually containing a verb verb a word that describes an action or state,
or making complete sense by itself e.g. become, move, remain, take

possessive a word that indicates ownership or a vowel

similar relation, e.g. a noun as in the times y (as in rhythm: see con sonan t
boys’ room or London’s river, or a word above)
such as my, her, hers, their, theirs
prefix a number o f letters added to the begin­
ning o f a word to change its meaning,
e.g. re- in remarry and un- in unhappy
preposition a word such as in, on, or over, which
stands before a noun as in the book on
the table.

pronoun a word such as I, he, me, and us which is

used instead o f a noun. Possessive pro­
nouns are words such as mine and ours.
proper noun a noun that refers to one particular
person, place, or thing and is spelt with
a capital initial, e.g. Europe, Titanic,
Shakespeare
relative clause a clause beginning with who, whom,
whose, which, or sometimes that, e.g. There
are many people who dislike this music.
See page 32.
sentence a group o f words that make a statement
or exclamation or ask a question, begin­ Permissions
ning with a capital letter and ending in a
full stop Extract on p. 11 from Philippa Pearce, Tom’s Midnight Garden
shortening See ab b reviatio n above. (1958), reprinted by permission o f the publishers, Oxford
University Press
simple sentence a sentence that contains one verb and
subject, e.g. The trees are tall
Examples on p. 36 from Tim Bowler, River Boy (OUP, 1999)

100 101
Index full stops 9,13,15,18, 21, 26, 57-9
in abbreviations 51- 2, 58
in Internet addresses 53-4
paragraphs 19,99
parentheses, see brackets
participles 32,100
as omission marks 88 period, see full stops
phrases 9,19,22,100
however 62 commas separating 59-62
hyphens 9,18,44,45- 6, 69,85- 7, plurals and apostrophes 18, 79, 84,
95 94
poetry 71
indirect speech 22,42- 3, 75, 93, 99 possessives 100
Note: bold page numbers indicate errors with commas 89-92 inflection 99 and apostrophes 46- 7, 78-80,
major references and glossary in indirect speech 41 -ing verbs and clauses 32,33,34 85,94
definitions; entries in italics indicate in lists 38,48, 64 initialisms 51, 99 prefixes 86-7,100
specific words e.g. it’s in long sentences 26, 29-34, 60 Internet and email 11,12 prepositions 50,100
in numbers 52 addresses 53-4 printing 12
abbreviations 9, 51- 2, 98 linking words 28, 30 exclamation marks 74 pronouns 100
acronyms 51, 58, 98 pairs o f commas 18, 26-8, 91 full stops 59 and apostrophes 80
addresses 53-4 separating phrases 59-62 slashes 71 possessive 94
adjectives 47-8, 63, 87, 98 separating words 63-4 intonation 99 used as nouns 84
adverbs 50,61,87,98 single 18,26,29-34 inverted commas, see quotation in verb contractions 81-2
American punctuation 7 and subordinate clauses 30-2, 61 marks proper nouns 83,100
colons 52, 59,67 compound words, see hyphens it’s and its 47,80,81,95 and apostrophes 79
quotation marks 41, 75, 77 conjunctions, see linking words and capital letters 54, 89
apostrophes 9,13,18, 44,46- 7, consonants 99 linking punctuation, see colons; and commas 49
78- 85, 94 contractions 51, 52, 99 semicolons
see also plurals and apostrophes 47, 80-3 linking words (mainly conjunc­ question marks 9, 21, 26, 71-2
asides 27, 33,43, 49, 62-3 pronoun and verb 81-2 tions) 59-60 in direct speech 41
see also abbreviations and adjectives 48 double 72
brackets 9,16, 28, 38- 9, 49, 62, comma after 28, 30 omitting 22-3,42
67-8 dashes 9,16, 38- 9, 49, 52, 69-70 comma before 28, 90 questions 20, 21-3
round (parentheses) 38-9, 67-8, and colons 66 in complex sentences 30, 31-2, 38 quotation marks 9,40, 75-7
72 and hyphens 45, 85 instead o f commas 63 direct speech 18, 75- 6, 92-3
square 39,68 to show omission 88 lists double and single marks 40,
pairs o f dashes 70 with colons 18,37,66 75-7
capital letters 13, 21, 54, 89, 98 slashes used instead 71 with commas 38, 48, 64 errors 92-3
clauses 33, 98 avoiding too many 93 quotations 37, 76-7
linked clauses, see colons; semi­ dates 52 main clauses 90,99
colons direct speech 41- 2, 99 relative clauses 32- 4, 62-3,100
main clauses 90,99 and colons 67 names, see proper nouns
relative clauses 32- 4 , 62-3,100 commas in 61 not 31,82-3 semicolons 9,16, 26-7, 34- 6, 93
subordinate clauses 30-4, 61, 91, quotation marks 18, 75-6, 92-3 nouns 99 balancing sentence 60,65, 90
101 and apostrophes 78-80 linking clauses 27,38
colons 9,16, 26, 27, 36- 8 , 66- 7, ellipsis (omission marks) 88 in apposition 64 sentences 9,19,24- 5, 26- 39, 88,
90, 93 email, see Internet and email commas separating 47-8 100
American punctuation 52, 59, 67 em-rule 69 in compound words 45-6, 86 complex and compound 29- 34,
and lists 18, 37, 66 en-rule 45, 69 see also proper nouns 38, 99
original meaning 13 errors, avoiding common 84, numbers 52 types o f 20-4
commas 9, 15,16, 27- 34, 44, 89-95 shortenings 51,100
47- 50, 59-64 exclamation marks 9, 23,26,41, omission marks 88 slashes 52,53,70-1
in addresses 53 73-4 omitted letters, see contractions speech, see direct speech; indirect
before final and in list 48 exclamations 20,21,23 Oxford comma 48 speech; quotations —
 in indirect speech 22
subordinate clauses 30-4, 61, 91, in simple sentences 29
101 -ing verbs and clauses 32-4
see also relative clauses participles 32,100
superhighway 12 vowels 84,101
syllable 101
websites 53
that clauses 32-4, 91 who/which clauses 32-4
who’s and whose 80
units o f writing 19 words and phrases 44-50
organizing words into sentences
verbs 82-3,101 20-3
commas after 61 see also commas
in complex sentences 30-1

104