WHY STUDY PUNCTUATION

Woman without her man is nothing

Response from male students:

“Woman, without her man, is nothing.”

Response from female students:

“Woman: without her, man is nothing.”
HOW TO USE THE COMMA
 Use commas to separate three or more words, phrases, or clauses written in
a series.

The Constitution establishes the legislative, executive, and judicial

branches of government.

 Use commas to separate independent clauses when they are joined by any
of these seven coordinating conjunctions: and, but, for, or, nor, so, yet.

The game was over, but the crowd refused to leave.

 Use commas after introductory clauses, phrases, or words that come before
the main clause
While I was eating, the cat scratched at the door.
 Use a pair of commas in the middle of a sentence to set off clauses, phrases,
and words that are not essential to the meaning of the sentence

Clause: That Tuesday, which happens to be my birthday, is the

only day when I am available to meet.

Phrase: This restaurant has an exciting atmosphere. The food,

on the other hand, is rather bland.

Word: I appreciate your hard work. In this case, however, you

seem to have over-exerted yourself

 Use a comma to shift between the main discourse and a quotation.

John said without emotion, "I'll see you tomorrow."

Use commas
 To set off all geographical names,

Birmingham, Alabama, gets its name from Birmingham, England

 Items in dates ( except between month and day )

July 22, 1959, was a momentous day in his life

When you use just the month and the year, no comma is necessary after the
month or year

The average temperatures for July 1998 are the highest on

record for that month

 Addresses (except between the street number and name )

He lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC?
 Titles in names.

Rachel B. Lake, MD, will be the principal speaker.

 The comma separates two or more adjectives modifying the same

noun if and could be used between them without changing the
meaning.

Janine pushed her long, straight hair out of her eyes.  

However, do not use a comma between unequal adjectives or when

an adjective modifies another adjective (instead of the noun):  

His black hair glistened in the brilliant midday sun.

HOW TO USE THE FULL STOP

 To mark the end of a sentence expressing a statement

 To signify an acronym –

N.A.T.O. for North Atlantic Treaty Organization

But Now a days, it is acceptable and even preferable not to use full stops in
such cases
HOW TO USE THE QUESTION MARK

 At the end of a direct question

Do you understand this rule?

 To show that something is uncertain

He was born in 1886(?) and died in1942.

It should be inside round brackets or parentheses

HOW TO USE THE EXCLAMATION
MARK
 After an exclamation of surprise, shock or dismay, which is
generally a short sentence or phrase expressing very strong
feeling

What a wonderful surprise!

(especially one beginning with 'What' or 'How')

HOW TO USE THE COLON
 Before a list.
I could only find three of the ingredients: sugar, flour and
coconut.

 Before a summary.
To summarise: we found the camp, set up our tent and
then the bears attacked.

 Before a quote.
As Jane Austen wrote: Love is blind

 To indicate that what follows it is an explanation or elaboration of what

precedes it
There is one challenge above all others: the alleviation of poverty.
HOW TO USE THE SEMICOLON

 To join two complete sentences that are too closely related to be separately by
a full stop and there is no connecting word which would require a comma such
as 'and' or 'but’

The children came home today; they had been away for a week

 To join two complete sentences where the second sentence begins with a
conjunctive adverb such as 'however', 'nevertheless', 'accordingly',
'consequently', or 'instead'

I wanted to make my speech short; however, there was so much

to cover.
HOW TO USE THE APOSTROPHE
 Contraction
A contraction runs words together to save space on the printed page, keystrokes
or type, time in spoken speech, or in the interest of informality

Contraction     Phrase
it's it is / it has
we're we are
we'll we will
can't can not
 
Everyone's invited. (everyone is)
    Karl didn't call, just as you'd expected. (did not; you had)
 Possessives
A possessive is the form of a word which indicates that something else belongs
to it in some sense.

Consider an object such as a pistol.

If I say, “a pistol”

I'm simply indicating any of the hundreds of millions of pistols in existence. But
if I want to identify the pistol which belongs to Marie,
I say “Marie's pistol”

which specifies only the pistol which belongs to Marie

Possessive nouns always use an apostrophe.

 Never use an apostrophe with possessive pronouns:
his, hers, its, theirs, ours, yours, whose.
 
This book is hers, not yours.
Sincerely yours.

 Use the apostrophe and s after the second name only if two people possess
the same item.

Cesar and Maribel's job contracts will be renewed next

year. (Indicates joint ownership )
Otherwise
Cesar's and Maribel's job contracts will be
renewed next year. (Indicates separate ownership)
HOW TO USE THE HYPHEN
 For line breaks, divide already hyphenated words only at the hyphen:
mass-
produced
self-
conscious
 Use a hyphen to join two or more words serving as a single adjective before
a noun:

a one-way street
chocolate-covered peanuts

 When adverbs not ending in -ly are used as compound words in front of a
noun, hyphenate. When the combination of words is used after the noun, do
not hyphenate.

The well-known actress accepted her award.

The actress who accepted her award was well known.
Use a hyphen with the
 prefixes ex, self-, all-;

ex-student
self-assured
all-inclusive
 suffix -elect;

mayor-elect
 between a prefix with figures or letters:

mid-1980s

 Use a hyphen with compound numbers:

forty-six
sixty-three
HOW TO USE THE DASH
 To use in pairs to separate a strong interruption from the rest of the
sentence

All nations desire economic growth -- some even achieve

it -- but it is easier said than done.

 To indicate a range of numbers

900--1000
 To link two connected words

The Sydney--Melbourne train

HOW TO USE QUOTATION MARKS

 To enclose a direct quotation

She asked, "Will you still be my friend?"

 Use single quotation marks for quotes within quotes.

He said, "Daneal said, 'Do not treat me that way.'"

HOW TO USE BRACKETS
Round Brackets
 To clarify or inform.
Jamie's bike was red (bright red) with a yellow stripe.

 For asides and comments

You’re looking gorgeous ( just kidding )
 
Square brackets
 To amend or supplement the given details
His first book [The Color Of Magic] was written in 1989.

 To replace phrases for clarity or brevity

[The treaty] decreed that no bear should be painted pink

 To enclose an acronym after the acronym has been spelt out

[European Union (EU)]
HOW TO USE THE ELLIPSIS

We use the ellipsis (...)

 To show that some material has been omitted from a direct quotation

One of Churchill's most famous speeches declaimed: "We shall

fight them on the beaches ... We shall never surrender“

 To indicate suspense
The winner is ...

 To show that a sentence has been left unfinished because it has simply
trailed off
Watch this space ...
EMOTICONS
 The recent rise of informal exchanges like email and online chat has led
ever-inventive people to devise "emoticons. Emoticons are a way to add a
virtual tone of voice to written messages

 :-) The basic smiley, used to inflect a joking statement.

 ;-) A winking smiley, used to inflect a sarcastic or wry comment.
 LOL laughing out loud
COVER LETTER USING PUNCTUATION
June 28, 2010
 
Manager, HRD                                                                         
HSBC
Chittagong.

 Subject: Applying for the position of Asst System Administrator

 
Dear Sir/Madam,
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Yours truly,