Comment on the punctuation in the five following extracts, then scroll down the page for the suggested answers. (We'd suggest you don't try to do them all at once. Spread them out over a number of days)
a) From a press article in The Guardian
b) From Steven Pinker How the Mind Works 1997
The playwright Jerome K. Jerome once said, "It is always the best policy to tell the truth, unless, of course, you are a very good liar." It's hard to be a good liar, even when it comes to your own intentions, which only you can verify. Intentions come from emotions, and emotions have evolved displays on the face and body. Unless you are a master of the Stanislavsky method, you will have trouble faking them: in fact they probably evolved because they were hard to fake.
c) From a Wikipedia article on bees
The ethologist Karl von Frisch studied navigation in the honey bee. He showed that honey bees communicate by the waggle dance, in which a worker indicates the location of a food source to other workers in the hive. He demonstrated that bees can recognize a desired compass direction in three different ways: by the sun, by the polarization pattern of the blue sky, and by the earth's magnetic field. He showed that the sun is the preferred or main compass; the other mechanisms are used under cloudy skies or inside a dark beehive. Bees navigate using spatial memory with a "rich, map-like organization".
d) From an article on figurative language in An ELT Notebook
Similes : Expressions which explicitly compare one thing to another, which is not the same but has specific qualities which the speaker/writer wants to suggest are shared by the first thing, place, person etc. The explicit comparison is usually signalled by like or as...as... For example: It's as clear as daylight that they're wrong; They fight like cat and dog at every meeting.
e) From a press article on an unusually shaped iceberg
Such objects are not unknown, however, and even have a name - tabular icebergs.
These are flat and long and form by splitting away from the edges of ice shelves.
Kelly Brunt, a glaciologist with Nasa and the University of Maryland, said the process of formation was a bit like a fingernail growing too long and cracking off at the end.
They were often geometrically-shaped as a result, she said.
"What makes this one a bit unusual is that it looks almost like a square," she added.
Suggested Answers
a) Suggested Answer (Potentially 8 marks)
1) Full stops signal the end of each of the two sentences which make up the paragraph.
2) Commas are used to :
a) surround a phrase
is in apposition to the phrase preceding it. Eg the "chain" of
appositives in line 1.
b) indicate the
completion of a clause before a new clause is started with a conjunction (line
3 before the co-ordinating conjunction or)
c) finish a quotation in direct speech which is followed by the reporting verb (line 4)
3) Double inverted commas are used to surround quotes in direct speech (See the quote in lines 2-5).
4) Single inverted commas surrounding a word are used to indicate that it may carry more than its literal meaning (line 4 – ‘encourage’)
5) A colon is used to indicate that what follows is an explanation of the preceding information. (line 3)
6) A hyphen is used, with no previous or following spaces,
to separate the two parts of compound words (lines 1 and 2).
b) Suggested Answer (Potentially 12 marks)
1. Full stops are used:
a) to signal the end of each of the four sentences that make up the paragraph
b) after the letter K. as it is an initial (line 1)
2. Commas are used:
a) after a reporting verb before quoting direct speech (line 1)
b) before a non-defining relative clauses (line 2)
c) around an adverbial (of course) which would be set off by short
pauses in speech (line 1)
d) to signal the completion of a clause before a new clause is
started with a coordinating conjunction and (line 3)
e) to separate main and subordinating clauses (in either order) : line 1 M,S; line 2 M,S; lines 3-4 S,M.
3. Double inverted commas are used to quote direct speech (line 1).
4. An apostrophe is used to indicate a contraction (line 2)
5. A colon signals that what follows will explain/specify what came before it (line 4)
6. Capital letters are used :
a) to start each new sentence.
b) For the first letter of proper nouns (lines 1 + 4)
c) Suggested Answer (Potentially 11 marks)
1. Full stops signal the end of each of the five sentences that make up the paragraph.
2. Commas are used
a) before a non-defining relative clause (line 2)
b) to separate listed items, in this case prepositional phrases (lines 3-4)
c) to separate pre-modifying adjectives (line 6)
3. A colon is used to signal that what follows will explain/specify what has come before the colon (line 3)
5. Double inverted commas are used to quote directly something that someone has said or written, in this case probably written (line 5).
6. A semicolon is used to separate two main clauses (line 4); the semicolon is preferred to a full stop because of the strong logical link between the two clauses.
7. An apostrophe is used to indicate possessive meaning (line 4)
8. A hyphen is used, with no previous or following spaces, to separate the two parts of a compound word (line 6)
9. Capital letters are used :
a) to start each new sentence.
b) For the first letter of proper nouns, except for grammatical Items
they contain (line 1)
d) Suggested Answer (Potentially 9
marks)
1. Full stops signal the end of each of the sentences that make up the paragraph.
2. A colon is used to indicate that what follows is a explanation/elaboration of the what precedes it. (Lines 1 + 3)
3. Commas are used :
a) before a non-defining relative clause (line 1 : ..another, which…)
b) to separate phrase in a list – here noun phrasess (line 2)
4. A semicolon is used to separate clauses in a list (line 3)
5. Capital letters are used to start each new sentence.
6. A slash (/) is used to indicate an either…or… relationship.
7. Three dots (…) are used to indicate missing words.
8. Underlining is used to
highlight elements which are important in some way (here as illustrations of
the general rule).
e) Suggested answer (Potentially 9 marks)
1. Full stops signal the end of each of the sentences.
2.
Commas are used…
a) to
divide adverbials from the other clause elements (line 1: … , however, …).
b) to
separate appositives (line 3)
c) to
separate quotes and a following reporting verb (lines 5 + 6)
3. A hyphen
is used, preceded and followed by spacing, to indicate that what follows is a
restatement of the preceding information (line 1)
4. A
hyphen is used with no spacing to separate the two
parts of a compound word (line 5)
5.
Double inverted commas are used to indicate direct
speech (line 6).
6. Capital letters are used :
a) to start each new sentence.
b) For the first letter of proper nouns, except for the grammatical Items
they contain (line 3 – three examples)
