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Topic: Punctuation II |
29 July 2003 |
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Last week we were talking about punctuation marks and their functions.
We studied the use of colon and semicolon. This week, let us discuss the dash, quotation marks
and parenthesis.
Dash --
A dash is used in informal writing instead of a colon (:) or semicolon (;) to indicate that
what follows is a summary or conclusion of what has come before
Men were shouting, women were screaming, children were crying--it was chaos.
Youve admitted that you lied to me--how can I trust you again.
Quotation marks
Quotation marks are used to enclose words or statement in direct speech.
For example:
Why did you do that? he asked.
Imagine if your kid could see that, University of Miami shark expert Samuel Gruber says later on shore.
Imagine if he couldnt
Quotation marks are used to draw attention to a word that is unusual for the context; for example,
a slang expression or a word that is being used for special effect,
such as ironythe writer does not use the word in its original meaning.
For example:
If you donate 10,000 baht to the Wat Phrathammakaya, you will gain merits.
He thinks he is the best actor in the world.
Brackets/Parentheses (
)
Brackets are used to separate extra information or comment from the rest of the sentence.
For example:
Mount Robson (12,972 feet) is the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies.
Each year between 30 million and 100 million sharks are caught for their meat
(boneless and mild-tasting), their fins (a great delicacy in Asia),
their hides (source of an exotic, high-quality leather),
their jaws (worth thousands of dollars from collectors)
and their internal body parts (made into everything from lubricants to cosmetics to health
products of dubious value).
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Exercise: Punctuations II |
| Directions: Punctuate these sentences correctly. Only a full stop is given. |
 1. Most Arabian men from my experience are chauvinistic. |
| 2. Im not guilty, declared the accused. |
| 3. He said that he was wrongly accused. |
| 4. He saw something in the water and believed it to be a monster a Lock Ness monster. |
| 5. We are waiting to hear the truth from you. |
| 6. This restaurant is very expensive 300 baht for a simple fried rice. |
| 6. This restaurant is very expensive 300 baht for a simple fried rice. |
| 8. Visitors to Bangkok should visit Wat Pho, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. |
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Answers |
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