TECHNICAL

REPORT WRITING
(HS-125)
Week 4: Punctuation, Grammar, Mechanics, and
Spellings
 Contents
■ Punctuation
– Comma, Colon, and Semicolon
– Apostrophe
– Hyphen
■ Grammar
– Vague Pronoun
– Modifiers
– Parallelism
■ Mechanics
– Abbreviations
– Capital Letters
– Numbers

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 Comma (,)

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 Comma (,)

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 Colon (:)

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 Colon (:)

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 Semicolon (;)

When the meeting was caled to order, following members were present: Susan
Johnson, the president; Ruth, the vice president; and...
... following were present: Susan Johnson, Ruth Schneider, Harold, and...

The boxes were categorised as follows: large, small, and medium; red, blue, and green;
and metalic, plastic, and paper.

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 Semicolon (;)

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Apostrophe
■ Do not use to make word plural
– Cat’s and dog’s
– Cats and dogs
■ Differentiate between
– its-it’s
■ Its going to be a good day.
■ It is going to be a good day.
– your-you’re
■ This is you’re bike
■ This is your bike
– They-they’re
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Apostrophe (‘)
■ To show possession
– Correct
■ This is Ahmed’s car.
■ This is Dog’s chain.
– Incorrect
■ This is table’s vase.
■ The car’s seat is comfortable.

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 Hyphen (-)

one-and-half of the company

one and half of the company
oneandhalf

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Exclamation point (!)

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 Vague Pronoun
■ A word that can function as a noun phrase
used by itself and that refers either to the
participants in the discourse (e.g. I, you ) or
to someone or something mentioned
elsewhere in the discourse
(e.g. she, it, this ).

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 Modifiers
■ Misplaced Modifiers

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 Modifiers
■ Dangling Modifiers

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 Parallelism

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 Abbreviations
■ You may use following abbreviation without
any explanation:
– Mrs., Dr., Mr., and Jr.

■ I quit my job & planned to retire young.

– I quit my job and planned to retire
young.

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 Numbers
■ General Rules:
– Write out numbers one to nine. Use numerals
for numbers 10 and above.
■ There are exceptions:

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 Numbers

In the month of August 568 people were fired.

In the month of August, 568 people were fired.
In the month of August, the company has fired 568 people.

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 What have we learned so far?
■ Writing Process
– Prewriting
■ Have you determined the purpose of writing?
■ Is your goal to inform, instruct, persuade, etc.
■ Is your audience high-tech, low-tech, lay?
■ Have you gathered data?
■ Have you chosen the correct communication
channel?
– Writing
– Rewriting

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 What have we learned so far?
■ Writing Process
– Prewriting
– Writing
■ Have you organized the information (using
modes such as spatial, chronology, comparison,
etc.)?
■ Is the content formatted for readability?
– Rewriting

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 What have we learned so far?
■ Writing Process
– Prewriting
– Writing
– Rewriting
■ Have you tested for usability?
■ Have you revised by adding, deleting, simplifying,
enhancing tone, and reformatting?
– 7Cs of communication.
■ Have you proofread for accuracy?
– Grammar, punctuation, and spellings, etc.

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For Further Reading

■ Appendix A of the book.

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