Teacher: Mrs. A.

SMACHE

S II / Lesson I – Mechanics of Writing

A- Capitalization

-The first word in a sentence

-Proper nouns
-Days of the week
-Months of the year
-The personal pronoun “I”
-Titles of respect, honour, rank: eg. Duke William
-Names of religious days
-Book titles, magazines, plays, music
-First word in each new line of poetry

B- Punctuation

*Good punctuation is crucial for successful academic writing. By learning to use more, or
all, of the available forms of punctuation, you will be able to communicate and express your
ideas more clearly. Punctuation is the system of symbols that we use to separate sentences
and parts of sentences, and to make their meaning clear. Each symbol is called a
“punctuation mark.”

*The following punctuation marks are commonly used in English:

Punctuation Marks Examples

1. Full Stop / Period (.)
at the end of statements *The cat is sitting on the bed.
at the end of commands and requests *Please show me your passport.
after most abbreviated words *The answer is on p. 64.

2. Question Mark (?)

A question mark is used at the end of a sentence
which is a question. *Have the students completed the exam?

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3. Exclamation Mark (!)
after exclamations
after interjections
4. Colon (:)
to separate two main clauses when the
second clause explains the first
to introduce lists which are not directly
introduced by a verb or a preposition.
to direct attention to a brief summary, a
quotation, or direct speech
after the salutation in a business letter
5. Semi-colon (;)
to combine two independent clauses (that
are closely connected) in sentences
to separate a series of items which
themselves contain commas, in order to
make it totally clear where the divisions
come
6. Inverted Commas / Quotation Marks (“...”)
special use of words in sentences
direct speech
around the titles of short works, such as
essays, articles, chapters, songs, short
stories, and short poems.
(Note: The titles of long works, like books,
novels, plays, magazines, newspapers,
films, television programs, and long poems
are underlined.)
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Teacher: Mrs. A. SMACHE
*How confusing English punctuation
is!
*Oh! Wow!
*We decided not to go on holiday: we
had too little money.
*We need three kinds of support:
economic, moral, and political.
(We need butter, sugar, and flour)
*All her thoughts were centred on one
objective: freedom.
She said: “I am beautiful.”
*Dear Mr. Smith:
*Some people work best in the
mornings; others do better in the
evenings.
*I have been to Newcastle, Carlisle,
and York in the North; Bristol, Exeter,
and Portsmouth in the South; and
Cromer, Norwich, and Lincoln in the
East.
*A textbook can be a “wall” between
the teacher and the class.
*“Go away!” Mr. Smith said angrily.
*The oldest English poem is
“Caedmon’s Hymn.”
(* Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's
most popular plays.)

7. Single Quotation Marks
a quote within a quote
8. Brackets / parentheses (...)-[...]
to include explanatory words or phrases
that are not necessarily needed
9. Hyphen (-)
in number words of the type
in time and size/quantity phrases, when used
as adjective phrases
10. Dash (–)
to mark a sudden break in thought or an
interruption
11. Apostrophe (’)
missing letters: apostrophes show where
we have left letters out [N.B. These short forms are always informal and
to form the possessive form of a noun should not be used in formal writing.]
special plurals:
Words which usually do not have plurals
sometimes have an apostrophe when a
plural form is written
12. Ellipsis (...)
An ellipsis consists of three full stops. Using an
ellipsis makes any omissions known to your
reader.
13. Comma (,)
lists:
We use commas to separate items in a series
or list
A single comma ensures correct reading of a
sentence which starts with introductory words
and phrases.
to separate items in dates
to separate items in an address
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Teacher: Mrs. A. SMACHE
*My mother asked, "Didn't your father
say 'Eat your peas?' "
*Before arriving at the station, the old
train (someone said it was a relic of
frontier days) caught fire.
*“twenty-one”, “thirty-two”
*My cat is two years old →I have a
two-year-old cat.
*I suggest that you go tomorrow – no,
wait a moment; you can’t because the
pilots are on strike.
*can’t (=cannot), it’s (=it is/it has)
*This is Juliet’s book.
*It’s a nice idea, but there are a lot of if’s.
*I want to be rich, smart, attractive,
famous,...
*I went to Spain, Italy, Switzerland,
Austria, and Germany.
*To stay in shape for competition,
athletes must exercise every day.
*She was born on August 18, 1950.
*Berlin, Germany
 Teacher: Mrs. A. SMACHE

after salutations *Dear Sir, thank you for your

Pairs of commas help in the middle of a
sentence to set off any string of words
which is either a parenthesis or in contrast
to whatever went before.
non-defining relative clauses: Non-
defining relative clauses, which give
additional information and could be left
out, have to be separated off by commas:
in direct speech:
A comma is generally used between a
reporting expression (said, told...) and a
piece of direct speech:
dependent (subordinate) clauses at the
beginning of sentences:
When dependent clauses begin sentences,
they are separated by commas.
independent clauses that are joined by
coordinating conjunctions in compound
sentences
Commas are NOT used before that-
clauses
comments.
*George Lamb, your old school friend,
has come to visit you.
*My eldest son, whose work takes him
all over the world, is in Hong Kong at
the moment.
*Juliet said, “I’m hungry.”–“I’m
hungry,” Juliet complained.*
*If you are ever in London, come and
see me.
*The computer crashed, so I lost all of
my work.
*It is quite natural that you want to
meet your father.

Exercises

Exercise 1: Use the appropriate punctuation marks.

1. Several countries participated in the airlift Italy Belgium France and Luxembourg.

2. Only one course was open to us surrender said the ex-major and we did.

3. Yes Jim said I will be home by ten.

4. The following are the primary colors red blue and yellow.

5. Arriving on the 8 10 plane were Liz Brooks my old roommate Jack her husband and Tim
their son.

6. When the teacher commented that her spelling was poor Lynn replied All the members of
my family are poor spellers Why not me

7. He used the phrase you know so often that I finally said No I don't know.

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 Teacher: Mrs. A. SMACHE

8. There was a very interesting article entitled The New Rage for Folk Singing in last
Sunday's New York Times newspaper.

9. Darwin's On the Origin of Species 1859 caused a great controversy when it appeared.

10. Though john said he would arrive on the 9 19 flight he came instead on the 10 36 flight

11. In baseball a show boat is a man who shows off

12. Oil which is lighter than water rises to the surface

13. The closet contained worn clothes old shoes and dirty hats

14. The field was safe enough wasn't it

15. He replied I have no idea what you mean

16. After a good washing the pup looked like a new dog

17. Because of their opposition to institutions that force creatures to live in captivity some
people refuse to go to the zoo

18. As the boat turned about a dozen dolphins began to follow it

19. Having chosen nursing as a career Susan enrolled in many science courses

20. The hill was covered with wildflowers it was a beautiful sight

21. The foundations of the house had been poured but to his disappointment nothing else had
been done because of the carpenters' strike

22. Riding a bicycle is an excellent exercise I ride mine every day

23. I am not interested in a trip to Asia this year however I would like to go to Europe

Exercise 2

1. Which of the following sentences is punctuated correctly?

A. No one expected her to buy a car, so we were quite surprised when we discovered that
she had bought two.

B. No one expected her to buy a car, so we were quite surprised when we discovered, that
she had bought two.

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 Teacher: Mrs. A. SMACHE

2. Which of the following sentences is punctuated correctly?

A. My favorite writers are the following: Flannery O'Connor, David Desroches, and
David Lodge.
B. My favorite writers are: Flannery O'Connor, David Desroches, and David Lodge.

3. Which of the following sentences is punctuated correctly?

A. The word "unique" is frequently misused.
B. The word unique is frequently misused.

4. Which of the following sentences is punctuated correctly?

A. My father, who is a policeman is retiring this year.
B. My father, who is a policeman, is retiring this year.

5. Which of the following sentences is punctuated correctly?

A. The three magazines that I regularly read are: Academe, Lingua Franca, and Texas
Monthly.
B. I regularly read three magazines: Academe, Lingua Franca, and Texas Monthly.

6. Which of the following sentences is punctuated correctly?

A. He said that "You were correct."
B. He said, "You are correct."

Exercise 3: Punctuate the following paragraph.

rainbows
my heart leaps up when i behold a rainbow in the sky wrote william wordsworth the
famous poet and most of us share his feelings when we are lucky enough to see a rainbow.
there is an old saying that a pot of gold is buried at the end of the rainbow but have you ever
tried to reach a rainbows end of course it is impossible because a rainbow is really just the
result of raindrops refracting and reflecting light from our sun there are seven colours in the
rainbow red orange yellow green blue indigo and violet

*indigo: a dark blue colour

*To behold: to see or to observe

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 Teacher: Mrs. A. SMACHE

C- Cohesion and Coherence

Cohesion and coherence are important features of academic writing. Cohesion refers
to the construction of individual sentences and the clear relationship between them. Each
sentence should connect to the ones before and after it. Coherence is the way in which ideas
in a text are linked logically. It refers to the overall sense of unity among your ideas and
clarity of your writing structure. Coherence also means that your paragraph is easy to read
and understand because (1) your sentences are in some kind of logical order, and (2) your
ideas are connected by the use of appropriate connecting transition signals.