PUNCTUATIONS

Punctuation can be regarded as guidance to the reader, so the use of capital letters and, in printing, the use of italics are included in this regard.

The punctuation marks in English consist of the following:

Full stop .

Comma ,

Semicolon ;

Colon :

Question mark ?

Round brackets ( )

Square brackets [ ]

Exclamation mark !

Single quotation marks ‘ ’

Double quotation marks “ ”

Hyphen –

Dash —

There are also the apostrophe (’) and mark of omission (…). But, for the moment, I'll discuss on only Full Stop, Comma and Semicolon, the rest shall come later. Please bear with me.

FULL STOP

We all know that the full stop is used at the end of a sentence (anyone who hasn’t known this is needs special training). Full stop should indicate, in fact, that the sentence has come to a stop. Yet too often we come across letters that start like this:

“Referring to your letter of the 30th September.”

This collection of words is not a sentence, and after the full stop the reader is left floundering.

After “September” there should be a comma, followed by the noun or pronoun attached to the present participle “Referring”. A correct construction would thus consist of something like this:

“Referring to you letter of the 30th September, I am happy to say that your work shall be edited.”

An incorrect construction would be:

“Referring to your letter of the 30th September, your work shall be edited.”

This means, quite absurdly, that your work has been referring to your letter.

The Full Stop with Abbreviations

The full stop is commonly known to also denote abbreviations. The modern trend in the UK is now towards an “open” style for abbreviations in which there are few full stops.

It is usual to allow the full stop only to denote those abbreviations which are parts of words and not those abbreviations in which the first and last letters of words are given (contractions); for example, Mr, Mrs, Col (Colonel), Dr, Revd (Reverend), St (Saint or Street), and Rd (Road). Typical abbreviations where a full stop is used are Jan., Sept., Mon., Lag., Gen., Capt., in. (for inches), cm., approx. and Co.

For initials of capital letters that stand for organisations the full stop is very much the exception rather than the rule. BBC is now widely accepted, as are AU, FIFA, KGB and so on. The forms _AD and _BC are rarely seen with full stops these days.

Lower case initials tend to keep their full stops—i.e., e.g., p.m. and the likes.

Incidentally—and unbelievably—if an abbreviation comes at the end of a sentence there should logically be two full stops—the first for the abbreviation and the second to mark the end of the sentence. In practice, nevertheless, it is conventional to make one full stop do for the two, lest your readers call you an eccentric prof..

Is that all?













Ignore this PSA at your own risk.

COMMA

The comma is a very useful little mark less abrupt that the full stop, it can mark the end of a clause or a phrase within a sentence and give a hint that there is something to follow.

While the use of a comma is fairly well understood, there is a tendency either to use too many commas or not enough. Here are some examples; each one of them a failing:

-Too many commas-

It was a fine day, and the sun was hot. As I walked through the bush, towards the river, I heard the sounds of birds, whose caws followed me wherever I walked, but the appearance of the birds themselves seemed intent on eluding me. For an instant I spied a bird, perched on the top of a mahogany, but when this bird discovered that it had been spotted, it flew off again. I reached the river’s edge, and took off my clothes.

Truly, when we look at the above passage, we will discover no misuse of commas, but you will agree with me that there is an effect of jerkiness. The passage would be smoother, easier to read, if it was written in this way:

It was a fine day, and the sun was hot. As I walked through the bush towards the river I heard the sounds of birds whose caws followed me wherever I walked but the appearance of the birds themselves seemed intent on eluding me. For an instant I spied a bird perched on the top of a mahogany, but when this bird discovered that it had been spotted it flew off again. I reached the river’s edge and took off my clothes.

-Not enough commas-

The members of the NL Super Writers today in an amendment proposed that the duty of an inductor is to write some mildly vilifying accusations about some erring members of the gathering as from the coming month to conform with the latest rules that may guide against the introduction of new members into the fold.

In its mad rush along, this passage is just as irritating as the previous passage which suffered from an excess of commas. The reader is left breathless. The following calmer version shows that a few commas are necessary:

The members of the NL Super Writers today, in an amendment, proposed that the duty of an inductor is to write some mildly vilifying accusations about some erring members of the gathering as from the coming month, to conform with the latest rules that may guide against the introduction of new members into the fold.[/color]

Commas in Enumeration

It is modern accepted practice to omit the last comma before and in an enumeration, thus:

[color=#006600]They brought gifts of flowers, fruit, clothing, toys and money to the orphans.

Where the enumerated items collectively form the subject of a sentence preceding a verb, the insertion of a comma after the last item depends largely upon personal preference.

We can write:

All novels, poems, short stories and other literary works must be submitted to the moderators for review.

This seems preferable to, and reads more smoothly than, the following:

All novels, poems, short stories and other literary works, must be submitted to the moderators for review.

In the second example it can be argued that the comma after ‘works’ is necessary for grouping the items of the subject, but the grouping is given by the first two commas and the word ‘and’.

Now consider this passage:

Strong sense of duty, sympathetic regard for the feelings of others, high moral purpose and understanding of different points of view were the qualities for which the creator of this forum was loved.

In this passage each item is a group of words. It would probably be spoken with a natural pause after each item. The result would be better, then, with a comma after ‘purpose’ and another comma after ‘view’.

Confusing Enumerations

Confusing examples of enumerations occur many times in the national newspapers and various online articles, especially where names of dignitaries are accompanied by explanatory phrases. In using a conventional approach, frequently this kind of reporting appears:

A civil reception was held at the Nairaland Literature Hall of Fame today when Seun, Lalasticlala, Obinoscopy, Mukina2, Semid4lyfe, and Mynd44, entertained the members of the section to lunch. The guests included Dr Redmosquito, the leader of the expedition, his chief assistant, Ms Whitemosquito, Dr Chilo Ishilove, the chief editor, Frank317 and MaziOmenuko, the moral advisers for the female writers, the expedition’s secretary, Ms MizMyColi, the organizer, Ms Texanomaly, Ms Firestar, poetry manageress and instructor, and Dr Vantee20, public relation officer.

At a casual reading the list is not easy to understand. Information of this nature is better tabulated, but it is more literary to make a continuous prose passage of the information.

The news item would be more intelligible if use was made of (a) brackets or of (b) semicolons, thus:

(a) The guests included Dr Redmosquito (the leader of the expedition), Ms Whitemosquito (his chief assistant), Dr Chilo Ishilove (the chief editor),… and so on.

(b) The guests included: Dr Redmosquito, leader of the expedition; Ms Whitemosquito, his chief assistant; Dr Chilo Ishilove, the chief editor;… and so on.

Parenthetical Use of Comma

In the above list of some civic Nairaland guests, some of the commas are used parenthetically. That is, the words in parenthesis could have been omitted without any destruction of the sense, the parenthetical phrase being, “leader of the expedition”, “his chief assistance”, “the chief editor”, and so on to “public relation officer”.

Other examples (with the parenthetical words in italics) are the following:

The inherent vagaries of writing are too well known, but, subject to this art, the prediction of success may be accepted.

In many local car parks, a prolific weed, the Indian-hemp, has always made a welcome appearance. (Note the correct use of the hyphen. An ‘Indian hemp’ would be a hemp made by Indians; which is wrong)

Orikinla, one of the great Nigerian writers sought after, has written many books.

It is unnecessary to give any more such examples, but it might be added that clauses starting with relative pronouns, when inserted in sentences, are also parenthetical, as in the following:

His frightening experience, which nearly cost him his life, left him a nervous wreck.

Ikenne, where Obafemi Awolowo was born, is a picturesque little town.

The year 1960, when Nigeria gained her independence, was a milestone in African history.

The parenthetical use of comma, then, should be easily understood. But in using commas in this way the writer must not forget that he is using a parenthesis, and a common mistake is to omit the second comma. Let us rewrite wrongly two of our examples:

The inherent vagaries of writing are too well known, but, subject to this art the prediction of success may be accepted.

In many local car parks, a prolific weed, the Indian-hemp has always made a welcome appearance.

The trouble is that the comma has so many uses, and is so inconspicuous, that it is apt to be overlooked. Now, if we chose to use brackets instead of commas for our passages in parenthesis, we should never dream of omitting the second bracket; so why omit the second comma?

The possibility of confusion when essential commas are omitted can be illustrated by the following examples:

In 1968 I was told there had been a war in Nigeria.

In 1968, I was told, there had been a war in Nigeria.

The first sentence is ambiguous. Was it 1968 when I was told of the war in Nigeria? I was not even born then. The correctly-punctuated second sentence makes the meaning perfectly clear.

Sometimes, you even come across an omission of the first comma. Here is an example of such error:

Nairaland is a forum held out by Seun Osewa for the purpose of offering knowledge, entertainment, and if required, the chance of finding a potential spouse.

The words ‘if required’ are a parenthesis, and there should be a comma after ‘and’.

If one comma of the parenthesis is omitted, so should the others be omitted, and many parenthetic words and phrases can safely be used without commas. An example is ‘therefore’, as in:

I therefore should be grateful for an opportunity to create this thread.

The use of commas otherwise results in such stilted sentences as:

I, therefore, should be glad if you would show your appreciation of my effort by liking this post.

Similarly, it is considered unacceptably fussy or old-fashioned, in the writing of dates in a prose passage, to give the year parenthetically between commas, as in:


On the 27th September, 2010, and again on the 12th of November 2013, I completed my first two novels.

The commas can be missed out as in:

On 1st July 2007 I celebrated my twenty-first birthday with a fast.

Sometimes the first comma only is inserted, and the omission of the second leaves the parenthesis open, as in:

On 6th November, 2013 I opened a diary.

A comma should be used where a number follows the year as in:

In 2000, 14-year-old Larry Sun received a letter from the future.

Misuse of the Comma

Many people have a habit of separating a simple subject from its verb by a comma and you find sentences of this kind:

My uncle and cousin, were going to the farm.

It is difficult to understand this error. Not only is the comma grammatically unjustified—it has no function for grouping or for parenthesis.

Another common error is to misuse a comma in certain cases with a participle. Here are some examples:

My guest, having gone home, I went to bed.

Mr Obinnau, being a moderator, we solicit his attention.

These sentences, as written, are logically wrong. Each is a case of cause-and effect grouping, the grouping being decided by the comma.

The subject of the first sentence is ‘I’ and the subject of the second sentence is ‘we’. The other parts of the sentences, the groups dependent on the participle ‘having’ and ‘being’, are subordinates. The sentences should be punctuated thus:

My guest having gone home, I went to bed.

Mr Obinnau being a moderator, we solicit his attention.

Now, the following sentences are quite all right:

My guest, having gone home, arrived to find his house on fire.

Mr Obinnau, being a moderator, is always ready to help.

The subjects of the sentences are now ‘My guest’ and ‘Mr Obinnau’. The phrases ‘having gone home’ and ‘being the moderator’ are now parentethical, and are therefore put between pairs of commas.

I can recall a notice I found in the bedroom of one hotel I once lodged in (don't start having ideas in your brilliant heads ) because I wrote it down. Whoever had scribbled that must have been too intoxicated to notice his errors.

If you wish to stay beyond the period booked, it is essential, that, you contact reception office, on the evening before the original, departure date. Providing that, the room is still available, we will of course be pleased to help you. If not, we must hold you to the original booking.

There are, of course, far too many commas in this notice, and the word notify would be preferable to the word contact. A better version of the same notice would be this:

If you wish to stay beyond the period booked it is essential that you contact reception office on the evening before the originally-planned departure date. Provided that the room is still available, we shall, of course, be pleased to help you. If the room is not available we must hold you to the original booking.

This is a better form. The much-misused ‘Providing that…’ has been replaced with ‘Provided that’. The present participle providing needs an attachment, such as the personal pronoun I in the following:

Providing Dyoungstar with my friend’s number, I asked him to text her.

Enumeration of Adjectives

If you have doubts about the use of the comma in the enumeration of adjectives, a safe and simple rule is this. If there are only two adjectives, omit the comma, as in:

A hot dry day.

If there are three or more adjectives in a row, use commas after all except the last, as in:

A hot, dry, dusty day.

You would write a sticky sweet mixture.

But:

A sticky sweet, warm, mysterious mixture.

With two adjectives you can use and if you wish.

This is just a safe and simple rule.

The Comma with Numerals

Though it does not come with the sphere of grammar, the use of a comma with numerals should be mentioned briefly.

It is customary to divide a number into its thousands by the comma. Exceptions are dates (for example, 2000 BC and AD 1914) and reference numbers (for example, Model No. 3652).

It is interesting that while the Americans use the comma to divide the thousands and the full stop for the decimal point (85,617.23), European practice is the opposite (85.617,23). Alternatively, Europeans use a space to group the digits in a number with five or more figures (56 423, 75).

Now, the question is, why do we follow the American system of numbering when, contrarily, we adopt the European choice of words?

I need Soyinka to answer this question.

The Comma with Quotations

The comma can be used to introduce quoted speeches, as in:

As Therock555 saw me he said, ‘Where the hell have you been, Larry?'

If a quotation is broken, however, commas must be used, as in the following:

‘Before you go,’ said Dygeasy, ‘you must woo a lady.’

The Semicolon

The semicolon can be regarded as something between the full stop and the comma in value, though it is used much less frequently than either. It has a definite use, however—for instance, when a slight break in a sentence is preferable to a new sentence.

The following are legitimate examples of the use of the semicolon.

The positive influence of the Nairaland Literature Section surpasses by far the ones of all other social network sites in Africa; since the past year many writers have improved tremendously in their craft, while some other few being held down by ego still remain at a standstill.

The proposed aim of this thread is to help budding writers who wish to hone their skills; but only very little can be done to those who shy away from sacrifice and knowledge.

Mr OMA4U believed that a significant amount of some poems could amount to nonsense if they were not properly lined; his arguer contended that, if one reader found one poem deplorable, another might consider it a classic.

None of my friends was kind; AudreyTimms, for example, threatened to come after me with a cutlass.

Misuse of the Semicolon

It is wrong to use a semicolon where a comma should be used in the normal way. One fault which is not uncommon is to use the relative pronoun after such a misused semicolon, as in the following sentences:

We give our readers a plethora of information and entertainment; which they accept gratefully as if they were a handful of gold.

Fembleez1 took his wife to a remote village in Sambisa; where it may be assumed, they were safe from the attentions of the press.

The writer of the book in question is EfemenaXY; who, it will be conceded, has some brilliant ink in her pen.

In each of these sentences a comma should be used instead of the semicolon.

In enumerations, semicolons should be used only if comma would cause confusion, but they are often used in passages where commas would do. Look at this:

Having plotted her story brilliantly; having introduced enough suspense; having taken every step to create an astonishing denouement, having taken enough time to wrap up all the loose ends, Standd made herself known with her writing gift.

The first two semicolons are unnecessary. To be consistent in his practice, moreover, the writer of this commendation should have used a semicolon after ‘ends’. The use of a comma here groups the final clause (Standd made herself known with her writing gift.) only with the last item of the enumeration (having taken enough time to wrap up all the loose ends), whereas the writer’s intention is to group it with all the items.

I think I should stop here for now. I hope this little epistle helps anyway. Thank you, God bless you.

Cheers!
Larry Sun (larrysun4real@yahoo.com)

Wow. This is enlightening.

English Major abi na English Edu.

Who no knw dis things b4 na

See as the thing cun long like lalasticlalaa

But OP this pic below is 4 u

hmmm

Good

Feranmicharles:
Who no knw dis things b4 na
See as the thing cun long like lalasticlalaa
But OP this pic below is 4 u

Construct a good sentence and let's see, stewpid ingrate.

T

True

Cool piece!.........Now playing. Fetty Wap-Trap queen

Educative...keep up the good work bro.

OP, nairalanders now use all of the above to book space. So I wonder why that's not included in your article.

thank you op for dis wonderful write up

no offeinse

activelyA:
T

smh

Teacher teacher...Na proper no be proprer...Nice write up

Ellipsis...

Nice, one.

Thanks OP.
Tell them abeg, I get irritated when I see graduates who don't know the propoer use of these punctuation marks. Most annoying is when I see the errors on CVs. Take advantage of the help offered by MS office before making silly mistakes.

Following

this thread makes sense

Good. Thanks op

INTROVERT:
this thread makes sense

U eh!...Nice piece at OP!Now playing. Fetty Wap-Trap queen

If u did not read everything the op wrote, kindly like dis post.

Noted!


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This is really gud, nice one O.P