Transcript Sorting out full stops.

The Grammar Business
Part Two
1. Sorting Out Full Stops
The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College
Perhaps the most common
uncertainty in writing is
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Where and when to insert a full stop
It ought to be easy
It’s not that easy
Why?
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The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College
When you’re talking, you can
(generally) be understood because
• you pause between groups of words
• you use your hands and/or face to
emphasise meaning
• your voice goes up or down at certain
stages e.g. up at the end of a question
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The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College
So how do you make sense on
paper?
• you use a written code
• it’s called ‘punctuation’
• the full stop is probably the most
important item in this code
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The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College
But one thing to remember -
• if you use bullet points
• like the points on this slide
• you don’t need to put a full stop at the
end of each point
• but in ordinary writing, you DO!
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Think of a sentence as
• a string of meaning
• you know you’ve come to the end of the
string when you reach the full stop
• you don’t insert the full-stop until the
meaning has fully arrived
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But, remember there are actually
three types of full stop
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The ordinary full stop - a dot
the question mark (?)
the exclamation mark (!)
and, in some kinds of writing, sentences
can trail away in a set of dots like this….
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Each sentence has only ONE full
stop. You can’t have
• a question mark followed by a full stop
• an exclamation mark followed by a full stop
• an exclamation mark followed by a question
mark (unless you’re writing in a cartoon or
comic)
• and the full stop, whichever kind it is, will be
followed by a new sentence and a capital
letter
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Look at the confusion when you
have no full stops
Mary knew what to do straight away her car
was at the garage she had no other way to
get to work what else could she do she simply
had to ask Gordon he had given her lifts
before he had a nice new car she picked up
the phone she smiled
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Isn’t it better this way?
Mary knew what to do straight away. Her car
was at the garage. She had no other way to
get to work. What else could she do? She
simply had to ask Gordon. He had given her
lifts before. He had a nice new car. She
picked up the phone. She smiled.
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The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College
There’s just one problem
• I sorted out that Mary & Gordon piece by
inserting full stops
• Some of you would have used commas in
some of the places where I used full stops
• How do you know what’s correct?
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There are two ways of knowing
1.
By instinct
2.
By looking at the parts of speech
carefully
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The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College
On balance, instinct is what you
want, but if your instinct is not very
good - yet • a simple sentence will normally have at
least a subject (a noun or pronoun) and
a verb
• a new sentence will have a new subject
and a new verb
• so the shortest type of sentence you’re
likely to find is “She smiled.”
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The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College
Back to Mary and Gordon. I’ve
picked out the subjects in blue and
the verbs in red
Mary knew what to do straight away. Her car
was at the garage. She had no other way to
get to work. What else could she do? She
simply had to ask Gordon. He had given her
lifts before. He had a nice new car. She
picked up the phone. She smiled.
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The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College
Most sentences actually have a
subject, a verb and an object too
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The cat sat on the mat
The cat is the subject
the mat is the object
sat is the verb
When you get to the mat, you put a full stop. It’s the
end of that sentence string.
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The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College
You can join two or more
sentences by using a conjunction
like
• and
• but
• because
• since
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So four sentences can become one
like this
The cat sat on the mat because the dog
was in her basket and the dog was in
the basket because it was trying to
annoy the cat.
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The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College
But NOT like this
The cat sat on the mat, the dog was in her
basket, the dog was in the basket, it
was trying to annoy the cat.
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Try it. Insert one full stop into the
following.
• Mary had phoned Gordon this was a
stupid thing to do.
• Gordon had never liked Mary she was
the sort of woman he loathed.
• Mary had a little lamb also she
possessed a large sheep.
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The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College
Try some more on Handout One
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The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College
Common Errors
• Using ‘then’ or ‘however’ to join two
sentences. These words are not
conjunctions - they start a new sentence
• Starting new sentences with
conjunctions like ‘and’ or ‘but’. This is
grammatically incorrect - you only do it
for dramatic effect.
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Try correcting the
punctuation on Handout Two
• Good luck!
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