Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Preface
Contents
1 A brief history of punctuation
2 Introduction to punctuation
Punctuation Marks in English
3 End marks
Full Stop
Rule 1 End of a statement
End of an elliptical sentence
End of an imperative sentence
Rule 2 End of a request
Rule 3 End of an indirect question
Rule 4 With abbreviations, decimals and lists
With abbreviations
In decimals
In lists
Rule 5 Full stop with other punctuation marks
With quotation marks
With parentheses
Rule 6 Incorrect use of a full stop
Question Mark
Rule 7 End of an interrogative sentence
Rule 8 Sentence containing direct questions
Rule 9 Sentence beginning with an independent question
Rule 10 Elliptical question
Rule 11 To express doubt
Exclamation Mark
Exercise
4 Comma
Types of Sentence
Simple Sentence
Compound Sentence
Complex Sentence
Compound–complex Sentence
Rule 1 Between subject and predicate
Rule 2 Within a compound subject
Compound subject with more than two items (a series)
Rule 3 In a compound predicate
Compound predicate with more than two items (a series)
Rule 4 Series punctuation
Independent Clause
Rule 5 Join clauses with a coordinating conjunction
Rule 6 Join clauses without a coordinating conjunction
Rule 7 Between clauses joined by a conjunctive adverb
Dependent Clause
Rule 8 Between a main clause and a dependent clause
More About Clauses
Rule 9 With relative clauses
Rule 10 Relative pronouns ‘that’ and ‘which’
Rule 11 Introductory phrases and words Prepositional phrase
Rule 12 Transitional words
Rule 13 To separate numbers that occur successively
Rule 14 With parenthetical expression
Rule 15 Coordinating adjectives
Rule 16 With appositives
Rule 17 With elliptical sentence
Rule 18 With elements in contrast (antithesis)
Rule 19 Elements in common
Rule 20 For ease of reading
Rule 21 Common errors in using commas
Direct address
Direct quotation
Rule 22 Comma in the right place
Exercise
5 Semicolon
Rule 1 Between independent clauses
Without a coordinating conjunction
With a coordinating conjunction
Rule 2 Between parallel clauses
Rule 3 Series punctuation
Rule 4 In lists
Rule 5 Common errors in using semicolon
Exercise
6 Colon
Rule 1 In a list
Rule 2 Elements that belong together
Rule 3 With quotations
Rule 4 For amplification
Rule 5 With direct questions
Rule 6 More than one colon in a sentence
Exercise
7 Apostrophe
Rule 1 To form contraction
Rule 2 To show possession
Rule 3 Singular noun not ending in ‘s’
Rule 4 Singular noun ending in ‘s’
Rule 5 Plural noun
Rule 6 Possessive of the word ‘people’
Rule 7 Proper nouns
Rule 8 Plurals of proper names
Rule 9 Compound nouns and phrases
Rule 10 Possessive pronouns
Rule 11 Indefinite pronouns
Rule 12 Mistaken possession
Rule 13 Joint possession
Rule 14 With abbreviations
Rule 15 Relationship comparable to ownership
Rule 16 Possession for inanimate object
Rule 17 Double possessive
Rule 18 With quotation marks
Rule 19 Omission of a number in a date
Rule 20 Plurals of letters and numerals
Rule 21 Plurals of numbers and certain words
Exercise
8 Quotation marks
Single Quotation Marks
Rule 1 With special terms and words
Rule 2 Within a quotation
Double Quotation Marks
Rule 3 With quotations
Rule 4 With dialogue
Rule 5 With long quotations
Rule 6 Titles of short stories and parts of a book
Rule 7 Common errors in using quotation marks
Rule 8 Quotation marks with other punctuation marks
With comma and period
With semicolon and colon
With question mark and exclamation mark
Exercise
9 Parentheses and brackets
Parentheses
Rule 1 With parenthetical expression
Rule 2 To enclose references
Rule 3 With lists
Brackets
Rule 4 Within parentheses
Exercise
10 Hyphen and dashes
Hyphen
Rule 1 Prefixes
Rule 2 Doubling of vowel
Rule 3 Prefix plus capital letter
Rule 4 Prefix plus date
Rule 5 Prefix to an italicised word
Rule 6 Prefix ‘ex’
Rule 7 Suffixes
Dashes
En Dash
Rule 8 To express a range
Rule 9 En dash instead of a hyphen
Rule 10 To express an association
Rule 11 Spaced en dash
Em Dash
Rule 12 For amplification or emphasis
Rule 13 With appositives
Rule 14 After the year of birth
Rule 15 Em dash with other punctuation marks
With question mark or exclamation mark
With parentheses
Exercise
11 Slash and ellipses
Slash
Rule 1 With some abbreviations
Rule 2 To express units
Rule 3 To express alternatives
Rule 4 To express multiple titles
Rule 5 To express fractions
Ellipses
Exercise
12 Punctuation in bibliography
Exercise
13 Capitalisation/Numbers/Abbreviation
Capitalisation
Numbers
Abbreviations
Exercise
Answers to exercises
Practice on passages
Answers to passages
Glossary
Proof-reading symbols
Further readings
Index
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