How To Write Well:

Section 7 - Spelling and Punctuation

Contents: Spelling | Sexism | Punctuation | Layout punctuation | Quotation marks

Spelling:

Spelling mistakes give a bad impression and can make the reader lose concentration. Keep a dictionary handy and use it. Often the simplest words are spelt incorrectly; so don't be embarrassed to look up anything that you are not absolutely sure of.

Sexism:

There is a problem in English that, for example, 'Everyone must do his work' is grammatically correct but obviously sexist. And of course it is easy to slip into a 'he' style when writing.

There are three answers. Let's take the sentence 'Every officer must do his best'.

Use 'their'. 'Every officer must do their best'. This is grammatically incorrect but doesn't sound too bad.

Use 'his' or 'her'. This is safe but can't be used all the time as it is clumsy.

Make the person you are writing about plural. 'All officers must do their best'. This is the best solution but again can't be used in every case. You need to change the whole passage from what 'the officer' can do to what 'officers' can do.

It is probably best to mix these three techniques.

Punctuation:

Punctuation does have importance in the layout of documents because it helps the reader to make sense of the writing. In speech, a listener is helped by pauses, the rise and fall of the voice and changes in emphasis. In writing, punctuation performs some of these functions.

Full stop (.)

These are, of course, used to split sentences. But make sure your sentence is a sentence. It should have at least one verb, it should make sense and it should be making one or more statements.

Comma (,)

It is not easy to lay down rules about commas because their position is often just a matter of personal taste. But a good principle is to use as few as you need and only use them when they make the sentence clearer. For example, use them:

To show where you would have a short, natural pause if you were speaking:

'You may not think this is good idea, but it has worked well in every other area'.

To show where something extra has been put in, when you would use a pair of commas:

'This booklet must, if possible, be given back to the owner'

To divide strings of adjectives:

'The reference book was informative, interesting and visually attractive'.

Semicolon (;)

Semicolons can be used instead of full stops where you have two closely related sentences and a full stop might be too blunt:

'We have studied this problem for several days; more work is necessary'.

Or it can be divided in a list:

'The difficulties are: failure to produce the goods on time; reluctance to keep the costs down; poor standards of work'.

Layout punctuation:

Sometimes punctuation is an important part of the layout. If a number of facts or statements are emphasised by separating them into a list the punctuation is as follows:

a) the items in the list will start with lower case;

b) the end of each item will have a semicolon;

c) the last item will finish with a full stop.

The reason for this is that 'follows' is followed by a colon, not a full stop. Therefore the three separate items are not discrete sentences, but phrases within a sentence which is finished at the end of the last item. This would apply if items in the list were indicated by letters as above, by roman numerals or simply by dashes or 'bullet points'.

Quotation marks:

There are two different quotation marks, double and single and they have different meanings. They are used correctly below.

Mary remarked to her colleague, Susan, "The last time I saw Mr Farrell he was hoping to exchange contracts within the week. Have you any news of what stage he is at?". Susan answered, glancing at the daily printout that she used as her 'calendar', "He exchanged contracts last Wednesday and we are billing him today".

In other words, double quotation marks denote speech or direct quotes from documents such as:

Jane Austen's most famous saying is "it is a truth, universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife".

Single quotation marks are used to show that a word is being used out of context as in 'calendar' or for indirect quotes from documents such as:

Thomas Hardy's belief in 'the drama and tragedy of rural life', is the cornerstone of his biographer's assessment of his work.

They can also be used for quotes within quotes, e.g.:

Fred said to Tom, "Mary telephoned yesterday and said 'how are you getting to the party?' which meant that she needed a lift".

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