When you read an article before posting it online, you check several times that there are no misspellings or grammatical errors, but do you pay attention to punctuation?
The quality of writing depends on how much institutional degree one has, mean years of institutional learning, how many text books are read in an average every day and the level of intelligence of the person; to mention a few.
Punctuation in the English language is something subtle and it is not uncommon to read articles that contain errors in punctuation. Here are eight points to check punctuation when writing an article on his blog.
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The simple signs
These are: the dot or full stop ( . ) Comma ( , ) and the ellipsis ( … ) . In all three cases it is only one space after the sign and never after.
Example:
A comma, period. Following the next item …
The double signs
These are: the semicolon ( ; ) the colon ( : ) exclamation mark ( ! ) and the question mark ( ? ). In these cases, the rule is that there is a space before and after the sign.
Example:
Yes! No? Watch a dog and a cat
Parentheses and quotes
Spaces are left outside but not inside. If they are followed by a simple punctuation there is no space after.
Example:
It works (by default) like that.
Grammar (and spelling).
Hyphen for compound words
It puts no space before or after.
Example:
That is to say that we should-
Units
All currency units or measures include a space before. Should be written as per rule of S.I. units. The prefix symbols Y (yotta), Z (zetta), E (exa), P (peta), T (tera), G (giga), and M (mega) are printed in upper-case letters while all other prefix symbols are printed in lower-case letters. Prefix names are normally printed in lowercase letters, except if the abbreviation is after some respected scientist’s name.
Example:
I sell it at $ 14
I measure 175 cmHow the unit Da (dalton) is defined?
Reference for usage of S.I unit symbols is here.
Quotation marks to emphasize
It is the most common mistake, the quotes are used only quote the words, phrases or words. If you want to emphasize a word, do not use the quotes but rather a bold font.
Example:
Wrong: But it’s “free”!
Correct: But it’s free!
Et cetera
Never put dots after “etc”.
Example:
A dog, cat, horse, etc..
Punctuation inside quotes
When quoting a sentence ends with a punctuation, the rule is to leave the punctuation inside the quotation marks because the quotation does not change the original text.
Example:
The attendant said, “Give me your ticket.” with a big smile.
When the quote ends the sentence, there are two possible cases:
– If the quote is added as a new sentence is introduced by a colon then the point is inside the closing of the quotation mark.
– If the quote is in the same sentence: it is introduced by a linking word such as “that” then the point is outside the quotation mark.
Example:
He added: “A meeting will take place. ”
He added that “a meeting will take place”.
When you write an article do you pay close attention to these? Google does pay attention!
Many thanks to Mrs. Corrine for correcting the errors in the examples.
Regards, Anne