Signalling emotions
Use appropriate punctuation marks to express anger, sadness, wonder and more in writing.
WHEN speaking, one’s facial expressions and the tone and volume of voice serve to express emotions. In written text, marks and signs serve this purpose, making punctuation marks a useful tool for building a quality textual structure.
Exclamation mark
An exclamation mark is used after words, phrases and sentences that are grammatical exclamations in that a special emphasis or emotion is intended when they are expressed. An exclamation mark is followed by a capital letter except when it is used to end a quotation as in (d). For example:
(a) Help! My pet cat is stuck in the tree.
(b) Good heavens! Is that the time?
(c) Alas! By the time the fire brigade arrived, the house was totally destroyed.
(d) “What an amazing place!” cried the excited student as she entered the museum.
Inverted commas
Inverted commas or quotation marks are used to indicate the actual words spoken in direct speech and for quotations. Either single or double marks may be used but modern usage tends to favour single marks, unless one piece of direct speech or a quotation occurs inside another as shown in (b) and (c).
(a) ‘As it is still raining,’ the tour guide said, ‘we shall wait awhile before we leave.’
(b) ‘We shall now sing “Advance Australia Fair”,’ announced the choir conductor.
(c) ‘I distinctly heard him say, “I will be there on time”, but where is he?’ she asked.
In handwritten material, as it is difficult to italicise, inverted commas can be used to distinguish the names of books, poems, plays, songs, paintings, houses, properties, restaurants, ships, as well as foreign, slang and other highlighted expressions. For example:
(a) Have you read ‘The Tale Of Two Cities’?
(b) You may have to ‘cop’ a lot more criticism before the course is finished.
It is important to remember that inverted commas and quotation marks enclose the actual words spoken or quoted.
This includes all the punctuation marks – commas, semicolons, question marks, and so on – associated with the text.
(a) ‘Early in the morning, we are leaving for Cairns for a holiday,’ Mr O’Brien said.
(b) ‘Early in the morning,’ Mr O’Brien said, ‘we are leaving for Cairns for a holiday.’
(c) Mr O’Brien said: ‘Early in the morning, we are leaving for Cairns for a holiday.’
Parenthesis or brackets
A parenthesis is a word, clause or sentence inserted into a passage as an ‘aside’ that enhances the statement but which is not grammatically essential. The parenthesis can be enclosed by commas, dashes or brackets, both rounded and square. For example:
(a) It was, as I warned everyone, a hard fought match.
(b) The Murphy family (including the grandparents) is coming to visit us.
(c) All the team (as well as their coach [Tony Ashton] and club committee members) will spend a week at the Gold Coast (Palm Beach) after the National Games.
(d) A cheque for $50 (fifty dollars) will be sent to you as a full refund.
(e) In the Exercises (see Page 123) there are some typing errors.
(f) Can you explain to me - as I would really like to know - why the shops are closed?
Keith Wright is the author and creator of the 4S Approach To Literacy and Language (4S) — a modern, innovative and proven method of accelerating the learning of English.
No comments:
Post a Comment