PUNCTUATION….don’t leave home without it

Courtesy of…Ask me to tell the

joke……

A panda goes into

a restaurant and eats a meal.

Before he leaves, he takes out and

begins shooting

“What are you doing?” screams the

waitress.

The panda replies, “When I looked

myself up in the dictionary, it said a

panda eats, shoots and leaves.

Punctuation is important• A woman without her man is nothing.

• A woman, without her man, is nothing.

• A woman: without her, man is nothing.

• Dear Jack,• I want a man who knows

what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we’re apart. I can be forever happy-will you let me be yours?

• Dear Jack,• I want a man who knows

what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men I yearn! For you I have no feelings whatsoever. When we’re apart I can be happy forever. Will you let me be?

• Yours,

The Comma,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

•1. used for lists•2. joins sentences•3. fills in gaps•4. used before direct speech•5. sets off interjections•6. come in pairs

The COMMA : Used for Lists

•Ex: My mom bought eggs, milk, cereal, and bread at the store.

•Put comma before the “and”• (the Oxford comma)

The COMMA : Before Dialog

I say, “Study your vocabulary.”

•

The COMMA: Marks Additional Info

• Mrs. Teacher, our evil language arts teacher, will be grading our timed writes.

• Mrs. Teacher will be grading our timed writes.

• If you take out the additional information the sentence is still grammatically correct!!! Yippee

Comma: Makes Connections

Used when 2 complete sentences are joined together using the conjunctions • ,and• ,or• ,but • ,while • ,yet

Comma: Fills in Gaps p 89• ( for the sophisticated writer)

Annie had dark hair; Sally, fair.

• Sally had fair hair.

• • Implied

Comma: Sets off Interjections

Holy Bologna, I

received an A on

an essay!

Comma Brilliance! Don’t be stupid! • Where does the comma belong?• Sam walked on her head a little higher than usual.

Comma BrillianceDon’t be stupid! Where does the comma belong?

• The driver managed to escape from the vehicle before it sank and swam to the river bank.

The fabulous, versatile apostrophe’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’Good for many occasions!!!

• 1. Indicates possession• 2. Indicates time or quantity• 3. Indicates the omission of letters• 4. Indicates the omission of numbers in dates

• 5. Indicates strange, nonstandard English. • 6. Used in certain surnames ( last names)• 7. Indicates plurals of words

The Apostrophe: Indicates Possession---EXCEPT

• You DO NOT need apostrophes for possessive determiners:

• my----------mine • your--------------yours• his------------------------his• her----------------------------hers• our----------------------------------ours• its------------------------------------------its• your-------------------------------------------yours• their--------------------------------------------------theirs

• -

The Apostrophe: Indicates Possession

To indicate a possessive of a plural noun

The student’s calculator

The group’s timed writes• The women’s movement

The babies’ bottles• The boys’ hats

The Apostrophe: Indicates time or quantity

• In one week’s time• Two weeks’ notice

Four yards’ worth

•

• WRONG

The Apostrophe: Indicates omission of number in dates

• The summer of ’72.

Class of ’15

The Apostrophe: Indicates omission of letters

• I s’pose, if we hadn’t stopped ‘im she would have hit ‘im.

• I suppose, if we had not stopped him she would have hit him.

• Used in dialog to reveal dialect • Used by Shakespeare to maintain iambic pentameter• Used to make contractions of words

The Apostrophe: It / it’s conundrum

THE RULE :

It’s stands for “it is” or “it has”

• If the sentence does not make sense, add the “is” or “has” then

• It is “its”

Let’s practice

•Its your turn •Its got very cold outside •Its mine•That was its theme.•

Fabulous ApostropheIndicates strange, non-standard English

• Used in literature to demonstrate any type of accent

• Found in:• Their Eyes Were Watching God• Huckleberry Finn

Fabulous Apostrophe: Used in surnames

Scarlett O’Hara

Patrick O’Neil

Fabulous Apostrophe: Indicates plural of letters

• How many i’s are in the word Mississippi?

• The student had all A’s on her timed writes.

Fabulous Apostrophe: Indicates plurals of words

What are do’s and don’ts?

There are too many but’s and and’s at the beginning of sentences these days.

NOTE: Word will underline this in red.

Colons::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::• 1. Almost always preceded by a complete sentence.

• EX: • Tom has only one rule in life: Never eat anything

bigger than your head. • Tom has only one rule in life.• Never eat anything bigger than your head.

• 2. Reminds us that there is more to the statement than meets the eye.

• EX: You can do it: And you will do it.

Colons…………use them correctly• 3. Used to separate oppositional statements.• EX: Man proposes: God disposes.

• Colons introduce the part of the sentence that: explains, restates, elaborates, undermines, or balances the preceding part.

• EXCEPT>>>>>>

Colons::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::• 4. To begin lists.• EX: A model student always has a: pen, pencil, eraser,

marker, highlighter, calculator, protractor, lip balm, and mini dictionary.

• 5. Set off book and film sub-titles from the main title.• EX: Berks and Wankers: a pessimist’s view of

language preservation• EX: Eats Shoots and Leaves: The zero tolerance

approach to punctuation.

Colons: Separate dramatic characters from dialog in a script or play.

• Mrs. Teacher: Are you ready for your timed write?• Students: Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

• 7. They start off long quotations of 40 words or more.

Colons: Indicates a quote of 40 words or more.

The Semicolon;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;• Only full sentences should be joined by the

semicolon.• transition words that require a semicolon:

• ;however,• ;nevertheless,• ;also, • ;consequently,• ;hence,

•

The semicolon: A sort of Super comma

• ( I DO NOT advocate this because you ( sorry) need to learn to walk the grammatically correct way before you can run.

It was a terrible day for the student: he lost his calculator; he forgot his vocabulary words; his girlfriend dumped him; and he forgot to sign up for the AP exams.

• Indicates a list acts as super comma

Fun with Punctuation• Tom locked himself in the shed. England lost to

Argentina.

Unrelated sentences?

• Tom locked himself in the shed; England lost to Argentina.

Events occurred at same time, but are they related???

• Tom locked himself in the shed: England lost to Argentina.

• Ah, Tom locked himself in the shed because England lost to Argentina.

•Think you can remember •all that?