A group of words containing a subject and a verb and ...



A group of words containing a subject and a verb and expressing a complete thought is called a sentence or an independent clause. Sometimes, an independent clause stands alone as a sentence, and sometimes two independent clauses are linked together into what is called a compound sentence. Depending on the circumstances, one of two different punctuation marks can be used between the independent clauses in a compound sentence: a comma or a semicolon. The choice is yours.

Comma (,)

Use a comma after the first independent clause when you link two independent clauses with one of the following coordinating conjunctions: and, but, for, or, nor, so, yet. For example:

I am going home, and I intend to stay there.

It rained heavily during the afternoon, but we managed to have our picnic anyway.

They couldn't make it to the summit and back before dark, so they decided to camp for the night.

Semicolon (;)

Use a semicolon when you link two independent clauses with no connecting words. For example:

I am going home; I intend to stay there.

It rained heavily during the afternoon; we managed to have our picnic anyway.

They couldn't make it to the summit and back before dark; they decided to camp for the night.

You can also use a semicolon when you join two independent clauses together with one of the following conjunctive adverbs (adverbs that join independent clauses): however, moreover, therefore, consequently, otherwise, nevertheless, thus, etc. For example:

I am going home; moreover, I intend to stay there.

It rained heavily during the afternoon; however, we managed to have our picnic anyway.

They couldn't make it to the summit and back before dark; therefore, they decided to camp for the night.



An appositive is a noun or pronoun -- often with modifiers -- set beside another noun or pronoun to explain or identify it. Here are some examples of appositives.

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An appositive phrase usually follows the word it explains or identifies, but it may also precede it.

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Punctuation of appositives

In some cases, the noun being explained is too general without the appositive; the information is essential to the meaning of the sentence. When this is the case, do not place commas around the appositive; just leave it alone. If the sentence would be clear and complete without the appositive, then commas are necessary; place one before and one after the appositive.

Exercise

Underline the appositives in the following sentences.

1. My son, the policeman, will be visiting us next week.

2. The captain ordered the ship's carpenters to assemble the shallop, a large rowboat.

3. Walter, the playboy and writer, is very attached to his mother, Mrs. Hammon.

4. The actor Paul Newman directed only one picture.

5. Elizabeth Teague, a sweet and lovable girl, grew up to be a mentally troubled woman.

Underline and punctuate the appositives in the following sentences. Remember: not all require punctuation.

6. Sweetbriar a company known throughout the South is considering a nationwide advertising campaign.

7. An above-average student and talented musician John made his family proud.

8. The extremely popular American film Titanic was widely criticized for its mediocre script.

9. The greatest American film ever made Citizen Kane won only one Academy Award.

10. 60 Minutes the TV news magazine program featured a story on the popular singer Whitney Houston.

1. My son, the policeman, will be visiting us next week.

2. The captain ordered the ship's carpenters to assemble the shallop, a large rowboat.

3. Walter, the playboy and writer, is very attached to his mother, Mrs. Hammon.

4. The actor Paul Newman directed only one picture.

5. Elizabeth Teague, a sweet and lovable girl, grew up to be a mentally troubled woman.

Underline and punctuate the appositives in the following sentences. Remember: not all require punctuation.

6. Sweetbriar, a company known throughout the South, is considering a nationwide advertising campaign.

7. An above-average student and talented musician, John made his family proud.

8. The extremely popular American film Titanic was widely criticized for its mediocre script.

9. The greatest American film ever made, Citizen Kane won only one Academy Award.

10. 60 Minutes, the TV news magazine program, featured a story on the popular singer Whitney Houston.

Here are some examples.

|[pic] |Here we do not put commas around the |

| |appositive, because it is essential |

| |information. Without the appositive, the |

| |sentence would be The popular US president|

| |was known for his eloquent and |

| |inspirational speeches. We wouldn't know |

| |which president was being referred to. |

|[pic] |Here we put commas around the appositive |

| |because it is not essential information. |

| |Without the appositive, the sentence would|

| |be John Kennedy was known for his eloquent|

| |and traditional speeches. We still know |

| |who the subject of the sentence is without|

| |the appositive. |

|[pic] |Here we do not put commas around either |

| |appositive because they are both essential|

| |to understanding the sentence. Without the|

| |appositives, the sentence would just be |

| |John Kennedy was quite different from John|

| |Kennedy. We wouldn't know what qualities |

| |of John Kennedy were being referred to |

| |without the appositive. |

1. Carlos ran and ran but there was no way he could keep up with his brother Miguel.

Carlos ran and ran, but there was no way he could keep up with his brother Miguel. (If you know Carlos has only one brother, then Miguel's name becomes added information and a comma after brother would be possible.)

2. Tom the owner of Skip's Septic Service said he would be here tomorrow however there's always a chance he won't be able to come especially if it rains.

Tom, the owner of Skip's Septic Service, said he would be here tomorrow; however, there's always a chance he won't be able to come, especially if it rains.

3. My oldest sister who lives in Minnesota is a nutritionist my youngest sister who lives in Tennessee is a college administrator.

My oldest sister, who lives in Minnesota, is a nutritionist; my youngest sister, who lives in Tennessee, is a college administrator. OR you could use a period and start a new sentence where we've used a semicolon.

4. Frost's poem Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening contains these haunting lines The woods are lovely, dark and deep / But I have promises to keep.

Frost's poem "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" contains these haunting lines: "The woods are lovely, dark and deep / But I have promises to keep."

5. Christie's two roommates Viola and Ester used to live in San Juan Puerto Rico.

Christie's two roommates, Viola and Ester, used to live in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

6. Exhausted from answering the reporters questions Congressman Fuenches squared her shoulders gritted her teeth and angrily retorted thats none of your business you morons.

Exhausted from answering the reporters' questions, Congressman Fuenches squared her shoulders, gritted her teeth, and angrily retorted, "That's none of your business, you morons!"

7. Tomas nearly bursting with joy showed his family through his gorgeous newly renovated home.

Tomas, nearly bursting with joy, showed his family through his gorgeous, newly renovated home.

8. Outside the lawns around the college had become overgrown the shrubs needed trimming and there was litter everywhere.

Outside, the lawns around the college had become overgrown, the shrubs needed trimming, and there was litter everywhere.

9. The committee included the following representatives Ronald Pepin from Colchester Connecticut Barbara Maguire from Reading Massachusetts and Art Hammon from Whitehead New Hampshire.

The committee included the following representatives: Ronald Pepin from Colchester, Connecticut; Barbara Maguire from Reading, Massachusetts; and Art Hammon from Whitehead, New Hampshire.

10. John's wife Margot has resigned from her position as Head Nurse.

John's wife, Margot, has resigned from her position as Head Nurse.

11. Ouch yelled Cecilia youre stepping on my toes!

"Ouch!" yelled Cecilia. "You're stepping on my toes!"

12. Grammar wondered if throwing in one more question one that seemed to require no punctuation would confuse the students.

Grammar wondered if throwing in one more question, one that seemed to require no punctuation, would confuse the students.

When do we use a comma? (4 RULES)

1) Between Items in a Series

When you are listing three or more items in a sentence, simply place a comma between each member of the list. Here are two examples:

Mr. Sanchez used the money that he won from the sweepstakes to buy a house, a car, and a small yacht.

We will purchase the stock if the price is lowered to $30 per share, if we are allowed to buy a block of over 10,000 shares, and if we receive a guarantee that no new shares will be created in the next fiscal year.

2) Between Two Sentences (in other words, 2 independent clauses)

You’ll remember that a semicolon is used to connect two sentences. However, more often we glue two sentences together with a comma and conjunction (such as “and” or “but”).

The Suncom Corporation has just acquired the OILCO company, and it has agreed to sell OILCO’s oil-drilling rights in Texas as soon as possible.

I knew that the price of IBM stock would increase after it entered the home computer market, but I had no idea that the price would skyrocket.

I first conducted a thorough audit of the company, and I then interviewed the manager to try to determine how much money was missing.

All you need remember is this: when you’re connecting two sentences with a conjunction, you must also include a comma because the conjunction and comma work together as a team. Perhaps this diagram will help you remember:

SENTENCE , conjunction SENTENCE

Often you may use a conjunction but not have a complete sentence on both sides of it. In this case you do not need a comma. For example, you could easily rewrite the above sentences so that one part of each sentence is not a full sentence:

The Suncom Corporation has just acquired the OILCO company and has agreed to sell OILCO’s oil-drilling rights in Texas as soon as possible.

I knew the price of IBM stock would increase after it entered the home computer market but had no idea that the price would skyrocket.

I first conducted a thorough audit of the company and then interviewed the manager to try to determine how much money was missing.

One last bit of advice: if your sentence is very short (perhaps 5 to 10 words), you do have the option of omitting the comma if you wish. You have this option because your reader can usually understand a short sentence more readily than a long one, and therefore you would not need a comma for readability. Here is an example:

Mr. Santana is old and he is wise.

This sentence is so short that you may omit the comma. Remember, punctuation is meant to help the writer and the reader, not to make their jobs more difficult. That’s why you may opt to omit the comma between these two short sentences.

3) To Attach Words to the Front or Back of Your Sentence

Most of the sentences we compose really consist of a short core sentence with many details added to that core sentence. Frequently, we add information to sentences by attaching one or more words to the front or back of the core sentence. Remember that when you add information to the front or back of a sentence, you will want to alert your want readers in order to help them clearly understand your message. Here are four examples:

Certainly, Joan is a successful salesperson.

Although she flunked chemistry and barely passed math, Joan is a good student.

In order to help save the company from bankruptcy, we sold shares in the company at discount prices.

Joan is a good student, although she flunked chemistry and barely passed math.

If you examine the sentences above, you will see where the writer has attached words to the front or back of each core sentence. Even when you add one word, such as certainly in the first example, you want your reader to know where the real sentence begins. This is why you place the comma there. If you read the sentences carefully, you’ll also notice a natural pause where the comma is situated.

4) On Both Sides of a Nonessential Component

In order to tell a reader that a group of words is a nonessential component, you place commas in front and in back of the group of words. However, if omitting the group of words would drastically change the meaning of the sentence, then those words are not a component; rather, they are essential to the meaning of the sentence. In that case, you would not want to put commas on either side of the component so that the reader knows that those words are absolutely important to the meaning of the sentence. For example, look carefully at the following sentences:

Ms. Johnson, who is the company president, will present the award at our annual dinner.

Note the difference in meaning between the following sentences, depending on the presence of commas:

Banks which hold over a billion dollars in assets are rare.

Banks, which hold over a billion dollars in assets, are rare.

This sentence tells the reader that the main idea is that “banks are rare.” Certainly, banks are far from rare, but by enclosing the information in commas you have said that they are.

Although we’ve spent some time discussing this use of the comma, it isn’t very difficult to master. Simply remember that when you are proofreading you should check your sentences for essential and nonessential components.

When do we use a semicolon? (2 RULES)

1) To Connect Two Sentences

The semicolon is most often used to connect two sentences. Obviously, the sentences ought to be relatively close in content, but other than that you can connect any two sentences (independent clauses) with a semicolon.

SENTENCE ; SENTENCE

As a communicator, you are always putting together complex items in your prose and showing how they relate to one another. A semicolon is an economical way to join two sentences, and therefore two ideas, so that your reader sees the relationship. For example, you may write any of the following sentences:

1. Jim is a good typist; he makes few mistakes.

2. The AFC Corporation is an excellent company to invest in; its investments have risen sharply and steadily over each of the last ten years.

3. Ms. Sanchez is a successful real estate salesperson; however, she was unable to sell her own house.

The important point to remember is that you must have a complete sentence on both sides of the semicolon.

Sometimes a sentence may begin with words like however, therefore, and nevertheless. If your second sentence begins with one of these words, and if it is indeed a full sentence, you still must use a semicolon to connect the two. The sentence about Ms. Sanchez illustrates this use.

A word of caution: never glue two sentences together with only a comma. Grammarians call this sentence error a comma splice. Here is an example of two sentences connected with only a comma:

WRONG (COMMA SPLICE ERROR):

1. The banking community became quite upset at the rise in the prime rate, bankers felt that they would ultimately lose a considerable amount of money.

2. Ms. Linccini is a fine worker, she meets all her deadlines.

3. Our sales have increased by twenty percent, our inventory has been reduced by thirty percent.

2) As Supercomma

As you know, you normally separate the members of a list with commas, as in this sentence:

I have just bought shares in IBM, USAG, and ITT.

The commas let the reader know where one item ends and the next begins. Sometimes, however, you have a list of complex items and one (or more) of the items already contains a comma. In such a case, the reader is likely to get confused about what is really a member of the list and what is not. You can avoid this confusion by making the semicolon a sort of“supercomma.”Look at the sentence below to see how the supercomma works:

WRONG: Suncom Corporation has subsidiaries in four cities: New York, New York, Wilmington, Ohio, Houston, Texas, and San Francisco, California.

This sentence contains so many commas, both between the members of the list and within them, that readers are likely to become confused. Instead, you can make the semicolon a supercomma between each of the members so that your meaning is clear:

CORRECT: Suncom Corporation has subsidiaries in four cities: New York, New York; Wilmington, Ohio; Houston, Texas; and San Francisco, California.

When do we use a colon? (1 RULE)

In prose, a colon really does only one thing: it introduces. It can introduce just about anything: a word, a phrase, a sentence, a quotation, or a list. You’ll notice that we’ve used colons in the two preceding sentences to introduce a sentence, in the first case, and a list, in the second case. This is how simple the colon is. Let’s look at some other examples:

1. Joe has only one thing on his mind: profit.

2. Joe has only one thing on his mind: his stock portfolio.

3. Joe has only one thing on his mind: he wants to get rich.

4. Joe has three things on his mind: stocks, bonds, and certificates of deposit.

• We have used a colon in these four sentences to introduce various kinds of things: a word, a phrase, a sentence, and a list. You can use a colon in your prose in any place where you must directly introduce something.

• A colon gives special emphasis to whatever you’re introducing because readers must first come to a stop, and so they pay more attention to it.

For example, let’s say you are writing a letter describing a product, and you want to emphasize above all that this product, the Jacobsen lawn mower, is reliable. You could very well write:

The Jacobsen lawn mower beats its competitors especially in the key area of reliability.

While this sentence gets the point across, it doesn’t place much emphasis on reliability. A sentence using a colon is much more emphatic:

The Jacobsen lawn mower beats its competitors especially in one key area: reliability.

Notice that the second example places clear emphasis on the point that the writer is trying to communicate to his or her reader: that the Jacobsen lawn mower is above all reliable. The writer of this sentence has used the colon effectively.

Perhaps the most common way to use a colon is to introduce a list of items, as in this sentence:

This report reviews five main criteria to determine whether to purchase the IBM PC: hardware, software, maintenance agreements, service, and customer support.

If you aren’t sure whether you need a colon in a particular sentence, here is a handy test: read the sentence, and when you reach the colon, substitute the word namely; if the sentence reads through smoothly, then there’s a good chance that you do need a colon. For example, you can read any of the example sentences above with the word namely in the place of the colon:

1. Joe has only one thing on his mind [namely] profit.

2. Joe has only one thing on his mind [namely] his stock portfolio.

3. Joe has only one thing on his mind [namely] he wants to get rich.

4. Joe has three things on his mind [namely] stocks, bonds, and certificates of deposit.

One word of caution: do not place the colon after the verb in a sentence, even when you are introducing something, because the verb itself introduces and the colon would be redundant. For example, you would not write:

WRONG: My three favorite friends are: Evelyn, Marlyne, and Ronni.

The colon is not necessary in the sentence above because the verb does the work of introducing the three friends.

Instructions: in each blank space in the sentences below, provide a comma, semicolon, or colon where appropriate or write a small-case "x" (without the quotation marks) where none of those marks is appropriate.

The tab key will take you from one space to the next. There are 45 "opportunities for error" in this quiz.

Punctuation: Fill-in-the-Blanks

Guide to Grammar and Writing

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  [pic]My father used to quote his favorite line from Shakespeare[pic] "This above all[pic] to thine own self be true."

  [pic]It's hard to keep up with the new technologies in sound recording[pic] it makes you wonder where it will all end.

  [pic]Charlie[pic] Pete[pic] and Tony[pic] moved to Boston[pic] and bought a condo near the art museum for $125[pic]000.

  [pic]In July[pic] 1997[pic] Braxton moved to Dallas[pic] Texas.

  [pic]So many institutions of small-town America -- the local drugstore[pic] the corner theater[pic] the locally owned bookstore -- have gone the way of the cowboy[pic] and vaudeville theatre.

  [pic]I tell you[pic] Dr. Turveydrop[pic] these symptoms are quite alarming.

  [pic]Philip Roth's novel[pic] American Pastoral[pic] won the Pulitzer Prize in 1997.

  [pic]Tashonda gave two reasons for moving to Arizona[pic] the high cost of rental property in the east[pic] and favorable weather conditions out west.

  [pic]The distinguished panel consisted of[pic] Ronald Pepin[pic] Professor of English[pic] from Hartford[pic] Connecticut[pic] Peter Wursthorn[pic] Professor of Mathematics[pic] from Warwick[pic] Rhode Island[pic] and Kurt Simonds[pic] Director of the Learning Center at Yale University.

  [pic]The bumpy[pic] sinuous road[pic] and the incredibly loud[pic] obnoxious music on the radio[pic] soon combined to give Marsupial a bad[pic] migraine headache[pic] and a violently[pic] upset stomach.

  [pic]Students have adopted the Learning Center as a computer lab[pic] they just love those new machines.

  [pic]There's nothing like a violent[pic] shocking[pic] detective story to put me into a deep[pic] dreamless[pic] sleep.

  [pic]Hawthorne's most famous novel[pic] The Scarlet Letter[pic] has been read by countless schoolchildren.

  [pic]Mrs. Bidwell told her students[pic] not to read the answers in the back of the book.

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