Punctuation and Grammar

Avoiding the minefields and quagmires of editing

Proofreading words v. proofing ideas

Word-level proofing

Reading backwards

Referring to stylebook, writer’s handbook, textbook, sources and websites, including course page

Toolkit

Copyediting symbols (in your stylebooks)

Sometimes it’s just a little typo

Scared Heart

Untied Methodist Church

Musharraf addresses pubic outcry

Brain Carol of Barry College

Condoleeza Rice

Usage

that/which who/whom its/it’s hyphens/dashes farther/further over/more than more to come on these confusing words

What is punctuation for?

Serves readersHelps readers comprehend meaningPrevents stumbling when reading aloudUnderlines meaningPrevents misunderstandingFacilitates the activity of reading

Commas

Eats Shoots & Leaves

Eats, Shoots & Leaves

What’s the difference? A world of difference, right?

Commas

Children drive slowly

Children, drive slowly

Drive slowly! Children at play

Drive carefully! Slow children at play

Commas

Verily, I say unto thee, This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise!

Verily I say unto thee this day, Thou shalt be with me in Paradise!

Commas: When to use them

Commas in a series Commas with modifiers Commas with nonessential phrases, like

parentheses Commas with introductory phrases and clauses

“A rabid, diseased beast, the man didn’t want to put his dog to sleep

Commas with ages, addresses, dates Commas in attribution and quotations

Semi-colons

Know when to use them; know when not to use them.

Closely related phrases, but a full stop is too much.

They are not commas, nor are they used as commas.

Colons: They’re a lot like invoices

They “deliver the goods that have been invoiced in the preceding words.” (H.W. Fowler)

“This much is clear, Watson: It was the baying of an enormous hound.”

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

I pulled out all the stops for this assignment: I used a semi-colon!

Note the differences

Tom locked himself in the closet. Dook lost to the Heels.

Tom locked himself in the closet; Dook lost to the Heels.

Tom locked himself in the closet: Dook lost to the Heels.

Possessives

For sale: CD’s, DVD’s

Its v. It’s Their | They’re Whose | Who’s Your | You’re

These are all correct:

The bus’s tires The Jones’ house; Mr. Jones’s house children’s playground women’s movement babies’ bibs Keats’s poem New York Times’s main printing facility Achilles’s heel

What’s wrong with these?

Student’s Entrance Adult Learner’s Week Berry professor’s wives Lands’ End (actual company name) Mens Toilets Pansy’s for sale Cyclist’s Only

Hyphens (they hold together)

Pains-taking 30-car pileup “I reached for the w-w-w-watering can.” The 2-year-old and the 3-year-old played

together. Re-enter Foot-pedal Fine-tooth comb

Parallel structure & agreement

Verb tenses

Singular and plural nouns

Subjects and verbs

Parallel structure problems

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.

One cannot think well, have love, fall asleep, if dinner was bad.

Billy likes fielding and hitting.

Billy likes to field and hitting.

Avoiding cliches like the plague :-)

last but not least give 110% (I heard 2,000% yesterday!) untimely death (think about this one) few and far between stick to the game plan off the wagon, on the wagon or circling the

wagons

Brevity is the soul of lingerie (Dorothy Parker, via Hamlet) Write a short story in just six words “Failed SAT. Lost scholarship. Invented rocket.” William

Shatner “Computer, did we bring batteries? Computer?” Eileen

Gunn “Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so.” Joss Whedon “Longed for him. Got him. Shit.” Margaret Atwood Wasted day. Wasted life. Dessert, please.” Steven

Meretzky

How about four?

Small flowers crack concrete.

Punctuation and Grammar

Avoiding the minefields and quagmires of editing

Brian Carroll