PUNCTUATION

PUNCTUATION

The following sections will help you understand and use different types of punctuation more effectively in your writing. This chapter begins with the comma, the punctuation mark which usually causes writers the most trouble, before turning to other types of punctuation.

Comma 

usage:

• Use a comma before a co-ordinating conjunction that joins independent clauses (unless the independent clauses are very short)
• Use a Comma after an introductiory adverb clause and, often, after an introductiory phrase (unless the phrase is very short)
• Use a comma to separate items in a series.
• Use commas to set off non-restrictive elements and other parenthetical elements.
• Playing Parenthetical information between dashes has the opposite effect: it emphasises the material.

Ex: 

• After dinner we will play badminton
• The fingers on his left hand are bigger than those on his right.
• I wrapped the fresh fish in three layers of newspaper, but my van still smelled like trout for the next   week. (commas with two independent clauses)

Superfluos Commas

Equally important in understanding how to use commas effectively is knowing when not to use them. While this decision in sometimes a matter of personal taste. There re certain instance when you should definitely avoid a comma.

• do not use a comma to separate the subject from its predicate.
• do not use a comma to separate a verb from its object or its subject complement, or a preposition from its object.
• do not misuses a comma after a co-ordinating conjunction.
• do not use commas to set off words and short phrases (especially introductory ones) that are not parenthetical or that are very slightly.
• do not use commas to set off restrictive alements.
• do not use  commas before the first item or after the last item of a series. 

Collon 

When to use a colon

The colon focuses the readers attention on what is to follow, and as a result, you should use it to introduce a list, a summation, or an idea that somehow completes the introductory idea. you may use the colon in this way, however, only after an independent clause.

Ex: 

Their lobbying efforts were ultimately useless: the bill was soundly defeated

When not to use a collon

You should not place a colon between a verb and its object or subject complement, or between a preposition and its object.

Ex: [Wrong]His neighbour lent him: a pup-tent, a wooden canoe , and a slighly battered coleman stove. (colon between verb and objects)

[right]His neighbour lent him a pup-tent, a wooden canoe , and a slighly battered coleman stove.