- Joined
- 22 Sep 2005
- Messages
- 929
In a recent thread amplesou expressed that he didn't know what a particular piece of punctuation meant, I hope that the following old school rhyme helps him and everyone else's understanding:
Some old fashioned rules of punctuation
Start sentences with a capital letter,
That way you'll make your writing better.
The comma is for small, short breaks,
And for lists the writer makes.
Dashes - like these - tell you something by the way;
They give extra information (so do brackets I may say)
Full stops finish off: Colons pause to compare,
They also do this: list, explain and prepare.
The semi colon marks a break; then comes another clause.
It does the job of words that link, it's a medium length pause.
An apostrophe shows the owner of anyone's things,
And it's also handy for shortenings.
I'm so glad! He's so mad! She's having such a lark!
To show strong feelings you should use the exclamation mark.
A question mark comes after what? when? where? and why? and how?
Do you? Could I? Shall we? why not? give your answer now!
"Quotation marks" enclose what's said.
Sometimes they're called "speech marks", instead.
Some old fashioned rules of punctuation
Start sentences with a capital letter,
That way you'll make your writing better.
The comma is for small, short breaks,
And for lists the writer makes.
Dashes - like these - tell you something by the way;
They give extra information (so do brackets I may say)
Full stops finish off: Colons pause to compare,
They also do this: list, explain and prepare.
The semi colon marks a break; then comes another clause.
It does the job of words that link, it's a medium length pause.
An apostrophe shows the owner of anyone's things,
And it's also handy for shortenings.
I'm so glad! He's so mad! She's having such a lark!
To show strong feelings you should use the exclamation mark.
A question mark comes after what? when? where? and why? and how?
Do you? Could I? Shall we? why not? give your answer now!
"Quotation marks" enclose what's said.
Sometimes they're called "speech marks", instead.
