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Punctuation
Posted by: Catie Holdridge
14 / 09 / 11
It’s not often that punctuation makes the headlines. But the uproar over the apparent threat to the Oxford comma has proved that passion for punctuation can bubble just below the surface. (It also answers indie band Vampire Weekend’s question: who gives a **** about an Oxford comma? Lots of people, it seems.) For those who […]
Write Away reader Bill Friar got in touch to air one of his professional writing bugbears: ‘I would dearly love to see an item on the creeping trend of putting commas between people’s names and their titles or descriptive terms. For example: “Prime Minister, David Cameron, spoke outside Downing Street….” or “action star, Tom Cruise, […]
28 / 05 / 10
Compared with pondering the placement of the much less familiar semi-colon or the enigmatic apostrophe, the ubiquitous comma might seem hardly worth worrying about. They’re ten a penny, aren’t they? Why not just sprinkle them at will or leave them out entirely? Unsurprisingly, we don’t recommend doing either. They may seem a common or garden […]
21 / 05 / 10
Sometimes, in a writing skills blog, you’ll find yourself in a corner of the punctuation family tree where two symbols seem so suspiciously similar to each other you could imagine they are basically interchangeable. Enter the dash and hyphen. But wait. These actually have quite different purposes, and both are vital parts of the punctuation […]
Posted by: em-admin
11 / 03 / 10
More people are unsure of their punctuation than would ever care to admit it. Use our quick guide to make sure you’re not one of them. Never use ‘its’ with an apostrophe unless it means ‘it is’ or ‘it has’ – it’s amazing how many people use it wrongly. Beware also the greengrocer’s apostrophe (pea’s, […]
15 / 01 / 10
The colon is a common cause of bellyache. The semicolon can leave people dazed and confused. But rather than cutting them completely from your punctuation diet, refer to the following guidelines and you’ll soon find just the right dosage for all your writing needs. The colon The colon is very useful for introducing things, for […]
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