Search results for 'tag:Exclamation marks' matching tag 'Exclamation marks'

Re: Punctuation: needs to be checked over

Clive — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:57:56 GMT

Hi,
I would really appreciate anyone who could check over these sentences to ensure all the punctuation is correct. This is an assignment for a correspondence course I'm taking, and I think I have them mostly right but I'd like to be sure. (This lesson focuses mainly on the period, question mark, exclamation mark, comma, semicolon, colon, dash, apostrophe, hyphen, quotation marks, italics/underlining, parantheses, brackets, slashes, capital letters, numbers)

a) Her favourite writers, Joyce Carol Oates and James Dickey, are both contemporary.

j) The lawn, a little ragged, needs to be cut; the hedge, shrubs, and ivy need to be

trimmed; the flowers need to be watered; and not least of all, the gardener needs to be

paid. (should the semicolon after watered be a comma, since the next word is and?) I'd use commas instead of all the semicolons.

k) The late Will Rogers's favourite saying was "I've never met a man I didn't like." (should there be a comma after was? No)

m) Does anyone remember who said absolute power corrupts absolutely? (according to my lesson, quotation marks arent supposed to be used on commonly known quotes, so I didnt use them.) I'd use them here, because the focus is on the fact that this is a quotation.

o) "You can't do that!" they shouted from the balcony. "You can't! You can't!" I'd consider putting a comma after the first quote.

p) The president's wife's activities are always reported in the press--so are his

children's. (not sure if this dash is right...)I guess it is, if you like dashes. I'd put a period instead.

r) To be a millionaire by the time you are thirty you will have to take large risks, be

lucky, and have creative ideas.

s) "Enjoy the view!" we called out as they left for the mountain-top. We had wisely

decided to wait for them in a meadow half-way up. Again, I'd consider a comma after the quote.

Best wishes, Clive

Punctuation: needs to be checked over

emchapps — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:45:03 GMT

Hi, I would really appreciate anyone who could check over these sentences to ensure all the punctuation is correct. This is an assignment for a correspondence course I'm taking, and I think I have them mostly right but I'd like to be sure. (This lesson focuses mainly on the period, question mark, exclamation mark, comma, semicolon, colon, dash, apostrophe, hyphen, quotation marks, italics/underlining, parantheses, brackets, slashes, capital letters, numbers)

a) Her favourite writers, Joyce Caol Oates and James Dickey, are both contemporary.

b) Your faults are an uncontrollable temper, inexperience, and indifference to your

work. (should there be a colon after the word are?)

c) Since we had driven the car 87,000 kilometres, we decided to turn it in.

d) If siege is spelled with an ie, why is seize spelled with an ei?

e) "What we need," said Mr. Blevin, the union spokesman, "is a good day's pay for a

good day's work."

f) Many people ~~perhaps most people~~do not know from what material their clothing is

made.

g) The government was faced with a difficult task: it had to persuade a sceptical,

frustrated people that the energy shortage was real.

h) Her camera, her new dress, and her books ~~all of which she left in her car~~were

stolen.

i) I have just received an unexpected letter from the director of the Bureau of Internal

Revenue. (should director be capitalized?)

j) The lawn, a little ragged, needs to be cut; the hedge, shrubs, and ivy need to be

trimmed; the flowers need to be watered; and not least of all, the gardener needs to be

paid. (should the semicolon after watered be a comma, since the next word is and?)

k) The late Will Rogers' favourite saying was "I've never met a man I didn't like." (should there be a comma after was?)

l) Judy Garland is best remembered for her role in the 1930's film, The Wizard of Oz.

m) Does anyone remember who said absolute power corrupts absolutely? (according to my lesson, quotation marks arent supposed to be used on commonly known quotes, so I didnt use them.)

n) I make it a point to read the New York Times every day and The New Yorker every

week; only rarely, however, do I get around to Time or Newsweek.

o) "You can't do that!" they shouted from the balcony. "You can't! You can't!"

p) The president's wife's activities are always reported in the press--so are his

children's. (not sure if this dash is right...)

q) Should one judge candidates from the speeches they make, from the printed matter

they distribute, or from the ideas they generate?

r) To be a millionaire, by the time you are thirty you will have to take large risks, be

lucky, and have creative ideas.

s) "Enjoy the view!" we called out as they left for the mountain-top. We had wisely

decided to wait for them in a meadow half-way up.

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RegularSchool — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 06:41:24 GMT

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Re: colon dash

richard_s — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 03:13:17 GMT

Well traditional punctuation rules state that two independent clauses need to be separated either by a full stop /Â exclamationÂ mark, or by a semicolon.

Thus the following is quite proper:

I hate him so much; he killed my dog.

Now if you go back a bit a hundred to a hundred and fifty years, you will find that the colon itself used to have the same function. Â This use is still occasionally seen in modern writing. Â Thus, the colon use is not wrong, just old fashioned. Â

You certainly shouldn't put an exclamation mark before a colon.

Re: passive voice

Cool Breeze — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 07:51:51 GMT

Huevos
Goodman
football is a popular sport played almost in all Asain and European countries. There is no direct agent here but it's still a passive structure.
That sentence is not in the passive voice.

Football is a popular sport [which/that is] played in almost all Asian and European countries.

The sentence consists of a main clause and a relative clause, which has been reduced by omitting the relative pronoun and the passive auxiliary (is). I call such structures clause equivalents, but terminology is unimportant here. The relative clause - or its equivalent - is in the passive voice.

A sentence ends with a full stop / period, an exclamation mark or a question mark. A clause need not have any punctuation after it, which is the case after the main clause in this sentence.

Re: * >< [ ] ; ! :_ " What is it called in English?

Peaceblinkfriend — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:21:17 GMT

Welcome to Englishforums veronikad!

Those keyboard symbols which show feelings are called emoticons or smiley. :-DÂ

In maths, ' * ' this is called the times sign.Â

; Â Â - Â Â semicolon

( ) Â - Â Â brackets, round brackets, parenthesesÂ

People tend to use brackets are round brackets in Australia. In North America, parentheses is the more common term I think.

>Â Â and <Â Â Â

x > 3 Â - x is greater than 3

x < 3 Â - x is less than 3

tom_school@***.com - Â Â Â "_" is called underscore

!Â Â - exclamation mark

âÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â two dots over the word, and what it is called when a word isÂ Â âwithinâÂ Â ? Â - Â I don't really know what people call this.Â

%Â Â Â percentage

: Â Â colon

âÂ Â Â Â apostrophe

!=Â Â Â how do you say that in programming terms? Â Â - I don't know

>=Â Â Â how do you say that in programming terms? Â Â - greater than or equal to

I don't know much about programming unfortunately. Sorry but I can't help you with the other terms. I was never good at programming when I took up computer last year.

Hope it helps.Â

PBF

Re: Motivation letter

ferpectedit — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:39:24 GMT

Although this letter (which is too long to review in full) is grammatically correct (with some awkward wording) I would change the tone. In the opening sentence I would use a much stronger word than "considering": it makes you sound like you're not serious about your career. "Planning" would be a better choice. My revision would be

I am planning a career in neuropharmacology and want to enter your PhD program to build on the work I have done here at ** University.

The exclamation points in the letter should all be eliminated. Although you should include your interest in study abroad and your reassurance to the program that you will be able to learn French, you should cut those two points to a bare minimum and not use them as an introduction. Your main emphasis should be your experience in neuropharmacology and neuroscience. Good luck!

Re: Merry or Happy?

Zerox — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 20:49:25 GMT

I browsed through my last year's notes and found the info I said and there a side note there saying 'obsolete' with three exclamation marks. So, I went to check from the OED the history of 'merry' and, as Clive already mentioned, 'merry' has had a meaning of boisterous joyfulness normally due to alcohol. I'm also inclined to say that my professor, who told this last Christmas, is from the UK and, moreover, he sometimes uses somewhat antiquated English expressions for the sake of both amusing us and showing how the meanings of words change.

Re: A few more sentences I thought about...

CalifJim — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:25:55 GMT

YSchneider
To me it sounds kind of odd!

Then use the other one! Nobody's going to notice any difference anyway!

The imperative can't influence anything in the past, so I associate a present tense, or a present perfect tense, with an imperative.

You see, the simple past puts an imaginary wall between you and the event you're talking about. The present perfect doesn't. So if I want to command someone (please tell me!) I don't see any reason to put a wall between what happened (someone was hurt) and my command. If I want to be told -- right this minute! -- about someone who is hurt -- exclamation mark and all -- then certainly it's because I think I can still do something to help the injured party. This is not ancient history we're talking about!

Compare, noting the "wall" || :

Ken fell and hurt himself while he was out of town last week. || He's OK now.

Ken has fallen and hurt himself! Quick! Call a doctor!

Re: Exclamation marks 3

Vincent Teo — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 22:13:15 GMT

I just want to confirm,

Oh, That's not all! (after Oh, we use comma ? after comma, should I capitalize "That")?