By Punctuation, Commas

Hi Tuongvan, you have continuing problems with spacing around punctuation. You do not need spaces before question marks: Who could have broken it ? -- incorrect (or non-standard) Who could have broken it? -- correct When you use a full stop, comma, colon or semicolon, put a single space...

I have no idea what you are trying to say or ask. What do you mean by "satisfy the sentence"? How can you "satisfy the sentence" by crossing out essential parts of it? I personally do not think that the way the sentence is punctuated contributes to its ambiguity.

Hello, many thanks to all who took the time to respond to this query. My personal intepretation which I think satisfy the sentence would be1. “Students are allowed to bring into the examination ONEA4 piece of paper with up to 39 formulae (no text) written on one side of it, with the equations...

suhanii, do not use ellipses (which should be three dots) as a substitute for proper punctuation. The first ... should be a comma and the second .. should be omitted. Also, listen to

Hello PCM, The key to your question is "too much." Too much of anything is unnatural. Even ice cream. (Although, happily, I haven't found that point yet when it comes to ice cream.) Colons are really not often used. Your example is a good one. Use them before a list. Until you...

You have problems with spacing around punctuation, and you have spurious double spaces in a number of places. I have corrected these below. The other changes that I made to the date formats are not because what you had was wrong, but just to make them all consistent. Dear colleagues, This...

.It requires a comma in order to subordinate the second 'and'. My remark is not contradicted by the guidelines you quote (which I heartily agree with). Good punctuation is not as easy to learn as you seem to think, bhikkhu.

Hello Mister Micawber,I have recently found out the rule of commas in the 'Guide to Grammar and Writing' is contradicting your remark, ' the second requires a comma between independent clauses'. When a coordinating conjunction connects two independent clauses, it is often (but not...

Hello,Sentence A. How do I avoid heavy punctuation?Sentence B. How do I distinguish obligatory punctuation from optional one, especially a comma?Thank you.With best wishes.

.Neither of the rules you suggest is absolute; both are merely guidelines. Much depends on the writer, the publishing house's punctuation rules, the complexity of the sentence, and the variety of English.