COHESION AND

COHERENCE -
PUNCTUATION
Oficina e Produção Escrita em Língua Inglesa
Camila Gomes
1.The comma
a. Coordinate clauses
Two coordinate clauses are separated by a conjunction and/or a comma.
- commas are used before the coordinators but, yet and nor

Examples:

His first films met with great success, but/yet his popularity soon waned.
The new testing regulations will not help teachers, nor are they likely to
improve educational standards. ho de texto
 - commas are optional before and or or; they are recommended with
longer clauses, as this guides the reader to an accurate reading of the
grouping of words.
Examples:
The musicians played and the children sang.
The musicians played traditional folk songs all night long, and all the
children joined in with the singing.
A comma is highly recommended if it separates (phrasal or clausal)
items belonging to different syntactic constituents, and/or if it signals
conceptual groupings within phrases/clauses, thus preventing ambiguity
and making the processing of the text easier.

Examples:
I saw Anne and Jane.
I saw Anne, and Jane saw Peter.
The committee discussed the case, and the chair adjourned the
meeting.
b. Lists
Commas are used to separate items in a list. And or or are often found
before the last item, and in this case, the final comma may be omitted.

Example:
I bought ham, cheese, and bread
The diner food was cheap, unhealthy, and delicious.
c. Adjectives
Commas are used to separate adjectives which describe the same
noun, unless they are separated by and.
Examples:
She was a brave, determined leader.
She was a brave, determined and wise leader.
* Do not use commas to separate cumulative adjectives.
Examples:
Take a look at this bright green spider
d. Adverbial clauses
Commas are often used when the adverbial clause comes at the beginning of
the sentence.

Example:
If all the money is raised in the next few weeks, the expedition will leave.
(BUT: The expedition will leave if the money is raised in the next few
weeks.)
e. Non-restrictive relative clauses and appositions
Commas are put around non-restrictive relative clauses and appositions.

Examples:
His daughter, who had worked with him for many years, took over the
business.
Dangerous substances, banned in many countries, are still being used.
Mr Barrett, the mayor of Eastville, will lead the discussion.
f. Linking adverbs
Commas are used to separate linking adverbs from the rest of the
sentence

Examples:
However, antibiotics are often used incorrectly.
Antibiotics, however, are often used incorrectly.
Antibiotics, are often used incorrectly, however.
g. Geographical locations

Commas are used to separate the name of a place from the county, state
or country in which it is found.

Example:

They live in Alberta, Canada.

h. Forms of address in letters/emails

Commas are used after forms of address and in signature lines after
the salutation.

Examples:
Dear Michael,
Thanks you for your mail …
Best regards,
Katherine Jones

i. Line breaks
Commas may be used to signal that information units (e.g. in addresses
or signature lines) are to be understood as if written on separate lines.

Examples:
My address is 2512 Windermere Street, Jackson, Mississippi 40720.
Have a great weekend. Bye, Sarah

j. Question tags

Commas are used before questions tags.

Example:
This was a great experience, wasn’t it?
k. Intonation and emphasis
Commas can be used to mark level intonation (i.e. steady, constant,
neither rising nor falling pitch) combined with a pause. This can signal
added emphasis to the phrases or clauses separated by the comma.

Example:
The problem was resolved, to everyone’s surprise and pleasure
1. Practice
Where do you need to place commas in these sentences?
I called my best friend and she agreed to drive me to work.
I can take the bus to work or I can call another friend.
Britons are now emigrating to Germany France Belgium Holland.
Lily a senior will take her nursing exam this summer.
To get from South Dakota to Texas we will drive through Nebraska
Kansas Oklahoma.
Many college students are the first in their families to go to college their
relatives are proud of them.
2. The colon
a. Explanations
A colon can introduce an explanation for the first part of the sentence, as
an alternative to a linker expressing reason.

Examples:
In the end the documentary was not
broadcast because it was said to
constitute a threat to national security.
In the end the documentary was not broadcast: it was said to
constitute a threat to national security.

b. Details
A colon can be followed by additional, more specific information
about the first part of the sentence, as an alternative to a linker
introducing details.
Examples:
I Nearly everybody played a part in the war effort, that is, millions of people
were involved in Civil Defence and other voluntary
organisations.
Nearly everybody played a part in the war effort: millions of people were
involved in Civil Defence and other voluntary organisations.
c. Lists
Colons can be used to introduce a list of items.

Example:
The researchers recommended the following changes: a reduction of

working hours, greater involvement in decision-making, and an

improvement in working conditions.
 2. Practice
Practice using punctuation correctly:

Many companies had booths at the computer fair Apple, Microsoft, IBM,
and Dell, to name just a few.
The fair featured a vast array of software financial-management
applications, games, educational CDs, college-application programs, and
so o
The fair was overwhelming too much hype about too many things.
I picked up something I have been looking for a new game.
3. The semi-colon ;
a. Compound sentences
A semi-colon can be used instead of a full stop to separate two grammatically
independent clauses when there is a close semantic connection between the
two.
Example:
By 1598 the cumulative debt was 85 million; by the time Olivares came to
power it was up to 120 million.
b. Lists
Semi-colons can be used instead of commas to separate items in a list,
especially if these items are long or complex.
Examples:
Nearly everyone played a part in the war effort: over a million men joined
the Home Guard; even larger numbers of volunteers were active in Civil
Defence against air raids; thousands of women were recruited into the
Women's Land Army.
 3. Practice
Practice using punctuation correctly:

In an interview, hold your head up and do not slouch it is important to

look alert.
Make good eye contact looking down is not appropriate in an interview.
For dinner, Bob ate an order of onion rings a sixteen-ounce steak a
baked potato with sour cream, bacon bits, and cheese a green salad
and a huge bowl of ice cream with fudge sauce.
4. The full stop (AmE — period) .
As well as marking the end of a sentence, full stops are used after initials
and abbreviations.

Examples:
C. S. Lewis, Ms. Bennett, Dr. Jones, U. K.
*However, in modern British English the full stop is often omitted after
abbreviations.
Mr and Mrs Mason, USA
It also separates a unit from a decimal in figures

Example:
1.25%
The full stop marks falling intonation, independently of the semantic-
syntactic unit it is associated with
Example:
Until the advent of the mobile phone, which brings out the ostrich in us.
(Kate Fox, 2004, Watching the English, London, Hodder, pp. 145-146)
5. Dashes and brackets/parentheses — ( )
Dashes can be used in informal writing to separate a comment (i.e. a
parenthetical remark) from the rest of the sentence.
Example:
One month later — who knows why — he decided to leave for South
Africa
*The information unit surrounded by dashes is pronounced at a lower pitch
than the rest of the sentence.
4. Practice

Practice using punctuation correctly:

My grandfather’s most successful invention and also his first was the
electric blanket
When he died at the age of ninety six, he had more than 150 patents
registered
The final exam worth 25 percent of your total grade will be next
6. Quotation marks “ ” ‘ ’
Quotation marks can be double " " or single ' ' . Double marks are more
common in hand-written texts, whereas single marks are usually found in
printed material. Note the use of punctuation marks and capital letters in
the following examples, in particular the position of the comma in the
quoted text.
Examples:
She said, ‘You're looking wonderful.’
‘You're looking wonderful,’ she said.
‘I don't think,’ she said, ‘that I will be going tonight.’
Quotation marks are used in handwriting where print would use italics:

- for names of books, magazines, newspapers, films, musical compositions and

paintings;
Example:
Tolstoy began writing ‘War and Peace’ in 1865.
- for words in a foreign language and to signal non-literal meaning or
emphasis.
Example:
The concept of ‘weltanschauung’ dates back to the nineteenth
century.
5. Practice

Practice using quotation marks correctly

As my father always used to say: The road to hell is paved with

good intentions
I do not know what she means, I said to my friend Lina.
Lina asked, Do you think we should ask a question?

7. The apostrophe ’
Apostrophes are used in genitive forms, contracted forms, abbreviations
and plurals of abbreviations.
Exemplos:
Einstein's theory of relativity
The students' complaints
The party's over.
They don’t care about us.
6. Practice
Practice using apostrophes correctly

Karens apartment is on the South Side.

They all followed the colleges rules.
James roommate is looking for him.
My books covers are falling off
My sister six children are at my house for the weekend
I ll see you there.
8. Capital letters
Capital letters are used in the following circumstances:
- at the beginning of sentences and quotations
- for names of people, places, works of literature, the days of the week,
the months, nationalities, and all the planets except the earth (but not
for the sun, the moon or the seasons).
- for titles
- for names of organisations or institutions
- for words connected with religion.
Examples:
George Clooney
London Bridge
Bleak House, The Taming of the Shrew
Monday, Tuesday ...
January, February ...
English, Greek ...
Mars, Venus ...
The house faces north. x They come from North Carolina.
7. Practice
john schwarz is a professor.

the superintendent was surprised.

he asked, “what is going on here?”
I study russian every monday, wednesday, and friday from january
through may.
9. The hyphen -
a. Compound nouns
If the second component of the compound noun is an adverb, a hyphen is
used.
Examples:
a passer-by (plural passers-by)
a cover-up (plural cover-ups)
If the first component of the compound noun is a letter, a hyphen is used.
Examples:
a U-turn, a T-shirt, e-mail

For terms denoting members of the family, hyphens are used with the
words in-law and great-.
Examples:
mother-in-law, in-laws, great-uncle
b. Compound adjectives
Hyphens are used in the following circumstances:
- in compound adjectives expressing measurement
Examples:
a three-year-old boy, a ten-mile journey, a two-minute silence
48
- in compound adjectives in which the first component is a noun and the
second component is a participle
Examples:
fire-fighting equipment, tax-paying citizens, voice-operated
device, colour-coded text
c. Noun modification

Hyphens are often found when phrasal or clausal expressions are used
to modify nouns.
Examples:
You can do it yourself!
He is out of work.
Derelict land makes a do-it-yourself adventure playground and a
meeting place for out-of-work teenagers
d. Coordination compounds

Hyphens are used in coordination compounds.

Examples:
Italian-Czech dictionary, staff-student ratio, Franco-Prussian
war
e. Numerals and fractions
Hyphens are used to separate tens from units, and units from fractions.
Example:
twenty-two, two-thirds

f. Prefixes
Hyphens are used when the second item begins with a capital letter.
Example:
anti-American
Hyphens are used when the second item is a number.
Example:
pre-1914

Hyphens are common after prefixes such as co-, ex-, half-, non- and
Examples:
ex-president, half-sister, non-profit, self-control
8. Practice

Practice using punctuation correctly:

Being a stockbroker is a high risk career.
Michelle is the ultimate decisionmaker in our department.
Jill is a lovely three year old girl.
Seventy five people participated in the demonstration.
10. The exclamation mark
(AmE — exclamation point) !
Exclamation marks are used for exclamatives, signalling positive or
negative emotion (surprise, anger, interest, fear etc.)
Examples:
That’s great!
Be careful!
You idiot!
Exclamation marks are very common in informal writing, where more
than one may be used.
Example:
Can’t wait to see you!!!
9. Practice

Practice using punctuation correctly:

My dog made a loud ruff
I just want him to stop
“No we don’t want to go to the party”
“Oh you already bought a new car”
11. The question mark ?
The question mark indicates a question.

Examples:
What’s your name?
Is this yours?
Was it good or bad?
It can mark rising intonation (to signal interest or surprise and to
attract attention)
Examples:
And?
Excuse me?
You have told him about us?

10. Practice

Practice using punctuation correctly:

Why did the chicken cross the road Who wants to know Is it really that
important
Haven’t you ever heard the expression “It’s a free country”
You're French, aren't you
Snow isn't green, is it
12. The slash /
The slash indicates a series of alternatives (equivalent to either/or and
and/or), in contrast to the use of the hyphen to signal coordination
Exemple:
The speaker/writer

The slash may be used to separate units of information.

Exemple:
C:/Documents/English/grammar/punctuation
11. Practice

Practice using punctuation correctly:

Those two had a love hate relationship.
I don’t know what to think about the Star Wars Star Trek feud.I like
both!
Each person is free to live hisher own life.

13. The triple dot (suspension point — dot

dot dot) …
The triple dot is used to signal an incomplete statement. It is common in
informal writing.
Example:
Carpe Diem… This time tomorrow you might be swimming.
(Anthony Marais, 2002, Xenophobe’s guide to the Californians, London,
Oval Books, p. 31)
When enclosed in square brackets, it can also signal that a part of a text has
been omitted
Example:
“The course feedback […] provided insight into lecturer preferences.”
12. Practice

Practice using punctuation correctly:

I’m not sure what to say I told you that driving in the snow wasn’t a great
idea.
14. Indentation or blank lines
The beginning of a new paragraph is signalled by one of the following:
indentation or a preceding blank line.
Although feedback has to date not been collected, informal comments have pointed to a high degree of
satisfaction of the course on the part of participants. The Blended Course (60 + 40 hours), instead, has
been replaced by a 40-hour face-to-face course entitled “Teaching and communicating in English”, which
it is hoped will prove to fit better with lecturers’ already heavy work commitments.
The “Advising” service was renamed “Lecturer Support Service” to avoid confusion with a new
Language Centre Advising Project aimed at students.
Although feedback has to date not been collected, informal comments have pointed to a high degree of
satisfaction of the course on the part of participants. The Blended Course (60 + 40 hours), instead, has
been replaced by a 40-hour face-to-face course entitled “Teaching and communicating in English”, which
it is hoped will prove to fit better with lecturers’ already heavy work commitments.
CREDITS
ANKER. Susan. Real Writing. Paragraphs and Essays for college, work, and
everyday life. Fifth edition. 2010. Punctiation and Capitalization(Chapter. 7).
13 Basic Punctuation Rules in English: Essential Writing Essential Series & Punctuation
Guide, Youtube: 29 de abr. de 2021. Disponível em: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=zVu-XvULZNg> Acesso em: 30 maio 2022.