English is an international language and institutes in hundreds of countries have their study scheme in this language to offer quality education for international students. It is also known to all of us that this is not native language of all students so many international students who have English as their second language are having issues of grammar and punctuation while writing their assignment tasks. This article addresses some common rules of grammar and punctuation that will help you to prevent your writing from such mistakes;
Commas and Semi-Colons:Most of us have learnt rules of commas and semi-colon at the basic learning level of English language but still could not put this knowledge in practice because of different elements. So for instance forget about those rules and go for these easy tips. Read a sentence and find by yourself where there is a punctuation needed. If the sentence has a short pause, means there two different talks or point in one sentence then there is short pause, so use a comma. On contrary there is long pause but you cannot put a full stop then you need to use semi-colon.
Dashes and Hyphens:When there is a clause – then you need to use a longer dash that’s m-dash. Keep it in your mind that the sentence where you have put a dash – make sense even without dash.
Abbreviations: Another major mistake that your writing software may indicate is abbreviations; this common mistake is most of the time highlighted by teacher as well. If you are writing on software then put stars on the abbreviation and explain that at the endnotes, but if there is hand writing or even on computer you can write the complete name of subject or object then write abbreviation in parenthesis. Then you can use the abbreviation in the whole next writing.
Referents must be clear:For instance you are saying that ‘this point’ or ‘this thing’ etc. then you must be clear what is ‘this point’ or ‘this thing’ in advance. Be clear about referents so your reader would not wonder who are these objects or people.
This: ‘this’ is not just a referent but sometimes writer use it when they are not sure what does actually mean by ‘this’. So think about the word that can be replaced with ‘this’ and really make a sense instead of creating vague statement.
That: Do not use ‘that’ while you are referring to a person ‘that’ is not an appropriate referent. For example ‘The tourist that she gathered’, in this sentence that is referred to people and could be replaced with an appropriate word like ‘who’ ‘whom’.
Italics and Underline:Again talk comes to punctuation marks and formatting as Italics are mostly use for styling but it actually has some meanings as well. In different standard format at different institute each styling type has a meaning or indicates some particular phenomenon. For example in a reference style journal or publisher name must be written in italics so use italics and underline according to the required formatting style.
Dashes and Hyphens:When there is a clause – then you need to use a longer dash that’s m-dash. Keep it in your mind that the sentence where you have put a dash – make sense even without dash.
Abbreviations: Another major mistake that your writing software may indicate is abbreviations; this common mistake is most of the time highlighted by teacher as well. If you are writing on software then put stars on the abbreviation and explain that at the endnotes, but if there is hand writing or even on computer you can write the complete name of subject or object then write abbreviation in parenthesis. Then you can use the abbreviation in the whole next writing.
Referents must be clear:For instance you are saying that ‘this point’ or ‘this thing’ etc. then you must be clear what is ‘this point’ or ‘this thing’ in advance. Be clear about referents so your reader would not wonder who are these objects or people.
This: ‘this’ is not just a referent but sometimes writer use it when they are not sure what does actually mean by ‘this’. So think about the word that can be replaced with ‘this’ and really make a sense instead of creating vague statement.
That: Do not use ‘that’ while you are referring to a person ‘that’ is not an appropriate referent. For example ‘The tourist that she gathered’, in this sentence that is referred to people and could be replaced with an appropriate word like ‘who’ ‘whom’.
Italics and Underline:Again talk comes to punctuation marks and formatting as Italics are mostly use for styling but it actually has some meanings as well. In different standard format at different institute each styling type has a meaning or indicates some particular phenomenon. For example in a reference style journal or publisher name must be written in italics so use italics and underline according to the required formatting style.