ESSENTIAL CONTENT

C2,C4

What are the

elements of style
and mechanics?

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INTRODUCTION

C2,C3,C4

Topics on the elements of style and mechanics are the main focus of this unit. The
learners will be exposed into paying more attention to the small and big details of written
language. Mechanics include punctuations, capitalizations, abbreviations, numbers and spelling.

Essential content

WRITING STYLE AND MECHANICS IN GRAMMAR

A writer may face certain difficulties in the process of writing if he doesn’t know what to
write and how to say it correctly in writing. In most instances, he may also encounter difficulties
in putting words together correctly in conformity with the rules of grammar and conventions.
Because of this, the writer may be in a dilemma over how to fully come up with correct and
impressive written outputs. Oftentimes with these problems, the writer needs to work on with his
writing style. Style is defined as the way a writer puts together sentences to come up with a
more coherent, unified and correct paragraphs.

Mechanics, in relation to grammar refers to all the details of the written language. The
ability of a person to learn correct grammar rules and mechanics is an important factor in the
process of writing. When a person has a good writing skills, this enables him to convey his
intended message to his audience clearly and effectively. Thus, it is important for any technical
writer to know and master grammar rules for correct application in any writing situations.

For anybody to master the craft of writing, he needs to develop the style conventions of
the language, and these conventions are: punctuations, capitalizations, abbreviation, number,
and spelling. Below are the elaborated explanations of the rules these conventions with their
corresponding examples:

a. PUNCTUATIONS
To help clarify the structure and meaning of sentences, punctuation marks are used.
Their functions are as follows: to separate group of words for meaning and emphasis; to
covey an idea of the variations in pitch, volume, pauses, and intonations; to help avoid

Technical English 1 week 9 Instructor: ms. jean m. guntan

 ambiguity. The most common examples of punctuation marks are: apostrophe, colon,
comma, hyphen, parenthesis, period and quotation marks. Each of these are elaborated
below:

1. Apostrophe |’|
- An apostrophe is used to form most possessives, contractions, as well as the
plurals and inflections of words.
Examples:
The field operative’s report is accurate.
She wasn’t in the hearing yesterday.
The victim’s body is in a state of decomposition.

2. Colon |:|
- Colon is used to mark an introduction, indicating that what follows it generally is a
clause, a phrase, or a list.
Examples:
The judge has trial experience on three judicial levels: country,
state, and federal
The issue comes down to this: will death penalty be legalized or
not?
We are required to pass the following: initial, progress, and final
reports of the case.

3. Comma |,|
- Comma is used to separate items in a series, and to set off or distinguish
grammatical elements within sentences.
Examples:
He was charged with reckless imprudence, and robbery resulting
to homicide.
The suspect was described as tall, has brown complexion,
medium built, and between 20-25 years old.
We are required to pass the initial, progress, and final reports of
the case

4. Hyphen |-|
- A hyphen is used to join the element of compound nouns and modifiers.
Examples:
The officer-in-charge of the case is on leave.
He first runner-up of the pageant was shot in the head.
His mother-in-law was invited for questioning after the
disappearance of the child.

5. Parenthesis ()
- A pair of parenthesis is used to enclose material that is inserted into a main
statement, but is not intended to be an essential part of it.
Examples:
The six patrol cars (all outdated models) will be replaced soon.
The diagram (fig. 1) illustrates the flow of the traffic.
The suspect (who was also an ex-army) was caught.

6. Period |.|
- A period serves to mark the end of a sentence or an abbreviation.
Examples:
There is a vehicular accident in the Marcelo Fernan Bridge.
Bill Clede is the author of the book Police Handgun Manual.
Atty. Dargantes teaches law subjects in the College of
Criminology.

7. Quotation Marks “ “
- Quotation marks are used to enclose quoted statements in a regular text
Examples:
“not guilty”, was the plea of the rapist

Technical English 1 week 9 Instructor: ms. jean m. guntan

 “Shhhh!” the rapist hissed.
“You are found guilty beyond reasonable doubt!” was the last statement
he wanted to hear.

B. CAPITALIZATION
To indicate that words have a special significance in a particular context they are
capitalized. Below are the basic rules of capitalizations:

1. The first word of a sentence or sentence pragment is capitalized.

Examples:
There are criminals. (Fragment)
Mar belongs to the upper echelon of the police bureaucracy.
He will pass the samples for accurate testings in the laboratory.

2. Abbreviated forms of proper nouns and adjectives are capitalized.

Examples:
Gen. (General)
NBI (National Bureau of Investigation)
PDEA (Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency)
SOCO (Scene of the Crime Operation)
CSI (Crime Scene Investigation)

3. Names of academic degrees are capitalized when they follow a person’s name.
Examples:
Ryan T. Figer, Criminologist
Joshua Pamilaran, Police Officer
Kesia Arabe, MSC

4. Full names of legislatives, deliberative, executive, and administrative bodies are

capitalized.
Examples:
The House of Representatives
Philippine Congress
Senatorial candidates
The Philippine National Police

5. The names of some historical and cultural periods and movement are capitalized.
Examples:
Prohibition
Fifth Republic
The Renaissance
Third Reich

6. Capitalize months, holidays, and days of the week.

Examples:
The bodies will be due for cremation on Monday.
The bombing exactly happened during the Independence Day
celebration.
Their investigation will commence in the month of May.

7. All major words, titles and subtitles of books and articles should be capitalized.
Examples:
The Icarus Agenda is a detective novel written by Robert Ludlum, A Time
to Kill is also a detective novel but it is written by John Grisham.
Copies of The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology are now available
in our library.
Are you aware that Police and Security News is a publication about
information source for law enforcement and homeland security?

C. ABBREVIATION

Technical English 1 week 9 Instructor: ms. jean m. guntan

 An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase; the abbreviated word is
pronounced exactly the same as the full word. It is used to save space and time in order to
avoid repetitions of long words and phrases, and simply to conform to the rules on conventional
usage.

Examples:

Duty Officer – DO
District Commander – DIST COMDR
Headquarters – HQ
Headquarters Philippine National Police –HPNP
Security – SCTY

Below are the basic rules in abbreviation:

1. Use abbreviations for titles like Mister, Miss, Madame, and Doctor
Examples:
Mr. and Mrs. Añonuevo will testify in court.
Dr. Cruz will write an autopsy report on the corpses.
Atty. Ma. Lee Aranzado will notarize the documents.

2. Abbreviate academic degrees after names and separate it with a comma.

Examples:
Marcus Lucas, M.D.
Ronalyn Dano, MSC
Jasmine Aballe, Ph. D.

3. Do not abbreviate titles if it is not used with a proper name.

Example:
My friend Dan, who is a police inspector specializes in ballistics.
The lawyers are reviewing the drug-related cases of the city.

4. Abbreviate common foreign terms.

Examples:
e.g. – exemplia gratia (for example)
et. al - et alii (and others)
etc. – et cetera (and so forth)
n. b. – nota bene (note well)
viz. – videlicet (namely)
vs. – versus (against)

5. Use abbreviations for words that are only understandable within a specific field of
specialization.
Examples:
All SWAT Team members are required to undergo rigorous trainings.
The CIDG and PDEA will team up in the investigation.
The SOCO Team are expected to arrive soon.

D. NUMBERS
The writer’s knowledge on the rules and usage governing numbers is significant in the
writing process below are the basic rules.

1. For numbers one through nine, it should be spelled out, and figures be used for
exact numbers greater than nine.
Examples:
She said she repeated her testimony a hundred times.
He spoke for an hour, convincing his audience of 20,000 law enforcers
from all over Asia.

2. Numbers that begin a sentence are written out.

Examples:
Thirty-five convicts were brought to the New Bilibid Prison last year.

Technical English 1 week 9 Instructor: ms. jean m. guntan

 Twenty new police cars are given by the governor.

3. Ordinal numbers are written as figures together with its suffix combination.
He wrote the 3rd and 4th sections of the Bill.

4. House numbers should be written in figures except for the word ’one’.
The suspect is living at #11 Ouano Street.
The suspect is living at #eleven Oano Street.

5. Dimensions, percentages, decimals, weighs, measurement, page numbers should

be written in figures.
The size of the bladed weapon is 3 by 5 ½ by 5 inches.
The liquid matter found in the crime scene contained 0.9 percent blood.
The rock that was used to pound his head weighed 2 pounds.
Please refer to page 20 of the Revised Penal Code for your reference.

6. If two numbers occur together, write the smaller number in words, and the larger
number in figures.
We are required to submit a 100 thirty page investigation report.

7. Numbers with o’clock should be written in words.

The investigation team will meet at one o’clock this afternoon.

8. Numbers with P.M. or A.M. should be written in figures.

The investigation team will meet at 11:15 A.M.

E. SPELLING
Hacker (1999) stressed that a writer will learn to spell from repeated experiences with
words in both reading and writing. Words have look, sound, and even a feel as the writer’s hand
moves across the page.
Spelling rules may differ among countries that use English as a medium of instruction.
Americans use American spelling, while the British and the Europeans use British spellings.
Specifically, in the Philippines, the American spelling is widely in written communication.

It is very vital for the writer to know the major spelling rules. Below are the rules:

1. Use i before e except after c

Examples:
i before e (relieve, believe, sieve, niece, fierce)
e before i (receive, deceive, sleigh, freight, eight)
exception (seize, either, weird, height, foreign, leisure)

2. When adding – s or –d to words ending in –y, change –y to –ie when the –y is

preceded by a consonant but not when it is preceded by a vowel.
Examples:
country – countries
fry – fried
stay – stayed
monkey – monkeys

3. When adding –s or –d to words ending in –y, do not change the –y to –ie though it
is preceded by a consonant.
Examples:
the Monterry family – (Monterrys)
There are two Percy names in this class – (the Percys)

4. When adding a suffix that begins with a vowel, drop a final silent –e; but if the
suffix begins with consonant, keep the final –e.
Examples:
Combine-combinations
Desire-desiring
Remove-removable

Technical English 1 week 9 Instructor: ms. jean m. guntan

 Care-careful

5. If a final consonant is preceded by a single vowel and the consonant ends a one-
syllable word, double the consonant when adding a suffix beginning with a vowel.
Example:
Let-letting
Transmit-transmitted
Commit-committed
Occur-occurrence

6. Add –s to form the plural of most nouns; add –es to singular nouns ending in –s,
-sh, -ch, and –x.
Examples:
Evidence-evidences
Fingerprint-fingerprints
Lash-lashes
Fish-fishes
Crutch-crutches

7. When a noun ends in –o and is preceded by vowel, add –s; when it is preceded by
a consonant add –es.
Example:
Video-videos
Rodeo-rodeos
Piano-pianos
Hero-heroes
Potato-potatoes

8. In forming the plural forms of hyphenated compounds, add the –s to the chief
word.
Examples:
Attorney-at-law, attorneys-at-law
Runner-up, runners-up

9. For English words that are derivation of other languages, and other irregular
words, form their plural by changing its spelling.
Examples:
alumna – alumni
ox – oxen
medium – media
datum – data
agendum – agenda
oasis - oases

Technical English 1 week 9 Instructor: ms. jean m. guntan

 Name: _________________________________ Course/Year: _______
Week#______

LEARNING ASSESSMENT

C1, C2
I. Insert the necessary punctuation marks in each sentence below.
1. The robber ran but there was no way he could hide from the agile policeman
2. Trinas husband Arnold has resigned from his position as Chief Security Officer
3. Help yelled the lady my handbag was snatched
4. When I grow up I want to be a police officer
5. Would you like to come to the police station

How will these elements of style and mechanics help you as future police officers?

______________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________

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__________________________________________________________________________________________

Technical English 1 week 9 Instructor: ms. jean m. guntan

 LEARNING REFLECTION

LEARNING application

Underline the correct spelling inside the parenthesis to complete each sentences
below.

1. Time works in the (Intelligence, Inteligence, Intillegence) Unit.

2. They psychopath said head and an (imaginary, imagenery, imaginary)
accomplice in the crime.
3. They need to (meet, met, metted) the victims for briefing.
4. The policeman must (adopt, adapt) to the changing environment.
5. The child got a toxic(injection, interjectshun, injectsion) from the suspect.

Category 5 Expert 3 Accomplished 2 Capable

The explanation The explanation The explanation

was written in an was written in an was not very
excellent manner, understandable understandable
Content briefly and manner, somewhat and the writer
concisely and brief and concise. shows inefficiency
shows the writer’s in the content.
clear
understanding of
the subject that is
being explained.
The output shows The output shows The output shows
no grammatical, minimal too many
spelling and grammatical, grammatical,
Mechanics punctuation error. spelling and spelling and
punctuation error. punctuation error.

REFERENCES :
21ST CENTURY LITERACY
INTEGRATION:

C1. CHARACTER
Maria Cristina Bajado-Nano, MAT C2. CITIZENSHIP
Paulino Ventic Pioquinto, MSC, CSP C3. COMMUNICATION
C4. CRITICAL THINKING
C5. COLLABORATION
C6. CREATIVITY

Technical English 1 week 9 Instructor: ms. jean m. guntan