PUNCTUATION AND THE USE OF CAPITAL LETTERS

The objective of this lesson is to point out the importance of

punctuation to indicate the use of several signs at our
disposal, and then to practise using these.
Punctuation is simply a matter of common sense, the signs
are indications given by the writer to help the reader to
follow the meaning of the sentence more clearly.
Some are rest pauses, long or short, others are signs to indicate
surprise, indignation or some other emotion. Without these signs, our
printed books would not only look monotonous, but would also be
difficult to read.
Thus the study of punctuation and English mechanics in general is
very important for accurate expression in English.
Full stop, question mark and exclamation mark are known as end
punctuation marks.
The Full Stop/period (.)
 Used at the end of a declarative sentence that makes a statement. E.g.
Mbang is a man.
 At the end of an imperative sentence like an unemphatic request or
command. E.g. Give the dog the bone.
 At the end of an indirect question. E.g. The teacher asked why the class
had been cancelled.
 In abbreviations. E.g. U.N.O., H.I.V. etc.
The Question Mark (?)
 Used at the end of a question. E.g. Who came here?

 Indirect questions do not end in a question mark. E.g. I

wonder if Anja is at home.
 Note that if a question mark ends a quoted statement, there
should be no comma between the question and the tag. E.g.
“Why was Patrick late to church?” the priest asked.
The Exclamation Mark (!)
 Used in commands and interjections or a statement which
expresses very strong emotions. E.g. Sit down! Wow! God forbid!
 We should not use exclamation marks when we are making
simple requests. E.g. Hand in your papers by 4 p.m.
 The exclamation mark is omitted when reporting a command.
E.g. I told the boy to sit down.
The Comma (,)

It is one of the most commonly used punctuation mark. Its

omission can totally distort the meaning of a sentence: As the
P.M. finished, the audience stood in applause. Without the
comma after “finished”, the sentence will suggest that the
P.M. finished the audience!
Uses of the Comma
 To separate words, phrases and subordinate clauses which
are written in series.
 To separate short main clauses which occur in a series: E.g.
Anita came, saw, and appreciated the good work.
 To separate two or more adjectives modifying the same
noun: It has been a long, boring and painful journey.
 To set apart participial phrases and adjective clauses that are not
essential to the basic meaning of the sentence: Mbah, driving at
very high speed, did not notice us.
 Use a comma before and, but, or, nor, for, when they join main
clauses in a compound sentence: The boys come here everyday, but
they never greet me.
 The comma separates the speaker tag from a quotation: She said,
“Give that book to Jane.”
 After participial phrase or an adverbial clause that begins a
sentence: Encouraged by the enthusiastic crowd, the artist sang till
dawn.
 To separate appositives and appositive phrases: Mr. Ngu Jack, the
Vice Coordinator of the degree program, is a gentleman.
 After words such as yes, no, well, especially when these occur at
the beginning of the sentence: Yes, I now understand why he did
that.
 A comma divides the day of the month from the year: May
20, 2019.
 It separates units of an address: The ICT University, Yaounde,
Cameroon.

The Colon (:)

 Used to introduce a list especially after expressions such as:
as follows and the following.
E.g. This bag contains the following: a knife, a spoon, a fork.
 Used to introduce details or to expand or to explain some
ideas. E.g. To sum up: He was a bad ruler and a bad man.
 A colon can be useful when a conjunction is omitted in a
compound sentence which is expressing contrast. E.g. Man
proposes: God disposes. (but is omitted)
 To indicate time and biblical citations. E.g. 5:30 p.m., Mathew
7:7.

Semi Colon (;)

 It plays the role of a comma in separating items in a series
especially closely related independent clauses or sentences.
E.g. To err is human; to forgive is divine.

Don’t go close to the lions; they could bite you.

 When enumerations are made by means of phrases or
sentences (not single words). E.g. The man was a fool; he
couldn’t write his name correctly, he wandered around the
town and slept in the cold.

The Apostrophe (’)

 Used in contractions. E.g. I am – I’m, would not – wouldn’t

 To mark possession/ownership. The teacher’s book.

The Inverted Commas (“ ”)
 Used when we make a quotation either of a matter or of a
person’s spoken words. When a quotation mark comes
within a quotation, we generally employ single inverted
commas. In quoting sentences, if the quotation is more than
four typed lines, the inverted commas can be omitted and
the colon used.
 Note that the full stop that ends the sentence appears
before the final quotation mark. E.g. He said, “A little
rebellion now and then is a good thing.” The full stop
becomes a comma if the speech tag follows. E.g. “A
little rebellion now and then is a good thing,” he said.
The Hyphen (-)
 The hyphen is used to join parts of compound words such as
guitar-strings, man-of-war, half-hearted, never-to-be
forgotten test.
 It also serves to mark off words into syllables. E.g. won-der-
ful (3 syllables)
The Dash ( – )
 It is longer than a hyphen. In writing, it serves a hesitation,
confusion, or a sudden change in construction. E.g. I wonder –
will he come? I doubt it.

The Brackets
 Used to mark a parenthesis or to enclose some explanation
either to make things clearer or more explicit.
The Use of Capital Letters

Capitalization is very important in the writing process and

learners must master the proper use of letters in the upper
case. Clearly present in writing a capital letter as different
from its smaller representation. Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ee, Ef, Gg, Hh,
Ii, Jj, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Pp, Qq, Rr, Ss, Tt, Uu, Vv, Ww, Xx, Yy,
Zz.
Capitalization rules
 The personal pronoun “I” no matter where it appears in
writing must be capitalized. I told you I went to Buea.
 Capitalize the first letter at the beginning of every sentence
i.e. after a full stop, question mark, exclamation mark and
sometimes after a colon if the expression that follows is a
complete sentence.
 Capitalize all proper nouns and proper adjectives i.e. in
reference to people, places, organization, political bodies,
special events, eras, and titles. E.g. Labour Day, Amanda,
Kumba, Mfoundi,
 Capitalize the first word of a quoted sentence or part of a
sentence. Hamlet said, “To be or not to be.”
 Titles should be capitalized when used with proper nouns.
E.g. Dr. Ndah, Professor Toh, Chief Endeley, etc.
 Capitalize days of the week, months of the year but not
general reference to seasons or general measures of time.
E.g. Sunday, February but we have summer time, the rainy
season, weekend.
 Capitalize the name of specific academic courses and the
names of languages like English, Spanish, Lamnso, and
Mathematics.
 Capitalize names of relatives when these are used as proper
nouns. E.g. Uncle Tom will come here tomorrow.
 Capitalize the beginning of abbreviations. Dr., Mrs., B.A.
M.D., Ph.D.
 In all titles, headings, captions, we should capitalize the first and the
last word and also capitalize all the other words within the title
except articles (a, an, the) short prepositions (of, in, on) and short
conjunctions (and, or, but). E.g. The Lady with a Beard.
 When words like West, North West, and East are used to denote
recognized geographical areas, these should be capitalized but not
when they are used to show direction in general. E.g. The North
West Region is found to the north of the South West Region.
 Capitalize words referring to a particular deity (God), or
words in reference to some religious belief or holy objects.
E.g. God, Almighty God, The Holy Trinity, Hinduism, The
Bible, Koran, Jehovah.
 Pronouns referring to God are often capitalized. E.g. God
shows His anger.