Punctuation Matters!
I wonder how many of my readers remember the story 'Flowers for Algernon' by Daniel Keyes? It was originally written as a short story, then made into a film, followed by a novel-length book called 'Charly'. It's the story of a mentally-retarded man, Charly, who has an operation to artificially improve his intelligence. Algernon was the name Charly gave to a mouse who had the first artificial-intelligence operation and to start with, the mouse is cleverer than he is! During his post-operative recovery, Charly is required to keep a journal to record his thoughts and progress; along the way, he learns about punctuation and his first attempt at using it is hilarious...
i dont understand all. About comm'as and things but!!! i am lerning. To,;put! Them in. I have to lern to rite. ?? proper.
Charlie 'lerning' about punctuation - and other things!
Punctuation might seem a bit like that at times - just a lot of gobbledygook for no good reason. But if you want to be considered THE expert in your field, then learn the rules of punctuation. What I have listed here is just a start and if you are interested in learning the more difficult parts of correct English, then check out some of the good grammar sites available.
And don't bother having an operation to artificially increase your intelligence...although Charly eventually becomes smarter than his doctors, his decline is rapid, heart-breaking and total. His last diary entry (these days they would have made him write a blog!) is the plea for someone to put flowers on Algernon's grave...
As our friend Charly learnt, clarity in writing involves the correct use of punctuation marks. Let's move on to discover what the basic ones are and how to use them.
P.S. There is a deliberate mistake on page 9. Find it and PM me - don't write it in the comments section. Any other errors - please let me know in the comments.
And then: "...are made of finest yak felt...", shouldn't that be: "...are made of THE finest yak felt..."? WIthout the capitalisation, of course?
At point 2, a space between 'to' and 'join' is missing.
I think I have my commas reasonably under control, even though I'm handicapped by my native language (Dutch) using a slightly different set of rules for their usage. But when the Oxford comma comes into play I get hopelessly lost. The colons and semicolons tend to drive me bonkers at times. If I can just remember what you wrote about them here, I might improve!
Reply
In the yak felt case, either would be correct. (One of the madnesses of English) I can say 'made of the finest yak felt' or 'made of finest yak felt'. The article is not compulsory here.
I'll check the spacing - it is so annoying when that happens!
You're great! I think I'll employ you as my personal editor!
Cheers
Ellie
But I thank you and will fix it pronto!
Yes - the hyphen between non and native is correct. I was going to add the correct use of hyphens but wondered if it was too long already. They are also a rather tricky subject and one that I see misused, unused and abused quite often.
You don't need to use 'alright' - it's just 'right' as in
Is that right? (or correct)
You've done amazingly well for a non-native speaker.
Thank you
Ellie
I've really enjoyed this - just shows how easy it is to let mistakes slip past - and I was trying really hard, too!
Thanks heaps
Ellie
(I cover the subject of slang and colloquial English in the next segment!)
I really like this training, because I need it.
Since my mother tongue is not the English language, it is hard to get some content well written.
Do you have maybe an idea how I can improve the quality of my content with a tool or something?
I use the free plug-in of Grammarly.com right now, but it's expensive to buy it.
Thanks,
Grtz,
Bert
I haven't used Grammarly myself, because being fairly proficient in English, I tend to trust my own judgement, or if I'm a bit puzzled, I simply type my specific problem into Google and check whatever website pops up. Some are better than others.
There are some 'spin-writing' tools available, but it is not recommended as google tends to pick up 'spun' content fairly quickly.
You can use Fivver and Elance to have your articles/content written, but what I found was that most of the people who offer to do writing are not native English speakers and the ones who are, charge a fair bit.
There are various translation tools available, but I am not altogether sure that they are very accurate. Some translations tend to come out pretty weird!
All I can really honestly recommend is that you get a good English writer to check your work for you. I have done so for a few people here, but it is time-consuming and I have to charge something or I would spend a lot of time and never get my own work done! You can send me a PM if you want to talk to me further about this option.
It's a good idea to ask for editing feedback here - specifically request that people check on your spelling, grammar etc.
I'd be glad to know if anyone knows of a good tool, but I really think it's just a case of learning, practising, checking, editing and asking for help to check your work.
I'm sorry not to be more helpful
Thank you for coming by. I appreciate it!
Cheers
Ellie
Cheers
Ellie
