{"id":2180,"date":"2016-04-13T09:43:43","date_gmt":"2016-04-13T15:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=2180"},"modified":"2021-04-15T08:59:44","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T13:59:44","slug":"punctuation-or-chaos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/effective-writing\/punctuation-or-chaos\/","title":{"rendered":"Punctuation or Chaos"},"content":{"rendered":"

She said I saved the company<\/em><\/p>\n

No one knows for sure what the above sentence means. It consists of six everyday words, and the first five are monosyllables, yet this simple declarative sentence has at least three quite different
\nmeanings\u2014maybe more, because with no period on the end, the reader can\u2019t even be sure the sentence is complete. As it stands, we don\u2019t know whether \u201cshe\u201d or \u201cI\u201d saved the company. We don\u2019t even know who was talking. Look:<\/p>\n

\u2022 She said I saved the company<\/em>.
\n\u2022 She said, \u201cI saved the company.\u201d <\/em>
\n\u2022 \u201cShe,\u201d said I, \u201csaved the company.\u201d <\/em><\/i><\/p>\n

Without punctuation marks, a sentence is thrown into chaos. So please spend a few minutes assessing your punctuation proficiency by taking the quiz below. The answers directly follow the test.<\/p>\n

* NOTE: This quiz addresses punctuation rules and conventions of American English.<\/p>\n

Punctuation Quiz<\/strong><\/p>\n

1<\/strong>.
\nA) The ship arrives at 8 p.m.<\/span><\/span>. Be on time.
\nB) The ship arrives at 8 p.m.<\/span><\/span> Be on time.
\nC) A and B are both correct.<\/p>\n

2<\/strong>.
\nA) The teacher said, \u201cThis is an example of \u2018an eye for an eye.\u2019 \u201d
\nB) The teacher said, \u201cThis is an example of \u2018an eye for an eye\u2019.\u201d
\nC) The teacher said, \u201cThis is an example of \u2018an eye for an eye\u2019 \u201d.<\/p>\n

3<\/strong>.
\nA) Lamar is a bright, happy, child.
\nB) Lamar is a bright happy child.
\nC) Lamar is a bright, happy child.<\/p>\n

4<\/strong>.
\nA) If I may be perfectly frank I think it\u2019s a bad plan.
\nB) If I may be perfectly frank, I think, it\u2019s a bad plan.
\nC) If I may be perfectly frank I think, it\u2019s a bad plan.
\nD) If I may be perfectly frank, I think it\u2019s a bad plan.<\/p>\n

5<\/strong>.
\nA) Ask me Wednesday<\/span><\/span>. We will know more then.
\nB) Ask me Wednesday<\/span><\/span>; we will know more then.
\nC) A and B are both correct.<\/p>\n

6<\/strong>.
\nA) We have come up with a travel choice for this summer; Mexico City.
\nB) We have come up with a travel choice for this summer: Mexico City.
\nC) A and B are both correct.<\/p>\n

7<\/strong>.
\nA) The four siblings can read each other\u2019s minds.
\nB) The four siblings can read each others\u2019 minds.
\nC) The four siblings can read each others\u2019s minds.
\nD) The four siblings can read each others minds.<\/p>\n

8<\/strong>.
\nA) All the student\u2019s favorite teacher is Mrs. Baines, but Mrs. Baine\u2019s idea of a good time is fishing.
\nB) All the students\u2019 favorite teacher is Mrs. Baines, but Mrs. Baine\u2019s idea of a good time is fishing.
\nC) All the student\u2019s favorite teacher is Mrs. Baines, but Mrs. Baines\u2019 idea of a good time is fishing.
\nD) All the students\u2019 favorite teacher is Mrs. Baines, but Mrs. Baines\u2019s idea of a good time is fishing.<\/p>\n

9<\/strong>.
\nA) Our daughter is two-years-old now.
\nB) Our daughter is two years old now.
\nC) Our daughter is two-years old now.
\nD) Our daughter is two years-old now.<\/p>\n

10<\/strong>.
\nA) After reviewing the up to date documents, she pushed for environmentally-friendly practices.
\nB) After reviewing the up to-date documents, she pushed for environmentally-friendly practices.
\nC) After reviewing the up-to-date documents, she pushed for environmentally-friendly practices.
\nD) After reviewing the up-to-date documents, she pushed for environmentally friendly practices.<\/p>\n

11<\/strong>.
\nA) These are just words on paper- you can choose to disagree with them.
\nB) These are just words on paper – you can choose to disagree with them.
\nC) These are just words on paper\u2014you can choose to disagree with them.
\nD) A, B, and C are all correct.<\/p>\n

12<\/strong>.
\nA) I hope you enjoyed yourself (why do I worry about that?).
\nB) I hope you enjoyed yourself (why do I worry about that?)
\nC) I hope you enjoyed yourself (why do I worry about that.)
\nD) I hope you enjoyed yourself (why do I worry about that).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ANSWERS<\/strong><\/p>\n

1<\/strong>. B) See Periods<\/strong>, Rule 2<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

2<\/strong>. A) See Quotation Marks<\/strong>, Rule 7<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

3<\/strong>. C) See Commas<\/strong>, Rule 2<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

4<\/strong>. D) See Commas<\/strong>, Rule 4a<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

5<\/strong>. C) See Semicolons<\/strong>, Rule 1a<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

6<\/strong>. B) See Colons<\/strong>, Rule 1a<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

7<\/strong>. A) See \u201cEach Other vs. One Another\u201d<\/a> (Newsletter of Sept. 29, 2015, tenth paragraph)<\/p>\n

8<\/strong>. D) See Apostrophes<\/strong>, Rules 1c and 2a<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

9<\/strong>. B) See Hyphens<\/strong>, Rule 4<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

10<\/strong>. D) See Hyphens<\/strong>,<\/em> Rules 1 and 3<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

11<\/strong>. C) See Hyphens<\/strong>, intro<\/a> (first paragraph)<\/p>\n

12<\/strong>. A) See Parentheses<\/strong>, Rule 2b<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She said I saved the company No one knows for sure what the above sentence means. It consists of six everyday words, and the first five are monosyllables, yet this simple declarative sentence has at least three quite different meanings\u2014maybe more, because with no period on the end, the reader can\u2019t even be sure the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,15,13,38,12,35,29,46,47,22,14,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apostrophes","category-colons","category-commas","category-dashes","category-effective-writing","category-hyphens","category-parentheses","category-periods","category-question-marks","category-quotation-marks","category-semicolons","category-spacing"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2180"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}