Question marks, exclamation marks, colons and semi-colons

Thursday, 03 November 2011 17:42 Written by Andrew Halloway

Here's my simple advice for these punctuation marks...

When to use a question mark:

1. After a direct question, at the end of the sentence.

2. To show that something is uncertain. In this case, it should be inside brackets, e.g. The date was 1934(?).

When to use an exclamation mark:

After an expression of shock, surprise, amazement, disbelief, astonishment, panic, dismay, joy or delight – in other words, when something dramatic is mentioned. This is usually at the end of a short sentence or phrase conveying these very strong emotions. You often find them at the end of a sentence beginning with 'What' or 'How', e.g. ‘What a brilliant idea!’, ‘How on earth did you do that?!’ But don’t go overboard with exclamation marks – they should be few and far between in your text, otherwise they lose their impact and annoy the reader. And in formal writing, don’t use them at all.

When to use a colon:

A colon is nothing to do with your intestines! It’s two dots like this:

There are two places where you’d use a colon:

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How to use commas

Thursday, 19 May 2011 09:09 Written by Andrew Halloway

Some people almost never use commas, and the result is that their sentences are long and hard to follow. Others stick commas in here, there and everywhere - but in all the wrong places.

The most general rule is that commas are used to break up long sentences. If you read a sentence out loud, commas are usually placed where you would naturally pause for a breath. Generally, the longer the sentence or the more complex the sentence, the greater the need for commas.

They also help clarify the meaning of a sentence. For example, take this sentence without a comma: ‘If you read a sentence out loud commas are usually placed where you would naturally pause for a breath.' The sentence is understandable without a comma, but you have to read it carefully to get it right. Placing a comma after ‘loud' makes it much easier to understand what you mean. Otherwise, if you read the sentence quickly, you might wonder what ‘out loud commas' are - noisy commas?!

It might be helpful to think of four different types of comma...

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Why punctuation is so important

Thursday, 05 August 2010 14:42 Written by Andrew Halloway

People who are careless about punctuation are asking to be misunderstood. Good communication is all about clear understanding - and failing to communicate can have a very negative effect on businesses and all organisations.

Correct punctuation isn't a subject for 'anoraks' and nerds - it's vitally important if you want to make yourself understood correctly. When you speak, you can make yourself understood through how you express your statements - stress on different words or syllables, intonation, rhythm, pauses, plus eye, face, hand and body signals, etc. But on paper or a computer screen, there are only two options: the words themselves and punctuation.

Poor punctuation can result in the same words having a meaning different to the one you intended, or at least an ambiguity that means people aren't sure what you are saying.

Although there are arguments over how to use some kinds of punctuation, the basic rules are clear and simple to apply. We all just need to remember them!

Let's look at full stops first.

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Making your church website reach more non-Christians

Thursday, 27 May 2010 10:16 Written by Andrew Halloway

Many churches have still not grasped the fact that websites can be a great evangelistic tool - but those who have, and that are the most successful, are the ones who have good content written for the non-Christian web surfer.

According to a recent poll conducted by Christian technology company Endis, which provides the ChurchInsight church web platform, when churches deliberately focus their websites on attracting outsiders they see a corresponding rise in the number of non-Christian visitors. But many focus on the internal life of the church too much, and their effectiveness is reduced.

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