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BASIC ENGLISH SKILLS

Back to basics - lets get it right!

A wordis a group of one or more related letters.One space between words. No space within (inside) a word, e.g. Mi_ke is wrong.Eplain that letters ha!e different widths " #m$ is wider than #i$, so lea!e an e%ual space between letters, e.g. #mint$, not #m i nt$.

A sentenceis a group of one or more related words.Each sentence starts with a capital letter.

Each sentence usuall& ends witha terminating period in one of ' forms#.$, #$, or #*$. (+his ma& help &ou when &ou are rearrangingwords to form a sentence).One or spaces between sentences (- will not count as these as most nati!e speakers do not know this rule).A sentence consists of at least one subect noun and one !erb, e.g.+here is hot /0 -t is hot (there). 1/ #+here$ is an ad!, not a subect noun.+here are good. !s +here are good animals (and bad). 1/ subect noun 2 good animals (and bad).

A aragrahis a group of related sentences.3e create a new paragraph when the subect changes.Ecept for the first paragraph, indent a new paragraph b& spaces.

"nct"ation #arks$

Ecept for a terminating %uote followed b& a period, a comma after an abbre!iation, and a colon within time (45'6), one space

usuall& follows all punctuation (- will check this). No space before punctuation (ecept initial %uotes) " Note +he 7rench use spaces before a double/part punctuation (, 8, *, ), and M9 3ord, :+M;, and 9M9 word completion sometimes insert a space

. 2 eriod(full stop) " +his finishes a sentence.-n

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3e ha!e other forms of dashes, e.g. #en/dash$ (the width of an #n$) and #em/dash$ (the width of an #m$). +hese are not important, sothe& will not be included in this course and - will not measure &our dashesAn #en/dash$ is sometimes used between dates (45'I/4JK') " use a h&phen.An #em/dash$ sometimes replaces commas, semicolons, colons, and parentheses to indicate added emphasis, an interruption, or anabrupt change of thought. +hese are not recommended for formal writing.

:&phenate all compound numbers from twent&/one through ninet&/nine and spelled out fractions, e.g. - used one/third of a cup.:&phenate when ad!erbs not ending in #/l&$ are used as compound words in front of a noun, e.g.:e got a much/needed haircut &esterda&. :e was a well/known artist. 1/ Note well (ad) indicates ill health.:owe!er, do not h&phenate when the combination of words is used after the noun, e.g.

:is haircut was much needed. +he artist was well known.Cse a h&phen with the prefi #e$, e.g. M& e/girlfriendL.

D 2 %"otation #arksor in!erted commas (usuall& called %uotes or speech marks) " this usuall& means that someone is speaking, orthat &ou are %uoting someone (plagiarism).+he st&le of %uotation marks changes around the world. 9ometimes #apostrophes$,sometimes 4 " - use both, but - recommend using for now. +he& should be in pairs (one at the start and one at the end). -n the past%uotation marks would be repeated at the beginning of e!er& line of a long %uotation. 3hen we stopped doing this, the empt& marginremained, lea!ing the modern form of indented block %uotation (- will not check or teach block %uotations because there is no

standard, but 466 words or J lines is recommended b& the

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+ ' ,orward slash(no spaces before or after, but one space before and after the obli%ue when used between longer groups whichcontain internal spacing, e.g. @Our +aiwan Q Eastern Sapan !acation@) is used

4. as a substitute for BorB, e.g. maleQfemale, TQN, andQor. +o separate the parts of a fraction (Q') " arithmetical di!ision.'. +o separate the parts of a date (4Q4Q64').

I. +o make a strong connection between words or phrases, such as @the =atmanQ9uperman fans@.R. +o mark line di!isions in poetr& %uoted within running tet.K. +here are other uses, but the abo!e are the main ones.

Cnits of measurement Tou would write #466 meters$, therefore write the abbre!iation as #466 km$ (a space between the number andmeasurement unit$. :owe!er, we don$t lea!e a space between degree and percent s&mbols, e.g. IRU and RV (no space).

+eacher Mike Hage ' 4I/9ep/4I

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