Punctuation matters : advice on punctuation for scientific and technical writing / John Kirkman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kirkman, John (Alfred John)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Technical writing.

Punctuation.

Physical Description:

xii, 145 pages ; 23 cm

Edition:

Fourth edition.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Routledge, 2006.

Summary:

Punctuation Matters gives straight answers to the queries raised most frequently by practitioners in computing, engineering, medicine and science as they grapple with day-to-day tasks in writing and editing. The advice it offers is based on John Kirkman's long experience of providing courses on writing and editing in academic centres, large companies, research organisations, and government departments, in the UK, Europe and in the USA. Sample material discussed in the book comes from real documents from computing, engineering and scientific contexts, giving the guidelines an immediately recognisable, 'true to life' relevance. The advice is down-to-earth and up-to-date.

The book is clearly set out in three parts: Part 1 states a policy for clear and reliable punctuation; Part 2 gives a series of alphabetically arranged guidelines, to be 'dipped into' for guidance on how to use the main punctuation marks in English; Part 3 contains appendices on paragraphing, word- division, and how conventions of punctuation differ in the UK and the USA. Punctuation Matters is the essential guide for everyone who has to write in scientific, technical and medical contexts, with clear explanations on punctuation, what it does and how to use it.

Contents:

Part 1 Policy 1

Difficulties caused by lack of punctuation 3

The jobs done by punctuation marks 5

The relation of punctuation to intonation and stress 7

Is 'open' or 'light' punctuation enough? 9

How punctuation helps reading 9

Reducing uncertainty by punctuating carefully 13

Absence of punctuation may damage your credibility 14

Redundancy as helpful reinforcement 16

The lazy writer's evasion of responsibility 16

1 Apostrophe 21

2 Capital letters 24

3 Colon 27

4 Comma 34

5 Dash (em rule and en rule) 53

6 Ellipsis points 58

7 Exclamation mark 61

8 Full stop 62

9 Hyphen 66

10 Inverted commas (or quotation marks) 78

11 Parentheses (or brackets) 84

12 Question mark 89

13 Semi-colon 91

14 Slash 93

15 Underlining 96

16 Variations in printing: bold type and italic type 98

Appendix 1 Paragraphing 105

Appendix 2 Word-division 115

Appendix 3 Differences in punctuation in American English and British English 119.

Notes:

"First published as Full Marks 1989, 1993, 1999 by Ramsbury Books"--T.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [138]-139) and index.

ISBN:

0415399815

9780415399814

0415399823

9780415399821

OCLC:

64289020