Answers for self-assessment on sentence-level punctuation

  • Yes, that’s a good punctuation mark here.
  • No, that punctuation isn’t possible here.
  • Yes, an exclamation mark is possible here, but only if there are very few others in the passage. An exclamation mark should distinguish the sentence concerned from the other sentences around it.
  • Yes, that’s the best place for a single comma. Of course, commas are possible in other places as well, but this place needs one more than any of the alternatives do.
  • No, that’s not the right place for a single comma. Of course, a comma may be possible here, but even so a comma will be appropriate only if commas are used in many other places in the same sentence. This is not the point in the sentence which needs a comma most urgently.
  • Yes, that’s right – semicolon. The following clause could have been a separate sentence, and doesn’t restate the first two clauses.
  • Yes, that’s right – colon. The following clauses restate the first one by giving more details about the words used.
  • Yes, that’s right – colon. The following clauses restate the first one by saying precisely what there is to do.
  • Yes, that’s right – semicolon.The writer could have used and to join the two clauses.
  • No. The following clause could have been a separate sentence, and doesn’t restate the first two clauses.
  • No. The following clauses restate the first one by giving more details about the words used.
  • No. The following clauses restate the first one by saying precisely what there is to do.
  • No. The writer could have used and to join the two clauses.
 

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