Numbers and Other Things That Denote a List

Margie Wakeman WellsThe Comma, Uncategorized Leave a Comment

Remember that a number or word that denotes an item in a list must be surrounded by punctuation. Sometimes that punctuation is something other than commas. …in Indiana; two, in California; three, in Florida… …was 54,000; two, 34,000… If the number comes in the middle of the sentence, it must be surrounded by punctuation, usually commas. …government; and, third, the …

The Word “Although”

Margie Wakeman WellsThe Comma Leave a Comment

The word although is like since and if, not like therefore and however. The word although is a subordinate conjunction, not a conjunctive adverb. The word although does not take a semicolon before it and a comma after it. …saw them; although, they were… 🙁 …win it; although, the team did not… 🙁 …We still saw them although they were …

Ellipses for Trailing Off…

Margie Wakeman WellsGeneral 2 Comments

The use of ellipses to show trailing off has gained favor in many segments of the court reporting community.  Many reporters express a desire to distinguish between a speaker who trails off and a speaker who is interrupted. The dash in English shows broken sentence structure.  It does not matter how the structure gets broken.  It simply shows that a …

Gratitude

Margie Wakeman WellsUncategorized Leave a Comment

Just a brief pause to express my gratitude for the blessings of my life. Thank you to each one of you who have supported me and my career. I appreciate you. Wishing for each of you a day filled with blessings and being surrounded by those you love. Happy Thanksgiving. Margie  

A Parenthetical

Margie Wakeman WellsThe Comma Leave a Comment

I was recently asked about surrounding “for one” in the sentence “I for one want to….”  If the reason for commas is that “for one” is a parenthetical, then the answer is no commas. Remember that an element which is truly a parenthetical has to able to fit anywhere in the sentence AND fit into any sentence that you use. …

Just Some Stuff This Morning

Margie Wakeman WellsNumbers, The Quotation Mark Leave a Comment

When someone says “quote/unquote,” use a slash mark in between the words. Surround them with appropriate punctuation. Use the quote marks also. When the attorney says “okay” before he starts a question — more or less a response to the last answer — English says to paragraph after “okay” as it is a thought of its own. (Some reporters do …

Plural Possessives

Margie Wakeman WellsThe Apostrophe 2 Comments

Remember the rule: When the plural form of a word ends in s — most of them do — add only an apostrophe to this PLURAL form of the word to make it possessive. So in order to have s apostrophe, the base form must be a plural form. …each others’ cars… 🙁 …one anothers’ cars… 🙁 Thus these forms …