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”
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 …
Capitalization and Parties to the Lawsuit
When a word represents one of the parties to the lawsuit, it should be capped. …People will prove that… …showing that the Union witness said… …insist that the Government state that… Happy punctuating! Margie
Ellipses for Trailing Off…
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
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
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
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
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 …
More on “Two or None”
There are many places that one comma will not do as there is not a need to separate anything. In these places, IF there is a need for punctuate, it is a choice of two commas or no commas. …He has specifically changed the wording for the brochure… There is no place for one comma. Do we need two commas …
“Two Commas or No Commas”
No matter how many commas there are in a transcript nor how many different ways they are used, there are, in fact, only two basic ways that we use commas: commas to separate or commas to set off. We use a single separating comma to push two elements apart, or we set an element off with a pair of commas. …
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