英文论文写作中标点符号应注意的事项

英文论文写作中标点符号应注意的事项英文论文写作中标点符号应注意的事项 Punctuation Bad punctuation can often make even the best writing unintelligible On the other hand good punctuation can make your meaning clear and your language effective English punctuation generally differs from that of other European languages even though there is often considerable room for personal preferences a mastery of the basic rules is indispensable There is one overriding principle to use the bare minimum of punctuation necessary to keep the writing intelligible The following list of rules makes no claim to exhaustiveness I The Apostrophe 1 men s women s children s people s It is correct to write this area s problems meaning the problems of this area and these areas problems meaning the problems of these areas in fact putting apostrophes anywhere else would be wrong But the plurals of man woman and child are exceptions to this general rule thus we write the men s wives the women s husbands the children s mothers and nothing else Another important exception is the word people when it denotes the plural of person thus we would write these people s behavior meaning the behavior of these persons but these peoples behavior meaning the behavior of these peoples i e ethnic groups Other irregular plurals are treated in the same way as men women children and people above all the plurals of ox sheep goose and mice e g the oxen s pasture the sheep s wool the geese s flight the mice s tails 2 A mistake that is frequent among foreign learners of English is to write a phrase such as these area s problems when what the person actually means is these problems of the area 3 It is best to use the apostrophe when you want to show the plural of something which cannot normally be plural The past tense of our is spelt with two r s I aept the idea in principle but there are a lot of if s 4 Strings of apostrophes are to be avoided Thus one should write the friends of that man s son instead of that man s son s friends 5 We say in ten days time in twenty years time i e we use the apostrophe 6 We say each other s not each others e g to get on each other s nerves II The Colon 1 Quotations The colon is often used to introduce quotations To quote Nietzsche God is dead As the bard One of an ancient Celtic order of minstrel poets who posed and recited verses celebrating the legendary exploits of chieftains and heroes 吟游诗人古代凯尔特族的吟游诗人 自编自唱 吟唱酋长和 英雄的传奇业绩 so abruptly puts it All the world s a stage The colon can also be used to introduce direct speech especially in rather formal or serious contexts Finally Mark Antony began his address Friends Romans countrymen patriots lend me your ears N B N B 拉 nota bene note well 注意 留心 i The colon is not used to introduce conversation ii Direct formal quotations begin with a capital letter iii The colon is not used to introduce quotes consisting of very brief phrases Do you know that Mrs Thatcher actually said shut up to Lord Carrington 2 Explanations The colon is often used after a main clause where the following statement explains elaborates or illustrates that clause especially in formal contexts It may sometimes be replaced by a full stop or a semicolon There is no point in worrying disasters are sure to happen anyway Full stop and semicolon also possible The Church is totally opposed to two aspects of the permissive society that is abortion on demand and artificial methods of birth control Apartheid 种族隔离 was not overthrown rather it died a natural death Full stop and semicolon also possible The question is this Is killing ever justified He certainly has a drinking problem I once saw him drink a whole bottle of whisky Full stop and semicolon also possible There is one good thing about skinheads 剃光头的人 and punks they absolutely hate each other 3 Lists Colons can also be used to introduce lists or enumerations often using the following phrases as follows for example for instance such as and the following In the world described in Orwell s Animal Farm two basic principles bee all important i all animals are equal ii some animals are more equal than others Our solar system consists of the following plas 行星 Mercury 水星 Venus 金星 Earth Mars 火星 Jupiter 木星 Saturn 土星 Uranus 天王星 Neptune 海王星 and Pluto 冥王星 N B Try to avoid sentences like the following where the subject and the verb are separated from the plement The ingredients of gunpowder are saltpeter 硝石 sulphur 硫磺 and charcoal Better would be to remove the colon or else to rephrase the sentence The ingredients of gunpowder are as follows saltpetre sulphur and charcoal or Gunpowder has three ingredients saltpeter sulphur and charcoal III The Comma 1 Defining and Non defining Compare the two following sentences a and b a Pop stars who earn fortunes should pay higher taxes Defining relative clause i e only those pop stars who earn fortunes should pay higher taxes b Pop stars who earn fortunes should pay higher taxes Non defining relative clause i e all pop stars earn fortunes and therefore should pay higher taxes The first sentence refers only to some pop stars while the second sentence refers to all pop stars Note that in the second sentence there are two mas not one to mark the beginning and the end of the clause The same principle operates with the words when and where Compare the following a The day when JFK was assassinated I was crossing the Atlantic b On November 22 when JFK was assassinated I was crossing the Atlantic c The town where I was stationed was pretty arid d Quetta where I was stationed was a pretty arid place Note that a ma is possible in a after assassinated but not in c The same principle also extends to appositional phrases Compare the following a Nietzsche s work The Gay Science was written in 1888 b Nietzsche s last work The Gay Science 艳体诗 was written in 1888 c The famous thinker Michel Foucault has just died d A famous thinker Michel Foucault has just died e The Prime Minister Marg