 Lecture 39, As-Salaamu Alaikum. Welcome to the virtual university's course on business and technical communication. In today's lecture, we will continue reviewing language with reference to punctuation. In this lecture, you will learn about the proper use of colons, semicolons, question marks, exclamation marks, apostrophes, quotation marks, hyphens, dashes, parentheses and brackets. Let's start with colons. Why do we use colons and how will we use them? You will use colons to introduce and emphasize lists, quotations and explanations and certain oppositional elements to express ratios, to separate numbers, signifying different nouns such as in separating units of time or elements in a bibliographical citation. You will also use colons to separate titles from subtitles. Let's have a look in detail with examples at all the different categories of colon use and see what exactly I mean by all this. Firstly, I said you will use colons to set off and emphasize lists. The example that I am going to show you here shows a list and we are going to look at different ways a colon can be used to set off and emphasize such a list. It says the market for photovoltaic power systems includes the following items colon, intrusional arms, flood monitors, calculators and telephone call boxes. As you can see there is a colon and then the list is given within the same paragraph or you could have a sentence which says the market for photovoltaic power systems includes the following items colon and then you list all the things with each element item coming on a separate line with an indentation. Similarly, you could have another way of using a colon which could be in a similar way. You could have an introductory sentence then have a colon and then list the elements with number. Another use of the colon as I mentioned earlier was to set off and emphasize quotations. We are going to have a look at an example on the screen which will highlight this point. It says the contract reads colon and then you have the quoted material full stop or as the other example again it reads culic noted colon and then you have the quoted material. You will place the colons outside the quotation marks and not inside them. So, you will have first the colon and then the quoted part begins. You will also use the colon to set off and emphasize explanations and oppositional elements. As we see on the screen in designing the tachometer the team first passed a question posed a question colon and then the question is asked what operations are needed on the input signal in order to generate the desired output. Here it is a question is being a hypothetical question is being asked and that is has been set apart by the colon. Similarly, another example that you are seeing now says the projects have however been able to measure the effects of caloric restriction on so called biomarkers of aging colon attributes are generally changed with age and may help predict the future span of health or life. Now, this section after the colon is the explanation of what has been called the biomarkers of aging. Colons are also used to express ratios. We are going to have a look at some examples which show values expressed in terms of ratio and how a colon is used between them. The ratio of drag torque to bearing friction torque cannot exceed 3 is to 1. Now, this is expressed with a colon in between. Also the anti GAP43, anti MAP2 and anti synaptophys in antibiotics were diluted 1 is to 1000, 1 is to 300, 1 is to 100 respectively again note the colon use in photo phosphate in phosphate buffered saline containing 10% bovine serine albumin. Now, as you can see different in this example there we have shown you different ratios that have been expressed, but all of them have used the colon. Colons are also used to separate units of time as can be seen from these examples. The main thruster engines ignited at 7 colon 05 AM EDT or you can say Thursday, March 16, 03, 21, 44 which means 3 hours, 21 minutes and 44 seconds. We can use the colon to separate citation elements in some documentation styles. Citation elements are those or citations are those which when you are talking about where material has been found that you have quoted in your text. If you have given a reference to the material from somewhere in your text, then you will tell us where did you get that material and who wrote it and we will call it citation. Now, when the citation list is done or when you incorporate the citation in your text, then you will use the colon there as well. For example, as in this as you can see on the screen right now. Here it says gives the name of the author E. F. Leon, then it gives the name of an article in the name of a journal and then you have 4 colon 151 which means the fourth edition page 151. Now, let us look at the second form of punctuation that we will talk about today which is semicolons. You will use semicolons to join two independent clauses or to separate parts of a sentence that have commas in them. We previously talked about the use of semicolons to separate a few sentences or run on sentences or comma splice sentences basically which means that you will use a semicolon to either join two independent clauses or where if the sentences are choppy or if they have if they suffer from comma splice problems or fused if they are fused sentences then you will use a semicolon to separate them. Let us have a look at how we can use a colon to join two independent clauses. It says in the example that you see on the screen the system has three beam launchers semicolon two are in the two tube combiner and one is in the OP receiver. Here as you see the two independent clauses and you have a semicolon between them. You can also use semicolons to separate sentence elements with commas. As you can see on the screen in front of you it says italicized titles of journals, books, newsletters and manuals, semicolon, letters, words, terms and equation symbols, semicolon, foreign words, semicolon and names of specific vessels. As you can see all the elements in the list have been grouped together by type and the semicolon has been introduced or has been used to separate each type of element. Now coming to the use of question mark. We all know that question marks are used to indicate that a question is being asked. The question mark is used to end an interrogative sentence. An interrogative sentence is a question. For example, have passed ever efforts to develop an AIDS vaccine being based on the wrong approach. Now this is a question is clearly a question and it ends with a question mark. You will use a question mark to change a declarative or imperative sentence into a question as well. For example, testing of the system was exhaustive. It is a declarative change to interrogative. It is a declarative change to interrogative. Start production on Friday. When a directive or a command is phrased as a question, a question mark is optional. For example, if you are saying, will you please send me a progress report by June 10? It is optional. You can have a question mark at the end or you can have a full stop at the end because this is a request or similarly you can say, will you speak to the vendor about the networking problems? You do not have to have a question at the end because it is not directly an interrogative. You will use a question mark also to indicate uncertainty about data. For example, the first synthesis was accomplished by Claude Pox, 1810 question mark, 1897. This question mark indicates that the writer is not sure about the date of the year of birth of Claude Pox. So, they inserted a question mark at the end of in front of the birth year to indicate that they are unsure. Do not use a question mark at the end of an indirect question. If the question is not asked directly, if it is an indirect question, then you will not use a question mark at the end of it. As we see in this example, James asked whether increasing the bandwidth of the network's backbone would significantly increase performance. This sentence is not a direct question. It is indirectly quoted so there is no need for a question mark. It is a statement that James asked. If James was asking directly, if you were not reporting directly, then it would have been a question mark but because it has been converted in an indirect form, it will not be a question mark. This is a common problem that we see in writing. When a direct speech is converted in an indirect speech, then a lot of students also use a question mark because it was a question mark in the original direct form. This is completely wrong. If you had a question in a direct speech, then you have converted it in an indirect speech, then the question mark will be removed. We are now going to have a look at the use of exclamation points. In technical and scientific writing, use exclamation points only to end warning or caution statements or as specialized scientific notation. There are not many uses of the exclamation mark in technical and scientific writing. You will only use the exclamation mark. When you are giving a warning or caution statement, or if you are using an exclamation mark as a scientific notation, for any other purpose, you will use a period, a full stop or question mark to end a statement or a sentence or a question. Let us see an example of how exclamation marks can be used. If you are giving a warning, then perhaps in a business situation, you have written a very big warning and then you will give an exclamation mark so that the student's attention was warning you up last. Here, the screen in front of you, it says warning with exclamation mark and then the warning is given, place the power supply latch in the locked position before plugging in the device. Exclamation mark, failure to lock the power supply latch may result in severe injury. Again, exclamation mark. Now, this use of excessive exclamation marks shows a tone which has a bit of panic in it, which is obviously showing warning. So, try to limit the use of exclamation marks. You will only use them when you really mean to warn somebody and you really want to show that there is danger in doing something. Another example that you see says caution and it has an exclamation mark and then the explanation is do not continue if there are any files on the disk you wish to keep. Exclamation mark, the format procedure will destroy all files stored on the disk. Now, how will you use exclamation marks as a specialized scientific notation? You will use the exclamation mark as a factorial symbol in mathematical notation. For example, N exclamation mark or 5 exclamation mark which represents 5 by 4 by 3 by 2 by 1. You will use the exclamation mark as a phonetic symbol in linguistic representations. For example, if as you see on the screen in front of you, cum sinc tax has the exclamation mark before it. What about the use of apostrophes? Apostrophe is a little comma type of symbol that we use specifically between elements of a word or at the end of specific words, but unlike the comma it does not come, it is not aligned at the bottom of the words. It is aligned towards the top of the letters. You will use apostrophe to form the possessive case of nouns and indefinite pronouns and contractions. Optionally apostrophes may also be used in the plural form of abbreviations and numbers. You will also form the possessive of singular nouns and indefinite pronouns and of plural nouns that do not end in s by adding an apostrophe and then using an s. Let us have a look at some examples which will clarify these points. For example, you will have Einstein's theory where you have Einstein's apostrophe s to show that you are talking about the theory of Einstein. You will say anyone's and children's. The singular is child, but since you are talking about the possessive, the many children possessing something then you will say children's with an apostrophe s. You will also form the possessive of singular nouns that end in s by adding an apostrophe s. Till now we have seen those nouns which do not end in s. We have only used s to show the possession. But if there is a noun which has its own s in the end, then you will use apostrophe to add an extra s to show the possession. For example, Moses' composition, you will have m o double s, apostrophe s composition to indicate that you are talking about the composition of moss. Or if you are saying yet's letters, then again the word is ending on s, but you will add an additional s with an apostrophe. You will form the possessive of plural animate nouns that end in s by adding only the apostrophe after the s. Till now we have spoken about those nouns which end in s from the beginning. The words end with s, but if there is a singular version, then we will add an apostrophe after s to show the possession. But if there is a noun which does not end in s, then we will pluralize it and we are talking about it. For example, we will see that supervisor and its plural supervisors, but now we want to show the possession of supervisors, then we will just add an apostrophe, we will not add an extra s because an additional s is already added to show the plural form. For example, we will say supervisor's schedule. Here we will not add an additional s after supervisors, we will only add an apostrophe. Similarly, if you say species location to show the location of species, here as well you have already added an s to show plural, so you will not add an additional s to show possession. Now you will just add an apostrophe with the first s. Try to form the possessive of inanimate nouns by using the preposition of. So far we have talked about inanimate nouns, the things we know. If we are talking about inanimate things and showing their possession then try to show their possession without using an apostrophe. For example, instead of saying microchips composition, you will say the composition of microchips. Also instead of saying the planets position, you will say position of the planets. Optionally use the apostrophe to form the plural of acronyms and numbers. Acronyms are the things we abbreviate and express them as letters or if we want to form numbers or if we want to use the apostrophe then we can use the apostrophe. But the way you do it is consistent in your document. Let's have a look at how the apostrophe can be used with acronyms and numbers and we will also see how the plural of acronyms and numbers can be expressed without the apostrophe as well. If we want to form the plural of acronyms then we can use the apostrophe. It is not necessary to always use the apostrophe. It is optional. For example, you can see on the screen that R-E-M can also write apostrophe S and R-E-M can also write small S. Because the abbreviation of R-E-M is in capital letters, so if we want to form S without the apostrophe then it is absolutely fine. It is clearly known that it is different. It has been pluralized. Similarly, you can use the best apostrophe to form the plural. For example, 3-8-6 is with the apostrophe S or 3-8-6 is without the apostrophe. But if you are using small letters and you want to show the plural of those small letters then the apostrophe S will always be used. Because if you put S in the small letter then it will not be known that it is the part of those letters or that it is the plural of those letters. For example, if we say X and if we talk about X more than one then we will say X is. Then we will use the apostrophe S because otherwise X and S will come together and we will think that this is the same word or this is the plural of X. You will also use the apostrophe to form standard constructions of certain words. For example, instead of saying it is you can say it is and you will use the apostrophe with before the S. Similarly, instead of saying we will you can say wheel and you will have so these are some of the ways in which you can use the apostrophe and the key thing that you need to be clear about when you are using the apostrophe S is that generally you will not have the apostrophe when you are adding the S only to make a word plural. You will use the apostrophe S to show possession but you can use it to make letters plural to make numbers and abbreviations plural. Now what about quotation marks? We normally use quotation marks when we are quoting something unless the documentation style you are following specifies that you should not use quotation marks you will use them. If you are using your documentation style then you will not do it but generally as a rule you will use quotation marks for any quoted material. There are a few things you will use to use quotation marks. 1. To enclose the names of articles, short reports and other brief documents cited in your text or to indicate direct quotations or excerpts from other documents there are two things you will use to use quotation marks. 1. If you are mentioning any other text, document, article, short report in your text or document then you will use quotation marks or if you use direct quotations or excerpts from any other document and quote word to word then you will use quotation marks. There are a few rules to use quotation marks you will not put quotation marks around quotations in block form i.e. if the quotation is indented to set it off from the main text you will not use quotation marks. Many times we have seen that quotations are incorporated into the text or paragraph then you will use quotation marks. But many times the quotation marks are written from the paragraph if there is an indentation then you do not need to use quotation marks. The indentation indicates that these words are quote word to word. Also try to avoid using quotation marks for emphasis. Many times people emphasize something in quotation marks. Try not to emphasize the emphasis you want to give through your language not through quotation marks. Many times in type written text people emphasize it in italics. Try to avoid using quotation marks in this instance because it feels that these are direct words for someone. The second use of quotation marks was to enclose the names of articles, short reports and other brief documents. Let's have a look at some examples. Firstly, when we use quotation marks within our text this is how we will use quotation marks. Here in your example it says the source of the design information is the 1982 article quotation marks boundary rate development on turbine airfoil section surfaces comma quotation marks end which appeared in the Journal of Engineering for Power. Similarly, if you are going to be using quotation marks to indicate direct quotation of speech or accepts other documents then you will use them as such. As Voorhees has stated comma quotation marks start after the comma simple adjustment of the control gate voltages V a and V b enables us to realize any phase between 0 and p relative to the state phase q full stop quotation marks end. In this you see that your full stop quotation marks are in but the initial comma is stated after the quotation marks. Let's have a look at some rules of other punctuation with relevance to quotation marks. You will place periods of full stops and commas inside quotation marks and you will place semicolons and colons outside. Unless you have a comma which is setting apart the introductory element as Voorhees stated comma that comma will be outside but after that the commas or full stops will be inside the quotation marks. If there is a semicolons and colons then they will come outside the quotation marks and then the next part of the quotation will start again inside the quotation marks. If there is an explanation question marks and exclamation marks go inside the quotation marks if they are part of the quoted material and they are outside the quotation marks if they are not part of the quoted material. If you quote the material in the original quotation marks or exclamation marks or questions are being asked or exclaimed then you will place marks. Otherwise if you are giving your own emphasis on the question then you will place the question marks outside the quotation marks. Let's have a look at some examples. Lightman begins a survey of the development of cosmological theories by posing questions such as has the universe existed forever? Question mark, quotation marks closed. Here in this sentence it is said that Lightman has posed questions like this and the question mark of Lightman is given which is in quotation marks because that question is of Lightman as he asked it so the question mark will be inside the quotation marks. Let's have a look at some other examples. What did Oppenheimer mean when after the first atomic explosion he said we thought of the legend of Prometheus? Quotation marks and question marks. Here you can see that the question mark is outside the quotation mark. This is because Oppenheimer doesn't have a question which is being quoted. You are quoting Oppenheimer's statement but those who are writing are asking questions. For a quotation within a quotation you will use single quotation marks unless the main quotation is in block form. If the main quotation is in block form use double quotation marks for the quotation within it. If we have seen that there are two types of quotation marks single quotation marks and double quotation marks which you must have noted in common use. Now what is the method to use single quotation marks and double quotation marks? The general rule is that if when you are quoting something as an original quotation then you will use double quotation marks. But if there is another quotation within that quotation then you will use the second quotation in single quotes. But if there is a quotation in the indented form which is written in block form then you will use double quotation marks because outside the quotation marks have not been used. There is an indentation. You can double it if you have used double quotation marks then you will use single quotation marks. Let's have a look at an example. Rimmer notes that poor double quotation scolded his distinguished colleagues finally in Einstein's own terms single quotation marks God does not throw dice nor is it our business to prescribe to God how he should run the world. Full stop single quotation marks will be over and then double quotation marks will be over. Now in this the first quotation double quotation marks are Rimmer and then in single quotation marks Einstein's quotation which starts with God. Let's have a look at the use of hyphens. You will use hyphens to link the following certain prefixes suffixes, letters and numbers with nouns compound nouns compound modifiers without numbers. You will also use hyphens for the following purposes to clarify the meaning of certain words to divide words to express to or through between two letters or numbers and for specialized scientific notation. Now in type written documents you will use a single hyphen and that represents the typographical N- a dash that is the width of the letter N. Conventions for using hyphens differ from discipline to discipline when you are in doubt check whether to hyphenate a word or not and you will check through the appropriate style guide. Now what we have already I have listed some functions of hyphens and some examples of hyphens. I said that you will use a hyphen with certain prefixes suffixes, letters and numbers with nouns. You will use hyphens to connect certain prefixes to nouns. In most scientific and technical styles the following prefixes are usually followed by a hyphen. You can see these prefixes on your screen these are all X, half, quasi, self and hex. These prefixes first are attached to give additional meaning to those words and when you use these prefixes with the words the dash will come and the main word will come. However, scientific and technical writing styles omit the hyphen between most prefixes especially prefixes that are not words themselves. Many in scientific and technical writing styles you will see that between prefixes and main words the hyphen does not seem to be present. Especially where prefixes are not words themselves. All of them are separate but if the prefixes are not complete words then they are part of the main words that are not given. We are going to have a look at a list of prefixes that normally are not followed by a hyphen and this list is adapted from the scientific style and format by the council of biology editors. As you can see most of the words are even complete words and some are missing but after them if a prefix is used with a word and it becomes a homograph which means more than one word then you can use the hyphen for clarity. For example if you have the word multiply and it can be used in two different meanings one could be to multiply as in the mathematical sense a multi-dash where you are talking about something with more than one ply as you can see two ply tissues three ply tissues then you use the hyphen to clarify which meaning you are taking. If you are taking it in the second meaning which has more than one ply then you will add a hyphen. Similarly you can have recover one word or re hyphen cover as two words and use that as a hyphenated word to show a completely different meaning which means to cover something again. Also you will use hyphens to connect numbers or letters used as prefixes to a noun just like T cell you will say T-cell because you have a prefix or a number you have used to hyphen it. You will use a hyphen to connect any prefix to a capitalized noun like post-Newtonian universe capitalized and before that you have used prefixes to separate it or if you are saying for example X soviet scientist because soviet is a capitalized noun you will use hyphen in most cases do not place a hyphen before a suffix. Till now we have talked about prefixes which are first used by alphas. Now let's look at suffix additional alphas are used to change the meaning or to add. Generally you will not place a hyphen before a suffix. In most scientific and technical styles however there are some suffixes which do have a hyphen before them. As you can see suffixes like designate elect type before these three are used. For example if you say president designate or president elect then you will use hyphen to say this. You will also use the hyphen to link compound nouns especially when the lack of a hyphen would change the meaning of the term. If you have compound nouns combining two alphas then you will use compound nouns without hyphen. If we are joining these two alphas then the meaning is different. For example light year with hyphen and light year without hyphen then something else is different. The first light year with a hyphen is a unit of measurement not of time. The second light year without hyphen may indicate a year that is not heavy or a year that is light. You will also use hyphens to link compound modifiers to promote clarity and to prevent ambiguity. Let us have a look at some examples. Laser alignment process a compound modifier or it is called noun you will join with hyphen. After the two tube combiner you will combine them with hyphen. Wire grid aperture cap which means aperture cap for a wire grid compound modifier that is why you joined it with hyphen. Wire grid aperture cap you have used hyphen between grid and aperture. You are talking about a wire cap for a grid aperture. If you use hyphen between wire and grid then you can say wire grid level adjustment or wire grid level adjustment it depends on where you use hyphen the meaning will change. Likewise you will say heavy water cavity it implies that you are talking about a cavity for heavy water and if you say heavy water cavity without hyphen then it implies that it is a heavy water cavity. You can use hyphens to link spelled out numbers from 21 through 99 and spelled out fractions as you can see on the screen or you can use hyphens to divide words. In general however you would be advised to avoid dividing words. Try to divide the words however use hyphens to split words at the end of a line to prevent large spaces and noticeably uneven margins in unjustified text. The following guidelines for dividing words are adapted from the Chicago manual of style and the NASA style guide and the council of biology editors manual. You will divide words between syllables. If you are unsure of the syllabification consult a standard dictionary. For example if you want to divide a club then you will put hyphens between syllables or you will divide between the compound parts of a compound word as light year. You will divide after prefix or before a suffix intra, system, hyper, tension, maintain, ability. Divide a word after any two letter syllable within a word but do not divide a word before a final two letter ending. Also do not divide a word in which the part beginning on the next line will appear to be a separate word. If you feel that you are dividing a word and the other part is coming on another line then if the next line is coming on another line then you feel that it is a complete love then try not to divide that word. Also do not divide the last word of a paragraph or page. You will use hyphens also to stand for two or between letters and numbers especially in bibliographies and reference lists. However when a number, letter or date is preceded by the word from use the letter to instead of a hyphen. Example we see that how hyphen is used here. You can say pages 25 hyphen 63, sections 15.2 hyphen 15.8 or 1901 till 1911 if you want to use hyphen then you can use hyphen but if you have used from then you will not use hyphen then you will use the letter to from 1901 to 1911. The hyphen also has some specialized uses. You can use a hyphen in circumstances where you need to represent a single bond in chemical formula as you can see on the screen or between the spelled out names of chemical elements and the mass number of the specific isotope for example carbon hyphen 14 or to show the or between sequence of amino acids. Sometimes we also use suspended hyphens. If all unit modifiers in a series end with the same term the term does not have to be repeated each time. If a unit modifies in a series and all of them end with the same word then you do not need to repeat that word again and again. You can use hyphen there. You may suspend the hyphens and use the modified term only at the end of the series. Let's see an example which will clarify. It is written in an example. The first order, second order and third order equations have all been solved. As you can see after hyphen the word order is repeated in the three elements. First order, second order and third order. We can write this as the first hyphen second hyphen and third order equations have all been solved. Something similar to hyphens is the dash. You will use dashes sparingly to indicate abrupt shifts in thought and to set off to emphasize oppositional or parenthetical elements or interjections. Now coming to parentheses. You will use parentheses to enclose qualifying detail that is of secondary importance to the main idea. Use parentheses sparingly within sentences since commas often do a better job. You can show your secondary information especially in commas. Try not to include in commas. Parentheses can also be used to enclose one or more entire sentences that add relevant but not essential detail to the main discussion. Let's have a look at some examples where parentheses have been used to show secondary information. Now something similar to parentheses is brackets. The purpose is slightly different and they look slightly different as well. Whereas parentheses are curved. Brackets are angular. You will use brackets to set off an explanatory reference your own comments or corrections within the material you are quoting. Use unless the documentation style you are following specifies otherwise use the Latin term sick in brackets to indicate that material in the quotation is incorrect. You don't have to write yourself in brackets. It will show that the material written is incorrect or you are not agreeing with it. You will use brackets to enclose parenthetical material that is within material already in parentheses. If you have some material in parentheses and you want to give some more parenthetical information then you will give it in brackets. You will also use brackets to indicate the isotope of a specific chemical. In this lecture we have looked at different forms of punctuation and how they can be used within our writing. We have looked specifically at columns, semicolons, question marks, exclamation marks, apostrophes quotation marks, hyphens, dashes, parentheses and brackets. With this we come to the end of our lecture on punctuation. Until next time, thanks for watching.