THE OXFORD ESSENSIAL GUIDE TO WRITING

... colloquial in tone Here, then, is the one function which belongs primarily to the dash: The opening paragraph—it is one of Pushkin's famous openings— plunges the reader into the heart of the matter ... On the other hand, some writers prefer to omit the comma when the main and the adverbial clauses are both short and unpunctuated within themselves The comma is often o...

Ngày tải lên: 24/07/2014, 05:20

... what we say Stops include the period, the question mark, the exclamation point, the colon, the semicolon, the comma, and the dash We look at these first Then we look at the other marks These more ... convenient to divide punctuation into two broad categories: the stops and the other marks Stops take their name from the fact that they correspond (though only loosely) t...

Ngày tải lên: 24/07/2014, 05:20

... downstairs and out into the rain They tried to hold him up against the wall but he sat down in a puddle of water The other five stood very quietly against the wall Finally the officer told the soldiers ... feelings and thus contributes to the tone of irony The repetition of the italicized "of course" implies the commonplaceness of the ideas And the rhetorical quest...

Ngày tải lên: 24/07/2014, 05:20

... fit the context and are likely to imply meanings the writer does not intend: CLARITY AND SIMPLICITY 277 A green lawn spread invitingly from the road to the house, with a driveway winding up to the ... investigates the smaller particles that go to make up the nucleus of the atom BETTER: that make up the nucleus of the atom A special case of empty verb strings is th...

Ngày tải lên: 24/07/2014, 05:20

... scattered about the "levee"; a pile of "skids" on the slope of the stone-paved wharf, and the fragrant town drunkard asleep in the shadow of them; two or three wood flats at the head of the wharf, ... nobody to listen to the peaceful lapping of the wavelets against them; the great Mississippi, the majestic, the magnificent Mississippi, rolling its mile-wide tide al...

Ngày tải lên: 24/07/2014, 05:20

... of them: (1) the "ten years' fighting"; (2) the "little purpose," or lack of result; (3) the "loss" of the men; (4) the "debt remaining"; (5) the "hearkening" to peace; (6) the conclusion of the ... with These ideas are already old-fashioned, infrequently met with The women of the settlement would gather together at one home to work on the quilt They would bring thei...

Ngày tải lên: 24/07/2014, 05:20

... its proof—these are among the constants, the themes of the Story Elizabeth Bowen Notice how Bowen uses these to sum up all the preceding nouns and to act as the subject of the sentence (These, this, ... vice-consul had to be present when the victim of the crime was English): The judge gave an order and the vice-consul rose and walked to the gateway, where their c...

Ngày tải lên: 24/07/2014, 05:20

... pirates in the Mediterranean than in all the other waters put together In the Mediterranean they had the most part of the trade of Europe for their quarry; while the coasts of Africa, and the islands ... abroad They want fine china and silver dinner sets and handsome clothes The illiterate want to learn how to read Then they want education, and then more education, and the...

Ngày tải lên: 24/07/2014, 05:20

... eventually either to track upward in their companies or to get out on their own They live together; they say they are in love, and they seem to be But they are surprisingly cool about it and about the ... large firms, they are committed to their careers and eager to move ahead They live together They say they are in love, and they seem to be But they are cool about it, and about...

Ngày tải lên: 24/07/2014, 05:20