Target 20-Checking the Punctuation
As well as spelling correctly, you will also be expected to use correct punctuation
You must use capital letters in the correct places and use punctuation marks such as
periods, commas, and question marks correctly. It is also important to indent each
paragraph.
Indent: This is done at the beginning of each paragraph.
Capital letters: These are used at the beginning of each sentence and for proper
nouns
Period, question mark, exclamation point: One of these is always used at the end of
a sentence.
Commas are used in the middle of sentences in certain situations:
• In a list of three or more things
Home-cooked food is nutritious, tasty, and inexpensive.
reached out my hand, grabbed a glass, and noticed that the watch was gone.
. To separate transition words from the rest of the sentence
Additionally, physical education teaches children important skills such as teamwork.
Children, however, should not be exposed to these violent television programs.
• Between two independent clauses
I watch television every evening, and I know what kinds of programs are being
shown
Art and music classes are important, but academic classes are even more important
- To separate a nonrestrictive clause
Parents, who are responsible for the well being of their children, should carefully
monitor their children’s computer time.
Maple syrup, which is made from the sap of the sugar maple tree, is an expensive but tasty treat
. After a subordinate clause at the beginning of a sentence
If I had been more careful, I wouldn’t have lost the watch.
Although one can find information about almost anything on the Internet, the infor-
motion isn’t always reliable.
PRACTICE
Read the following paragraphs and check for punctuation errors. Then copy each paragraph
a separate place of paper, correcting the punctuation as follows: Indent, add capital letters
commes, and change periods to question marks where necessary,
I
many families enjoy watching television together during the early evening hours, these
programs shown during this time should be suitable for children, do you really think
appropriate for children to see programs that involve shooting fistfights and other
violence, most parents do not and they change the channel when such rowans are the
2
children need to know how to use computers but it is also important for trung
spend time on other activities when children spend a lot of time at the computer they spend
less time playing outside, they spend less time interacting with other people they miss out
activities that are important for their physical and emotional development
3
I have a lot of fun activities planned for your visit. John who is my next-door neighbor has
promised to take us white-water rafting have you ever done that before. It’s a lot of fun
you will surely enjoy it, however, there are plenty of other things we can do if you don’t want
to go rafting, we can ride bikes go to the movies or just relax at home,
4
tourism which brings a lot of money to the town of palm grove is an important part of the Inc.
economy. tourist dollars pay the salaries of hotel employees restaurant servers and airy
workers, all of these people earn a lot more money from tourism than they ever did for
fishing, in addition, they now have steady jobs with a steady income.
Writing Samples
Sample responses to the IELTS writing tasks with scores can be found on www.tel.org.cn
Ten Toes, then How to Impan, then Same questions we, then Wurrisso, then sample script.