Grammar, Punctuation, and Capitalization A Handbook for Technical Writers and Editors
Mary K. McCaskill Langley Research Center Hampton, Virginia
Preface
iii
1. Grammar
1
1.1. Grammar and Effective Writing
1.2. Nouns
1.2.1. Possessive Case
2
1.2.2. Possessive of Inanimate Objects
1.3. Pronouns
3
1.3.1. Antecedents
1.3.2. Personal Pronouns
4
1.3.3. Relative Pronouns
5
1.3.4. Demonstrative Pronouns
7
1.4. Verbs
8
1.4.1. Tense
1.4.2. Mood
10
1.4.3. Voice
1.4.4. Verb Number
11
1.5. Adjectives
12
1.5.1. Articles
13
1.5.2. Unit Modifiers
14
1.6. Adverbs
16
1.6.1. Misplaced Adverbs
1.6.2. Squinting Adverbs
17
1.6.3. Split Infinitives
1.7. Prepositions
1.7.1. Prepositional Idioms
18
1.7.2. Terminal Prepositions
1.7.3. Repeating Prepositions
1.8. Conjunctions
19
1.8.1. Coordinating Conjunctions
1.8.2. Subordinating Conjunction
20
1.9. Verbals
22
1.9.1. Coordinate Gerunds and Infinitives
1.9.2. Idiom Requiring Gerund or Infinitive
1.9.3. Dangling Verbals
23
2. Sentence Structure
27
2.1. Sentence Structure and Effective Writing
2.2. Subjects and Verbs
2.2.1. Clarify Subject
2.2.2. Make Verbs Vigorous
29
2.2.3. Improve Subject-Verb Relationship
31
2.3. Parallelism
33
2.3.1. Connectives Requiring Parallelism
2.3.2. Itemization
34
2.4. Brevity and Conciseness
35
2.4.1. Wordiness
2.4.2. Shortening Text
37
2.4.3. Shortening Titles
2.5. Comparisons
39
2.5.1. Comparison of Adjectives and Adverbs
2.5.2. Ambiguous Comparisons
40
2.5.3. Comparison Constructions
41
2.6. Emphasis
43
2.6.1. Emphasizing With Sentence Structure
2.6.2. Emphasizing With Punctuation
45
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3. Punctuation
47
3.1. A Functional Concept of Punctuation
3.2. Apostrophe
3.3. Brackets
48
3.4. Colon
3.4.1. Colons That Introduce
3.4.2. Conventional Uses of the Colon
51
3.4.3. Use With Other Marks
3.5. Comma
3.5.1. Commas That Separate
3.5.2. Commas That Enclose
56
3.5.3. Conventional Uses of the Comma
59
3.5.4. Use With Other Marks
60
3.6. Em Dash
3.6.1. Dashes That Enclose
61
3.6.2. Dashes That Separate
62
3.6.3. Conventional Uses of the Dash
63
3.6.4. Use With Other Marks
3.7. En Dash
3.8. Hyphen
64
3.8.1. Word Division
3.8.2. Prefixes
3.8.3. Suffixes
65
3.8.4. Compound Words
3.9. Italics
67
3.9.1. Italics for Emphasis
3.9.2. Italics for Special Terminology
68
3.9.3. Italics for Differentiation
3.9.4. Italics for Symbology
69
3.9.5. Conventional Uses for Italics
3.9.6. Italics With Typefaces Other Than Roman
70
3.9.7. Italics With Punctuation
3.10. Parentheses
3.11. Period
71
3.11.1. Abbreviations
72
3.11.2. Conventional Uses of the Period
3.11.3. Use With Other Marks
73
3.12. Points of Ellipsis
3.13. Question Mark
74
3.14. Quotation Marks
75
3.14.1. Quoted Material
3.14.2. Words Requiring Differentiation
76
3.14.3. Use With Other Marks
77
3.15. Semicolon
3.15.1. Coordinate Clauses
3.15.2. Series
78
3.15.3. Explanatory Phrases and Clauses
79
3.15.4. Elliptical Constructions
3.15.5. Use With Other Marks
3.16. Slash
80
4. Capitalization
81
4.1. Introduction
4.2. Sentence Style Capitalization
4.2.1. Sentences
82
4.2.2. Quotations
4.2.3. Questions
83
4.2.4. Lists
4.2.5. Stylistic Uses for Sentence Style Capitalization
84
4.3. Headline Style Capitalization
4.4. Acronyms and Abbreviations
85
4.4.1. Capitalization With Acronyms
86
4.4.2. Capitalization of Abbreviations
4.5. Proper Nouns and Adjectives
4.5.1. Personal Names and Titles
88
4.5.2. Geographic Names
89
4.5.3. Administrative Names
90
4.5.4. Names of Public Places and Institutions
91
4.5.5. Calendar and Time Designations
4.5.6. Scientific Names
92
4.5.7. Titles of Works
93
4.5.8. Miscellaneous Names
94
References
95
Glossary
97
Index
101
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