Give Me A Punctuation Change And I’ll Give You Personal Development Success
I know, I know, we all have personal goals that involve improving our lives. How many of us have a goal that involves getting better at punctuation? Well, if you do then this article is for you!
The most common punctuation fault that I've noticed with individuals is the dreaded run-on sentence. If your goal is to build an improved life and get things done efficiently then this article is for you because it will help you avoid embarrassing mistakes in your writing.
Let's start with a look at the run-on sentence, shall we?
They are running out of business. They are running out of money. They are running out of options. They are all running out of time. They're running out of hope.
I'm sure you can name a few more that are similar as well! For example...
My son is so stupid that he is running into trees when he runs. My daughter likes to run with scissors in class, and she is always cutting herself with them. My son is so slow that it's embarrassing, and I am having to call his boss because he's always been late for work.
That is just a few of the examples, but you get the idea. It's a run-on sentence! We've seen it all too often in our writing and we've all been guilty at some point.
Not only is it annoying to read, but it's downright lazy when you think about it. You could have started an argument using that first sentence that mentioned they were running out of business. That would have been one heck of a run-in, right?
It makes me sad that we can't even focus on the topic of punctuation and not make these simple mistakes when writing our sentences.
But don't let these mistakes scare you. I'll show you a way to improve your writing without even learning how to punctuate properly! Let's get started!
I'll be using an example sentence and will explain my secret method for writing in English, which is not the way you are probably taught at school.
Step 1 - Breakdown the Sentence into Words
The first thing we need to do is take our sentence and break it down manually into words. This is where your word power comes in, and it's simple. Imagine that you are explaining the sentence in plain English (and trust me you will understand your own sentences better if they are written this way).
Let's take our example sentence and break it down.
They are running out of business.
Now I have broken the sentence into words it looks like this.
They are - running - out of - business.
It's really simple, isn't it? You can see that my first word is the main verb and my last word is some kind of noun, or a subject. It depends on how you look at it, but when I'm writing in English I take the 'running' word and make it my next main verb again (because if you run out of money for business then you need to start running). This is how I break down a sentence into words for you.
Now that we have our main words, let's see if we can find out what the next part of the sentence is.
They are - running - out of - business.
So the next part of my sentence is the plural pronoun and it's 'they'. But what is their business? It could be money, it could be their time, it could be anything really, so I'm going to keep searching for another word in my sentence.
They are - running - out of - business.
And this is when all your critical thinking comes in. Since I'm an English teacher and I'm also a writer, it makes sense for me to break my sentences down this way. If you are just starting out in English, then trying to write entities (like people) will be hard for you because you won't be able to see that they are a singular subject because you think the whole sentence is a plural object! So what do you do? You break your sentence down like I am breaking it down, and keep searching for the next word.
They are - running - out of - business.
And here's where most people start getting confused... thinking they are going to find the next word by randomly looking at each word in their sentence. It is much more effective to break down your sentences into words and then look for each word again just before you try to write it. This way you can see where the words are actually coming from and how they relate.
They are - running - out of - business.
Here's what I see now:
They (subject) - running (verb) out of (noun). Not only does this mean that the subject is 'they' but it also means that the verb is 'running' and that 'out of' is a noun. This is why it is important that you always start your sentence with a verb and end it with some kind of noun. The reason for this is:
Verb - Noun - can make a complete sentence.
Subject - Verb - Object - make a complete sentence.
So let's list what we know about our simple sentence so far...
They (subject) are (verb) running (verb) out of business (noun).
Now that we have all our main words, let's start to add in the smaller parts of the sentences to give them more meaning.
They are running out of business, which really means:
They (subject) - running (verb) out of business (noun).
Now that I know this, I can go back and look at the first part of my word list and see the next word is 'which'. This is going to be my adverb because it describes what they are doing. So break down your sentence into words again and write them in order. This is how I do it.
1. They (subject) - running (verb) out of business (noun). 2. They are running out of business, which means: 3. They are (verb) - running (verb) out of business (noun).
Now that I have my adverb and the verb in order, let's try to get my next word.
4. They are running out of business, which means: 5. They are (verb) - running (verb) out of business (noun). 6. Which means: 7. They are running out of time! Which means: 8. They are running out of time! Which means...
Conclusion: They are running out of business!
Feel free to write your own sentence and practice breaking it down like this. It will get easier over time and you will always know what your sentence means, even if you are writing something really long or hard to understand.
You might have noticed that I've been using 'running' as the main verb. This is because I'm always trying to describe things that happen in my sentences, which is what good writing is meant to do.