Importance of Punctuation in Research Papers

Punctuation plays a crucial role when writing a research paper. The reason for this is that it creates write my paper clarity and provides structure to the work. It helps the reader to digest the information in an easy way, thus enhancing your grades as well as making you look like a pro.

Knowledge:

For those who are unaware about proper usage of punctuation marks, they need to learn them first. Proper usage can be learned from one’s own mistakes, but zeroing down on essential rules makes things easier and saves time too.

There are seven major punctuation marks used while writing any type of academic papers i.e., periods (.), commas(,), question mark(?), exclamation mark(!), semi-colons (;), colon(:) and apostrophe ().

Avoiding Errors

There are a few rules to be kept in mind while using these punctuation marks. You should not use a comma after ‘yes’ or ‘no’ i.e., when the person is answering a question rather then starting the sentence with it. If you surround an entire statement with commas, it becomes unclear whether that statement is a complete idea or you are still writing something more on the topic. For example, “The dog had just stolen my sandwich because I had forgotten about his presence” doesn’t sound proper enough as an idea. The reason being that it has been written between two sentences. So, you need to avoid such usage of punctuation marks.

The Basic Rules:

Question mark(?) should be used at the end of a direct question while still writing in third person and it goes with an exclamation point when something is being expressed in an excited manner. Exclamation mark(!) can also be used for representing speech or quoting someone (in case one does not want to write the character’s name). For example, “Ah! It was my favourite” would look better than ‘It was my favourite’. In this case, you are expressing your excitement towards something which has happened before i.e., stealing your sandwich by the dog. In last year, owing to use of ‘!’ many kinds of mistakes were made.

Semi-colons(;) are used to separate two different sentences which are closely related and hence need clarifying information from the other part, whereas colon(:) is used to begin a list or an explanation of a series of words/sentences or in case you want to emphasize on something important and want to create space between it and the previous sentence. It also creates a friendly relationship with your reader when he/she understands what you have said clearly by using such punctuation marks properly. For example, “He had only one wish i.e., his dog would not hurt any person again.”

Apostrophes are used for representing possession as well as when replacing letters that are missing in a word. For example, “The cat’s tail” or ‘My dad’s book’.

Other punctuation marks which are commonly used in research papers include exclamation point(!), semicolon (;), question mark(?), parentheses () and colon (:). While we all know what these marks represent but due to our lack of practice most of us go wrong while using them. Remember that you need proper balance while using any type of punctuation marks. While using commas it is important to use the right amount else there will be confusion among the readers. It is always better to add one comma more rather than inserting too less as mistakes caused by putting an extra comma soon get rectified whereas missing a comma can spoil your entire writing and make it difficult for the readers to understand.

Asterisk (*) is mostly used in case one wants to emphasize on a certain information/word/phrase etc. It is also used to show any kind of reference as well as another meaning other than what it actually means i.e., *meaning other then actual*. For example, I have summarized my whole essay with an asterisk ( ) in order to show that there are hidden points within the sentences. So, whenever you want something emphasized or when you want to clarify some point by showing that this word has got a different meaning as compared to its actual usage then you should use asterisk (*).

Hyphen (-) helps while writing words together which are being divided between two lines and used at write my paper for me essay, For example, ‘My-happy-home’. It should be remembered that hyphen (-) can also represent a dash (–) in order to make the words together and make them stand out from the whole sentence.