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Let's move on to some examples, which is
really the best way to master
punctuation inside your research writing.
So let's begin here. This is a correct
example. Let's just go over really fast
here: "All mathematics teachers know that
word problems are more difficult for
students to solve than are numerical
problems. What the teachers do not know
is how to teach students to solve word
problems." This looks a little bit
complicated, and it looks like it might
need some commas. But if you look at it
carefully, there's actually no room for
any commas in there. You do not have any
non-restrictive clauses where you can
separate the pieces out. It's all very
clear and connected and needed. So I
suggest when you see sentences like this
it or a little bit long, this is two
sentences, but the first one's a bit long,
and you see a sentence is a bit long, go
through and start cutting out words and
phrases, and see if the sentence can
still make sense. Let's look at some
example where we can clearly see what's
wrong: "The selection was translated from
English into each of the other five
languages, native speakers of each
language, who were also proficient in
English, carried out the translations." And
here we see a number of commas jammed in
here, which actually make the reading and
understanding a little bit difficult.
Let's look at the correct sentence: The
selection was translated from English
into each of the five languages." period
Now here's a good example of remember to
try to keep your sentences short. You
don't need to fix every idea into one
sentence. You're much better off trying
to get your idea separated in two
separate sentences, and keep your
sentences short. So in this example, I
think you can see right away, very short
and sweet,
right to the point. "Native speakers of
each language, who were also proficient
in English, carried out the translation."
Now here we have a comma and a comma, so
if we take out this bit here can this be
a whole sentence? "Native speakers of
...each language
carried out the translation." Yes, that can
be a whole sentence. So that's a good
example of a non-restrictive adjective
clause, that is we need a comma before. We
need a comma after because this sentence
still can be sentence, and it
still makes sense. It still has the same
basic idea. Here we have two long
sentences joined at a conjunction and a
comma. But a better way would be to use a
colon with a capital letter, just putting
these two sentences together. "Fathers who
were single parents were expected to
display greater androgyny than were
fathers in dual-parent households: An-
drogyny was assessed by a standard
inventory and by an activity checklist."
Clearly these are two separate sentences
that don't need to be together. So it
would best to just have this
separated,but we can bring them together
with a colon, a space, and a capital. The
idea being these two ideas are highly
related, so we want them together.
"Average intelligence scores are defining
characteristics of dyslexia..." Here we end
it, and then at the incorrect, we have two
hyphens which makes a dash. "Thus, it is
impossible to compare empirically the
intelligence of dyslexic and normal-
reading children." So clearly a dash does
not have a capital letter after it.
Rather a dash explains something in more
detail or changes the tone. So it's best
just to have a period here because it's two
separate sentences. "The child was seated
at a table, and given a variety of
materials to use for the collage." And
here we have this comma here. So again
very simple, we just come and ask: If it's
a comma and a conjunction, can the before
be independent and can the after be
independent? The child was seated at a
table. Yes, that's good so far. "Given a
variety of materials to use for the
collage..." You know that's no good because
it has no subject. So it's lacking a
subject, so we can't do that. We can use a
conjunction though with no comma. "The
independent variables were partner's
gender, audience size, and criterion for
success." So here we can see the incorrect is
missing the last serial comma.
"Any response that resulted in reward
for the contingent participant also
resulted in rewards for the yoked
partner." And here we have the comma here.
"Any response that resulted in a reward
for the contingent participant," comma,
"also resulted in reward for the yoked
partner." So can we cut this piece out and
the sentence will still have the same
meaning and still be a clear sentence?
And the answer is no. This is
specifically telling you is a special
participant that has this situation. So
we must keep it in, which means no comma.
"The computer monitor displayed the
training options and the respondent
selected one by pressing the
corresponding key." Here we have a comma.
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And here we have no comma. So which one is
correct? Well, we can see that the
correct one has a comma, and that is
because "The computer monitor displayed
the training options..." that can be a
sentence. That's good. "The respondent
selected one by pressing the
corresponding key." That can be an
independent sentence. So these two can be
independent. So we can use the
conjunction and the comma. "The
Confederate, who was going to agree with
the participant, always spoke up before
the confederate who was going to
disagree with the participant." So there
are differences, the comma here and then
we have the comma up here, which is the
same. So the question again is is this an
independent or dependent clause? "The
Confederate who was going to agree with
the participants, always spoke up before
the confederate who was going to
disagree with the participant." So it
looks to me like this part of the
sentence goes all the way to the end,
rather than being a separate idea. "...always
spoke up before the confederate..." here. You
cannot really cut this out. It doesn't
make sense anymore because it goes
together. So that is not a
non-restrictive adjective clause. "The
description of the assault, which was
taken from an actual case, was identical
for the respondents in all of the
experimental conditions." So here we have
our comma and our conjunction which and
a comma here. If we cut this out and we
read the sentence again: "The description
of the assault was identical for the
respondents in all of the experimental
conditions." That's fine, and actually the
sentence has very much the same idea. So
we can do that. We can have two commas.
That's another correct one here: "The
possibilities were suggested by Miller,
Galanter, and Pibram.." So remember that
last comma. "The treatment was tested on
clients who complained of phobias, or
addictions." So here we have a comma, and
for the correction, we do not have a
comma. Remember that the conjunction, if
you use it with a comma, you must have
independenT before and after, subject
and verb before, and subject and verb
after. But you do not have that, so no.
"The team member, who scored
highest on the preliminary task, was the
designated leader." "The team member who
scored the highest on the preliminary
task..." So here we have this comma, meaning
that if we cut out this piece here, can
this sentence have the same idea, the
same meaning? And the answer is no. It is
not able to be separated that way. It's
very clearly the same idea. "...on the
preliminary test was the designated
leader.. The team member was the
designated leader." So no comma there.
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"Pupillary dilation was measured at the
time of stimulus onset,..." And here we have our
difference. "...heart rate was measured when
the response was emitted." So in this case,
we have a comma. Remember that we have to
be able to have independent before here,
"Pupillary dilation" was measured at the time of stimulus
onset; heart rate was measured when the
response was emitted." And this seems very
independent. It has a subject and a verb
all on its own. So how can we join that
together? We could use a comma and a
conjunction comma, and, or we can just use
a semicolon. And that's what's done here,
a semicolon.
"Respondents were told that the
occupations of the three people were
newscaster, farmer, and accountant: [here
we go] teacher, plumber, and dentist: or
optician, librarian and welder."
And in this case, what we have is a list.
We have three lists, right? This is A, and
then this is a B, and this is C. And each
list has three things one, two., and three,
one, two, and three, one, two, and three. So
how do we separate those? because we've
got a comma, a comma, a conjunction, and
then what do we use? We use the semicolon
and comma, comma, and the last one has a
conjunction there, and then a semicolon.
So this one is correct.
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