Office Administration

1. Office Administration Chapter 11: Rules of Grammar

2. Primary Elements Subject is the noun/topic Verb tells what the subject does Object completes the sentence Complement is the noun in the predicate that refers to the subject Secondary Elements Modifiers describe other words Clauses are independent or dependent Phrases connect to a sentence with a verb or preposition Elements of a Sentence

3. Apostrophe Shows possession Creates clarity with some plurals As a symbol to represent feet Contractions Colon After a statement introducing a long quotation Separates the hours from minutes when time is expressed in figures Apostrophe and Colon

4. Comma • Between an introductory word or phrase and the main clause • Separates items in a series • Separates independent clauses connected with a conjunction • Sets off a direct quotation in a sentence • Sets off a parenthetical expression, appositive, or nonrestrictive clause from the sentence • Separates two adjectives modifying same noun

5. Dash, Ellipsis, and Exclamation • A dash emphasizes one or more parenthetical words • An ellipsis shows the omission of words within a sentence • An exclamation point is used at the end of a statement for emphasis

6. Hyphen • Keyed with no spaces before or after it • Separates compound adjective (two adjectives that together modify a noun) • Replaces “to” or “through” in statistical writing • Separates a prefix from the word • At the end of a line when a word is divided • Suspended hyphen, one space after

7. Parentheses • Punctuation following a parenthesis within a sentence goes outside, first letter is not capitalized • Enclose a number or letter in enumerations • Instead of a comma or dash to deemphasize and expression • To reference another location in a document • Around a complete sentence

8. Period • Ends a sentence • Ends a question that is a polite request • Ends an abbreviation • As a decimal point in numbers • Following each number or letter in enumeration • Following each level letter or number in an outline • Ends paragraph headings

9. Question and Quotation Marks • A question mark is used at the end of a sentence to ask a direct question • Quotation marks set off exact words that are spoken • Quotes are used to enclose chapter and article titles • Quotes are used when a single letter is referenced “a”

10. Semicolon and Underscore • A semicolon is used to separate compound sentences or items in a series that is within a series • Underscore is used for underlining titles, emphasis of specific words, paragraph headings, or a reference to a single letter

11. Capitalization • Beginning of every sentence • Beginning of a complete sentence within parentheses • Beginning of a quotation • The pronoun “I” • Titles of people • Book and article titles • Specific high school or college courses

12. More Capitalization Rules • Geographic locations • Organization names • Public and private institutions • Names of national, political, religious, or ethnic groups • Specific department names in an organization • Names of specific objects/brand names • Elements of time (month, day, holiday . . . )

13. Vowel combinations ie and ei Ending ie Silent e ending Silent e with compounds Words ending in ee Word endings cle and cal Sounds like ph, gh, ch, and i Ending in cede, ceed, and sede Y ending preceded by a vowel Y ending preceded by a consonant The suffix ful Doubling the ending consonant Compound words Spelling Guides

14. Numbers or Words • Spell out one through ten, above ten in figures • Figures for measurements, temperatures, dimensions, chemical terms, scores, percents • Use figures consistently when several sets of numbers are in a sentence • Money and percent should be in figures • Mixed numerals should be in figures • Numbers beginning a sentence should be in words

15. Spelling Out Numbers • Use hyphens in words 21–99 when using words • If two numbers describe one word, smaller number should be in words • Dates should be figures, except in very formal • Time is in figures unless uses word o’clock • No commas should be in large serial numbers • Combine numbers and words for large numbers • Spell out ordinal numbers

16. Still More Number Guidelines • Use both words and figures in legal documents • Numbers that follow descriptive words like chapter and page should be figures, do not use “number” • Age is expressed in words, unless days and months are given too • Street names should appear the way the city identifies them • Plurals of figures are expressed with an ‘s, although just an s is acceptable as well

17. With word processing Automatic hyphenation divides words according to the rules set in the software Manual hyphenation allows user to decide placement A “no hyphenation” option wraps words that are too long Word division guide Divide only when necessary Do not divide at the end of the first line of a paragraph Do not divide the last word on a page Avoid dividing at the end of more than two consecutive lines Do not divide a proper noun, if possible Hyphenation

18. Word Division Rules • Only divide between syllables, and if syllables have three or more letters, -ed not a syllable • Divide hyphenated words at the hyphen • Divide compound words between the elements • In a three-syllable word with a one-letter syllable, divide after the one-letter syllable • In a word with a double consonant, divide between them unless followed by a suffix (separate the suffix) • If a consonant is added to the end of a word before a suffix to create a double consonant, divide between double consonants

19. More Word Division Rules • Words ending in able, ible, ical, cian, cion, sion, gion, tion should be divided at the end of the root word; not true if end in ble or cal • Divide between two one-letter syllables • Do not divide to separate a syllable without any vowels • Divide between the day and year, no hyphen • Do not divide a proper noun, if possible • If necessary, divide address at logical reading point • Do not divide figures, amounts of money, or Web addresses