PRACTICAL ENGLISHAND EFFECTIVE SPEECH - Lesson Fourteen - PUNCTUATION (Concluded) - The Semicolon,Conjunctive Adverbs and Semicolons

Sep 28, 2026

Lesson Fourteen of Practical English and Effective Speech concludes a guided study of punctuation. It explains how to use the semicolon by linking it to the principles of conjunction, independence of clauses, and logical relationship between ideas. The lesson also reviews key related punctuation topics listed in the contents, then provides examples and rewritten sentences demonstrating how semicolons replace a comma-plus-conjunction structure.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages52

Reading Time2 h 11 min

AccessFree to download

PRACTICAL ENGLISHAND EFFECTIVE SPEECH - Lesson Fourteen - PUNCTUATION (Concluded)

The Semicolon

Conjunctive Adverbs and Semicolons

The Colon

The Dash

Classification by Punctuation

The Hyphen

Division of WordsCompound Words

Quotation Marks

Quotation Marks and Other Punctuation

The Interrogation Point

Brackets and Parentheses

The Exclamation Point

ENUNCIATION

Enunciation Exercise 14-A

Enunciation Exercise 14-B

Enunciation Exercise 14-C

Enunciation Exercise 14-D

PRONUNCIATION

Pronunciation Exercise 14-A

Pronunciation Exercise 14-B

Pronunciation Exercise 14-C

VOCABULARY BUILDING

EFFECTIVE EXPRESSION: NARRATION

Kinds of Narration

Sources of Material

The Elements of Narrative

Arrangement of Incidents

Exercises for Lesson Fourteen

Answers to Exercises

Humanities 808.5 H945n V.14 DISCARDEDmomphis Puble il.ar gy- PRACTICAL ENGLISHand Effective Speech COMPRISING VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT,GRAMMAR,PRONUNCIATION,ENUNCIATION, AND THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE ORAL EXPRESSION BY EsTELLE B.HUNTER,PH.B. LESSON FOU RT EEN THE BETTER-SPEECH INSTITUTE OF AMERICA 180 North Michigan Avenue,Chicago,U.S.A. CONTENTS Page PuNCTUATION(Concluded)·.·· The SemicolonConjunctive Adverbs and Semicolons The Colon The DashClassification by Punctuation The Hyphen Division of WordsCompound Words Quotation Marks Quotation Marks and Other Punctuation The Interrogation PointBrackets and ParenthesesThe Exclamation Point .··.18 ENUNCIATION . . Enunciation Exercise 14-A Enunciation Exercise 14-B Enunciation Exercise 14-C Enunciation Exercise 14-D ·...20 PRONUNCIATION . ·· Pronunciation Exercise 14-A Pronunciation xercise 14-B Pronunciation Exercise 14-C VoCABULARY BUILDING....·.· ..·..26 EFFECTIVE ExPRESSION:NARRATION..... ····.28 Kinds of NarrationSources of MaterialThe Elements of NarrativeArrangement of Incidents EXERCISES FOR LESSON FoURTEEN ..···..33ANSWERS TO ExERCISES .·....37 1930 CHICAGO THE BETTER-ENGLISH INSTITUTE OF AMERICA 1933 and 1935 THE BETTER-SPEECH INSTITUTE OF AMERICA CHICAGO # PRACTICAL ENGLISHAND EFFECTIVE SPEECH LESSON FOURTEEN PUNCTUATION(Concluded) ITH THIS lesson we shall conclude our study of punc-tuation,including the semicolon,the colon,the dash,the hyphen,quotation marks,the interrogation point,brackets and parentheses,and the exclamation point. THE SEMICOLON There is an old story to the effect that the semicolon was in-vented by a man who could never decide whether to use a periodor a comma,and who solved his difficulty by using both at onetime,placing the period over the comma! In order to use a semicolon properly,it is necessary to bear inmind the definition of conjunction.A conjunction,as the wordsuggests,is a joining word,such as and,but,or,for,etc.Con-junctions may join either words or groups of words;that is,theymay join words,phrases,or clauses,as illustrated by the follow-ing sentences: 1.John or Harry will accompany you.(The conjunction or joinstwo words.) 2.He went down the street and around the corner.(The conjunctionand joins two phrases.) 3.She is angry,but he is amused.(The conjunction but joins twoclauses.) Whenever you have a sentence that contains a conjunction pre-ceded by a comma,you can replace the comma and the conjunctionby a semicolon.Stated mathematically,one conjunction plus one comma equals one semicolon.Let us see how this applies in thefollowing sentence: The hills of Virginia are rich,for coal and iron abound. Here we have two ideas:(1)the hills of Virginia are rich;(2)coaland iron abound.These ideas are joined by the conjunction for,which is preceded by a comma,indicating the two independentthoughts.Let us rewrite the sentence,replacing the comma andthe conjunction by a semicolon.We then have: The hills of Virginia are rich;coal and iron abound. You can readily see from this single example that the semicolonreally does take the place of a conjunction and a comma. Do not make the mistake,however,of thinking that any twoclauses may be held together by a semicolon.There are two verydefinite principles governing its use in this capacity:(1)clausesjoined by a semicolon must be related;(2)clauses joined by asemicolon must be independent.By related we mean that theclauses must be related in thought.By independent we mean thatthe clauses must be grammatically complete;that is,each clausemust make complete sense by itself. In the light of these two rules,let us consider the three sen-tences below: 1.The hills of Virginia are beautiful;they contain coal and iron. 2.The hills of Virginia are rich;containing as they do coal and iron. 3.The hills of Virginia are beautiful;especially charming is theblue haze that v

FAQs

What is the lesson’s purpose in Lesson Fourteen?

Lesson Fourteen concludes the study of punctuation and then proceeds into enunciation, pronunciation, vocabulary building, and effective expression through narration-related topics.

How does the lesson define proper semicolon usage?

The lesson states that semicolon use depends on conjunctions and is governed by two principles: related meaning and grammatical independence of the clauses joined by the semicolon.

When can a semicolon replace a comma plus conjunction?

When a sentence contains a conjunction preceded by a comma, the comma and conjunction can be replaced by a semicolon to join the two independent but logically related ideas.

Sep 28, 2026

Uploaded by A glass of water