Written English Author:John Erskine Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: IV THE SENTENCE Matters Of Punctuation. Many of the common faults in sentence structure are faults of punctuation. For the rules of punctuation, see p. ... more »32. 130. Some writers, for special purposes, punctuate subordinate clauses as though they were sentences. I took him for a clever person. Which he most certainly was not. The average writer, however, will have no excuse for such a practice, and it is to be carefully avoided. 131. Some adverbs, like then, so, also, are frequently misused as conjunctions in compound sentences. In such cases insert the conjunction before the adverb, or separate the clauses by a semicolon. Wrong: I put on my clothes as quickly as possible, then I followed him out of the door. Eight: I put on my clothes as quickly as possible, and then I followed him out of the door. Or: I put on my clothes as quickly as possible; then I followed him out of the door. 132. A relative pronoun can be preceded by a conjunction, as in and which or but which, only when the relative pronoun has already been expressed. Wrong: Mr. Roberts, the president of the company, and who is my best friend. Right: Mr. Roberts, who is the president of the company, and who is my best friend. Or: Mr. Roberts, my best friend, irho is the president of the company. The Arrangement Of The Thought. A writer is sometimes doubtful whether to punctuate two related statements as separate sentences, or to coordinate them in a compound sentence (see If 77). 133. If two or more independent clauses complement each other, so that together they state one complete idea, they should be co-ordinated in a compound sentence. Wrong: I spoke to him. But he would not answer. Right: I spoke to him, but he would not answer. 134. If one clause in a compound s...« less