The Mechanics of Writing

  Personal Information 

Name:- Mansi B. Gujadiya

Roll Number:-12

Enrollment Number:-4069206420220013

Batch:-M.A SEM -4 ( 2022-23 )

Email ID:- mansigajjar10131@gmail.com

Paper Number:-209

Paper Code:-22416

Paper Name:-Research Methodology

Submitted to:- English department MKBU

Topic:- Write a detailed note on The Mechanics of Writing

Introduction:-

Writing skills are an important part of communication which allows us to communicate with clarity and ease to a far larger audience than face-to-face or any other communication. The good thing is that writing skills can be learned as well as any other skills. When we write a Research Paper at times the Mechanics of Writing is very important. Mechanics of Writing like spelling, punctuation, Italics, Name of Person, Numbers, Quotations, etc.. Let's discuss of Mechanics of Writing. 

 

What are the mechanics of writing?

It refers to the parts of speech and how they combine together to form sentences. Mechanics refers to the rules of the written language, such as capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. An understanding of both grammar and mechanics is required to clearly communicate your ideas in a paper. 

Mechanics, in theory, include matters such as usage and spelling, as well as hyphenation and the use of italics. Essentially, mechanics refers to a set of conventions--how to abbreviate and when to capitalize, for example." 

Spelling:-

Spelling, including hyphenation, must be consistent, except in quotations: quoted material must be reproduced exactly as it appears in the original.

Word division:-

 

Avoid dividing words at the end of a line. Where divisions are unavoidable, practice in [North America] is to divide words according to pronunciation (“rep-re-sent”), whereas the British divide according to word derivation (“re-pre-sent”). Other languages have their own rules for dividing words: French, for instance, usually divides on a vowel (“ho-me-rique”; in English, “Ho-mer-ic”). If in doubt, consult a dictionary.

. Punctuation:-

 The primary purpose of punctuation is to ensure the clarity and readability of your writing. Although there are many required uses, punctuation is, to some extent, a matter of personal preference. But, while certain practices are optional, consistency is mandatory. Writers must guard against adopting different styles in parallel situations. The remarks below stress the conventions that pertain especially to research papers. More comprehensive discussions of punctuation can be found in standard handbooks of composition ….

 General remarks. 

The primary purpose of punctuation is to ensure the clarity and readability of your writing. Although there are many required uses, punctuation is, to some extent, a matter of personal preference. But, while certain practices are optional, consistency is mandatory. Writers must guard against adopting different styles in parallel situations. The remarks below stress the conventions that pertain especially to research papers. More comprehensive discussions of punctuation can be found in standard handbooks of composition

Apostrophes:-

Apostrophes indicate contractions (rarely acceptable in scholarly writing) and possessives. General practice is to form the possessive of monosyllabic proper names ending in a sibilant sound (s, z, sh, zh, ch, j) by adding an apostrophe and another s (Keats’s poems, Marx’s theories) except, by convention, for names in classical literature (Mars’ wrath). In words of more than one syllable ending in a sibilant, only the apostrophe is added (Hopkins’ poems, Cervantes’ novelas) except for names ending in a sibilant and a final e (Horace’s odes). Note that the possessive of a name ending with a silent s is formed by adding an apostrophe and another s (Camus’s novels).

 Colons:-  

Colons are used to indicate that what follows will be an example, explanation, or elaboration of what has just been said. They are commonly used to introduce quotations (see §§ 14b, 14c, and 14f). For their use in documentation and bibliography, Always skip one space after a colon.

Commas:-

Commas are usually required between items in a series (blood, sweat, and tears), between coordinate adjectives (an absorbing, frightening account), before coordinating conjunctions joining independent clauses, around parenthetical elements, and after fairly long phrases or clauses preceding the main clause of a sentence. They are also conventional in dates (January 1, 1980), names (W. K. Wimsatt, Jr., and Walter J. Ong, S.J.), and addresses (Brooklyn, New York). A comma and a dash are never used together in modern English usage. If the context requires a comma (as it does here), the comma follows a closing parenthesis, but a comma never precedes an opening parenthesis. 

 Dashes:- 

dash is typed … with no space before or after. Some writers tend to overuse [em] dashes, substituting them loosely for other marks of punctuation. The [em] dash, however, has only a few legitimate uses: around parenthetical elements that require a number of internal commas, and before a summarizing appositive. example,

Many twentieth-century American writers—Faulkner, Capote, Styron, and Williams, to name only a few—come from the South.

Hyphens:-

Hyphens are used to form some types of compound words, particularly compound adjectives that precede the word(s) they modify (a mind-boggling experience, a well-established policy, a first-rate study). Hyphens also join prefixes to capitalized words (post-Renaissance) and link pairs of coequal nouns (poet-priest, teacher-scholar). Many other compounds, however, are written as one word (wordplay, storytelling) or as two (social security tax, a happily married man). Consult a standard dictionary or writing manual for guidance in determining which compounds require hyphenation. [En dashes rather than hyphens should be] used to connect numbers indicating a range.

Semicolons:-

Semicolons are used to separate items in a series when some of the items require internal commas. They are used between independent clauses that are not joined by a coordinating conjunction, and they may be used before the coordinating conjunction in a compound sentence if one of the independent clauses requires some internal commas. For the use of semicolons in documentation and bibliography.

Slashes:-

Slashes are used to separate lines of poetry and elements of dates to enclose phonemic transcription, and occasionally to separate alternative words.

Square brackets []:-

Square brackets [] are used for an unavoidable parenthesis within a parenthesis, to enclose interpolations in a quotation or in incomplete data, and to enclose phonetic transcription.

Italics:-

Italics …. Avoid frequent use of italics … for emphasis. Phrases, words, or letters cited as linguistic examples and foreign words used in English text are [italicized]. The numerous exceptions to this last rule include quotations entirely in another language, titles of articles in another language (placed within quotation marks), proper names, and foreign words anglicized through frequent usage. Since [North] American English rapidly naturalizes words, use a dictionary and your own knowledge of current usage to determine which originally foreign expressions still require italics. Much, of course, depends on the audience. Foreign words, abbreviations, and phrases commonly. In discussions of the arts, such words or expressions as the following are also.

Quotation marks:-

Quotation marks is enclosed in double quotation marks words to which attention is being directed (e.g., words purposely misused or used in a special sense, words referred to as words, and parenthetical English translations of words or phrases from another language). Note, however, that words used as examples in linguistic studies are [italicized] and not enclosed in double quotation marks. Use single quotation marks for definitions or translations that appear without intervening punctuation (e.g., ainsi ‘thus’). For the use of quotation marks with titles, and, for use of single and double quotation marks in quoted material. 

 Number:-

 Numbers that cannot be spelled out in one or two words may be written as numerals (one, thirty-six, ninety-nine, one hundred, two thousand, three million; but 2½, 101, 137, and 1,275). Numbers compared or contrasted should be in the same style (5 out of 125, 2½ to 3 years old or two-and-a-half to three years old). In technical or statistical discussions involving their frequent use or in notes, where many space-saving devices are legitimate, all numbers may be written as numerals. Common practice is to put a comma between the third and fourth digits from the right, the sixth and seventh, and so on.

Exceptions to this practice include page and line numbers of four or more digits, addresses, and year numbers. The comma is added in year numbers if a fifth digit is used, for example, In 20,000 B.C.

Roman numerals. Use capital Roman numerals for … books and parts of a work, volumes, acts of a play, or individuals in a series. Examples like Book I of Spenser’s Faerie Queene. 

Names of Persons:-

 Since there are exceptions to almost any rule, good judgment based on knowledge of common usage is essential in dealing with persons’ names.

 Titles:-

 Formal titles (Mr., Mrs., Miss, Ms., Dr., Professor, etc.) are usually omitted in references to persons, living or dead. By convention, titles are associated with, or used for, certain names—for instance, the poet Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, is referred to as Surrey, not Howard. By custom, however, some titled persons are not referred to by their titles: Benjamin Disraeli, the first earl of Beaconsfield, is commonly called Disraeli. A few women are traditionally known by their married names (Mme de Staël). Otherwise, women’s names are treated the same as men’s (Dickinson, Stein, Plath, not Miss Dickinson, Miss Stein, Miss Plath).

Authors’ names:-

It is common and acceptable to use simplified names of famous authors (Vergil for Publius Vergilius Maro, Dante for Dante Alighieri). Many authors are referred to by pseudonyms, which should be treated as ordinary names. examples like George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans). In a few cases, however, surnames and pen names are virtually inseparable from initials (O. Henry, not Henry).

Work Citation:-

Armstrong , Keir. “Mechanics of Writing .” https://doi.org/https://carleton.ca/keirarmstrong/learning-resources/essay-guidelines/mechanics-of-writing/. 

Gibaldi, Joseph. “The Mechanics of Writing .” MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Modern Language Association of America, New York, 2009, pp. 63–112. 

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