Punctuation and Capitalisation

English Language · WAEC and JAMB · SS2 and SS3

Mechanical accuracy is a named mark in the WASSCE essay, and punctuation is most of it. Beyond the marks, a misplaced comma can change meaning entirely, which is exactly why examiners test it in rewriting items.

What you need to know

A full stop ends a statement or command, a question mark ends a direct question only, and an exclamation mark ends a strong feeling. 'He asked whether I was coming' is a statement, so it takes a full stop, not a question mark.
Use a comma to separate items in a list, but not before the final and in ordinary British usage: 'We bought rice, beans, yam and oil.'
Put a comma after an introductory clause or long phrase: 'When the siren sounded, everyone stood up.' Without it, the reader has to restart the sentence.
A relative clause that merely adds information takes commas, while one that identifies which person or thing is meant takes none. 'My brother, who lives in Ota, is a nurse' means I have one brother; 'My brother who lives in Ota is a nurse' means I have several and this is the Ota one.
Use a comma before and, but, so or or when the two sides are complete sentences: 'The gate was locked, so we waited outside.' Do not use one when the second part has no subject of its own.
Always put commas round a name used in direct address. 'Let us eat, Grandma' is an invitation; 'Let us eat Grandma' is a threat.
A semicolon joins two closely related complete sentences without a joining word: 'The road was flooded; nobody could pass.' It also separates list items that already contain commas.
A colon introduces a list, an explanation or a quotation, and what comes before it must be a complete statement: 'Bring the following: a pen, a ruler and your identity card.'
The apostrophe shows possession or omission, never a plural. Add apostrophe s to a singular noun, and the apostrophe alone after a plural already ending in s: the student's books means one student, the students' books means many.
Its shows possession and it's means it is or it has. 'The dog wagged its tail' has no apostrophe, and the same rule applies to yours, hers, theirs and ours.
In direct speech, the comma goes INSIDE the quotation marks and the spoken words begin with a capital letter: She said, 'We will meet on Monday.'
Hyphenate a compound adjective before a noun but not after it: 'a well-known teacher' and 'a twenty-year-old boy', yet 'the teacher is well known'.
Capitalise proper nouns, titles used with a name, days, months, languages, nationalities and the first word of a sentence or of direct speech. Write 'Last December, Principal Okoro addressed us in English.'
Do not capitalise seasons, school subjects other than languages, or common nouns such as school, church and market unless they form part of a name: harmattan season, mathematics, my school, but The Future Pillars Schools and Ota Market.

Key terms

Semicolon: A punctuation mark joining two complete, closely related sentences without a conjunction, or separating complex list items.
Colon: A punctuation mark used after a complete statement to introduce a list, an explanation or a quotation.
Apostrophe: A mark showing either possession or the omission of letters in a contraction.
Defining relative clause: A relative clause that identifies which person or thing is meant and therefore takes no commas.
Direct address: Naming the person being spoken to within a sentence, always separated from the rest by commas.
Proper noun: The particular name of a person, place, organisation, day or month, always written with a capital letter.

Worked examples

Punctuate and capitalise the following correctly: 'my brother who lives in ota is a nurse he visits us every december'

Find where one complete thought ends and the next begins. There are two statements here, so a full stop is needed after nurse.
Capitalise the first word of each sentence: My and He.
Capitalise the proper nouns: Ota is a place and December is a month.
Decide on the relative clause. If the writer has only one brother, the clause merely adds information, so it is enclosed in commas.
Put a full stop at the end of the second sentence.

Answer: My brother, who lives in Ota, is a nurse. He visits us every December.

Explain the difference in meaning between 'The student's books were returned' and 'The students' books were returned.'

Look at where the apostrophe sits in relation to the s.
In the first, the apostrophe comes before the s, so the owner is singular: one student.
In the second, the apostrophe comes after the plural s, so the owners are many: more than one student.
State both meanings in full sentences, since the question asks for meaning, not for a rule.

Answer: The first means the books belonging to one student were returned; the second means the books belonging to several students were returned.

The mistake to avoid

The apostrophe is scattered over plurals that own nothing, producing 'banana's for sale' and 'the teacher's are coming'. Close behind is the comma splice, where two full sentences are joined by a comma instead of a full stop or a joining word, which the examiner marks as a sentence error every time it appears.

In the exam

In rewriting items that ask you to punctuate, read the sentence aloud in your head and mark every natural pause, then check each pause against a rule before you commit it. In the essay, reread specifically for capital letters at sentence openings and for apostrophes, since mechanical accuracy is marked separately from expression and these two faults are the quickest to find and fix.