How To Use Punctuation Correctly For Academic Writing In English?

What will you learn?

1. Importance and use of 11 types of punctuation
2. The English grammar rules for punctuation
3. How these rules facilitate scientific communication
4. How to communicate well with your audience
5. Best practices to ensure correct punctuation in your writing
6. Applying learnings, with examples and quizzes in each lesson

Course Description

“When speaking aloud, you punctuate constantly—with body language. Your listener hears commas, dashes, question marks, exclamation points, quotation marks as you shout, whisper, pause, wave your arms, roll your eyes, wrinkle your brow. In writing, punctuation plays the role of body language. It helps readers hear the way you want to be heard.” These words by Russel Baker encapsulate the importance of using punctuation marks correctly when writing in English to better control your research story and how it is perceived by journal reviewers and readers.

In scientific communication, the right punctuation facilitates clarity, simplicity, precision, and readability. This two-part program will help you use punctuation correctly in your academic writing projects to draft sentences that are short, direct, and simple. Covering 11 different punctuation marks, with detailed explanations, summaries and short quizzes for every topic, this course will help you enhance your writing and communicate your research most effectively!

What topics will you cover?

1. Introduction
2. Objectives overview
3. What is punctuation?
4. Issues with poor punctuation
5. How to use periods
6. Parts of a sentence
7. Using commas
8. Where to use colons
9. How to use semicolons
10. Quick summary
11. Part 2 - Introduction
12. Objectives overview
13. Hyphen rules
14. Where to use apostrophes
15. Using quotation marks
16. How parentheses work
17. Where to use brackets
18. What are braces
19. Using the dash
20. Quick summary
21. Check your understanding

Course Narrator:

Dr. Christina Cho, Cancer biologist, Freelance scientific and medical writer

Christina Cho, PhD is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, and is investigating the molecular mechanisms driving the development and progression of colorectal and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas. She’s spent the last ten years working in academic research, developing a range of skills that will help her lead a research laboratory. Her skills include the ability to independently develop and execute experiments, lead research projects, teach and train junior postdocs and students, write manuscripts and grants, and give oral presentations in both intramural and extramural conferences.