As soon as we express a complete thought, we are to let the reader know that he has reached the end of the sentence. In talking we show by a pause when we come to the end of a thought, but in writing we often leave one thought unfinished in our haste to say something else. We must therefore take pains to set off by themselves the words which compose each thought. Every sentence should begin with a capital, and should end with some punctuation mark. The period, the interrogation point, and the exclamation point may stand at the end of a sentence, but the period is the mark most often used.

I. A period should stand at the end of every declarative or imperative sentence. If, however, a declarative or imperative sentence is exclamatory, an exclamation point may be used instead of a period.

II. A period should follow every abbreviation.

Cal., Me., Mr., Rev., Oct.

III. The period should separate a number or a heading from the words which follow. See, for example, the section headings and numbers in this book. Both the colon and the dash are sometimes used for this purpose, but the period is preferable. Periods were formerly inserted after centered headings of every kind, but good style now sanctions their omission.

Exercises

96. Copy the following selections, inserting periods and capitals wherever they belong:

1. To-day I went to the circus the tents were all up, and in one of them I saw some elephants the cooks were getting supper ready.

2. My cousin sent me a letter from the Philippines, where he is with his company he told me that on his way to the islands they encountered a heavy storm, which carried them nearly to Japan the ship was wrecked, and they lost all their food, clothing, and personal property.

3. Years afterwards, the knowledge gained stood me in good stead in clearing up another mystery it was in a lumber camp - always a superstitious place - in the heart of a Canada forest I had followed a wandering herd of caribou too far one day, and late in the afternoon found myself alone at a river, some twenty miles from my camp, on the edge of the barren grounds somewhere above me I knew that a crew of lumbermen were at work; so I headed up river to find their camp, if possible, and avoid sleeping out in the snow and bitter cold it was long after dark, and the moon was flooding forest and river with a wonderful light, when I at last caught sight of the camp the click of my snowshoes brought a dozen big men to the door at that moment I felt, rather than saw, that they seemed troubled and alarmed at seeing me alone; but I was too tired to notice, and no words save those of welcome were spoken until I had eaten heartily then, as I started out for another look at the wild beauty of the place under the moonlight, a lumberman followed and touched me on the shoulder.

97. Write about something that you saw happen. Do your writing as rapidly as you please. Before copying your work, revise it to see that (a) every sentence has a subject and a predicate, and that (b) every sentence begins with a capital, and if declarative, ends with a period.

Note. Since some young writers run on breathlessly from one sentence to another without thought of periods, every pupil should be sure that he does not crowd too much into one sentence. It is well at first to have one's sentences short rather than long.