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English 1b3 Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

You cannot run...Grammar

You cannot run through the classroom, only walk.

If this were written in formal prose, would you accept this?

I don't know much about this (David knows a great lot)

How do we punctuate this?

Ta
  

Top answer

You cannot run through the classroom, only walk. -- What kind of formal prose might contain it? Do you have a context in mind?

— Mister Micawber

  • You cannot run through the classroom, only walk.
  • -- What kind of formal prose might contain it?
  • Do you have a context in mind?
  • I don't know much about this (David knows a great lot) .
  • -- I don't know much about this .
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9 Answers
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You cannot run through the classroom, only walk. If this were written in formal prose, would you accept this?-- What kind of formal prose might contain it? Do you have a context in mind?


I don't know much about this (David knows a great lot). How do we punctuate this?-- I don't know much about this. (David knows a lot.)
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Mister MicawberWhat kind of formal prose might contain it? Do you have a context in mind?

No, sorry. I said formal text because it means you can't just wack a dash before 'only' to make it correct. Punctuation shouldn't influence a sentence structure's correctness, I don't think.
Mister MicawberI don't know much about this. (Davi
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I said formal text because it means you can't just wack a dash before 'only' to make it correct. Punctuation shouldn't influence a sentence structure's correctness, I don't think.-- It seems to me that a lot of the correction I do here at EF indeed has to do with punctuation. The problem that confronts me with your sentence is a case in point: the comma bothers me, but I don't really k
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Mister MicawberIt seems to me that a lot of the correction I do here at EF indeed has to do with punctuation. The problem that confronts me with your sentence is a case in point: the comma bothers me, but I don't really know what to do about it.

What I was trying to say in my previous post, clearly or not, is that in formal texts, I've read, that dashes a
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You cannot run through the classroom, only walk.

I think the problem, then, is that the sentence itself is not formal enough and needs recasting:

You cannot run through the classroom but only walk.
.

I will comment that I think we are seeing more and more m-dashes in more formal composition, because it is a useful tool.
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That's the answer I was looking for! Cheers
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FWIW, I use em-dashes in the marketing materials I create for my company.
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Hi GG,

Yes, it seems google is agreeing with you to: it's being used more and more often nowadays.

Cheers
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Hi,

Or is it one more step down on the staircase that will one day lead us all to writng twitter-english?
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