Question by Prince Joachim Villanueva posted in the Facebook Gareway to the Forum (April 8, 2017):
I am an avid follower. I have question. Please enlighten me on this punctuation on certificate:
"Certificate of Appreciation
Is hereby awarded to
(Teacher's Name)
For her outstanding contribution for the SY 2016-2017."
The admin wants to remove the period after "...2017."
Is she correct in removing the period?
Thank you, Sir. More blessings to you.
My reply to Prince:
It's really a matter of stylistic preference, Prince. The period at the end of the Certification of Appreciation statement is optional. Although the statement is formatted to form a complete sentence, in which case it needs to be punctuated by a period at the end, the grammatical elements are actually fragmented and not contiguous, so they don't really form a complete sentence visually. My personal preference is to omit that period.
Stylistically though, just make sure that each line-by-line element after the "Certificate of Appreciation" title doesn't start with a capital letter unless the word is a proper personal or place name. In the certificate format you presented, in particular, assuming it is not using text in all-capital letters, the "f" in "For her outstanding contribution" should be in lower case instead like the rest. That's all.
Rejoinder by Prince Joachim Villanueva (April 9, 2017):
Thank you, Sir, for the insightful feedback.
