Punctuation
Period [ . ]
- at the end of a sentence --- I like cheese.
-
After an Initial
-
A period should be placed after an initial.
-
J. R. R. Tolkien [author]
-
George W. Bush [politician]
-
After Abbreviations
-
As a Decimal
-
Use a period as a decimal point and to separate dollars
and cents.
-
ex: For $2.99 on Tuesdays, I can rent three videos.
But is it a bargain to spend 33.3 percent of my allowance on videos that I
won’t have time to watch anyway?
Question Mark
[ ? ]
- to form a direct question --- How much longer does this
page go on?
-
To Show Doubt
-
The question mark is placed within parentheses to show
that the writer isn’t sure a fact or figure is correct.
-
ex: By the year 2050 (?) we will be able to explore the
ocean floor without attachment to any support vehicle.
-
NOTE: In formal writing, all facts should be checked
against a source, so there should be no use of question marks to show doubt.
Exclamation Point
[ ! ]
- Exclamation points can be used at the end of a sentence
expressing strong emotion
- ex: Leave me alone!
- I can't believe I won!
- Exclamation points can also be used after
interjections
at the beginning of a sentence
- ex: Wow! I've never seen anything like that!
Comma [ , ]
- between items in a series; the number of commas should
be one less than the number of items --- I ate eggs, toast, cereal, pancakes,
and bacon for breakfast.
- in dates and addresses --- On October 15, 1974, a great
man was born at 37 Carriage Drive, Lincoln, Rhode Island.
- to set off dialogue --- Mr. Tetreault said, "I'm glad
you found these notes helpful." --- "I can't believe I never noticed that,"
Anita moaned.
- to set off interruptions (phrases that can be omitted
without changing the meaning of the sentence, and/or which can be placed
nearly anywhere in the sentence without changing the meaning of the sentence)
--- My friend Jim, as you know, was attacked by wild beavers last
night. His mortal enemy, Ivan, is suspected of being involved.
- to set off interjections, affirmations, and
declinations/negations --- "Gee, I guess I should have studied
harder." "Yes, that would have been a good idea." "The problem, you
see, was that I was attacked by wild beavers." "No, that's not true."
- in direct address --- Arnie, please come up to
the board. --- I've never seen anything like that, Tim!
- to enclose additional information or appositives --- Mr.
Tetreault, Ed.D., and his friend, Doug Kline, Jr., went fishing.
- between two independent clauses (be sure to use a
coordinating conjunction, too; if you don't use one, you're making a COMMA
SPLICE, and that's bad) --- I like to swim, but I don't like to get
wet.
- to separate adjectives when the adjectives modify the
noun or pronoun equally (if you're not sure, try switching the order of the
adjectives and see if they still make sense, or put the word "and" between
them) --- Many kind, caring parents don't read to their children enough. (Yes)
--- The crowded, New Jersey mall was loud. (No - should be, "The crowded New
Jersey mall was loud.")
- After transition words or phrases --- Finally,
Andrew managed to defeat his enemy.
- After phrases or dependent clauses that begin sentences
--- In 1776, one of Britain's colonies began an uprising. --- As I
flew through the air, I wondered if I should have put on the safety belt
in the roller coaster.
- In a friendly letter after salutations and closings ---
Dear Chris, --- Sincerely,
Semicolon [ ; ]
- to join two independent clauses that are closely related
--- My dog chased my girlfriend's cat; my girlfriend was very upset.
- with conjunctive adverbs (also, as a result, for
example, however, therefore, instead) --- Being forgetful can be
hazardous; for example, if you forget you have a pocket knife in your bag,
when you go to get on a plane you could get in big trouble.
- to separate groups that contain commas --- Foods I like
to eat include meatballs, sausages, and mozzarella cheese on a roll; pizza
with onions, garlic, mushrooms, and olives; and any kind of candy, cake, pie,
or other sweet food.
Quotation Marks
[ " " or ' ' ]
- to set off direct quotations (to write the exact words
said by someone else) --- “Don’t tell anyone, but Bambi is my favorite
movie of all time,” Phil whispered to his girlfriend.
- for quoting a quotation; when you are writing the exact
words Speaker A said, and Speaker A is saying the exact words said by Speaker
B, you start with double quotation marks, then add single quotation marks
around what Speaker B said, and end with double quotation marks after Speaker
A's last words --- When Luke said he would try his best, Yoda said, "Do, or do
not. There is no 'try'."
- If A is quoting B who is quoting C, start with double
q.m., then go to single around B's words, then go to double again around C's
words --- "Emma, I heard you say to Billy, 'Don't shout "Loser" at me!'"
- for dialogue or quotations that are longer than a
paragraph, open the quotation marks before the first words quoted, but don't
close them at the end of the first paragraph. Open another set at the
beginning of the second paragraph. Continue in this fashion until the
quotation is done; then put one set of closing quotation marks after the last
word of the quotation (in other words, keep opening them, but don't close them
until the end of the entire quote) ---
“You can’t be
serious,” Eric said. “I know exactly why someone else might think I murdered
Fred and kidnapped his child, but you should know better!
“Besides, I
couldn’t have done it, even if I’d wanted to. I was in prison at the time of
the crimes.”
“But Eric,”
Detective Eames said as he stared at the suspect, “Your best friend was free at
the time…”
- for special words (to set apart words that are being
discussed, to indicate slang, or to point out that a word or phrase is being
used in a special way) --- These "house farms" that have lots of houses built
right next to each other are ridiculous! --- That was a "phat" song! --- I
bought Jane a lamp for her birthday; I think it's really going to "light up"
her life!
- to punctuate the titles of songs, non-epic poems, short
stories, television episodes (not series), chapters in a book, lectures,
newspaper articles, or other shorter works --- My favorite song, "Birds,
Birds, Birds", is based on Poe's poem "The Raven"; that poem was featured on
The Simpson's "Tree-House of Horror" episode. I read that in an
article in Newsweek, "From the Page to the MP3 Player." You can read
about it in my new book in Chapter One: "Have We Run Out of Ideas?"
Hyphen [ - ]
- to divide a word when you run out of space at the end of
a line (only when writing; most computers automatically move the word to the
next line if it won't fit on the current one)
- never divide one-syllable words --- raised,
through
- avoid dividing a word of five letters or less ---
paper, study
- never divide a one-letter syllable from the rest of
the word --- omit-ted, not o-mitted
- never divide abbreviations or contractions
- never divide the last word in more than two lines in a
row or the last word in a paragraph
- when a vowel is a syllable by itself, divide the word
after the vowel --- epi-sode, not ep-isode
- in compound words -- e-mail --- toll-free --- all-star
--- ice-skating
- to avoid confusion or awkward spelling --- re-collect
(to collect again, as opposed to recollect, to remember) --- shell-like
(not shelllike)
- between numbers in a fraction --- one-fourth
- to create new words (using prefixes like self,
ex, all, great, etc., or suffixes like elect and
free) --- She is a self-made millionaire. --- Tonight is the first
homework-free night I've had in weeks.
- to join letters and words --- PG-rated movie --- X-ray
machine
- to form an adjective --- microwave-safe container
Underlining and Italics
[ ____ ]
and [ italics ]
- NOTE: underlining and italics are used to do exactly the
same things. When you are handwriting, use underlining; when you are
typing, use italics.
- to punctuate titles of books, plays, book-length poems,
magazines, radio and television programs (series, not episodes), movies,
videos, CD's, the names of aircraft and ships, and newspapers --- My favorite
book, Ender's Game, started out as a short story in Omni
magazine; now they're making it into a movie called Kids In Space.
- to indicate foreign words --- E pluribus unum
appears on most U.S. currency.
Apostrophes [ ' ]
- in contractions (to show that one or more letters have
been left out of a word) --- can't (no is left out) --- should've (ha
is left out) --- it's (i is left out)
- in place of omitted letters or numbers (never in formal
writing; this is usually only used when writing dialogue to reflect how people
speak) -- class of '92 (19 is left out) --- g'bye (ood is left
out)
- to form plurals of a letter, a symbol, a number, or a
word discussed as a word --- A's --- 100's --- 1970's
- to form possessives
- in compound nouns, add the possessive ending after the
last word --- my brother-in-law's favorite foods (the foods of one
brother-in-law) --- my brothers-in-law's favorite foods (the foods of
several brothers-in-law)
- for singular possessives, add apostrophe and s ---
Jim's book --- Texas's gun laws
- for plural possessives with plural nouns that end in
s, just add an apostrophe; for plural possessives with plural nouns that
don't end in s, add an apostrophe and an s --- brothers' books (belonging to
all the brothers) --- children's food (belonging to all the children)
- to show shared possession in a series, add an
apostrophe and s to the last noun in the series --- Bob, Jim, and Tim's band
(all three are members of the band) --- Bob's, Jim's, and Tim's guitars
(each member owns a guitar)
Colon [ : ]
- In a business letter after a salutation --- Dear Mr.
Howard:
- For emphasis --- Many are worried about a strange and
disturbing creature right in our midst: the middle school student.
- To introduce a list (should only be used after summary
words [the following, these things], or words describing the subject of
the list) --- To be prepared for class, you need the following: a pen, paper,
and your book. (Yes) To be prepared for class get: a pen, paper, and your
book. (No)
Dash [ -- ]
- To indicate a sudden break --- My father told me one
thing -- actually several things -- that have helped me to live a good life.
- to indicate interrupted speech (not pauses; use ellipsis
for that) --- "Hey, Garry, did you see--" "Dude! Your hair is on fire!"
Ellipsis [ ... ]
- to show a pause in dialogue --- "My friend is... ah....
'indisposed'," Billy said when asked where Jack was.
- In dialogue, to indicate that a speaker has trailed off
--- “You mean, the man I love is actually my…” Mary trailed off, unable to
finish the horrendous thought.
- to show that words have been omitted from a quotation;
the sentence must still make sense, so omit words with caution --- "I pledge
allegiance to the... United States of America..." (Yes) --- "I pledge...
to... flag..." (No)
- at the beginning or end of a quotation to show words
have been left out --- "...and to the republic for which it stands..."
Parentheses [ ( ) ]
- In general, you should only use parentheses when you are
doing parenthetical citation.
Other symbols:
[ ] Brackets - similar to parentheses; used inside
parentheses in the same fashion that a set of single quotation marks is used
inside a set of double quotation marks
/ Slash - most often used with "and" and "or";
usually used to indicate "one or the other or both"
~ Tilde - used with certain Spanish words
` Accent - used with many foreign words or to
indicate where in a pronunciation key emphasis is supposed to be placed
* Asterisk - usually used with foot notes; if an
author has more to say on a topic in a piece of writing, he/she may put an
asterisk after the word or idea he or she wishes to discuss and another at the
bottom of the page, where he or she will continue to write about that idea
^ Caret - usually used as an editing mark to
indicate something was left out; should be written under the line between two
words to indicate where the missing part should be, with the missing part
written in above the line directly above the caret
@ Ampersand - most frequently used with e-mail
addresses; also stands for "at"; frequently seen on invoices to indicate that a
quantity of items was purchased at a particular price each, i.e. "5 donuts @
$.50 each"
# Pound - most often used in place of the word
"number"
< > Arrows - Usually used like parentheses or
brackets; in modern usage, frequently used to surround web addresses --- <http://tetreaultrules.com>
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