Punctuation May 10

The period is perhaps the easiest punctuation mark to master. It ends a sentence. Difficulty generally arises only when the period is used with other punctuation marks.

When writing a sentence a period will be used at the end of a sentence and on the outside of ( ) in a text.

Example: Don't forget to give the book to Jermaine (DeShun's cousin).

If quotation marks are used to indicate someones exact words, the period is inside of the last quotation mark.

Example: Tyler said "I finished my homework."

A question mark is used to indicate a question is used while writing.

Example: How is everyone doing this morning?

Sometimes, the comma indicates a pause that would occur if the sentence were spoken aloud. Other times, the comma separates grammatical components of the sentence.

The presence or absence of a comma can change the meaning of a sentence⁠—sometimes dramatically.

Example: Let's eat mom.

Example: Let's eat, mom.

The exclamation point is a mark of terminal punctuation. As such, it should not be followed by a period or question mark. Some writers will use both a question mark and exclamation point for an exclamatory question, but only the exclamation point is truly necessary.

Example: What in the world are you doing up there! (Correct)

Example: What in the world are you doing up there?! (Incorrect)

Quotation marks are primarily used to indicate material that is being reproduced word for word, as well as some other important uses.

Example: “The best investments today,” according to Smith, “are commodities and emerging-market stocks.”(Correct)

Example: “The best investments today”, according to Smith, “are commodities and emerging-market stocks”.

The colon is used to introduce a list of items.

Examples: After three weeks of deliberation, the jury finally reached a verdict: guilty.

Five continents, three dozen countries, over a hundred cities: this was the trip of a lifetime.

Most commonly, the semicolon is used between two independent clauses (i.e., clauses that could stand alone as separate sentences) when a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) is omitted.

Example: The upperclassmen are permitted off-campus lunch; the underclassmen must remain on campus.

The apostrophe ( ’ ) has three uses: contractions, plurals, and possessives.

Examples: Contractions (e.g., let’s, don’t, couldn’t, it’s, she’s)

Examples: He received four A’s and two B’s.

We hired three M.D.’s and two D.O.’s.

Be sure to cross your t’s and dot your i’s.

Do we have more yes’s than no’s?

Examples: the lawyer’s fee

the child’s toy

the girl’s parents

Jesus’s disciples