PUNCTUATION

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PUNCTUATION

• THE MOST IMPORTANT MARKS OF PUNCTUATION ARE

. PERIOD (FULL STOP) ? QUESTION MARK ! EXCLAMATION POINT -- DASH - HYPHEN APOSTROPHE , COMMA SEMICOLON COLON DOUBLE QUOTATION MARKS SINGLE QUOTATION MARKS () PARENTHESES BRACKETS
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Quotation Marks, Apostrophes, and Parenthesis
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QUOTATION MARKS

• 1) TO ENCLOSE EVERY DIRECT QUOTATION AND EACH
  PART OF AN INTERRUPTED QUOTATION
• e.g. What will my starting salary be? I asked
  the manager.
• Well, he replied, Im not sure.
• 2) IN A DIALOGUE USE A SEPARATE PARAGRAPH FOR
  EACH CHANGE OF SPEAKER
• e.g. Dad, cried Neil.
• There, there, its going to be just
  fine, his father said.
• 3) TO ENCLOSE WORDS WITH A WIDELY DIFFERENT LEVEL
  OF USAGE
• e.g. The person who has had it so far is
  Saddam.
• 4) TO ENCLOSE CHAPTER HEADINGS AND THE TITLES OF
  ARTICLES
• e.g. Grant Woods famed painting, American
  Gothic, was recently reproduced in American
  Heritage.
• 5) USE SINGLE QUOTATION MARKS TO ENCLOSE A
  QUOTATION WITHIN A QUOTATION e.g. The coach
  said, When you say, Ill be there on time, I
  expect you to mean what you say.

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QUOTATION MARKS (cont.)

• PLACE QUOTATION MARKS CORRECTLY WITH REFERENCE TO
  OTHER MARKS!!!
• THE COMMA AND THE PERIOD ALWAYS COME INSIDE
  QUOTATION MARKS.
• A QUESTION MARK, EXCLAMATION POINT, OR DASH COMES
  OUTSIDE QUOTATION MARKS UNLESS IT IS PART OF THE
  QUOTATION.
• THE SEMICOLON AND COLON COME OUTSIDE QUOTATION
  MARKS.

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THE APOSTROPHE

• HAS THREE USES
• TO FORM THE POSSESSIVE CASE OF NOUNS AND
  PRONOUNS
• TO INDICATE OMISSION OF A LETTER FROM WORDS OR A
  FIGURE FROM NUMERALS
• TO INDICATE THE PLURALS OF LETTERS, NUMERALS,
  SYMBOLS, ABBREVIATIONS.
• USE THE APOSTROPHE
• 1) ADD S TO FORM THE POSSESSIVE CASE OF A NOUN
  NOT ENDING IN S e.g. childrens towns
• 2) TO FORM THE POSSESSIVE CASE OF A PLURAL NOUN
  ENDING IN S
• e.g. boys ladies
• 3) ALONE OR WITH S TO FORM THE POSSESSIVE OF
  NOUNS ENDING IS S
• e.g. Robert Burns /Burnss (RULE WORDS OF ONE
  SYLLABLE)
• 4) ADD S IN THE LAST ELEMENT OF COMPOUND NOUNS
• e.g. my son-in-laws boat King Henry IVs
  funeral somebody elses ticket
• 5) TO SHOW THAT LETTERS OF FIGURES HAVE BEEN
  OMITTED (taken out)
• e.g. arent shouldnt The Civil War was fought
  1861-65.

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Punctuation Parentheses ( )

• Parentheses always come in pairs. They often
  enclose a bit of information that may not be
  directly related to the main sentence.
• Example My Language Arts class (the busiest
  place on Earth) has a lot of homework.
• Example Taking good notes (which is a valuable
  tool) is completely up to each student.