Punctuation—Other
This section deals with punctuation other than commas and semicolons. We’ll start with end punctuation: periods, question marks, and exclamation points.
Place periods at the ends of sentences that make simple statements, give mild commands or make mild requests, or ask indirect questions.
Use question marks after sentences that ask clear, direct questions.
Exclamation points appear at the ends of sentences that show shock, surprise, or some other strong emotion. Use them sparingly.
Other punctuation marks include apostrophes, quotation marks, dashes, colons, parentheses, brackets, slashes, ellipses, and hyphens.
We use apostrophes to show possession and to indicate that words, numbers, or letters have been deleted.
· Possession:
o Singular words—add an apostrophe followed by an “s”
Judy’s car
Mr. Jones’s house
o Plural words:
§ If the plural is formed by adding an “s,” just add an apostrophe
§ If the plural does not end in “s,” add an apostrophe and an “s”
The Joneses’ house
The children’s room
The boys’ bicycles
HOT TIP: It may help to remember that the item belongs to whatever is to the left of the apostrophe.
· Contractions:
o The apostrophe goes where the omission occurs.
do not don’t
1999 ‘99
it is it’s
you all y’all
Quotation marks enclose titles of poems, magazine articles, newspaper articles, songs, short stories, essays, and other short works. They also enclose words spoken in dialogue, words taken verbatim from someone else’s work, and words and phrases to which you want to give emphasis.
Did you read John’s essay titled “How to Make an ‘A’ in English Class”?
John said, “Making an ‘A’ is easy if you know how.”
Anyone can make an “A” if he or she works at it.
Dashes set off words, phrases, sentences for special emphasis. They are dramatic markers and should be used sparingly.
I can write—and I write well—but I don’t like to write.
Use the colon to introduce lists, to indicate the time of day, to separate a title and subtitle of a work. Colons also follow salutations in business letters.
We need three things: paper, pen, and a desire to succeed.
Our plane leaves at 7:03 p.m. tomorrow.
Have you read Composition: Staying Composed While Composing?
Dear Dr. Edwards:
Parentheses always work in pairs. Use them to set off information that breaks the flow of thought within a sentence or paragraph.
You should receive your paycheck on Wednesday (or as soon thereafter as the mail carrier delivers it).
Square brackets set off material within quoted matter that is not part of the quotation, and sometimes they enclose editorial notes, page numbers, or other documentation inserted in a text.
In formal writing, we use slashes only to separate lines of poetry when the lines do not occur as originally written.
An ellipsis indicates omitted words, phrases, or sentences—usually in quoted material.
Hyphens are bridges between words. We use them to form compound words like mother-in-law and terms like state-of-the-art.
My brother is a one-of-a-kind-food-consuming machine.
You will rarely use these last punctuation marks, but you should keep a grammar handbook handy so that you can look up the rules governing them if you need to use them.