Punctuation — Eats, Shoots, and Leaves

Punctuation — Eats, Shoots, and Leaves

APOSTROPHE (’)

a punctuation mark used to mark possessives and contractions.

Usage

1.       To indicate possession by a singular noun, the ending “‘s” is added:

                           §  The king‘s crown

Note: To indicated possession by people with modern names ending in an “s”, the ending “‘s” is added. With names of ancient times, only the apostrophe is needed:

                           §  Edwards’s shirts

                           §  Socrates’ teachings

Words ending in an “iz” only require the apostrophe:

                           §  Moses’ disciples

  When the possessor is a regular plural (ending with an “s”) the apostrophe is placed after the “s”:

                           §  The books’ pages

          When the possessor is a plural that does not end in an “s”, the ending “‘s” is added.

                           § The people‘s rights

2.       To indicate time and other quantities:

                           §  A dollar‘s  worth

                           §  In two days’ time

3.       To indicate omission of numbers in dates:

                           §  The storm of ‘84

4.       To indicate the omission of letters:

                           §   I’ll do it later

Note: apostrophes are usually omitted for generally accepted contractions such as phone (telephone) and net (Internet)

Note: this creates the contraction “it‘s” (“it is” or “it has”) which is often confused with the possessive “its”

5.       To indicate dialect in speech

6.       Used in Irish names such as O’Reilly

Note: It is a misconception that the “o” is meant as a contraction of “of”. The “O” was traditionally “ua”, meaning grandson.

7.       Indicates the plurals of letters and words:

                           §  There are eight s‘s and two p‘s in Mississippi.

                           §  I don’t want to hear any more no‘s from you.

8.       Used in double possessives that can aid in disambiguation and is widely accepted.

                           §  A picture of my father

                           §  A picture of my father’s

Note: Some organizations have variations as to the placement of their apostrophes.  This is to be respected

COMMA (,)

a punctuation mark used to separate

Usage

1.       To separate items into lists:

                           §  Reduce, reuse and recycle

Note: The Oxford comma (comma used before and) is often omitted, but is may sometimes help avoid confusion

Note: In some cases with adjectives, a comma is not necessary:

                           §  A sparkling new car

2.       To join complete sentences using conjunctions such as for, and, nor, but, or, yet, while and so:

                           §  These rules are useful, but difficult to remember

                           §  I knew school was to start soon, yet I continued to procrastinate.

Note: Omitting the conjunction, which results in the splice comma, can be effective and poetic if used by an established author.

3.       To fill gaps:

                           §  Kim had the brains and the looks; Kelly, neither.

4.       Before direct speech:

                           §  The child shouted, “It’s my turn.”

5.       To separate exclamations:

                           §  Whew, it’s finally over.

6.       Commas may come in pairs in order to mark both ends of a “weak interruption”. The content within the commas may be removed, leaving the sentence grammatically correct:

                           §  My husband, after many failed attempts, finally fixed the garbage disposal.

SEMICOLON (;)

Usage

1.       Placed between two related sentences without a conjunction and where a comma would be ungrammatical (comma splice):

                           §  I begin all my projects late; it prepares me for sleepless nights in college.

2.       To restore order when many commas threaten the clarity of the sentence:

                           §  There are representatives from New York, New York; Los Angeles, California; and Atlanta, Georgia.

3.       To join using words such as “however” and “moreover”:

                           §  Janice has decided to be a vegetarian; therefore, she declined the invitation to the barbecue.

COLON (:)

Usage

The colon is primarily used when the preceding statement announces that something is to come. The promised goods are then delivered following the colon.

It can be used when the second sentence reaffirms or explains the first. (as when “that is,” is used)

 

1.       To start lists (especially those using semicolons).

2.       Separate book and film subtitles from the titles.

3.       Separate characters from dialogue

EXCLAMATION MARK (!)

Used to show emphasis or surprised

Usage

1.       To salute or invoke

2.       To exclaim

3.       For drama

4.       To add emphasis

Note: Overuse of the exclamation mark shows signs of a reader desperate to make their work more interesting.

QUESTION MARK (?)

Usage

1.       Used after a direct question:

                           §  How are you fairing?

                           §  Am I doing it incorrectly?

The same applies if the direct question is inside quotation marks:

                           §  “How are you fairing?” he inquired

2.       If the question is indirect, a quotation mark is not needed:

                           §  I asked him how he was fairing.

ITALICS

Usage

1.       Titles of books, newspapers, albums and films

2.       To emphasize certain words

3.       Foreign words or phrases

4.       To mark examples when writing about language

QUOTATION MARKS (“”)

Usage

Used to mark speech. Single quotations (‘’) within quotations are used to mark speech within speech.

                           §  “Now, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.” She instructed

                           §  Sarah complained, “She had the nerve to tell me ‘later mom’ and wave her hand at me.”

THE DASH (­­–) AND THE HYPHEN (-)

Usage

The dash is primarily used to mark strong interruptions which connects or separates phrases and sentences. This can be used to add emphasis or note a change of thought.

                           §  She was the perfect woman – in her opinion, that is.

 

Usage

1.       To separate double words, including numbers

                           §  Well-known

                           §  Seventy-five

2.       To link nouns with nouns

                           §  British-American relations

3.      Normally, the entirety of the word represen-

         tatives would be forced onto the next line.

4.       Prefixes such as “pro” require hyphens

5.       To indicate that words are to be spelled out letter by letter.

                           §  Cow, spelled C-O-W

6.       To avoid letter collision

                           §  Re-examine

                           §  De-ice

7.       When qualifying a phrase that needs a hyphen

                           §  She was a three- or four-year-old

8.       Avoid confusion when prefixes cause pre-existing words to be formed

                           §  Re-formed

BRACKETS

Usage

1.       Parentheses “()” are used to add information or to explain. They are also used for authorial asides.

                           §  Octavia Butler (1947 – 2006) was the author of the science fiction novel Kindred.

2.       Brackets “[]” are used to clarify a direct quote and can even replace text within.

                           §  When sent to deliver the letter [the queen], he refused.

 

Note: sic in brackets is used to note that the error was made by the original writer or speaker.

3.       Brace Brackets “{}” are used in mathematics

4.       Angle Brackets “<>” are used in various fields.

ELLIPSIS (…)

Usage

1.       To trail off interestingly

2.       To indicate that there are words missing from quoted text

                           §  “Normally…the word representatives would be forced onto the next line.”