OVERVIEW OF PUNCTUATION
Punctuation offers readers road signs on the route of your ideas. They are
the signs that give your readers a chance to stop and take a breath, or to
pause and think. They can be seen as the traffic signs on your thought
tracks.
1. ,
A comma allows readers to pause. It does not join statements.
2. ’
An apostrophe shows possession or contraction.
3. ;
A semicolon is neither a period nor a comma. It comes between
statements that are connected, but complete.
4. :
A colon introduces a useful point already mentioned, or a list already
named.
6. --
A dash indicates a break in thought.
7. - A hyphen connects words to make them function as one. It is used for
compound words, fractions, spelled-out numbers from twenty-one to
ninety-nine, and to separate syllables at the end of a line of print.
8. “ ” Quotation marks are used for quotations. They also indicate titles of
poems, songs, short stories, essays, lectures, or parts of a whole work.
They may also show you are using a word in a particular way, as in the
semicolon is “connected.” Don’t overdo this usage.
9. Commas and periods are placed inside quotation marks. Colons and
semicolons are placed outside quotation marks.
Question marks and exclamation marks are placed inside or outside
quotation marks, depending on whether they are part of the quoted
statement or not.
10. Italics are used to set off titles of books, magazines, movies,
newspapers, miniseries, foreign words, or anything that needs emphasis.
In handwriting, all the titles mentioned above are usually underlined.
Underline these titles if your teacher asks you to do so.
11. ( ) Parentheses (round brackets) enclose additional, supplementary
material that could be omitted. The material enclosed will be nonessential, but explanatory.
12. …An ellipsis (three dots) shows that material has been omitted or
indicates a hesitant pause . . . in other words, some uncertainty.