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illuminara — Punctuation Basics
Published: 2008-03-15 04:41:33 +0000 UTC; Views: 9946; Favourites: 177; Downloads: 84
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Writing is like math. If you don’t follow the right formula, you end up in a state of mass confusion. Synonymously, punctuation is like following a map. If you miss the street signs, you’ll end up completely lost. The following is a list of common English punctuation marks and their most basic functions. Contrary to popular belief, there are no exceptions to these rules. Breaking them has never been in style.The most common English punctuation marks include the following:
. = period
? = question mark
! = exclamation point
, = comma
“” = quotation marks
’ = apostrophe
; = semicolon
: = colon
- = hyphen
( ) = parentheses
— = dash
. . . = ellipse
Wow, that’s a lot of symbols! So, how do you use them as you write? Here's a quick and dirty list.
1) Every sentence must end in a period, question mark, or exclamation point.
2) A comma signifies a pause, distinguishes between objects in a list, sets off addresses and interruptions, separate adjectives, etc.
3) All dialog must be enclosed in “quotation marks.”
4) Contractions and possession are expressed with an apostrophe.
5) A semicolon combines two complete sentences without the aid of a conjunction such as and, but, or, so, etc.
6) A colon sets off a list or independent clause, but only if the introduction before the colon is, in itself, independent. Examples:
List: Sam brought the following things on his camping trip: fishing poles, tackle, minnows, his inflatable raft, and flippers.
Introduction: This is what Sam said upon arriving home: “I would've caught a huge fish if a snapping turtle hadn’t eaten it first!”
7) Hyphens combine two words into one often in order to create an adjective such as "bear-like."
8) Parentheses enclose additional information that is not imperative to the sentence's meaning (you know, like this).
9) A dash is used in a similar manner as parentheses but is not as disruptive to flow. They can also set of a list and take the place of a comma, colon, or ellipse. They may also symbolize an interruption or insertion of new information.
10) An ellipse shows a pause or passage of time:
“James . . . are you there?”
It can also represent a lingering question:
Could he protect her from what he feared the most? Only time would tell . . .
Oh, and one more thing. Quotation marks contain their own punctuation and capitalization. Parentheses do not. Example:
Tyler asked, “Did you take my book?”
Of course I hadn’t (but I had seen it under the couch).
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Comments: 73
Yeah, I see that kind of stuff all the time, too. It's really frustrating. I guess everyone just slept through English class and are too lazy to actually look up the rules (which I'd like to point out is INCREDIBLY easy; it's called Google).
Anyhow, I've been thinking I should expand on this for a while, but I still haven't gotten around to it. 
But yeah, there are tons of websites that show you how to punctuate everything. Not to mention books. Does anyone use the library anymore? I don't know. I just get frustrated with people who want to be writers but don't take the time to learn the basics for themselves. How do they think I learned it? There aren't any shortcuts.
Haha, sorry for ranting. I'm glad you like this! And I really DO need to update it . . .
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Congratulations! This deviation has been featured in our 
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I have read awkward stories before in the past, where they express dreams and/or flash back dialog with apostrophes. I personally prefer quotation marks above all else. If there was an emote for me to express how pleasant it was to read this, well, I'd use it. 
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Wow, yeah, that is awkward. It doesn't matter if it's a flashback or not, you still have to use regular quotation marks. You can show that it's a flashback or dream other ways, like giving it its scene or just outright saying it's a flashblack. 
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No complaints. 
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Haha, yeah, I think it's sadly quite common among most all creative people.
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This is great! I think it will be helpful to refer to in the future. I forget some little things here and there sometimes.
Though some more examples might better it as well!
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Thanks! And yeah, I think I'm going to update this with some more examples.
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Thanks so much for the helpful tips, can you explain semicolons a little more though, I never did understand them that much. I don't understand how you can use them instead of but, or and etc. I know that in some cases word processor programs automatically fix sentences for you but i can never understand why it changes certain thins to semi colons and not others
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I'm glad you found them helpful! As for semicolons, they're actually pretty easy once you understand them. First, you have to understand basic sentence structure.
A complete, simple sentence, in its most basic form, consists of a subject and a verb. Example: Jim ran. Jim is the subject (noun--person, place, or thing), and ran is the verb (the action taken by the subject).
A compound sentence contains two simple sentences i.e. two subjects and two verbs that are combined by a conjunction (such as the word "and" or "but") and a comma. Example: Jim ran, and Jim danced. Because you have BOTH a subject AND a verb on both sides of the conjunction, you MUST use a comma to separate the two. Now here's where semicolons come in.
If you have a compound sentence WITHOUT a conjunction, you need a semicolon to connect them. Example: Jim ran; jim danced. This is a very basic example, but the concept applies to any and every compound sentence. Here are some more examples:
With a conjunction: Beth wanted to visit her friend in France, but she could not afford the plane ticket.
With a semicolon: Beth wanted to visit her friend in France; she could not afford the plane ticket.
You can see that there is a subject and verb on both sides of the punctuation in each of these sentences, making them compound. You could also turn them into two separate sentences if you didn't want to use punctuation. Example: Beth knew she wanted to be a designer when she grew up. Her father would never approve.
Using either a comma and conjunction or a semicolon is correct when writing a compound sentence, but using a comma and conjunction is much more common. Most people only use a semicolon to make a stylistic statement or when they want to put a specific emphasis on combining two ideas.
I hope that answers your question!
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Thanks, yep it did, you made it a whole lot clearer, I actually only got introduced to semicolons very recently and was confused about when to use them. I thought there were specific rules as to where you used them but it seems you can choose to use them or not. But these only work on shorter sentences right?
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Glad it helped! There are specific rules of how to use semicolons, but there are no rules as when you should or shouldn't use them. It's personal choice. You can use them on any compound sentence whether it's short or long, though most of the time they tend to be used in long sentences.
Also, there are a few other ways you can use semicolons, but they're really complicated and rare. You don't need to learn about them unless you're a punctuation Nazi (like me).
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One last question. Could you use a semicolon before the word "because" or does that sort of defeat its purpose
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I know! What I really hate is all the terminology. Can't they make it easier to remember? >.>
Well, not with the word because, but you would use it with words called conjunctive adverbs. Here's a link that explains pretty well: [link]
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I'm sure at one point it was easier, then people just kept discovering or making up new words for things
oh thanks i needed some of those, I'm stuck using the same words over and over again
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This is a great little guide, very useful.
I'd suggest though that you just clarify 4) slightly by giving examples as to what "contractions" and "possession" mean.
Thanks for sharing this! Would you mind if I submit it to my group in the near future? We're collecting good writing guides.
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Thanks!
Yeah, I should put a couple of examples in there.
Sure, go right ahead!
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I love all your tutorials, they explain a lot of the subject you're talking about and they're also very easy to follow. Good job, illuminara, you're awe-inspiring.
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These rules don't always apply to poetry, right?
'Cause a lot of my poems aren't completely grammatically correct when it comes to ending thoughts and sentences (sometimes I just use a line break), lists (sometimes instead of commas I (again) just put a line break, or, even worse, let it run on), dialogue (I often italisize instead of using quotation marks), and hyphens (I combine words that maybe weren't meant to be combined).
I follow the common-sense rules of apostrophes and proper spelling (usually), but the others aren't followed always exactly to the book.
Thoughts?
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When it comes to poetry, I have no idea what the rules are. I've never really understood or liked poetry, so I'm definitely the wrong person to ask. As far as I know, there aren't any particular punctuation or grammar rules for free verse poetry. It's probably a good idea to still use commas in a list and quotation marks for dialogue just so you don't confuse people, but the rules aren't set in stone like they are in prose. I'm pretty sure you can get away with whatever you want.
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Finally, a short and precise guide to punctuation! I now understand semicolons, thankyou. btw, I believe what you've called an ellipse is actually an ELLIPSIS
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Glad it helped! And yes, that's what I meant. Dang typos. >.>
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Very helpful, thanks.
PS
If you compare this to basic russian punctuation rules, you will be very glad that you aren't russian.
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I suppose I should be grateful. English punctuation has never been all that hard for me--it's just the grammar that's a pain.
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I;ve written forever . . .and I could always use this as a reference. 8D Thank you!
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You're welcome. Glad you found it useful!
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This is wonderful! At least I understand a little. But there is just one part that I don't understand, maybe a written example might help.
" 4) Contractions and possession are expressed with an apostrophe."
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Let's see here. An apostrophe is this symbol: '
A contraction, in the English language, is when you combine two words into one new world while replacing one or more of the letters with the apostrophe symbol. Some examples would be "I'll" (I will), "you've" (you have), "wouldn't" (would not), etc.
When you use an apostrophe to show possession, it means that the subject owns something. If you say, for example, "That is Jane's dog," you mean that Jane owns the dog; it belongs to her. This is expressed with an apostrophe between "Jane" and the letter "s."
Of course, this gets complicated when the subject itself ends with an "s." If the dog belongs to two girls, you punctuate it by placing the apostrophe after the "s" like this: "That is the girls' dog." If it belongs to only one girl, you say, "That is the girl's dog."
Confusing, I know. If you need more explanation, try looking for some resources online (though I don't trust all of them to be accurate). Better yet, check out your local library (second 428.2) or book store for books on punctuation.
Hope that helps!
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Thank you so much. That helped me! ^^
Especially when it comes to writing (or typing in that matter.)
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An ellipsis typically takes the place of words deleted or not said. It does not take the place of a period, so it may still be followed by other sentence-ending punctuation. Thus at the end of a sentence you might see four periods, (an ellipsis plus a period) while at the beginning or middle of a sentence you will see only three (just the ellipsis).
"Are you going to...?"
"I really hate it when you...."
"...finish your sentences?"
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The only time I've ever seen an ellipsis with a period is in a quotation where the ellipsis appears after a complete sentence ending in a period, thus indicated that an entire sentence (or multiple sentences) has been removed from a quotation.
When an ellipsis is used to indicated that a person's speech is trailing off, you do not typically see an additional ending period. At least it's not done in any published writing I've ever seen. I have seen other terminal marks after an ellipsis, just not a period.
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My Random House College Dictionary has a Style section in the back, and the section of that on Ellipsis reads:
ELLIPSIS (... or ....)
Use an Ellipsis mark (three or four consecutive periods) to indicate that part of a quoted sentence has been omitted.
1. If the omission occurs at the beginning or in the middle of the sentence, use three periods in the ellipsis.
2 If the last part of the sentence is omitted, or if entire sentences are omitted, add a fourth period to the ellipsis to mark the end of the sentence.
Now then, this edition was published in 1973, so perhaps with the advent of a Unicode character that forms a three period ellipsis, someone has decided that the rules have changed, but that's how I learned it. And it's only logical if ...? and ...! are valid as you say. And a person trailing off certainly is omitting the end of their sentence.
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Hmmm. Well maybe it's more common to see in technical writing than in modern fiction? I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying I've yet to see it in print.
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I've seen it that way before, and it's actually grammatically correct to put punctuation on an ellipses if it's ending a statement....
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Isn't it an oxymoron to end a statement with an ellipses?
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Maybe! (You know what I meant.)
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Is there a difference between vertical and slanted quotation marks ("" and “”
By the way, you accidentally missed out a space in the last line.
Your guides are all very clear and helpful.
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The only difference between straight and slanted quotation marks is the coding. Online, they're always straight unless you use a special code to make them slanted, but in Word (and most other word processing programs), they're automatically corrected to be on a slant. Technically, they should be slanted, at least if you're writing an official manuscript that you're going to send to an editor.
Also, you should always use double quotation marks. The only time you should EVER use single quotation marks is for quotations within a quotation, like this:
"Can you believe he said, 'Get out of my face or I'll punch you'?" I asked.
I honestly don't know why so many writers online only use single quotation marks. You won't find it taught in any punctuation or style book, that's for sure.
Missed a space? I'll have to go look . . .
Thanks! Glad you like them.
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Oh, thanks for that information! I always do use double and single quotation marks the way you said, because I was taught that way, but in books like Harry Potter they're used in reverse. That annoys me a little because it's backwards to how I knew it.
(:
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Yeah, I'm not really sure why it's done that way sometimes. Maybe only in really long books when the publisher wants to conserve paper and ink? I don't know . . .
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Oh, that kinda makes sense...but is a little bit silly!
Ellipses irritate me, because I know I should space them out, but I don't like doing it.
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Yeah, I honestly have no idea what the real reason is. I should try to find out sometime . . .
The most annoying thing about ellipses is that Word (as well as other programs and web browsers) doesn't keep them together. No, I do not want two dots on one line and the third dot on the next. >.>
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Ha-ha. My version of Word has some AutoCorrect thing that puts them together after you've typed them (but only if there are no spaces in between them, which come to think of it probably why I use them the way I do).
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Yeah, I hate that (and some other auto correct things Word does), so I go through and turn a bunch of stuff off.
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Good idea. I hate most of the Auto-Correct functions because I usually intend to do stuff like leave a letter at the start of a line uncapitalised, (yay, non-existent word) for instance if I'm writing poetry or something. Word just generally annoys me though. ^^
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