Punctuation

Other Punctuation Do’s & Don’ts In addition to our favorite punctuation mark, the comma, other pieces of punctuation can make or break a sentence. When reading your work and consider each element separately. Then review it in conjunction with a second piece of punctuation, then judge how you have used it correctly or incorrectly: Examples: __ Dialogue __ – Mary said, “I wish the exam was over.” ( A comma goes BEFORE the quote and a period goes INSIDE the quotation) “I wish the exam was over,” said Mary. ( Wow! Change in comma – if you add the speaker to the end of the sentence, the period is replaced by a comma!) “I wish the exam was over!” said Mary. ( Tricky One – now that you have added the exclamation point, you drop the comma altogether) __ Quotes __ – “The exams will be over at 12:08 on Tuesday” (Steffner 1). ( Let’s pretend this was said in an email – you will close the quotation, THEN add the citation material with the page number after the quote ADD the period after the citation. ) __ Phrase or Idiom __ – It’ll be “hard as a rock” to pass the exams without studying. ( The expression is a cliché or idiom – you should off set it with quotes.) __ Titles __ – “The Most Dangerous Game” (Quotation marks are used to highlight the name of articles, poems, song titles, essays and short stories – they should NOT be used for novellas, novels, plays, and movie titles.) __ The Grapes of Wrath __ __Romeo and Juliet__ __Race to Witch Mountain__ * any title that can be __underlined__ can, alternatively, be //italized. //ie//. Romeo and Juliet// Contractions – Can’t Won’t Shouldn’t Possessives - Boy’s Car’s Class’ ( remember with possessives you need to modify the apostrophe when you have a plural noun – in some cases you will change the word, in others the apostrophe will go AFTER the “s” at the end ) There are few days that are more stressful than midterm exam days**;** students and teachers are often anxious for the day to be over. ( both of these sentences COULD stand alone, but since they are connected by the common theme of “exams” they can be joined with a semi-colon)
 * Quotation Marks - ** are used for numerous reasons:
 * Setting off dialogue
 * Identify direct quotes from cited text
 * Add impact to a specific word or phrase (idiom) in a piece of writing
 * Title of Short Stories, Articles
 * Underlining ** – used to highlight the name of a novel, novella, play, movie or non-fiction book.
 * Apostrophes ** – Off set contractions and possessive nouns
 * Semi – Colons ** – Connect two independent sentences that have a similar theme or connection. If you chose to remove the semi-colon, both sentences would be able to stand independently from one another.