Punctuation

1. Punctuation

2. Periods • At the end of declarative and some imperative sentences. • Abbreviations • Mr. • Co. • Rd. • A.M.

3. End Marks • An interrogative sentence (asks a question) ends with a question mark (?). • An exclamatory sentence (shows strong emotion) ends with an exclamation point (!).

4. Commas • Items in a series • The little boys ran, jumped, and skipped. • Exception: Tyrone and Earlene and Lily won awards for their sculptures. • Interjections • Oh, I understand now. • Wow, what a beautiful rainbow it is! • Introductory phrases or clauses • In the light of the moon, the flowers opened. • Exception: In the light of the moon opened the flowers.

5. Commas • Nouns of direct address • David, do you have a ruler? • Interrupters • Yesterday, on the other hand, was a more productive day. • He was, I believe, an amateur swimmer.

6. Commas • Appositives – nouns or noun phrases that rename the noun they follow • Vanessa, my favorite cousin, likes to surf. • Exception: • If an appositive is necessary, it does not need commas • My favorite cousin Vanessa likes to surf.

7. Commas • Dates • On December 14, 1819, Alabama was admitted as the twenty-second state of the union. • The Revolutionary War started in April 1775 in the colonial town of Lexington. • Addresses • Mobile, Alabama, is found on the Gulf of Mexico. • His mailing address is P.O. Box 1478, San Jose, California 95103.

8. Commas • Two or more adjectives preceding a noun • I have had a long, hectic, tiring day.

9. Commas & Quotation Marks • Direct Quotes • Will said, “I want some ice cream.” • “I want some ice cream,” Will said. • “Do you want some ice cream?” Will asked. • “After we bought ice cream,” Will said, “we decided we did not want it.”

10. Quotation Marks • Use single quotation marks to enclose a quotation within a quotation. • The teacher requested, “Jorge, please explain what Emerson meant when he said, ‘To be great is to be misunderstood.’”

11. Quotation Marks • Use quotation marks to enclose slang words, invented words, technical terms, and dictionary definitions of words. • She described the Halloween festival as “spooktacular.”

12. Possessive nouns girl’s dresses boys’ games Baldwin’s and Ellison’s writings Roz and Denise’s idea Contractions don’t = do not let’s = let us ’11 = 2011 Plurals There are two r’s and two s’s in embarrassed. After the happy couple said their I do’s, everyone cheered. Apostrophe

13. Colon • Used to introduce a list • I requested the following: your name, your address, and your telephone number. • Do NOT use a colon after a verb or a preposition. • Our toolbox contains a hammer, a wrench, and a chisel.

14. Colon • Use before a long, formal statement or quotation • Use between chapter and verse in Bible passages • Time • After the salutation of a business letter • To Whom It May Concern:

15. Dashes • Use a dash to indicate an abrupt break in thought. • The poor condition of the road—it really needs to be paved—makes this route unpopular. • Use a dash to mean namely, in other words, that is, and similar expressions that come before an explanation. • Amanda joined the chorus for only one reason—she loves to sing.

16. Parentheses • Use parenthesis to enclose information or explanatory material of minor importance • A roman a clef (literally, “novel with a key”) is a novel about real people to whom the novelist has assigned fictitious names.

17. Brackets • Use brackets to enclose explanation within quoted or parenthetical material. • The newspaper article stated, “At the time of that Democratic National Convention [in Chicago in 1968] there were many protest groups operating in the United States.” • I think that Hilda Doolittle (more commonly known as H.D. [1886-1961]) is best remembered for her Imagist poetry.

18. Ellipsis Points • Use ellipsis points (. . .) to mark omissions from quoted material and pauses in a written passage. • In his autobiography, Tough Trip Through Paradise, Andrew Garcia reflects, “Sitting here tonight, . . . I think about those faces that pass before my eyes like it was yesterday.”

19. Italics • Use italics (underlining) for words, letters, and symbols referred to as such and for foreign words. • Should the use of their for there be considered a spelling error or a usage error? • Some U.S. coins were stamped with the inscription E pluribus unum.

20. Titles • Types of titles to underline or italicize: • Books • Newspapers • Television programs • Magazines • Movies • Plays • Ships, airplanes, spacecraft • Works of art • Long musical compositions

21. Titles • Types of titles that use quotation marks: • Short stories • Poems • Songs • Chapters • Newspaper & magazine articles

22. Use a hyphen with compound numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine and with fractions used as modifiers. a three-fourths vote Exception: three fourths of the audience Use a hyphen with the prefixes ex-, self-, and all-, with the suffix –elect, and with prefixes before a proper noun or proper adjective. ex-mayor all-star pre-Civil War Hyphens

23. Hyphens • Hyphenate a compound adjective when it precedes a noun it modifies. • a well-designed engine • a world-famous skier

24. The Sentence and Punctuation

25. Types of Sentences • Declarative sentence – makes a statement and ends with a period • Interrogative sentence – asks a questions and ends with a question mark • Exclamatory sentence – makes a strong statement and ends with an exclamation point • Imperative sentence – makes a request or gives a command and usually ends with a period

26. The Sentence • A complete sentence expresses a complete thought and contains a subject and a verb. • Sentence errors • Fragment • The weatherman on television. • Run-on • The weatherman gave his forecast he predicted snow. • Comma Splice • The weatherman gave his forecast, he predicted snow.

27. Simple Sentence • Simple sentence is one main clause; only one complete thought. • Carlos and Callie search for a car. • They visited car lots and checked the Internet.

28. Compound Sentence • Compound sentence has two or more clauses • Can be joined by a semi-colon, a comma and a conjunction, or a semi-colon and a conjunctive adverb • Carlos looked for a car; Callie stayed at home. • Carlos wanted a Toyota, but Callie preferred a Mazda. • Carlos visited the car lots; however, Callie searched the Internet.

29. Complex Sentence • Complex sentence = a main (independent) clause + one or more subordinate (dependent) clause • The girl who raised her hand had red hair. • While the ship docked, we talked on the beach. • The person who I admire the most is my father.

30. Essential vs. Nonessential Clauses • Place commas around clauses that are nonessential – information that is not needed to understand the main idea of the sentence. • Emma, who lives across the street from me, won a scholarship to Stanford University. • Two poems written by Lorna Dee Cervantes are included in our literature book.

31. Introductory Phrases & Clauses • Place commas after introductory dependent clauses or phrases • Although it rained, I walked home. • When the bell rang, the students left. • Born in July, Lashondra was older than her cousin.

32. Complex Items in a Series • Ryan, my best friend; Craig, my next door neighbor; and Lad, my brother, met after school. • We traveled to Chattanooga, Tennessee; Huntsville, Alabama; Atlanta, Georgia; and Orlando, Florida.

33. Parallel Sentences • Parallel structure means using like grammatical parts to emphasize a similarities of ideas. • The man was old, lonely, and a miser. • The man was old, lonely, and miserly.

34. Parallel Sentences • The model learned to speak well, walking with poise, and that she must apply makeup correctly. • The model learned to speak well, to walk with poise, and to apply makeup correctly. • He was a professional baseball player and also played the violin. • He played professional baseball and also the violin.

35. Parallel Sentences • We needed either to correct the mistake or we should start over. • We needed either to correct the mistake or to start over.