Punctuation - Language Notes
CAPITALIZATION is used:
FULL STOP / PERIOD is used:
QUESTION MARK is used:
EXCLAMATION MARK is used:
COMMA is used:
SEMICOLON is used:
COLON is used:
Contributor: Leisa Samuels-Thomas
Cox N, Pettegrew B, McBain R. Grammar and Composition bk.1. Columbus, Ohio: SRA / McGraw-Hill
Schachter, N, Schneiter Williams K. Basic English Review: English the Easy Way. (8th ed.) United States: Thompson South-Western, 2005.
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- At the beginning of a new sentence.
- The pronoun 'I' wherever it appears.
- The names of languages, eg., English.
- Names of specific school courses.
- People's names and titles.
- The names of events in history and periods of history. eg., Dark Ages.
- Brand names of products, but not the common noun that follows the brand name eg., Grace corn beef.
- Names of cities, countries, states, provinces, counties, parishes and continents.
- The words NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, and WEST only when they name a region of a country.
- Names of days, months and holidays.
- Names of ships, planets, monuments and buildings.
- The first word of a direct quotatio.n
- Names of organizations, businesses, institutions and governmental bodies.
- Names of nationalities, races and religions.
FULL STOP / PERIOD is used:
- At the end of an imperative sentence (a command) that does not shoe strong feeling.
- After an abbreviation.
- After initials.
QUESTION MARK is used:
- At the end of an interrogative sentence (a question).
EXCLAMATION MARK is used:
- At the end of an exclamatory sentence (strong feeling).
- At the end of an imperative sentence (command) that shows strong feeling.
COMMA is used:
- Separate items in a series of three or more, place a comma after all but the last item in the list.
- To separate two or more adjectives that come before a noun, if the word and can be inserted between the adjectives if the word and sounds awkward, do not use a comma.
- Separate a street address from the name of a city.
- After the name of a state, province or parish, that occurs in the middle of a sentence.
- Separate the day and year in a date.
- After the year in a date that occurs in the middle of a sentence.
- After the greeting in a friendly and after the closing in all letters
- Before the conjunction that joins the two parts of a compound sentence.
- After the words well, yes, no, why and now when they are used to introduce a sentence.
- To separate transition words or phrases from the rest of the sentence (however, in fact, for example).
SEMICOLON is used:
- To replace a conjunction in a compound sentence, omit the conjunction and replace the comma with the semicolon.
- When one or more items in a series already has a comma, the items from the list should be separated by semicolons.
COLON is used:
- Between the hour and minutes when you write the time in numerals.
- After the greeting of a business letter.
Contributor: Leisa Samuels-Thomas
Cox N, Pettegrew B, McBain R. Grammar and Composition bk.1. Columbus, Ohio: SRA / McGraw-Hill
Schachter, N, Schneiter Williams K. Basic English Review: English the Easy Way. (8th ed.) United States: Thompson South-Western, 2005.
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