Punctuation - Language Notes

CAPITALIZATION is used:
  • 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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