Correct PunctuationCorrect punctuation helps writers get their message across clearly and accurately. Punctuation marks show breaks and pauses between clauses, phrases, and even words. We use a comma to separate parts of a sentence, almost like a pause in speech. “The girl was walking down the street when she discovered that, to her surprise, she was lost.” The comma is also used when separating ideas in a sentence or between lists of words. In “I bought several books, magazines, and newspapers this morning,” the enumerated words are all nouns. We also use commas to separate two independent clauses, if there is a coordinating conjunction after the punctuation, as in,“I hate hiking, but I love gardening.” The colon can introduce enumerated items, or in other cases, appositives in the sentence, “I like doing three things: writing stories, reading novels, and watching movies.” A similar punctuation would be the hyphen, which also has the same function. We use colons to introduce lists, such as, “She could only find four things she needed at the store: eggs, flour, bread, and milk.” We use a colon before a quote, as in, “As Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.” It is also used to introduce a summary, as in, “To summarize: Shakespeare’s sonnets provide an element of timelessness and were written beyond space and time." The semi-colon is used to separate two independent clauses that are not joined by a coordinating conjunction in one sentence. The independent clauses must be related in meaning. In “I would like to go; however, I am very tired,” the two clauses are separated by a semi-colon, indicating that there is still continuity in the sentence. We also use semi-colons to separate items in a list that contain commas, as in, “I buy large, green cucumbers; a pound of fresh greens, preferably beans; and a half-pound of cherry tomatoes.” When we omit part of a sentence, we use an ellipsis or three dots (…). We use the apostrophe to indicate the possessive form of a noun or pronoun, as in “Those grocery bags are Jane’s.” For pronouns, only the indefinite pronoun one requires an apostrophe when used in the possessive form, as in “One’s goals are very important.” Other pronouns, such as his, hers, or theirs, do not require an apostrophe to indicate possession. Another use would be in contractions, or the shortened form of words—will not is changed to won’t; do not is changed to don’t, among others. Keep in mind that it’s not possessive, but a shortened form of it is. The period is the simplest of all punctuation marks because it has no other use but to end a sentence. Never use periods in fragments as these have no complete thought. Exclamation Point and Question Mark We use exclamation points to emphasize a feeling. It is commonly used in dialogue, especially when one wants express extreme emotion, as in the sentence “Look out!” which triggers a feeling of fear or surprise. Another similar punctuation is the question mark, which we use only in interrogative sentences. Correct punctuation helps facilitate good writing skills and helps readers understand written communication.
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