Miscellaneous Punctuation Marks English IV

Quotes within quotes If you must quote someone within another set of quotation marks, use a single set of quotes [‘’] to set off the quote. “He kept shouting, ‘Hand over the money!’” the frightened patron said. His mother said, “You’re the one who said, ‘Extra pickles,’ when she took your order.”

Parentheses Within a sentence, use parentheses to enclose supplemental material, minor digressions, and afterthoughts. After taking her vital signs (temperature, pulse, and blood pressure), the nurse made Becky comfortable. Robert Frost (“The Road Not Taken”) remains my favorite poet. The 12-string guitar (my favorite instrument!) is popular with blues and folk musicians. The puppies (six in all) are now for sale. My grandfather (1931-1992) was a lifelong farmer.

Punctuation within Parentheses If a complete sentence is placed within parentheses, punctuate it accordingly. My favorite Tom Waits album is Small Change. (Most of his fans would disagree with me.) If the expression in parentheses interrupts a complete sentence, only add end marks for emphasis. Daniel Day-Lewis (an extraordinary actor!) has not appeared on screen since 2012’s Lincoln.

Parentheses and Dashes Do not include information in parentheses that is necessary for the grammatical integrity of the sentence. The president (and his assistant) were expected to arrive by private jet. Sentences almost always read more gracefully without parentheses, so only use them when necessary. Dashes serve a similar function and are easier to read, so make use of these instead when possible. Her eleventh child—can you believe that?—is named Alfred.

brackets If parentheses are cited within a direct quotation, use brackets in place of parentheses. “Those last 12 awards [his Grammys] didn’t really mean that much to me,” Elton John said last month. “Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel [Superman’s creators] were poorly treated by DC Comics for many years,” Eisner said. Brackets are also used for the Latin word sic, which indicates that an error in quoted material should remain for the sake of authenticity. “That old tractor don’t never [sic] run,” the farmer said.

Semicolons Semicolons have two uses. 1. Use a semicolon to join two independent clauses when not using a coordinating conjunction for that purpose. The clauses must also be related in meaning. The ice cream man drove by my house today; he was out of dipped cones. My eighty-one-year-old grandmother still rides her Harley motorcycle; her toy poodle balances in a basket between the handlebars. My favorite Italian restaurant is Olive Garden; however, my wife prefers Gondolier.

Semicolons 2. Semicolons are also used to divide separate items in a series that each contain their own punctuation. Classic science fiction sagas are Star Trek, with Mr. Spock and his large pointed ears; Battlestar Galactica, with its Cylons; and Star Wars, with Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and Darth Vader. I’ve ridden my motorcycle in Anchorage, Alaska; San Francisco, California; and Tijuana, Mexico. Present for the lecture were Bob, a man from Bowling Green; Steve, from London, England; and Tanya, from Nashville, Tennessee.

What’s wrong here? The cow is overweight; but that’s not unusual. Our tour will take us to Las Vegas, Nevada, San Diego, California, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington. The media loves to claim teenagers are lazy, however, many statistics show that your generation works harder than your parents did.

Colons The primary use of a colon is to call attention to words that follow an independent clause. These include… Lists: The routine includes the following: twenty knee bends, fifty leg lifts, and five minutes of running in place. Appositives: My roommate is guilty of two of the seven deadly sins: gluttony and sloth. A quotation: Consider the words of Ben Franklin: “There never was a good war or a bad peace.”

Colons Colons also have other conventional uses. To separate chapter and verse when quoting the Bible: Micah 6:7 After the salutation in a formal letter - Dear Sir or Madam: To indicate hours and minutes - 5:30 p.m. In ratios – The ratio of men to women in this class is 2:1. Between a title and subtitle – Avengers: Age of Ultron; The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring To separate city and publisher in a Works Cited entry - Boston: Bedford, 2007