Punctuation Pay attention!!!

Period What does it make your voice do? STOP and take a breath What is it used for? To end a sentence/thought

Question mark What does it do to your voice? It makes it go high pitch at the end What does it do? You should know 

Exclamation point What does it do to your voice? It makes it go up in pitch and volume What does it do? It shows emotions

comma (This is what we humans usually struggle with…) What does it do to our voice? Pauses for a short breath What do we use it for? Dates Lists City, State Letter writing Connect two short sentences BEFORE the word “but”

Quotation marks What does it make your voice do? Take on the characters voice What is it used for? To show that a character/someone is talking To cite evidence straight from a text To show that those words are not yours/to give credit

Examples Miss E. exclaimed to her class, “Stop messing around!” According to the LA Times, “80,000 residents evacuated the area due to the Thomas fire.”

Apostrophe What does it make your voice do? nothing What is it used for? To combine two words (aka: contractions) To show possession

P.S. what are contractions?

examples Kelsey’s blanket was old and raggedy. “It’s tiiime for Dodger baseball!” They’re on the run from the police! That was Zoey’s dog that just ran past us. DO NOT use these with PLURAL nouns

colon What does it make your voice do? Take a short pause (like a comma) What is it used for? Before a list or answer

Semicolon What does it make your voice do? Take a short breath (like a comma) What is it used for? To organize/categorize lists/clauses Two parts of a compound sentence when they are not connected by a conjunction

examples I went to the beach yesterday; I saw exotic fish and dolphins. There were hundreds of students on the first day of high school; many of them used to attend my middle school.