PUNCTUATION MARKS ETC. for Writing References & Citations

Today we will review the pesky little symbols called PUNCTUATION MARKS. We need to use Punctuation Marks correctly when we write References and Citations. Don’t worry; they don’t bite or pinch like a lobster.

Use it after a book title and at the end of a reference. Always put a space after a dot. This is a PERIOD, FULLSTOP or DOT. Let’s start with the easy ones.

This is a COMMA, For example, use a Comma after the author’s name in MLA style. A Comma is used between words to separate them. Always put a space after a comma.

Also a Colon is used after a book title and before a subtitle. Always put a space after a colon. Use a Colon after the city and before the publisher in citations. This is a COLON :

This is a SEMICOLON ; A Semicolon is not used in formatting MLA or APA citations. But, a semicolon might be in text that you are quoting.

Quotes come before and after the borrowed words. They are used to show you are using words from another person. These are QUOTATION MARKS or QUOTES “ … ”

These are PARENTHESIS MARKS ( ……... ) Use them for intext citations. They show something inside something else.

These are SQUARE BRACKETS [ …….… ] Use them to add words to a text. ANGLE BRACKETS look like this Use them for URLs.

This is a SLASH / It leans to the right. Use a Slash in URLs. There is no space after a slash.

A DASH –- is 2 hyphens. Use to divide ideas. This is a HYPHEN – Use a hyphen to divide words.

Use an Elipsis to show that words are missing. An ELIPSIS is three dots...

Use an apostrophe to make noun possessives or a contraction. Sometimes a book title has an apostrophe in it. An APOSTROPHE looks like a comma but it is over a letter. For example it ’ s.

This is an AMPERSAND & It means and. Sometimes book titles use an Ampersand instead of the word and.

An ASTERISK * is like a little star. It is not very common. But a book title may have one. An EXCLAMATION POINT ! indicates surprise or something strong or funny. Some book titles have one. A QUESTION MARK ? indicates a question. Some book titles have one.

ROMAN NUMERALS are sometimes used in book titles. Roman Numerals use the letters X, I, V, C, M, D instead of 1,2,3,4,54,6,7 etc. Sometimes book pages before the main text are written in Roman Numerals.

For example, CEO means Chief Executive Officer. Book titles sometimes use an ACRONYM. This is a word spelled with the first letters of other words.

Be careful with CAPITAL LETTERS in book and article titles. Use a Capital Letter for CONTENT WORDS like nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Do not use Capital Letters for FUNCTION WORDS like articles, conjunctions and prepositions. Ask your English teacher to explain if you have forgotten about these words.

If an father and son have the same name, write Jr. after the son’s name. This means junior. Sometimes an author uses a middle INITIAL. A dot follows the initial. This is the first letter of a name. For example J. for John. Tim J. Smith

INDENT or TAB OVER means to put 5 spaces from the left side of the page. In for the Reference List in MLA, you do not indent the first line of a reference but additional lines are indented. In a long intext citation, you do this.

To learn more about punctuation marks, go to ac.uk/department/docs/punctu ation/node00.html ac.uk/department/docs/punctu ation/node00.html FUN ! ! ! Just kidding.

I hope this helps you understand punctuation marks for writing references. Ask your teacher or your friendly librarian if you have any questions.

Thank you for listening. HAPPY WRITING !