Your Mission: To Study the Colon To Study the Dash To Study the Hyphen To Study Brackets

colon : Rule 1:Introduce a List. Example: Bring the following : forks, knives, and spoons.

colon : Rule 2:Introduce a Second Main Clause Which Explains the First. Example: Her excuse is valid : she does not have transportation.

colon : Rule 3:Emphasize a Following Appositive. Example: He had only one motive : love.

Dash -- Rule 1:Set Off a Parenthetical (information in between) Element. Example: He told her — believe it or not — to leave.

Dash -- Rule 2:Emphasize an Appositive. Example: English, history, and science — all are required.

Hyphen - Rule 1:Join Compound Words Functioning as a Single Unit. Example: May I introduce my mother - in - law? Donny has a better - late - than - never disposition. NOTE: The hyphen is shorter than the dash.

Hyphen - Rule 2:Join Fractions and Compound Numbers from 21 to 99. Example: He gave me two - thirds of his pay check. Nathan is twenty - one years old today.

Hyphen - Rule 3:Use with Prefixes Ex- and Self-. Example: Mr. McCaslin is the ex - president of the company. Self - denial builds character.

Brackets [ ] YOU HAVE NO TIME in timed writing to copy unnecessary words, so leave them out! Use a bracket […] to show your deletions.

… "Rome had several mad emperors. [Nero] was the maddest of them all.... Legend has it... he played his harp while the city went up in flames." The 4 th dot after “all” is a period for the end of the sentence. DO NOT leave out a phrase like “legend has it,” because that would change the author’s meaning!

"Rome had several mad emperors. [Nero] was the maddest of them all.... Legend has it... he played his harp [some say he fiddled] while the city went up in flames.“ Notice the brackets to replace “he” with the name. Notice it’s not “He [Nero] was…” Notice the brackets to make an inserted comment after “harp.” Only do that if it’s really necessary and will save you time later.