1. PUNCTUATION THE MOST IMPORTANT MARKS OF PUNCTUATION ARE:. PERIOD (FULL STOP) ? QUESTION MARK ! EXCLAMATION POINT -- DASH - HYPHEN ‘ APOSTROPHE, COMMA ; SEMICOLON : COLON “” DOUBLE QUOTATION MARKS ‘’ SINGLE QUOTATION MARKS () PARENTHESES [] BRACKETS

2. Quotation Marks, Apostrophes, and Parenthesis

3. QUOTATION MARKS 1) TO ENCLOSE EVERY DIRECT QUOTATION AND EACH PART OF AN INTERRUPTED QUOTATION: e.g. “What will my starting salary be?” I asked the manager. “Well,” he replied, “I’m not sure.” “Well,” he replied, “I’m not sure.” 2) IN A DIALOGUE USE A SEPARATE PARAGRAPH FOR EACH CHANGE OF SPEAKER: e.g. “Dad,” cried Neil. “There, there, it’s going to be just fine,” his father said. “There, there, it’s going to be just fine,” his father said. 3) TO ENCLOSE WORDS WITH A WIDELY DIFFERENT LEVEL OF USAGE: e.g. The person who has “had it” so far is Saddam. 4) TO ENCLOSE CHAPTER HEADINGS AND THE TITLES OF ARTICLES: e.g. Grant Wood’s famed painting, “American Gothic,” was recently reproduced in American Heritage. 5) USE SINGLE QUOTATION MARKS TO ENCLOSE A QUOTATION WITHIN A QUOTATION: e.g. The coach said, ”When you say, ‘I’ll be there on time,’ I expect you to mean what you say.”

4. QUOTATION MARKS (cont.) PLACE QUOTATION MARKS CORRECTLY WITH REFERENCE TO OTHER MARKS!!! 1) THE COMMA AND THE PERIOD ALWAYS COME INSIDE QUOTATION MARKS. 2) A QUESTION MARK, EXCLAMATION POINT, OR DASH COMES OUTSIDE QUOTATION MARKS UNLESS IT IS PART OF THE QUOTATION. 3) THE SEMICOLON AND COLON COME OUTSIDE QUOTATION MARKS.

5. THE APOSTROPHE HAS THREE USES: 1) TO FORM THE POSSESSIVE CASE OF NOUNS AND PRONOUNS 2) TO INDICATE OMISSION OF A LETTER FROM WORDS OR A FIGURE FROM NUMERALS 3) TO INDICATE THE PLURALS OF LETTERS, NUMERALS, SYMBOLS, ABBREVIATIONS. USE THE APOSTROPHE 1) ADD S TO FORM THE POSSESSIVE CASE OF A NOUN NOT ENDING IN S: e.g. children’s; town’s 2) TO FORM THE POSSESSIVE CASE OF A PLURAL NOUN ENDING IN S: e.g. boys’; ladies’ 3) ALONE OR WITH S TO FORM THE POSSESSIVE OF NOUNS ENDING IS S: e.g. Robert Burns’ /Burns’s; (RULE: WORDS OF ONE SYLLABLE) 4) ADD S IN THE LAST ELEMENT OF COMPOUND NOUNS: e.g. my son-in-law’s boat; King Henry IV’s funeral; somebody else’s ticket 5) TO SHOW THAT LETTERS OF FIGURES HAVE BEEN OMITTED (taken out): e.g. aren’t; shouldn’t; The Civil War was fought 1861-’65.

6. Punctuation: Parentheses ( )  Parentheses always come in pairs. They often enclose a bit of information that may not be directly related to the main sentence.  Example: My Language Arts class (the busiest place on Earth) has a lot of homework.  Example: Taking good notes (which is a valuable tool) is completely up to each student.