Just An Idea [Writing Tips]

Punctuation Marks

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There are 14 punctuation marks in the English language.

The period, question mark, exclamation point, comma, semicolon, colon, dash, hyphen, parentheses, brackets, braces, apostrophe, quotation marks, and ellipsis.

Bet you didn't count those on your keyboard, did you? If you did you would know what they all look like. Let's divide them and take three at a time. First off, apostrophe, quotation marks, and ellipsis.

An apostrophe (') is used to indicate the omission of a letter or letters from a word, the possessive case, or the plurals of lowercase letters.

Omission of letters: I've, She'd, They're

Possessive: Gabe's hair, Carla's dog

Plurals of lowercase letters: They were told to mind their p's and q's.

Quotation marks (" ") are a pair of punctuation marks used primarily to mark the beginning and end of a passage attributed to another and repeated word for word.
Single quotation marks (' ') are used most frequently for quotes within quotes.

The ellipsis (...) is used in writing or printing to indicate an omission, especially of letters or words. Ellipses are frequently used within quotes to jump from one phrase to another, skipping unnecessary words that do not interfere with the meaning.

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Now, did you know that 3 out of the 14 punctuation marks are used to end a sentence?

The period (.) is used at the end of a complete sentence, statement or after an abbreviation. (Mrs.
Jr.
Oct.)

The question mark (?) is to indicate a direct question.

The exclamation mark (!) is used to express a sudden outcry, exclamation, shout or add emphasis.

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Brackets, braces, and parentheses are symbols used to contain words that are a further explanation or are considered a group.

[Brackets] are used for technical explanations or to clarify meaning.

{Braces} are used to contain two or more lines of text or listed items to show that they are considered one unit. They are not common in writing but can be seen in computer programming to show what should be contained within the same lines. They can also be used in mathematics.

(Parentheses) are used to contain further thoughts or remarks. They can also be replaced by commas.

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The comma, semicolon, and colon are often misused because they can all indicate a pause in sentences.

The comma (,) is used to show a separation of ideas or elements in a sentence; the separation of two complete sentences or a list within the sentence.

The semicolon (;) is used to connect independent clauses. It shows a closer relationship between the clauses than the period would. Example: David was crying; he never knew how cruel she was.

The colon (:) has three uses. The first is the introduction of a quote, an explanation, an example, or a series.

The second is between independent clauses when the second explains the first, similar to a semicolon.

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Other common punctuation marks are the dash and hyphen. These marks are often confused with each other due to their appearance but they are very different.

A hyphen (-) is used to join two or more words together into a compound term and is not separated by spaces. For example, part-time, back-to-back, well-known.

A dash is used to separate words into statements. There are two common types of dashes:

En dash: Twice as long as a hyphen, the en dash is a symbol (--) that is used in writing or printing to indicate a range, connection or differentiation, such as 1880-1945.

Em dash: It (---) can be used in place of a comma, parenthesis, or colon to enhance readability or emphasize the conclusion of a sentence.
The third use of a colon is for emphasis.

And that's it, all 14.