Period, Full Stop

Used to show the ending of a sentence or statement.

Examples:

  • The cat caught a large fish.
  • After a long week, we all deserve a relaxing weekend.

Comma

Examples:

Used to separate items in a series or to pause a sentence in parts where the reader can take a breath.

  • I love puppies, kittens, and rabbits.
  • Rabbits, especially the ones with floppy ears, are another favorite of mine.
  • Charlie, have you ever considered a pet tortoise?

(In this last example, after addressing someone by name, you would put a comma before the rest of the sentence.)

Colon

It is used after a word such as introducing a quotation, an explanation, an example

Examples:

  • He said: “There is no way I am jumping.” (a quotation)
  • I didn’t have time to get my passport: I was already late. (an explanation)
  • You will need to bring three things to the party: some food, something to drink, and an empty stomach! (an example)

For that last sentence, it’s listing out things that are examples of what they are looking for, the colon is almost like a way to say, “such as”.

Semicolon

A semicolon is used to combine two independent sentences together, that share a similar idea.

Examples:

  • Dad is going bald. His hair is getting thinner and thinner.
    • Dad is going bald; his hair is getting thinner and thinner.
  • Let’s go to the library. There are 15 different books I’d like to take out.
    • Let’s go to the library; there are 15 different books I’d like to take out.

Question Mark

Used at the end of a sentence to show that it was a question.

Examples:

  • Where are we planning to go on Friday?
  • What would you like for breakfast?
  • Isn’t she the cutest baby you’ve ever seen?

Exclamation

Used to show that the sentence is expressing intense emotions, whether it be excitement, anger or extreme sadness.

Examples:

  • “AHHHHHHHHH!” She screamed as she saw the spider run from under the cabinets. (fear)
  • I can’t believe you did that! (shock, disbelief, anger)
  • I got into my dream university! (excitement)

Slash

They are commonly used to separate words, lines of poetry, abbreviations, dates, and fractions.

Examples:

  • air conditioning (a/c) – The house was unbearably hot as the a/c was broken. (abbreviation)
  • He ate 1/3 of the pizza. (fraction)
  • The ship allowed women/children to board first before the rest. (used to symbolize and/or)
  • His birthday was on Valentine’s Day, 02/14/1998.

Apostrophe

Often used to indicate the omission of a letter or letters from a word.

Examples:

  • He’s (he is) frustrated with the hospital and their long waiting times. (contractions)
  • They haven’t (have not) put out the list of award winners for this year yet. (contractions)
  • Amy’s car is at the other end of the parking lot. (possessive, used to show ownership)
  • My parents’ house is just around the corner. (when the word is already plural, we will just add the apostrophe at the end of the word, without the addition of an ‘s’ to make it a possessive. We will go into a bit more detail about this in the next class about possessives.)

Ellipsis

To show that one or more words have been intentionally left out. Often is used in fictional written, informal pieces and news articles.

Examples:

  • To be continued… (used to show when dialogue trails off)
  • The witness described a “middle-aged man … who drove a Honda Accord.” (replaces irrelevant details)

Parentheses, Round Brackets

Used to add additional information into their writing.

Examples:

  • Mary (18 years-old) is a young girl.
  • After dinner (an enormous, healthy salad), Jeffrey treated himself to some ice cream.

Quotation Mark

Used to indicate a phrase to show that someone else has written or said it.

Examples:

  • “I’m very tired today”. she said.
  • You call this filthy (meaning: dirty) room “clean”?! (In this example, the quotations are used to emphasize the writer’s disagreement with the situation.)

Homework

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