Punctuation

 

Commas

Commas indicate slight pauses in reading and differentiate sentence parts. You must use commas:

1. Before any conjunction that connects two independent clauses:

   I thought it would rain, and it did.

2. After an introductory phrase:

   After the rainfall, the sun finally came out.

3. To separate items in a series:

   I like rock, pop, blues, country, and hip-hop.

4. To set off a parenthetical phrase:

   Amateur dancers, who often know little about traditional Spanish music, sometimes confuse dances such as the mambo and the samba.

5. With dates:

   On August 8, 1976, the music world changed forever.

6. To set off quotations that occur inside a sentence:

   Sarah said, “I love you,” and she meant it.

7. To subdivide numbers into groups of three digits:

   4,251,730

8. To indicate direct address:

   Greg, give me the remote control.

9. To separate adjectives:

   The hot, humid, nasty day made Alison irritable.

10. To indicate omissions of verbs in parallel clauses:

    Jenny likes the Mets; Pedro, the Angels; and Frank, the Marlins.

 

Apostrophes

1. Indicate possession when added to a noun or pronoun.

   In certain academic corners, Philippa Foot’s mid-century philosophy is influential.

2. Indicate that letters have been left out when used as part of a contraction.

   I don’t speak French.

3. Do not indicate plurals and are not necessary in verbs.

   Incorrect: The cat’s play outside.

   Incorrect: He call’s his dog.

 

Quotation Marks

1. Represent text as speech:

   “I would have been great,” he insisted.

2. Indicate material excerpted from another wrier’s work:

   Not every love affair is “star-cross’d.”

3. Indicate titles of poems, essays, and short stories:

   Shelley’s “Ode to a Skylark” meditates on spontaneous artistic creation.

4. May not be used in place of underlining or italicizing for emphasis.

   Incorrect: Hey “Dad”! This win’s “for you.”

   • Periods and commas go inside punctuation marks.

   • Question marks, exclamation marks, colons, semicolons, and dashes go outside quotation marks unless they are part of the quotation.

 

Semicolons

1. Take the place of a conjunction that joins independent clauses. In such cases, if a period replaces the comma, the sentence still will make sense.

   Betsy liked to sew; it was her passion.

2. Separate items in series that contain commas within single-item descriptions.

   He had an old, unraveling sweater; a new, hand-knit sweater; and a faded, torn pair of jeans.