This document provides guidelines for using various punctuation marks correctly in writing. It discusses the proper use of periods, question marks, exclamation points, semicolons, colons, commas, apostrophes, quotation marks, hyphens, and dashes. For each punctuation mark, it lists rules for when to use the mark and provides examples to illustrate those rules. The document aims to help enrich language use through understanding and applying punctuation conventions.

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5. Enriching Language Use
through Punctuation

6. Punctuation Marks

7. Period ●
*Used to mark the end of:
1. Sentences
 Lorna has gone on vacation.
 I will miss her help while she is gone.
2. Indirect questions
 Before she left, she asked me if I would water her
plants.
 I asked her if she would send me a postcard.

8. Period ●
*Used to mark the end of:
3. Commands
 Please type this letter for me.
 Answer the phone.
4. Requests phrased as questions
 Would you please type this letter as soon as
possible.
 May we have your response by the end of the week.

9. Period ●
*Used to mark the end of:
5. Most abbreviations
 Mr. Mrs. Inc.
 Ms. Co. Corp.
EXCEPTION: Abbreviations of organizational names
 IBM CIA NATO
 FBI ASEAN OPEC

10. Period ●
*Do NOT use a period:
1.After a heading or a title
 Chapter One: Recognizing Verbs and Subjects
2. After a sentence ending in a punctuated
abbreviation
 Our guest speaker this evening is Marcus More,
Ph.D.

11. Period ●
*Do NOT use a period:
3. When the number or letters of a list have been
enclosed in parentheses.
 The following factors will be considered: (a) attendance,
(b) punctuality, and (c) performance.
Compare with:
 The following factors will be considered:
1. Attendance
2. Punctuality
3. Performance

12. Period ●
*Do NOT use a period:
4. After zeros in amounts of dollars
 Your check for $40 has been received.
5. After a Roman numeral that is part of a name
 Elizabeth II has been Queen of England since
1952.

13. Question Mark ?
*Used to mark the end of :
1. Direct questions
 Will my order be ready by Tuesday?
 Have you checked your records?
2. Directly quoted questions
 “Do you mind if I smoke?” asked the interviewer.
 He then asked, “How old are you?”

14. Exclamation Mark !
*Used to mark the end of :
1. Sentences to indicate emphasis or strong emotion
 Stop interrupting me!
 Unauthorized personnel are not to be admitted!
2. Interjections (words or phrases inserted into sentences
to indicate emphasis or surprise)
 Boy! Was I angry.
 Stop! Do not read any further.
(In the two sentences above, Boy and Stop are interjections.)

15. NOTE: Question marks (?) and
exclamation points (!) should
NEVER be followed by a period (●)
or comma (,).

16. Semicolon ;
*Used to join two closely related sentences
 Sam sees the tree; Willy hears the birds.
 I will arrange a guest speaker; Arlene will take care
of refreshments.
 We have sent you three bills and two statements;
however, we have not received your payment.
 I received your bill for consultant services performed
in April; therefore, I am enclosing a check for $940.

17. Semicolon ;
REMEMBER:
*The test for correct semicolon (;) use is
to see whether a period (●) would be
grammatically correct in its place.
*If NOT, the semicolon has been misused.

18. Colon :
*Used in the following situations:
1. Before a formal list
 When evaluating a credit application, consider the
following: credit history, employment history, and
current assets.
2. Before an explanation
 A letter refusing credit should be positive: you hope
to continue business on a cash basis.

19. Colon :
*Used in the following situations:
3. Before a formal quotation
Secretary’s World reports: “Secretaries are
members of the fastest-growing occupational
group. Annual average job openings are now
300,000 and expected to expand to 325,000.”

20. Colon :
*Used in the following situations:
4. After the salutation in a business letter
Dear Sir:
Gentlemen:
5. Between a title and a subtitle
Word Processing: An Introduction
6. Between the hour and minute of a time reference
9:10 A.M.
11:15 P.M.

21. Comma ,
*Used in the following situations:
1. S V, coordinator SV
 Sam speaks, and Willy listens.
 Jonathan loves English, but he loves Math.
2. Subordinator SV, SV
 When Sam speaks, Willy listens.
 After he submitted his test paper, he went directly
to his dormitory.

22. *REVIEW:

23. Comma ,
NOTE 1: When the subordinator is in the middle,
there is usually NO comma.
 Sam speaks as Willy listens.
NOTE 2: Be careful NOT to use a comma when a
coordinator is connecting two verbs.
 Sam speaks and listens.
NOTE 3: A subject should NEVER be separated from
its verb with a single comma.

24. Comma ,
*Used in the following situations:
3. After an introductory word (e.g., transition word)
 Indeed, Sam likes to dominate a conversation.
 Nevertheless, Willy doesn’t understand much of
what he says.
4. After introductory phrases
 In general, Sam makes little sense.
 Trying to sound important, he tends to make a fool
of himself.

25. Comma ,
*Used in the following situations:
5. For separating items in a series or list
 Natasha has studied marketing, salesmanship,
and advertising.
 Your report must be in the files, on my desk,
or among my other mail.
 To look your best, feel your best, and be your
best requires a personal program of sound diet
and strenuous exercise.

26. Comma ,
*Used in the following situations:
6. For separating adjectives listed before a noun
 All-City Video employs courteous, knowledgeable, and
helpful salespeople.
NOTE 1: A comma is needed if it would be correct to
insert and between the adjectives (as in the example
above).
NOTE 2: If and cannot be inserted, do NOT use a comma.
 They offer the lowest retail prices in town.

27. Comma ,
*Used in the following situations:
7. For setting off interrupting expressions
(i.e., expressions that are not essential to the
structure or meaning of a sentence)
a. Contrasted elements
 The chairman of the board, not the stockholders,
made the decision.
 I returned to school to improve my typing, not my
English.

28. Comma ,
*Used in the following situations:
7. For setting off interrupting expressions
(i.e., expressions that are not essential to the
structure or meaning of a sentence)
b. Parenthetical expressions
 The affidavit, I think, is ready to be typed.
 It is, in fact, a convincing legal document.

29. Comma ,
*Used in the following situations:
7. For setting off interrupting expressions
(i.e., expressions that are not essential to the
structure or meaning of a sentence)
c. Appositives
 The president of this company, Rafa al-Habobi,
started out as a sales trainee.
 A woman of humble origins, Mrs. Peters is now the
owner of a large retail chain.

30. Comma ,
*REVIEW:
Appositive - A noun or noun phrase placed next
to another word or phrase to identify,
rename, or explain it.
 Paris, the capital of France, is my dream travel
destination.
(In this sentence, the capital of France is an
appositive.)

31. Comma ,
*NOTE 1: When the interrupter appears
in the middle of a sentence, it is both
preceded AND followed by a comma.
*NOTE 2: An interrupter at the beginning
or end of a sentence requires only one
comma to separate it from the rest.

32. Comma ,
*Used in the following situations:
8. To set off degrees and titles from a person’s
name
 Linda Porter, M.D., performed the surgery.

33. Comma ,
*Used in the following situations:
9. To set off Inc. and Ltd. from corporate names
 Emily Adams now works for Jericho Steel, Inc.
 Troy Motors, Ltd. was founded in 1987.

34. Comma ,
*Used in the following situations:
10. To separate city names from state/country
names
 He was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York.
 Bulacan, Philippines is my hometown.

35. Comma ,
*Used in the following situations:
11. To set off the year from the month and day
in a date
 The company opened four overseas branches on
January 26, 2011.

36. Comma ,
*NOT used in the following numbers:
1. Street numbers and ZIP codes
 1129 Maple Street, Smithtown, Ohio 93011
2. Telephone numbers
 (914) 830-9612
3. Decimals
 49. 113207
4. Serial or account numbers
 621 Z78 97

37. Comma ,
*Used in the following situations:
12. To separate non-restrictive expressions from other words
in a sentence
• Non-restrictive expressions – NOT essential to the meaning of
a sentence; adds information
 My father, who is bilingual, should have no trouble finding a
job.
(“I” can have only one father. Knowing that he is bilingual doesn’t help us
identify him; it simply tells us more about him.)
 Mr. Brown’s wife, Janet, is an attorney.
(Mr. Brown can have only one wife, so her name is nonrestrictive.
Therefore, we set off Janet with commas.)

38. Comma ,
*Compare with restrictive expressions:
• Restrictive expressions – essential to the meaning of a
sentence; specifies
 Students who are bilingual should have no trouble
finding a job.
(Not all students will find it easy to get jobs. Only those who are
bilingual will.)
 Mr. Brown’s brother John works for the government; his
brother Arthur is in private industry.
(Since Mr. Brown has more than one brother, their names are
restrictive: they tell us which brother is which.)
*NOTE: We do NOT use commas to set off restrictive
expressions.

39. Comma ,
*REMEMBER:
• Non-restrictive expressions –
USE commas
• Restrictive expressions –
DO NOT USE commas

40. Apostrophe ‘
*Used for the following:
1 . To indicate the possessive form of nouns and indefinite
pronouns
a. The possessive form of singular nouns and indefinite pronouns
take ‘s at the end.
 The briefcase owned by Martin – Martin’s briefcase
 The fault of nobody – Nobody’s fault
 The property owned by the company –
The company’s property
 The telephone number of Bess – Bess’s telephone number
 The job of my boss – My boss’s job

41. Apostrophe ‘
*Used for the following:
1 . To indicate the possessive form of nouns and indefinite
pronouns
b. Plural nouns NOT ending in –s or –es form the possessive by
adding ‘s.
 The rights of women – Women’s rights
 The scientific names of those fungi – Those fungi’s scientific
names
c. Plural nouns ending in –s or –es form the possessive by adding
only an apostrophe.
 The benefits of the workers – The workers’ benefits
 Labels of the boxes – Boxes’ labels

42. Apostrophe ‘
*Used for the following:
1 . To indicate the possessive form of nouns and indefinite
pronouns
d. Hyphenated nouns
 The editor-in-chief’s office
 My father-in-law’s business
e. Nouns in joint possession: Add ‘s to the last noun only
 Ray and Sally’s friend
 Tom and Rita’s store
f. If separate possession is intended: Add ‘s to both nouns
 Al’s and Lucy’s answers

43. Apostrophe ‘
*Used for the following:
2 . Contractions
I would => I’d
can not => can’t
they are => they’re
1929 => ‘29
because => ‘cause
*Note: Contractions should be avoided in formal
written English.

44. Apostrophe ‘
*Used for the following:
3. To form special plurals
a. Lowercase letters
 The w’s on this typewriter come out looking like u’s.
b. Abbreviations ending with periods
 All the M.D.’s in the theater offered their help.

45. Quotation Marks “ “
*Used for the following:
1. To enclose the exact words from either someone’s
writing or speech
 In an article on credit, financial advisor Jane Freund
wrote: “Establishing credit before you need it is an
intelligent precaution.”
NOTE: A quote within a quote is enclosed in single
quotation marks (‘ ‘) :
 Freund noted: “We all have at least one friend who
brags, ‘I never buy anything on credit.’ But that person is
establishing no credit history, a hedge against the day he
may need credit.”

46. Quotation Marks “ “
REMEMBER:
• The speaker and the verb of saying (e.g. Jane
Fraund wrote) are always OUTSIDE the quotation
marks.
• Quotation marks are always used in pairs.

47. Quotation Marks “ “
*Used for the following:
2. To enclose the titles of short stories, essays,
articles, poems, and chapters
 We were required to read the article “How to Ask for
a Raise” in the August issue of Secretary’s World.
COMPARE: Titles of full-length works (e.g., books,
magazines, newspapers, plays, movies, and television
shows) are usually italicized.
 The book Abraham Lincoln and the Road to Emancipation
was published in 2001 by Viking Press in New York.

48. Hyphen -
*Used for the following:
1. To join two or more words into a compound
 do-it-yourself instruction booklets
 a wait-and-see attitude
 a thirty-year-old woman
2. For compound numbers from 21 to 99
 thirty-eight
 eighty-two
3. With fractions
 one-quarter
 four-fifths

49. Hyphen -
*Used for the following:
4. With the prefixes ex-, all-, self-, and pro-
 ex-convict
 all-star
 self-help
 pro-tennis

50. Dash
*Two Kinds:
1. En Dash –
- The width of an n
- A little longer than a hyphen
2. Em Dash —
- The width of an m
(Hyphen - )

51. En Dash –
*Used for the following:
1. To connect two items (usually numbers) that
designate a range
 We submitted chapters 10–12 well after midnight.
 Indeed, 2001–2003 were the happiest years of her life.
 The January–February issue is due on newsstands tomorrow.

52. En Dash –
*Used for the following:
2. When combining open compounds with other words
 The author is a Nobel Prize–winning chemist.
(In the above example, Prize and winning are joined, but Nobel is
just floating out there. The en dash shows that the word Nobel is
included in the open compound.)
 I am attending a high school–college conference this
afternoon.
 We crossed the Virginia–North Carolina border past midnight.

53. En Dash –
*REVIEW:
Three Kinds of Compounds:
1. Closed
 firefly childlike makeup
 secondhand redhead notebook
 softball keyboard watermelon
2. Hyphenated
 daughter-in-law over-the-counter ten-year-old
 master-at-arms six-pack mass-produced
3. Open
 post office full moon
 real estate half sister
 middle class attorney general

54. Em Dash ―
*Used for the following:
1. To indicate a sudden change of thought or tone
 I plan to study for the exam all night ― if my eyes
hold out.
 Mr. Rodriguez ― do you remember him from last year’s
convention? ― will be joining our staff in May.

55. Em Dash ―
*Used for the following:
2. To break off an unfinished statement
 Mrs. Olsen mumbled, “I can’t seem to remember
where ―”
3. Between an introductory list and the explanatory
sentence that follows
 Calmness, confidence, and a copy of your resume ―
bring all of these to a job interview.

56. Em Dash ―
*Used for the following:
4. To attribute quotations
 If you can dream it, you can do it. — Walt Disney
 It is not in the starts to hold our destiny but in
ourselves. — William Shakespeare

57. Em Dash ―
REMEMBER:
• The em dash should be used
discreetly.
• It is NOT a substitute for commas or
terminal punctuation.

58. Parentheses ( )
*Used for the following:
1. To enclose statements that are completely separate
from the main thought of a sentence; such
statements may serve as supplement or as reference
In some professions (physical therapy, for example),
a dress code may be strictly enforced.
Margaret Grange (1883 – 1966) was the author of several
books on corporate finance.
According to the union contract, all employees are
required to have a college transcript on file (see Section 6,
Paragraph 1).

59. Parentheses ( )
*Used for the following:
2. For enumeration within a sentence
You will need the following: (1) your resume,
(2) letters of reference, (3) a college transcript,
and (4) a pencil.

60. Parentheses ( )
NOTE 1: Sentence punctuation comes AFTER the
closing parenthesis.
I have investigated various models of calculators for the
office (see the attached list), but none has been purchased
yet.
NOTE 2: However, if the parentheses enclose a whole
sentence, the terminal punctuation is placed INSIDE
the closing parenthesis.
Please submit your time cards by Wednesday evening.
(Blank time cards are available in the personnel office.)

61. Brackets [ ]
*Used for the following:
1. Parentheses within parentheses
The role of business in American life has often been the
subject of our fiction (see, for example, the novels of
William Dean Howells [1837 – 1920]).
2. Interpolations within a quotation
 In Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, Charlie pays
tribute to Willy Loman: “[A salesman’s] a man way out
there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoe shine…
A salesman has got to dream, boy. It comes with the
territory.”

62. Brackets [ ]
*Used for the following:
3. Editorial corrections and comments
 The professor ended his lecture with this remark:
“All of you will hopefully [sic] read at least some of
these books.”
NOTE: Sic here means that the word hopefully,
although used incorrectly, is being reproduced
from the original quotation.

63. Ellipsis …
*Used within a quotation to indicated an omitted word or words.
 President Ohashi began his address to the Board of Directors by
saying, “The age of the personal computer has just began.
This company got started two years ago with just a quarter of a
million dollars and 10,000 sales. Now, despite the birth of
several competitors, our market is expanding phenomenally.
Next year, we expect to sell 500,000 computers.”
 Compare:
President Ohashi began his address to the Board of Directors by
saying, “The age of the personal computer has just began…
Next year, we expect to sell 500,000 computers.”