A Lesson in Punctuation

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I'm not going to teach you how to spell, or how to diagram sentences. If you're planning to be a professional writer, or just an amateur writer, you should be expected to know how to spell, how to write proper sentences - you should know the basics. But I have gripes about punctuation. I think some people get confused, or at least I do. So I've decided to lay down the law, using The St. Martin's Guide to Writing, Fifth Edition as a general guide, along with articles, a few books, and common sense. This lesson in punctuation is designed to be easy, so don't expect me to go into really technical definitions involving weird clauses and such. But, if you are looking for some big scholarly definition, you should leave. Shoo! So here's your lesson in punctuation. I've included a small quiz at the end to see if you've absorbed anything. We'll start with the easiest punctuation mark.



The Period .

This won't take long. I'm sure you all know what a period is. But to put it in quick, simple terms: A period signifies the end of a sentence, or an abbreviation.

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog .

As you can see above, the period signifies the end of a sentence. I hope you know what a sentence is. Now, here's another way a period can be used:

Mr. and Mrs. Brown jump over the lazy dog.

Periods can be used to abbreviate a word. Not all words use periods when abbreviated, so you may want to check Webster to see if a word uses a period or not. There, that was easy enough, wasn't it?



The Exclamation Point !

The exclamation point is used to show excitement, or, obviously, an exclamation. It comes at the end of a sentence, replacing a period. Use these sparingly. Too many exclamation points can make a story look childish and may make people think you become excited too easily. Here are some ways to use exclamation points:

"Dear God! The cat's eaten all of the potatoes!" cried Susan.
I don't think I've ever been so happy!
You stupid, lazy, ignorant pig! I want a divorce!

Get the point? Good! Like I said, don't use too many.

If mothers would listen to their children, they could certainly learn a lot! ^WRONG!
Should be:
If mothers would listen to their children, they could certainly learn a lot.



Quotation Marks " "

Quotation marks, always used in pairs, are probably the most misused punctuation marks. Quotation marks signify a quote. They can indicate direct quotations, an excerpt from a form of media, sarcasm, or too mark certain types of titles. We'll start with the most common form, direct quotation:

"I'd like to withdraw some money," said Matt finally.

Notice how, inside the quotation marks, I signified the end of Matt's sentence with a comma, not a period. This tells the reader that the end of Matt's statement is not the end of entire sentence. If it were simply, "I'd like to withdraw some money." without "said Matt finally", than it would remain a period because the sentence has ended. However, if Matt were to scream, "I'd like to withdraw some money!" the exclamation mark would not be replaced by a comma. The same is true for a question mark. Other punctuation is always within the quotation marks. Observe that the following would not be correct:

"I'd like to withdraw some money", said Matt finally. ^WRONG!

Also notice that the word, "said" is not capitilized. If a word, such as said (or screamed, mumbled, etc.) is included after the last quotation mark, it is not capitilized unless it's a proper noun. Quotation marks can also signify excerpts, from something such as a book or movie:

I think that Shakespeare really touches my heart with the line from Romeo and Juliet, "It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!"

The titles of short works, such as articles, chapters, essays, short stories, short poems, and songs should be enclosed in quotation marks. Titles of longer works are either underlined or italicized. Observe:

I really love Emily Dickinson's poem, "I heard a fly buzz when I died."

Notice that there is a period after the word "died." This tells the reader that the sentence is complete. If it were outside the quotation marks, it would be wrong. Great, now we can move on.



The Semicolon ;

Okay, now we're going to have to get into clauses. If you don't know what a clause is, I'd suggest checking Webster, or asking an English teacher. Here's a simple definition for a semicolon: A semicolon is used to join closely related independent clauses or to make longer sentences with commas (I saved these suckers for last) easer to read. Example:

Julia had always been a great artist; her boyfriend had just never noticed.

We could easily place a period instead of a semicolon here, but the semicolon tells the reader that the statements are closely related and it emphasizes the contrast between Julia's abilites and her boyfriend's thoughts. If the independent clauses are linked by a conjuction, a comma would be used instead of a semicolon. Semicolons can also be used to separate a lot of items in succession:

Julia found research on art in an Elizabeth Browning article titled "Modern Art by the Average Woman," a study done over many years; a David Burman article titled "With or Without Paintbrush," a study that concerned creative children; and an article by Northwestern University titled "Not Just Humans," a study on art done by primates.