Punctuation Marks
  1. Comma ( , )
    This is used:
    1. To separate main clauses when the second is not closely identified with the first, e.g. Cars will turn here, and coaches will go straight on.
    2. To avoid momentary misunderstanding, e.g. In the valley below, the villages looked very small.
    3. In a sentence which would mean something different without the comma, e.g. He did not go to church, because he was playing golf.
    4. Between adjectives qualifying a noun, except when the last adjective is more closely related to the noun, e.g. a cautious, eloquent man but a distinguished foreign author.
    5. To separate items in a list of more than two items, e.g. potatoes, peas, and carrots.
    6. Before or after a salutation or vocative, e.g. Come here, boy; Dear Sir, Thank you for your letter.
    7. To mark the beginning and end of a parenthetical word or phrase, e.g. It appears, however, that they were wrong.
    8. Before a quotation, e.g. I boldly cried out, "Woe to this city!"
    9. In numbers of four or more figures, to separate each group of three consecutive figures, starting from the right, e.g. 10,135,793.

  2. Semicolon ( ; )
    This separates two or more clauses which are of more or less equal importance and are linked as a pair or series, e.g. To err is human; to forgive is divine.

  3. Colon ( : )
    This is used:
    1. To separate main clauses when there is a step forward from the first to the second, as from introduction to main theme, from cause to effect, or from premiss to conclusion, e.g. Country life is the natural life: it is there that you will find real friendship.
    2. To introduce a list of items (a dash should not be added), and after expressions such as namely, for example, to resume, to sum up, the following.
    3. Before a quotation, e.g. Then he wrote these words: "I have named none to their disadvantage."

  4. Period, Full Point, Full Stop ( . )
    1. At the end of all sentences which are not questions or exclamations.
    2. After many abbreviations and initials. If such a point closes a sentence, it also serves as the sentence's full point, e.g. ....cats etc. but (....cats etc.).

  5. Question Mark ( ? )
    This is used:
    1. After any sentence which asks a question, but not after an indirect question, e.g. What is it? but I was asked what it was.
    2. Before a word etc. whose accuracy is doubted, e.g. Julius Cæsar, born ?100 BC.

  6. Exclamation Mark ( ! )
    This is used after an exclamatory word, phrase, or sentence expressing absurdity, command, disgust, emotion, enthusiasm, pain, sorrow, a wish, or wonder.

  7. Apostrophe ( ' )
    This is used:
    1. To show the possessive case, e.g. John's book.
    2. To show an omission, e.g. John's angry.
    3. At the end of a quotation: see next section.

  8. Quotation Marks( 'abc' )
    1. A quotation is normally preceded by a turned comma ('smart quotes in WP programs') and followed by an apostrophe. Double marks are used for a quotation within a quotation. The apostrophe should come after any punctuation mark which is part of the quotation, but before any mark which is not, e.g. 'He asked "Where are we?"' but 'Did he say "Here we are"?' Quotation marks are only used when the exact words of the original are quoted.
    2. Quotation marks are used when citing titles of articles, series, chapters, essays, poems, and songs, but not for books of the Bible.
    3. They may be used to enclose slang or technical terms.

  9. Parenthesis ( ( ) )
    These enclose:
    1. Interpolations and remarks made by the writer of the text himself, e.g. He is (as he always was) a rebel.
    2. An authority, definition, explanation, reference, or transition.
    3. In a report of a speech, interruptions by the audience.
    4. Reference letters or figures, e.g. (1), (a).
    5. Replacement for commas where the contents are only slightly related to the theme of the sentence.

  10. Square Brackets ( [ ] )
    These enclose material added by someone other than the author, often by way of explanation, e.g. He [Bloggs] fell down.

  11. Dash ( – )
    This is used:
    1. Instead of parentheses in 9.1 above.
    2. Instead of the colon in 3.1 above.
    3. To indicate pauses in hesitant speech, or the ending and resumption of a sentence interrupted by another speaker.
    4. To replace an omitted word

  12. Hyphen ( - )
    This is used:
    1. In compounds used attributively, e.g. He is a well-known man but The man is well known.
    2. In compouds formed from words which have a syntactical relationship, e.g. weight-carrying, punch-drunk.
    3. To join a prefix to a proper name, e.g. anti-Darwinian.
    4. To prevent misconceptions by linking words, e.g. tewnty-odd people, two-year-old.
    5. To prevent misconceptions by separating a prefix from the main word, e.g. One player resigned, but later he re-signed.
    6. To separate letters representing similar sounds, e.g. sword-dance, radio-isotope.
    7. To represent a common second element in all but the last word of a list, e.g. two-, three- or fourfold.
    8. At the end if a line in printing, to indicate that the word has been divided.

  13. Ellipsis, Marks of Omission ( ... )
    These are used to show an omission. If the omission follows a complete sentence, the three points are preceded by the full point of the sentence, but it follows an incomplete sentence a fourth point should not be added.

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