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20: Punctuation (Boylan et al)

  • Page ID
    13245
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    • 20.1: Commas
      One of the punctuation clues to reading you may encounter is the comma. The comma is a punctuation mark that indicates a pause in a sentence or a separation of items in a list.
    • 20.2: Semicolons
      Another punctuation mark that you will encounter is the semicolon (;). Like most punctuation marks, the semicolon can be used in a variety of ways. The semicolon indicates a break in the flow of a sentence but functions differently than a period or a comma.
    • 20.3: Colons
      The colon (:) is another punctuation mark used to indicate a full stop. Use a colon to introduce lists, quotes, examples, and explanations. You can also use a colon after the greeting in business letters and memos.
    • 20.4: Quotes
      Quotation marks (“ ”) set off a group of words from the rest of the text. Use quotation marks to indicate direct quotations of another person’s words or to indicate a title. Quotation marks always appear in pairs.
    • 20.5: Apostrophes
      An apostrophe (’) is a punctuation mark that is used with a noun to show possession or to indicate where a letter has been left out to form a contraction.
    • 20.6: Parentheses
      Parentheses ( ) are punctuation marks that are always used in pairs and contain material that is secondary to the meaning of a sentence. Parentheses must never contain the subject or verb of a sentence. A sentence should make sense if you delete any text within parentheses and the parentheses.
    • 20.7: Dashes
      A dash (—) is a punctuation mark used to set off information in a sentence for emphasis. You can enclose text between two dashes, or use just one dash. To create a dash in Microsoft Word, type two hyphens together. Do not put a space between dashes and text.
    • 20.8: Hyphens
      A hyphen (-) looks similar to a dash but is shorter and used in different ways.


    20: Punctuation (Boylan et al) is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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