Punctuate Your Life

Presented by Stephanie Hickey

Punctuation in Review

Terminal Marks– AKA End Punctuation

Apostrophes Hyphens Dashes

Terminal Marks . ? !

The terminal marks, or end punctuation marks, include– the period (.)– the question mark (?)– the exclamation point (!)

Terminal marks end sentences.

The Period .

“A period is used to end all sentences except direct questions or genuine exclamations” (Bedford Handbook, ed. 6).

– Some imperative sentences end with a period.

In other words, periods are used to end declarative sentences.

– A declarative sentence is one that simply states a fact or argument, without requiring an answer or action from the reader.

The Question Mark ?

The most obvious and only use for the question mark is to end a question.

There are two types of questions: interrogative and rhetorical.

– An interrogative sentence asks a direct question whereas a rhetorical question is a question that the audience or reader is not expected to answer.

The Exclamation Point !

Use an exclamation point after an expression of strong feeling or for emphasis.

The two types of sentences that end with exclamation points are the exclamatory sentence or exclamation and the imperative sentence.

– An exclamatory sentence is a more forceful version of a declarative sentence.

– An imperative sentence gives a direct command to someone and does not need or use a subject.

I like to call this the exciting exclamation point! However, you should use this mark sparingly.

Examples

I heard that Julia won amillion dollars in the lottery

Did Julia win a milliondollars in the lottery

Julia won a milliondollars in the lottery

I heard that Julia won amillion dollars in the lottery..

Did Julia win a milliondollars in the lottery??

Julia won a milliondollars in the lottery!!

Apostrophes ’

Use the apostrophe in three ways!1) to form possessives of nouns

The racer’s car

2) to show the omission of letters

3) to indicate plurals of lowercase letters. He’s got a friend who loves the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO’s design.

Remember, though, apostrophes are NOT used for possessive pronouns or for noun plurals, including acronyms.

Forming possessives of nouns

To see if you need to make a possessive, change the phrase around and make it an “of the…” phrase.

For example:– the girl's sweater = the sweater of the girl – three nights’ walk = walk of three nights

If the noun after “of” is a building, an object, or a piece of furniture, no apostrophe is needed.

– room of the hotel = hotel room – door of the car = car door– leg of the table = table leg

Rules Of Creating Posessives

add 's to the singular form of the word (even if it ends in -s): – the owner's car – James's hat

add 's to the plural forms that do not end in -s:– the children's game – the geese's honking

add 's to the end of plural nouns that end in -s:– houses' roofs – three friends' letters

add 's to the end of compound words:– my brother-in-law's money

add 's to the last noun to show joint possession of an object:– Todd and Anne's apartment

Showing the Omission of Letters

Apostrophes are used in contractions.– A contraction is a word where letters have been omitted and

replaced by an apostrophe.– Everybody uses them.

Creating a contraction:– place an apostrophe where the omitted letter(s) would go.

Here are some examples:– don't = do not – I'm = I am– shouldn't = should not– didn't = did not– could've = could have (NOT "could of"!)– '60 = 1960

Forming plurals of lowercase letters

Apostrophes are used to form plurals of letters that appear in lowercase; here the rule appears to be more typographical than grammatical, e.g. "three ps" versus "three p's." To form the plural of a lowercase letter, place 's after the letter. There is no need for apostrophes indicating a plural on capitalized letters, numbers, and symbols (though keep in mind that some editors, teachers, and professors still prefer them). Here are some examples:

– p's and q's = a phrase indicating politeness, possibly from "mind your pleases and thankyous"?

Nita's mother constantly stressed minding one's p's and q's.

– three Macintosh G4s = three of the Macintosh model G4 There are two G4s currently used in the writing classrom.

– many &s = many ampersands That printed page has too many &s on it.

Apostrophe Abuse

Don't use apostrophes for possessive pronouns or for noun plurals. Apostrophes should not be used with possessive pronouns. Possessive

pronouns already show possession – so they don't need an apostrophe. His, her, its, my, yours, ours are all possessive pronouns. Here are some examples:

– wrong: his' dog– correct: his dog– wrong: The group made it's decision. – correct: The group made its decision.

(Note: Its and it's mean different things. It's is a contraction for "it is" and its is a possesive pronoun meaning "belonging to it." It's raining out= it is raining out. A simple way to remember this rule is the fact that you don't use an apostrophe for the possesives his or hers, so don't do it with its!)

– wrong: a friend of yours' – correct: a friend of yours– wrong: She waited for five hours' to get her license. – correct: She waited for five hours to get her license.

Proofreading

Proofreading for apostrophes: Always proofread when you finish writing a paper.

It may also be helpful to analyze your work as you go along.Try the following strategies:

If you tend to leave out apostrophes, check every word that ends in -s or -es to see if it needs an apostrophe.

If you put in too many apostrophes, check every apostrophe to see if you can justify it with a rule for using apostrophes.

Dashes

Use a dash to indicate a sudden shift or break in the thought of a sentence or to set off an informal or emphatic parenthesis

Use dashes to set off an appositive or aparenthetical element that is internally punctuated

In other words, use dashes instead parentheses

Hyphen

1. Use a hyphen to join two or more words that serve as a single adjective before a noun: 1. one-way street

2. Use a hyphen with compound numbers1. Forty-six or sixty-three

3. Use a hyphen to avoid confusion or an awkward combination of letters1. Re-sign

Hyphens Continued!

1. Use a hyphen with the prefixes ex- (meaning former), self-, all-; with the suffix -elect; between a prefix and a capitalized word; and with figures or letters

1. Ex-husband

2. mid-September3. mid-1980s

2. Use a hyphen to divide words at the end of a line if necessary, and make the break only between syllables

1. Pre-face

Resources

Bedford Handbook– Online at http://www.dianahacker.com/bedhandbook

Purdue’s Online Writing Lab – http://owl.english.purdue.edu

The Grammer Slammer– http://englishplus.com/grammar/