Punctuation is used to create sense, clarity and stress in sentences.    

You use punctuation marks to structure and organise your writing. The most common of these are the period (or full stop in British English), the comma, the exclamation mark, the question mark, the colon and semi-colon, the quote, the apostrophe, the hyphen and dash, and parentheses and brackets. Capital letters are also used to help us organise meaning and to structure the sense of our writing.

You can quickly see why punctuation is important if you try and read this sentence which has no punctuation at all:

perhaps you dont always need to use commas periods colons etc to make sentences clear when i am in a hurry tired cold lazy or angry  i sometimes leave out punctuation marks grammar is stupid i can write without it and dont need it my uncle Harry once said he was not very clever and i never understood a word he wrote to me i think ill learn some punctuation not too much enough to write to Uncle Harry he needs some help

Now let's see if punctuation it makes a difference!

Perhaps you don't always need to use commas, periods, colons etc. to make sentences clear. When I am in a hurry, tired, cold, lazy, or angry I sometimes leave out punctuation marks.

"Grammar is stupid! I can write without it and don't need it." my uncle Harry once said. He was not very clever and I never understood a word he wrote to me. I think I'll learn some punctuation - not too much, enough to write to Uncle Harry. He needs some help!

Use the punctuation section to learn how to make your English clearer and better organised. Click on the links below.

Although you will still see the double quotation marks used to quote direct speech it is more and more common to punctuate speech and direct quotations with single quotation marks with the double quotation marks reserved for quoting 'speech within speech'.

Example:

'I haven't spoken to Peter for months,' Dianne said. 'The last time I spoke to him he said, "I'm going to Bahrain and won't be back for about three years", I've heard nothing since then'.

Notice that the comma is placed within the quotation marks and that double quotation marks are only used when the quoted speaker is quoting someone else directly.

Other uses of the quotation mark

You will also have seen the single quotation marks used to mark out idiomatic expressions such as -

I've always thought that he was very annoying, a bit of a 'pain in the neck.'

They are also used outside of speech when quoting the title of a journal article:

'The Migration Flight of the Lesser Tweazle', by Jeremey Adams, in The Bird Spotter Magazine, July 2001.

(Note that there are a number of ways of organising such things as bibliographies which set out standard formats. Most organisations and academic institutions will prefer one of these or have their own format published in a 'style guide'.)

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The period (known as a full stop in British English) is probably the simplest of the punctuation marks to use.

You use it like a knife to cut the sentences to the required length. Generally, you can break up the sentences using the full stop at the end of a logical and complete thought that looks and sounds right to you. Use the full stop

1. to mark the end of a sentence which is not a question or an exclamation.

a. Rome is the capital of Italy.
b. I was born in Australia and now live in Indonesia.
c. The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people.

2. to indicate an abbreviation

a. I will be in between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Note: Dr and Mr and Mrs and Ms do not take a full stop nor do most abbreviations taken from the first capital letters such as MA Phd CNN

3. special case - three dots

Often you will see a sentence concluding with three dots. This indicates that only part of the sentence or text has been quoted or that it is being left up to the reader to complete the rest of the sentence.

a. The Lord's Prayer begins, 'Our Father which are in Heaven...'

3. fullstop after a single word

Sometimes a single word can form the sentence. In this case you place a fullstop after the word as you would in any other sentence.

a. "Goodbye."
b. "Hello."

Note: This is often the case when the subject is understood as in a greeting or a command such as "Stop."

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Use the question mark:

1. At the end of all direct questions

a. What is your name?
b. Do you speak Italian?
c. You're Spanish, aren't you?

2. Do not use the question mark for reported questions

a. He asked me what my name was.
b. She asked if I was Spanish.
c. Ask them where they are going.

General notes:

1. Don't forget to place a question mark at the end of long sentences that contain a question

a. Isn't it true that global warming is responsible for more and more problems which are having a disastrous effect on the world's climate and leading to many millions of people in countries that can least afford it having to contend with more and more hardship?

2. Sometimes a question mark can be placed within a sentence

a. There is cause for concern - isn't there? - that the current world economic balance is so fragile that it may lead to a global economic downturn.

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The exclamation mark is used to express exasperation, astonishment or surprise or to emphasise a comment or short, sharp phrase.

For example:

1. Help! Help!
2. That's unbelievable!
3. Get out!
4. Look out!

You can also use it to mark a phrase as humourous, ironic or sarcastic.

1. What a lovely day! (when it obviously is not a lovely day)
2. That was clever! (when someone has done something stupid) Some general remarks:
1. Don't overuse the exclamation mark
2. Don't include a series of exclamation marks.
e.g. I'll never get it right!!!!

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Brackets and Parentheses

The difference between a 'bracket' and a 'parentheses' can be a bit confusing.

Generally, parentheses refers to round brackets () and brackets to square brackets []. However, we are more and more used to hearing these refferred to simply as 'round brackets' or 'square brackets'.

Usually we use square brackets - [ ] - for special purposes such as in technical manuals. Round brackets - ( ) -, or 'parentheses' are used in a similar way to commas when we want to add further explanation, an afterthought, or comment that is to do with our main line of thought but distinct from it.

Many grammarians feel that the parentheses can, in fact, be replaced by commas in nearly all cases.

For example:

1. further explanation - The government's education report (April 2005) shows that the level of literacy is rising in nearly all areas.
2. comment - I visited Kathmandu (which was full of tourists) on my way to the Himalayas for a trekking expedition.
3. afterthought - You can eat almost anything while travelling in Asia if you are careful to observe simple rules (avoiding unboiled or unbottled water is one of the main rules to be aware of.)

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The Semicolon

The semicolon is somewhere between a weak full stop and a strong comma and used to join phrases and sentences without having to use a conjunction (and, but etc.) where the phrases or sentences are thematically linked but independent.

Look at this example.

• Many great leaders; Churchill, leader of Britain during the Second World War; Alexander, the great Roman Emperor and general; and Napoleon, the brilliant French general, had great strengths of character which were useful when their countries were at war but also great weaknesses which did not serve them so well in times of peace.

Notice how the semicolon works with the comma to enclose the connected phrases while the whole forms one logical sentence.

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The apostrophe probably causes more grief than any of the other punctuation marks put together!

The problem nearly always seems to stem from users not understanding that the apostrophe has two very different (and very important) uses in English.

1. to show possession and ownership - e.g. Jack's car. Mary's father.

2. to indicate a contraction - he's (he is), we're (we are), they're (they are)

These two examples show the apostrophe being used for possession (sentence 1) and contraction (sentence 2)

• Colombia's coffee exports have risen steadily over the past decade.
• Colombia's one of the main coffee producing countries in the world.

The POSSESSIVE APOSTROPHE

In most cases you simply need to add 's to a noun to show possession:

• a ship's captain, a doctor's patient, a car's engine, Ibrahim's coat, Mirianna's book.

Plural nouns that do not end in s also follow this rule:

• the children's room, the men's work, the women's club

Ordinary (or common) nouns that end in s, both singular and plural, show possession simply by adding an ' after the s but proper nouns (names of people, cities, countries etc.) can form the possessive either by adding the 's or simply adding the ':

• a. The Hughes' home (or the Hughes's home), Mr Jones's shop (or Mr Jones' shop), Charles' book (or Charles's book)
• b. the ladies' tennis club, the teachers' journal, the priests' church (note that the priest's church would only be refering to one priest while the priests' church refers to a group.)

General notes: Many people want to know how to form the possessive of their own name when it ends in an 's' or when refering to the whole family, e.g. The Jones' children.

Today it is no longer considered incorrect to use either form (Jones's or Jones') and many large organisations now drop the ' completely (e.g. Barclays Bank, Missing Persons Bureau) when publishing their name.

The APOSTROPHE for CONTRACTION

The most common use of contracted apostrophes is for:

• has'nt = had not
• can't = can not
• there's = there is
• mustn't = must not
• I'm = I am
• it's = it is
• let's = let us
• I've = I have (also they've, we've)
• she's = she has or she is (also he's)

Remember:

• it's = it is (a contraction) while its = possession
• who's = who is (a contraction) while whose = possession

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A hyphen joins two or more words together (e.g. x-ray, door-to-door) while a dash separates words into parenthetical statements (e.g. She was trapped - no escape was possible.

Hyphens:

Generally, hyphens are used to avoid confusion or ambiguity but today most words that have been hyphenated quite quickly drop the hyphen and become a single word (e.g. e-mail and email, now-a-days and nowadays). In many cases though a hyphen does make the sense clear:

1. I am thinking of re-covering my sofa (to put a new cover on it)
2. I would like to recover my sofa. (perhaps from someone who has borrowed it as this means 'to get it back')

Hyphens and numbers

1. Use a hyphen with compound numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine.

• fifty-one
• eighty-nine
• thirty-two
• sixty-five
• eighty-one

2. In written fractions place a hyphen between the numerator and denominator.

• two-fifths
• one-third
• three-tenth
• nine-hundredth

[Exception] if there is already a hyphen in either the numerator or the denominator, you omit the hyphen between the numerator and denominator.

• sixty-nine eighty-ninths (not 'sixty-nine-eighty-ninths')
• twenty-two thirty-thirds

3. Use a hyphen when the number forms part of an adjectival compund:

• France has a 35-hour working week.
• He won the 100-metre sprint.
• Charles Dickens was a great nineteenth-century novelist.

Usage

Consult your dictionary if you are not sure but remember that current usage may be more up-to-date (not uptodate... yet!) than your dictionary. There are some cases where hyphens preserve written clarity such as where there are letter collisions (co-operate, bell-like) or where a prefix is added (anti-nuclear, post-colonial), or in family relations (great-grandmother, son-in-law.)

Dashes:

Dashes can be used to add parenthetical statements in much the same way as you would use brackets. In formal writing you should use the bracket rather than the dash as a dash is considered less formal in most cases. However, they should not be overused nor used to replace commas although they can be used to create emphasis in a sentence.

For example:

You may think she is a liar - she isn't.

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You use capital letters...

1. at the start of a sentence

a. Bali is an Indonesian Island.
b. It is a lovely day.

2. with proper nouns (particular persons, places and things):

a. Her name is Mary.
b. She lives in Spain.
c. She was born on Tuesday the sixth of June, 1998. She lives at 10 Greenstoke Avenue, Newbay, Bristol.

3. with adjectives that come from proper nouns

a. They live in a Georgian house.
b. He loved Japanese films.

4. for the first and all of the main words in titles

a. The Great Gatsby
b. The Queen of England
c. The Heart of Darkness
d. The University of Delaware
e. The Second World War

5. For the pronoun 'I'

a. In the future I hope that I will be able to visit Turkey.

There are some general rules which you can apply when using the comma.

However, you will find that in English there are many other ways to use the comma to add to the meaning of a sentence or to emphasise an item, point or meaning.

Although we are often taught that commas are used to help us add 'breathing spaces' to sentences they are, in fact, more accurately used to organise blocks of thought or logical groupings. Most people will now use commas to ensure that meaning is clear and, despite grammatical rules, will drop the comma if their meaning is retained in the sentence.

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A. Using the comma to separate phrases, words, or clauses in lists

1. a series of phrases

• On my birthday I went to the cinema, ate dinner in a restaurant,and went dancing.

2. a series of nouns

• The meal consisted of soup, fish, chicken, dessert and coffee.

3. a series of adjectives

• She was young, beautiful, kind, and intelligent.
  Note: if an adjective is modifying another adjective you do not separate them with a comma - e.g. She wore a bright red shirt.

4. a series of verbs

• Tony ran towards me, fell, yelled, and fainted.

5. a series of clauses

• The car smashed into the wall, flipped onto its roof, slid along the road, and finally stopped against a tree.

B. Using the comma to enclose insertions or comments. The comma is placed on either side of the insertion.

• China, one of the most powerful nations on Earth, has a huge population.

C. Use the comma to mark off a participial phrase

• Hearing that her father was in hospital, Jane left work immediately.

D. Use the comma in 'tag questions'

• She lives in Paris, doesn't she?
• We haven't met, have we?

E. Use to mark off interjections like 'please', 'thank you', 'yes', and 'no'

• Yes, I will stay a little longer, thank you.

General notes:

1. Misplacing a comma can lose friends!

Putting a comma in the wrong place can lead to a sentence with a completely different meaning, look at these two examples:

• I detest liars like you, I believe that honesty is the best policy.
• I detest liars; like you, I believe that honesty is the best policy.

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Letter writing New

Layout (Informing a client about receipt of goods.)
Layout (Inviting a customer to an event.)
Formal letter (Asking an old teacher for a reference.)
Formal letter (Requesting information about courses.)
Informal letter (Thanking a friend for a gift.)
Good commercial letter (Information about receipt of goods.)
Good commercial letter (Asking for further information.)
Letter of enquiry (Asking for information about the services of a public relations company.)
Letter of enquiry (Asking for information about a publication.)
Letter of enquiry (Asking for information about products.)
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Reply to an enquiry (Reply to  – information about products, prices, etc.
Reply to an enquiry (Reply to enquiry about importing food products.)
Order form (Ordering supplies of greetings cards and wrapping paper.)
Order form (Requesting further information about a company's services.)
Formal e-mail (Giving notification of a delay in delivery of goods.)
In-company e-mail (Giving information about a new company coffee bar.)
Informal e-mail (Arranging to meet a friend.)
Informal e-mail (Reply to e-mail message .)
Sales letter (Promoting a CD sale to customers.)
Sales letter (Promoting a magazine.)
Letter of complaint (Complaining about the quality and quantity of products.)
Letter of complaint (Complaining about services in a hotel.)
Request for payment (First letter requesting payment of balance on an account.)
Request for payment (Second letter requesting payment of balance on an account.)
Request for payment (Third and final letter requesting payment of balance on an account.)
Letter of application (Applying for a job as a fundraising and administration assistant. Note: a fundraiser is someone who collects money for charity.)
Letter of application (Applying for a job as a fitness instructor.)
Reply to a letter of application (Inviting a candidate to an interview.)
Reply to a complaint (Replying to the letter of complaint , about services in a hotel.)
Reply to a complaint (Replying to the letter of complaint , about the quality and quantity of some goods.)
Letter of offer (E-mail following up sales visit and offering a contract.)
Letter of offer (Customer expressing interest in entering a sales contract.)

References:
Commercially Speaking TB- OUP 2001
Dictionary of business correspondence, Houston0-Moufflin Co.

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