Punctuation
The act or system of using specific marks or symbols in writing to separate different
elements from each other or to make writing more clear.
Period (.)
A period is used to end a declarative sentence. A period indicates that a sentence is
finished.
Today is Friday.
Unique to them, periods are also often used in abbreviations.
Question mark (?)
The question mark is used to end a question, also known as an interrogative sentence.
Do you feel lucky?
Exclamation point (!)
The exclamation point is used at the end of exclamations and interjections.
Our house is haunted!
Wow!
Comma, colon, and semicolon
Commas, colons, and semicolons can all be used to connect sentences together.
Comma (,)
The comma is often the punctuation mark that gives writers the most problems. It has
many different uses and often requires good knowledge of grammar to avoid making
mistakes when using it. Some common uses of the comma include:
The flag was red, white, and blue.
Colon (:)
The colon is typically used to introduce additional information.
The detective had three suspects: the salesman, the gardener, and the lawyer.
Like commas, colons can also connect clauses together.
We forgot to ask the most important question: who was buying lunch?
Colons have a few other uses, too.
The meeting starts at 8:15 p.m.
The priest started reading from Mark 3:6.
Semicolon (;)
Like the comma and the colon, the semicolon is used to connect sentences together.
The semicolon typically indicates that the second sentence is closely related to the
one before it.
I can’t eat peanuts; I am highly allergic to them.
Lucy loves to eat all kinds of sweets; lollipops are her favorite.
Hyphen and dashes (en dash and em dash)
All three of these punctuation marks are often referred to as “dashes.” However, they
are all used for entirely different reasons.
Hyphen (-)
The hyphen is used to form compound words.
I went to lunch with my father-in-law.
Parentheses, brackets, and braces
These pairs of punctuation marks look similar, but they all have different uses. In
general, the parentheses are much more commonly used than the others.
Parentheses ()
Typically, parentheses are used to add additional information.
I thought (for a very long time) if I should actually give an honest answer.
Tomorrow is Christmas (my favorite holiday)!
Parentheses have a variety of other uses, too.
Pollution increased significantly. (See Chart 14B)
He was at an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting.
Richard I of England (1157–1199) had the heart of a lion.
Square brackets []
Typically, square brackets are used to clarify or add information to quotations.
According to an eyewitness, the chimpanzees “climbed on the roof and juggled
[bananas].”
The judge said that “the defense attorney [Mr. Wright] had made it clear that the
case was far from closed.”
Curly brackets {}
Curly brackets, also known as braces, are rarely used punctuation marks that are used
to group a set.
I was impressed by the many different colors {red, green, yellow, blue, purple,
black, white} they selected for the flag’s design.
Angle brackets <>
Angle brackets have no usage in formal writing and are rarely ever used even in
informal writing. These characters have more uses in other fields, such as math or
computing.
Quotation marks and apostrophe
You’ll find these punctuation marks hanging out at the top of a line of text.
Quotation marks (“”)
The most common use of quotation marks is to contain quotations.
She said, “Don’t let the dog out of the house.”
Apostrophe (‘)
The apostrophe is most often used to form possessives and contractions.
The house’s back door is open.
My cousin’s birthday is next week.
It isn’t ready yet.
We should’ve stayed outside.
Slash and ellipses
These are two punctuation marks you may not see too often, but they are still useful.
Slash (/)
The slash has several different uses. Here are some examples:
Relationships: The existence of boxer briefs somehow hasn’t ended the
boxers/briefs debate.
Alternatives: They accept cash and/or credit.
Fractions: After an hour, 2/3 of the audience had already left.
Ellipses (…)
In formal writing, ellipses are used to indicate that words were removed from a quote.
The mayor said, “The damages will be … paid for by the city … as soon as
possible.”
In informal writing, ellipses are often used to indicate pauses or speech that trails off.
He nervously stammered and said, “Look, I … You see … I wasn’t … Forget it,
okay.”
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Bullet Point (•)
Bullet points are used to create lists. For example,
For this recipe you will need:
eggs
milk
sugar
At symbol (@)
The at symbol substitutes for the word at in informal writing. In formal writing, it is
used when writing email addresses.
His email address is duckduck@goose.abc.
