7.4 Future of Jobs

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7.4.13 Punctuation for Correct Writing

There are 14 or more punctuation marks that are commonly used in English grammar. Using the right punctuation is critical for English writing. If you mess up with them, you migh make a bad impression. You don't want it, do you?

Punctuation helps understand sentences faster and better. They prevent misunderstanding.

You should use the most common punctuation marks:

. Full stop, or period

  • Put it at the end of a sentence to denote: this is the end of one idea. A full sentence could be short or long.
  • Put a space after the full stop. Start your next sentence with a capital letter.
? Question mark

Add it to the end of a direct questions. What's the weather like?
! Exclamation mark

  • It add emphasis to the sentence: Hurry up!
  • Don't use frequently.
, Comma

  • Separate items in a list: blue, bland and white colours
  • Before and, but, so and or:
: Colon

Explain details after the colon: just like now, just like here
; Semicolon

  • Two sentences talking about the same idea; the semicolon emphasises that the sentences are connected.
  • Not too often used.
' Apostrophe

  • Replace a missing letter: you can't do that
  • Shows possession: Joe's shirt. What happens when a word ends with "s" already? It depends. If you pronounce the "s", you should duplicate: Luis's. However for Charles: just Charles', because we can't pronounce the extra "s". For safety, you can use "s" most of the time.

 
- Hyphen

  • It connects parts of a compound word: a five-year-old boy; a self-driving car; fifty-five
  • Don't confuse it with dashes; they are longer, like this: – and this: — (just to compare, this is teh hyphen: -. Just s slight difference). They can substitute commas.
" Quotation mark

  • Quoting when somebody says, even in sentences. He told me "be careful with that knife". I replied, "it is none of your business".

Now can you find out which punctuation marks are not covered here? Full list