Punctuation - Signs and Symbols

Punctuation is the system of signs or symbols given to a reader to show how a sentence is
constructed and how it should be read.

Sentences are the building blocks used to construct written accounts. They are complete
statements. Punctuation shows how the sentence should be read and makes the meaning clear.

Every sentence should include at least a capital letter at the start, and a full stop, exclamation
mark or question mark at the end. This basic system indicates that the sentence is complete.

The Basic Signs of Punctuation

• the comma ,
• the full stop .
• the exclamation mark !
• the question mark ?
• the semi-colon ;
• the colon :
• the apostrophe '
• quotation marks “ ”
• the hyphen -
• the dash –
• brackets ( ) or [ ]
• the slash /

The Comma (,)

The comma is useful in a sentence when the writer wishes to:

• pause before proceeding

• add a phrase that does not contain any new subject
• separate items on a list
• use more than one adjective (a describing word, like beautiful)

For example, in the following sentence the phrase or clause between the commas gives us
more information behind the actions of the boy, the subject of the sentence:

The boy, who knew that his mother was about to arrive, ran quickly towards the opening
door.

Note that if the phrase or clause were to be removed, the sentence would still make sense
although there would be a loss of information. Alternatively, two sentences could be used:
The boy ran quickly towards the opening door. He knew that his mother was about to arrive.

Commas are also used to separate items in a list.

For example:

The shopping trolley was loaded high with bottles of beer, fruit, vegetables, toilet rolls,
cereals and cartons of milk.

Note that in a list, the final two items are linked by the word ‘and’ rather than by a comma.

Commas are used to separate adjectives.

For example:

The boy was happy, eager and full of anticipation at the start of his summer holiday.

As commas represent a pause, it is good practice to read your writing out loud and listen to
where you make natural pauses as you read it. More often than not, you will indicate where a
comma should be placed by a natural pause. Although, the ‘rules’ of where a comma needs to
be placed should also be followed.

For example:

However, it has been suggested that some bees prefer tree pollen.

Full Stop (.)

A full stop should always be used to end a sentence. The full stop indicates that a point has
been made and that you are about to move on to further explanations or a related point.

Less frequently, a series of three full stops (an ellipsis) can be used to indicate where a
section of a quotation has been omitted when it is not relevant to the text, for example:

“The boy was happy… at the start of his summer holiday.”

A single full stop may also be used to indicate the abbreviation of commonly used words as
in the following examples:

• Telephone Number = Tel. No.

• September = Sept.
• Pages = pp.
Ellipses

Ellipses look like a set of three periods together: . . .

An ellipsis is used to show that information has been omitted from a quote, usually to shorten
it. When quoting, it is sometimes necessary to leave out words or lines for reasons of
relevance or length. Using an ellipsis makes any omissions known to your reader.

In fiction and poetry, they’re also used to build suspense, show a speaker’s voice is trailing
off or faltering, or represent incomplete thoughts. This evolved into ellipses’ use in casual
conversation, like text messages and social media posts, where they’re frequently used to
indicate pauses . . . or voices or thoughts fading away.

Exclamation Mark (!)

An exclamation mark indicates strong feeling within a sentence, such as fear, anger or love. It
is also used to accentuate feeling within the written spoken word.

For example:

“Help! I love you!”

In this way, it can also be used to indicate a sharp instruction

• “Stop! Police!”

or to indicate humour

• “Ha! Ha! Ha!”

The exclamation mark at the end of a sentence means that you do not need a full stop.

Exclamation marks are a poor way of emphasising what you think are important points in
your written assignments; the importance of the point will emphasise itself without a
sequence of !!! in the text. An exclamation mark should only be used when absolutely
essential, or when taken from a direct quote.

The exclamation mark should be used sparingly in formal and semi-formal writing.

Question Mark (?)

The question mark simply indicates that a sentence is asking a question. It always comes at
the end of a sentence:

For example:

Are we at the end?

Note that the question mark also serves as a full stop.

Semi-colon (;)
The semi-colon is perhaps the most difficult sign of punctuation to use accurately. If in
doubt, avoid using it and convert the added material into a new sentence.

As a general rule, the semi-colon is used in the following ways:

When joining two connected sentences.

For example:

We set out at dawn; the weather looked promising.

or

Assertive behaviour concerns being able to express feelings, wants and desires
appropriately; passive behaviour means complying with the wishes of others.

The semi-colon can also be used to assemble detailed lists.

For example:

The conference was attended by delegates from Paris, France; Paris, Texas; London, UK;
Stockholm, Sweden; Colombo, Sri Lanka; and Mumbai, India.

Colon (:)
The colon within a sentence makes a very pointed pause between two phrases. There are two
main uses of the colon:

It is most commonly used when listing.

For example:

She placed the following items into the trolley: beer, fruit, vegetables, toilet rolls, cereals and
cartons of milk.

Or it can be used within a heading, or descriptive title.

For example:

Human Resource Management: Guidelines for Telephone Advisers

Apostrophe (’)
The apostrophe, sometimes called an inverted comma has two main uses.

The apostrophe indicates possession or ownership.

For example:

The girl's hat was green, (girl is in the singular).

This shows the reader that the hat belongs to the girl.

The girls' hats were green, (girls in this instance are plural, i.e. more than one girl, more than
one hat).

This indicates that the hats belong to the girls.

Another use of the apostrophe is to indicate where a letter is omitted:

For example:

We're going to do this course. (We are going to do this course.)

Isn’t this a fine example of punctuation? (Is not this a fine example of punctuation?)

The time is now 7 o’ clock. (The time is now 7 of the clock)

Note that a common mistake is to confuse its with it’s.

It’s indicates to the reader that a letter has been omitted.

For example:

It’s a lovely day is an abbreviated way of saying: It is a lovely day.

Note that in most formal writing, the practice of using abbreviated words is inappropriate.

See also: Common Mistakes in Writing for more on using apostrophes correctly.

Quotation or Speech Marks (“….”)

Quotation or speech marks are used to:

1. To mark out speech

2. When quoting someone else's speech
For example:

My grandpa said, "Share your chocolates with your friends."

"George, don't do that!"

"Will you get your books out please?” said Mrs Jones, the teacher, “and quieten down!"

It is worth noting that to report an event back does not require speech or quotation marks.

For example:

Mrs Jones told the pupils to take out their books and to quieten down.

Hyphen (-)

When used correctly, a hyphen links two or more words, that normally would not be placed
together, in order that they work as one idea. These are called compound nouns.

•
o Stonier's post-industrial economy is a service economy.
o There are four types of information-related machines.

Dashes ( — ) Em dash

Hyphens should not be confused with dashes. Dashes re like brackets; they enclose extra
information. A colon and semicolon would work just as well in the example opposite. Dashes
are rarely used in academic writing.

1. Although often used in pairs, dashes can also be used singularly.

•
o To the three divisions of the economy—agriculture, manufacturing, and service
industries—Jones has added a fourth.

2. Although often used in pairs, dashes can also be used singularly.

•
o Have an orange—or would you prefer a banana?
o While the importance of sport to Pay TV is clear, the opposite perspective is less
certain—the importance of Pay TV to sport.
Brackets/Parentheses ( )
Brackets always come in pairs ( ) and are used to make an aside, or a point which is not part
of the main flow of a sentence. If you remove the words between the brackets, the sentence
should still make sense.

For example:

“The strategy (or strategies) chosen to meet the objectives may need to change as the
intervention continues.”

Another example is as follows:

“We can define class as a large-scale grouping of people who share common economic
resources, that strongly influence the types of lifestyle they are able to lead. Ownership of
wealth, together with occupation, are the chief basis of class differences. The major classes
that exist in Western societies are an upper class (the wealthy, employers and industrialists,
plus tops executives – those who own or directly control productive resources); a middle
class (which includes most white-collar workers and professionals); and a working class
(those in blue-collar or manual jobs).” (Giddens, 1997, p.243)

Square Brackets […]

A different set of square brackets [ ] can be used:

• to abbreviate lengthy quotations

• to correct the tense of a quotation to suit the tense of your own sentence
• to add your own words to sections of an abbreviated quotation.

To abbreviate lengthy quotations in an essay or report

“We can define class as a large-scale grouping of people who share common economic
resources, that strongly influence the types of lifestyle they are able to lead. Ownership of
wealth, together with occupation, are the chief basis of class differences. The major classes
that exist in Western societies are an upper class […]; a middle class […] and a working
class […].”
(Giddens, 1997, p.243)

To adjust a quotation to suit your own sentence

For example, if you were writing about class structure, you might use the following:

According to Giddens, (1997, p.243) the “[o]wnership of wealth, together with occupation,
are the chief basis of class differences”.

Note, that when using square brackets, only the occasional letter as in the above example or
the occasional word (for example when changing the tense of the sentence) would be placed
in square brackets in this way.
Slash (/)
Many people use the slash instead of or, and etc., but this is not always helpful to the
reader. There is, however, a modern convention in gender-neutral writing to use ‘s/he’.

Italics
Underlining and italics are often used interchangeably. Before word-processing programs
were widely available, writers would underline certain words to indicate to publishers to
italicize whatever was underlined. Although the general trend has been moving toward
italicizing instead of underlining, you should remain consistent with your choice throughout
your paper. To be safe, you could check with your teacher to find out which he/she prefers.
Italicize the titles of magazines, books, newspapers, academic journals, films, television
shows, long poems, plays of three or more acts, operas, musical albums, works of art,
websites, and individual trains, planes, or ships.

Time
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
The Metamorphosis of Narcissus by Salvador Dali
Amazon.com
Titanic

Italicize foreign words.

Semper fi, the motto of the U.S. Marine Corps, means "always faithful."

Italicize a word or phrase to add emphasis.

The truth is of utmost concern!

Italicize a word when referring to that word.

The word justice is often misunderstood and therefore misused.

Capital Letters
The correct use of capital letters is also important in writing.

When and how to use capital letters can be a thorny problem. It may be acceptable to drop
capital letters when writing casually to friends but if you are writing anything more formal
then you need to use capital letters correctly.

This page lists the rules, and provides examples of when to use (and when not to use) capital
letters in English writing.

When to Use Capital Letters

Rule 1:

To Start a Sentence

There are no exceptions to this rule.

This means that, after a full stop, you always use a capital letter.

If the previous sentence ends with a question mark or exclamation mark, you should also use
a capital letter, ? and !, like full stops, indicate the end of a sentence. However if in the
sentence you have a clause in parenthesis (brackets) or sequence separated by dashes, and if
these end with a question mark or exclamation mark, you should continue with lower case
after the second bracket or dash.

Is it always necessary to use capitals to start a sentence? The answer is definitely yes.

She told herself – was it acceptable to talk to oneself? – that the answer was obvious.

The use of a capital after a colon (:) varies depending on whether you are writing in British
or US English, just as the spelling of 'capitalisation' and 'capitalization' are different in British
and US English.

You should use a capital letter after a colon with US spelling but not with UK spelling.

Rule 2:

Titles

In titles, capitalise only the important words, not minor words such as ‘and’ and ‘but’.
‘Title Case’, with all the important words capitalised, is rather out of fashion at the moment.
Most academic journals and standard referencing systems, for instance, prefer what is known
as ‘sentence case’, with a single initial capital.

However, it’s good to understand the rules, in case you are required to use title case at any
point.

Using the title of this article as an example:

Sentence case: “When to use capital letters”

Title case: “When to Use Capital Letters”

In title case, in this example, ‘Use’, although small, is an important word in the title, and
should therefore be capitalised. ‘To’, however, is not important and therefore not capitalised.

Rule 3:

For Proper Nouns

Proper nouns name something specific, for example, Jane, John, Oxford University, Denver,
Qantas, Microsoft, Everest, Sahara.

Proper nouns (nearly) always start with a capital letter. There are exceptions to this rule
and in marketing sometimes lower-case characters are purposefully used for some proper
nouns. Examples include iPhone, eBay and oneworld Alliance. However, in most cases,
proper nouns start with a capital letter.

Caution is needed however, even when you are referring to a specific place or thing. If you
use the more general noun rather than the proper noun, this should not be capitalised.

The text 'Historic University town' in this example is incorrect.

The word 'university' should not be capitalised as it is not specific.

 The sign should read:

Historic university town

It would also be correct to use:

LAMPETER
Home of Lampeter University

Further examples:

“I went to the University of Oxford today.”

“I went to Oxford today and had a look at the university.”

Capitalising is correct in both sentences. In the first the proper noun 'University of Oxford' is
used.

In the second sentence, the more general noun ‘university’ is used and so it is not capitalised.

The word 'I' is not a proper noun, it's a pronoun. In English 'I' is always capitalised. In
many other languages the equivalent word is not capitalised.
Rule 4:

Acronyms

Acronyms generally work like title case: you capitalise the important words, and not ‘and’,
‘of’, ‘for’ and so on.

The easiest way to work this out is to write out the full title, and then you can see which
words don’t need to be capitalised.

To make this clear, here are some examples:

British Broadcasting Corporation BBC

Department for Education DfE

Manchester United Football Club MUFC

United Arab Emirates UAE

Ministry of Transport [test] MoT [test]

Head of Department HoD

World of Warcraft WoW

Rule 5:

Contractions

For contractions, capitalise the initial letters of words, but not subsequent letters within the
same word.

Contractions are like acronyms, but also include one or more letters from within the same
word. Examples of this include HiFi, which is short for ‘High Fidelity’, and SciFi, short for
science fiction.

The way to deal with these is to write out the phrase and have a look. Although the words that
are abbreviated may not be capitalised, as in ‘science fiction’, the abbreviation always
contains capitals for the start of each new word to make the word boundaries and
pronunciation clear.

Rule 6:

Overusing Capitals is Rude

WRITING ENTIRELY IN BLOCK CAPITALS IS SHOUTING, and it’s rude.

We’ve all done it: left the Caps Lock on while typing. But in email etiquette, online chats
and/or forum posts, writing in capitals is the online equivalent of shouting. It’s rude, so best
not to do it unless you really do want to shout at someone. Even then, consider whether you’d
really do it if that person was in front of you, and also whether it will get you anywhere.

Although it’s usually best to avoid writing in capitals, it can be useful to write odd words in
capitals to give them emphasis. HELP! You're going to LOVE the surprise.

It’s also much harder to read block capitals as all the letters are the same height, so you will
make your point much more easily if you use lower case.

Sometimes, especially when completing a handwritten form, BLOCK CAPITALS are

preferred since this can make data entry or automatic computer recognition of handwriting
easier and more accurate.

Some Computer Specifics

Email addresses (hello@skillsyouneed.com) and domain names (skillsyouneed.com) never

include capital letters. Most computer applications will correct capital letters in email address
or domain names to lower-case.

Web addresses, URLs, can however be case sensitive - although usual convention is to use
only lower case letters.