ENC2210 Module 1 – Punctuation

Use commas after dependent clauses that serve as introductions. - Example: As an undergraduate, I majored in English. Use commas after introductory elements as nouns of address, transitional words, verbal phrases, and lengthy prepositional phrases.

- Example: Yes, the package has already been shipped. Use commas around parenthetical expressions. - Example: A composition course (such as Introduction to College Writing) is required for graduation. Use commas to set off nonrestrictive appositives—that is, words, phrases, or clauses which are positioned next to a noun and which re-name the noun. - Example: Paraquat, a controversial pesticide, was recently used on crops in Florida.

Use commas around conjunctive adverbs, such as "however." - Example: She woke up late, however, she made it to work on time. Use a comma before a coordinating conjunction (such as "and," "but," "or," and "for") to join two independent clauses. - Example: She successfully completed the course, and she learned how to critique and revise her own writing. Use commas before trailing modifications, nonrestrictive phrases or clauses that follow the main clause and end the sentence.

- Example: We can leave or stay, depending on the weather. Use commas to set off items in a series. Note that the comma before the word "and," though optional, may be needed for clarity. - Example: UF Flexible Learning offers the following writing courses: Technical Writing, Professional Communication, and Advanced Exposition.

Use commas between pairs of adjectives that modify coordinately. - Example: He was a handsome, distinguished diplomat. Use commas to set off direct quotations. - Example: The project director told his people, "The success of the undertaking depends on the cooperation of every employee.

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Use a semicolon to separate two related independent clauses that are not joined by a coordinating conjunction. - Example: Prices rose on the stock market; consequently, economists felt somewhat encouraged. Use a semicolon to connect series of elements which already contain commas. - Example: The speakers came from Portland, Oregon; Austin, Texas; and Newark, New Jersey.

Use a colon only at the end of a completed, independent clause, which explicitly anticipates that something else is to follow.

What follows may be a single word or phrase, a series of elements, a new independent clause, or a formal quotation. - Example: The result came after six months' hard work: a successful campaign. - Example: Dyslexia afflicted several famous Americans: Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, and Nelson Rockefeller. Colons cannot be used after a to be verb or between a verb or preposition and its object.

Colons would be incorrect if used in the following sentences: - Example: The carpenter brought his own hammer, saw and sliderule. - Example: For the conference, we ordered a large supply of paper, pencils, and erasers.

Use apostrophes with nouns to show possession. With singular nouns and plural nouns not ending in an s, place the apostrophe before the s to show possession. With plural nouns ending in s place the apostrophe afterward.

- Example: This company's losses greatly exceeded other companies' losses. - Examples: Business's and Charles's Use an apostrophe in a contraction to show omitted letters. - Example: it's = it is, who's = who is, they'll = they will, and aren't = are not Never use apostrophes with personal pronouns to show possession. Words such as who's or it's mean who is and it is.

• Use hyphens to join two or more words functioning as a single adjective before a noun (a unit modifier). - Example: well-known surgeon Note: Cumbersome compounds can be avoided by rephrasing the sentence and selecting different words. For example, "He had a cat-that-had-swallowed-a-canary look" can be rewritten to "He looked like a cat that had swallowed a canary." Use hyphens with spelled out compound numbers from twenty-one to ninetynine employed as nouns or adjectives.

- Example: He was the thirty-first runner to cross the finish line. When a fraction serves as a compound modifier and is spelled out, a hyphen is necessary. - Example: two-thirds of a page Use hyphens when figures or letters are used as prefixes, as well as with zip codes with more than five digits. - Examples: 24-hour period; mid-1980s; T-shirt; and Dallas, TX 75392-0041 Suspended hyphens are used to link coordinated prefixes to the word they modify.

- Example: pre- and post-test Use hyphens with the prefixes ex-, self- and all- and with the suffix -elect. - Examples: ex-wife, self-conscious, all-American, and President-elect When a prefix ends and the root word begins with the same letter, hyphens are sometimes used. - Examples: anti-independent, re-elect, and semi-inflationary. Use hyphens with words such as in-law and great, but not with grand or step. - Examples: daughter-in-law and stepdaughter

Use parentheses to set off supplementary or illustrative matter. Any normal punctuation within a sentence containing parentheses should go outside of the parentheses.

- Example: From the start of the Industrial Revolution, working women (most of whom were young and single) were paid at lower wages than men. Use parentheses to enclose figures or letters employed for enumeration and the first use of an acronym to be used subsequently in a paper. - Example: Computer-Aided Design (CAD) - Example: Old English has five cases: (1) nominative, (2) accusative, (3) genitive, (4) dative, and (5) instrumental.

Use dashes (represented by two successive hyphens) for setting off an internal parenthetical expressions—such as a series—that markedly interrupts the flow of the sentence or that itself contains internal commas.

- Example: A large number of PCs—no one can say exactly how many—are in use in the United States today.

Use quotation marks to enclose all directly quoted material; not citing such material results in plagiarism. Quotation marks always occur in pairs: one set opening (") and one closing ("). Note that single quotes (') are used inside quotations where double quotations marks would otherwise be used. - Example: William Shatner said "his favorite episode of Star Trek is 'The Tribbles.'" Long quotes (more than four lines) are indented, not placed in quotation marks.

Use quotations marks for minor titles (articles in periodicals and newspapers, songs, short stories and poems, TV and radio episodes) and subdivisions of books. Italics or underlining (depending on reference style used), on the other hand, is used for major titles (books, magazines, newspaper, TV and radio series, record albums), foreign words, and the names of specific ships, airplanes, satellites, spacecraft and art works. - Example: "The Tribbles" is an episode of Star Trek. - Example: Poe's "The Raven" appeared in the Atlantic Monthly.

Place a period or a comma inside closing quotation marks. - Example: Atlantic Monthly published Poe's "The Raven." If using a colon or a semicolon after the quotation, place it outside the closing quotation marks. - Example: Atlantic Monthly published Poe's "The Raven"; this poem is well- know.

Place a question mark or exclamation point inside the closing quotation marks if it applies to the quoted material, outside if it applies to the sentence as a whole. - Example: I cannot believe you have never read "The Raven"! Use quotation marks to indicate a special or unusual sense of a word. - Example: He did not "officially" approve the decision.