How to Use English Punctuation Correctly

The English language is one of the most difficult languages to use! And in a world of constant emails and Internet cover letters, it's more important than ever that your punctuation is correct. After all, you don't have your smiling face to impress a potential employer. You only have your writing. This article will help you use punctuation correctly.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

Apostrophes

1. Use apostrophes with the letter "s" to show possession.
2. Use apostrophes to show that some letters in a word are missing.
3. Use apostrophes within dialogue to quote someone else. In American English, if the speaker quotes someone else, the part that the speaker is quoting should be surrounded by apostrophes, one on each end.
4. Use a single apostrophe next to a number to abbreviate feet.

Commas

5. Use commas when you list more than two things. Hot dogs, hamburgers and fried chicken are three types of food at a picnic. A comma goes between hot dogs and hamburgers because they are two separate things in the list.
6. Set apart phrases that do not affect the meaning of a sentence with commas. For example, I would put a comma after the words for example because you can get rid of these words without changing the meaning of this sentence.
7. Use commas around phrases that describe things in the middle of a sentence. For example, I have a brand new car, which is blue. Put a comma after the word car because the phrase which is blue is not necessary in the sentence. You can take that phrase out, and the sentence's meaning will not change.
8. Connect two complete sentences with a comma and a conjunction, such as and, but and or. Remember that a complete sentence needs a subject and a verb. If either the part before or after the conjunction is missing a subject or a verb, you do not need a comma.

Quotation Marks

9. Use quotation marks around titles of short works, such as poems and songs. Usually longer titles are underlined. Using different punctuation gives the reader clues about what the writer is referring to.
10. Put quotation marks around dialogue that someone has said, word-for-word.
11. Use one quotation mark next to a number to abbreviate inches.

Hyphens and Dashes

12. Use hyphens to connect related words that should be thought of as one unit. Black-and-white photograph is one example. A five-year-old child is another example. Here the phrases are joined by hyphens because all of the words together describe one thing, the photograph or the child.
13. Use an en-dash as bullets in a list. An en-dash is one length longer than a hyphen, but one length shorter than an em-dash.
14. Use an em-dash to set apart descriptive phrases in a sentence when there are too many commas.
15. Use an em-dash to set comments apart from the sentence. For example, an advertisement might say, "It cleans everything—even leather!" The phrase even leather is not necessary in the sentence. It actually works more like a comment to the reader than a part of the sentence. That is why it is set apart by an em-dash.

Tips & Warnings

• Know the apostrophe can be placed in different spots when showing possession. In English, you add an "s" and an apostrophe to the end of a word to show that it owns something. The order of the two is different depending on how many people own it. If your brother owns a car, then it is your brother's car. Because your brother is one person, the apostrophe goes before the s. If you have several sisters, it is your sisters' car. You have more than one sister. So the apostrophe comes after the "s."
• Contractions, such as can't, are missing letters. The word can't is short for cannot. The apostrophe takes the place of the missing letters in the word cannot. They also take the place of letters missing in slang. In conversation, someone might use the word somthin' instead of something. Here the apostrophe takes the place of a letter that is missing.
• When writing a series, some people would also put a comma next to second to last word but before the conjunction. Others would say that conjunctions, such as the words "and" and "but" imply a comma. Both ways are acceptable, so long as you pick one and continue to use it in your writing.

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