Category Archives: Punctuation
Ellipses Are Punctuation Marks, Too
The two primary uses of the ellipsis are (1) to indicate words left out of quoted material and (2) faltering speech in dialogue. Continue reading
Filed under Ellipses
Period. End Of Subject.
Of all the punctuation marks, periods are perhaps the most basic. Chances are we learned about periods back in primary school when we first began to string words together on paper to form sentences. Not much has changed with the … Continue reading
Filed under Periods
Italics And When Not To Use Them
Some writers, in particular, novelists, become “italics happy.” Once they’ve discovered the slanty writing, it’s as if they’ve struck it rich. More accurately, they have stumbled on fools gold. Using italics in fiction or non-fiction is much more specialized and … Continue reading
Filed under Italics
Exclamations And Their Points
When I first started writing full time, I received a shock: all that I knew about punctuation wasn’t necessarily so. As an English teacher, I had approached punctuation in a clinical, analytical, black-and-white manner. There was a right way, called … Continue reading
Filed under Exclamation Points
New Chicago Rules
The Chicago Manual of Style, used widely by fiction writers and editors and by many working with non-fiction, recently came out with their newest edition—number sixteen. The hardback guide isn’t cheap, though Amazon has reduced the price to something more … Continue reading
Filed under Punctuation, Resources, Writing Rules
Punctuation Pitfalls – Parentheses and Brackets
The toughest thing about parentheses, ( ) , may be knowing the difference between this plural form and the singular, parenthesis (though that form less often also refers to the pair). But what precisely do they do? Parentheses indicate a … Continue reading
Filed under Brackets, Parentheses
Punctuation Pitfalls – The Em Dash and Its Cousin the En Dash
I’ve been accused (gently) of overusing em dashes, commonly referred to without the qualifying “em.” These punctuation marks [—] differ in length and use from their lesser known cousins, the en dashes [–]. The thing about em dashes—they are incredibly … Continue reading
Filed under Dashes
Punctuation Pitfalls – The Colon
Again my primary source for the information I’ll share about the use of the colon [:] is the trusty and oh-so-reliable The Chicago Manual of Style. Besides a few specialty uses (between chapter and verse numbers in Biblical references, after … Continue reading
Filed under Colons
Punctuation Pitfalls – The Semicolon
Semicolons don’t show up very often. The truth is, a writer can word sentences in such a way that he never has to use them. However, they add variety and really serve as a short cut. Chicago Manual of Style … Continue reading
Filed under Semicolons
Punctuation Pitfalls – The Comma, Part 7
Commas Used with Appositives. I think we’re coming to the end of comma-use tips. Because I’m trying to explain some of the more technical uses that often snag writers, I don’t think I’ll address their placement in dates and addresses. … Continue reading
Filed under Commas
