Punctuation - Definition, Overview, and Lists of Examples

Welcome

Below you’ll find links to our discussion on all punctuation marks. We have broken some of the longer topics into multiple pages. So watch for references to “Pages 1-2-3” at the bottom of the topic. Click the next page number to continue reading.

Sources Cited

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General Table of Contents

1. Period
2. Comma
3. Semicolon
4. Colon
5. Dash
6. Parentheses
7. Brackets
8. Question Mark
9. Exclamation Point
10. Hyphen
11. Apostrophe
12. Quotation Marks

Detailed Table of Contents

Period

1. Ending a Sentence
2. Showing Abbreviation
3. Vertical, Enumerated Lists
4. Periods with Quotation Marks
5. Period with Parentheses or Brackets

Comma

1. Serial-Comma Rule ‑ Red, White, and Blue
2. Serial-Comma Rule ‑ Examples
3. Semicolons Instead of Commas
4. Joining Two Elements
5. Commas and Independent Clauses
6. Commas and Introductory Clauses or Phrases
7. Adverbial Phrases Between Subject and Verb
8. Adjectival Clauses and Phrases
9. Parenthetical Pauses
10. Commas and Noun Appositives
11. Commas and Coordinate Adjectives
12. Complementary or Antithetical Expressions
13. Dates - Month-Day-Year
14. Dates - Day-Month-Year
15. Dates - Month-Year
16. Commas and Elliptical Expressions
17. Commas with Quotation Marks

Semicolon

1. Semicolons and Independent Clauses
2. “However” and Other Conjunctive Adverbs
3. Semicolons Separating Elements in a Series
4. Semicolons with Quotation Marks

Colon

1. Colon and Independent Clauses
2. Introducing a List
3. Introducing Statements or Quotations
4. Colons with Quotation Marks

Dash

1. En and Em Dashes
2. Em Dashes - No Spaces

Parentheses

1. Amplify, Explain, or Digress
2. Numbers in Lists Within Text
3. Parentheses and Other Punctuation

Brackets

1. Parentheticals Within Parentheses

Question Mark

1. Question Marks with Quotation Marks

Exclamation Point

Hyphen

1. Ranges of Numbers
2. Prefix Words
3. Prefix Words - Exceptions to the Rule
4. Hyphens and Compound Words
5. Hyphens and Compound Nouns
6. Hyphens and Compound Adjectives
7. Compound Adjectives - Decision to Hyphenate
8. Made-Up Adjectives
9. Compound Adjectives and-lyAdverbs
10. Compound Adjectives - A Long List
11. Combining Various Parts of Speech

Apostrophe and Possessives

1. Apostrophes Form Contractions
2. Apostrophes Form a Narrow Class of Plurals

Quotation Marks

1. Rules on Direct Quotation
2. Period Goes Inside
3. Comma Goes Inside
4. Semicolon Goes Outside
5. Colon Goes Outside
6. Question Mark Goes Inside
7. Question Mark Goes Outside
8. Exclamation Point Goes Inside
9. Exclamation Point Goes Outside

Conclusion