Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
URL: http://www.siue.edu/IS/WRITING/
Published by: Instructional Services Department
Last Updated: August 22, 2005 
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© Copyright 2005, SIUE Online Writing Center

1.  END PUNCTUATION--Use a period at the end of a statement, a question mark at the end of a question, and an exclamation point at the end of a statement that expresses strong emotion.
            Help!
            Did someone call for help?
            Help is on the way.

2.  QUOTATIONS--Direct quotations set off the exact words of a speaker. 
            Sandra said, "I thought I smelled a rat."
            "I tried to talk to him," complained Arthur.
            "We thought," said Ethel, "that you would be there."
If the quote itself is a question or an exclamation, the question mark or exclamation point goes inside the quotation marks:  "How do you do?" she asked.

If the quote itself is not a question or an exclamation, the question mark or exclamation point goes outside the quotation marks:  Did Alice say "Be quiet"?

Indirect quotations do not have quotation marks:  Sally said that she didn't like Ralph.

3.  OTHER USES FOR QUOTATION MARKS: Use quotation marks around magazine articles, essays, short poems, songs, one-act plays, and other things shorter than a book:
            The band played Led Zeppelin's song "Stairway to Heaven."

4.  UNDERLINING TO INDICATE ITALICS--To indicate italics, underline titles of books, pamphlets, magazines, newspapers, films and videos, television and radio programs, plays, names of ships, paintings, sculptures, record albums, long musical works, and long poems:  
     I read the St. Louis Post-Dispatch every day.

5.  APOSTROPHES--
            Use an apostrophe to indicate possession:
                        The one girl's answer was correct.
                        Two girls' answers were correct.
                        The Jones' house is huge.  (Also correct: the Jones's)
            Use an apostrophe in contractions:
                        It's a zoo in there.
                        Who's going to the dance?
            Personal pronouns do not use apostrophes:
                        The storm expended its fury.
                        The book was hers.

6.  HYPHENS--You can use a hyphen to break a work at the end of a line, but only between syllables:
                                    The little girl won the spelling bee by spelling folk-
                                    lore correctly.
            Use a hyphen in compound words: Jack is self-indulgent.
            Use a hyphen in numbers: twenty-eight, fifty-six, etc.