USING STANDARD PUNCTUATION
HINT SHEET
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.
