Punctuation Guide - Colon to Quotations - Welcome to the 500 Ironic Stories Resource Pages
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In addition to our own story collection, this website provides resources for short story readers and writers. This page is dedicated to helping writers with the use of punctuation, including marks like the semicolon and dash.
The Need for a Punctuation Guide
In speaking, we use pauses and change the pitch of our voice to separate ideas, indicate questions, show excitement, indicate surprise, and demonstrate other emotions. In writing, on the other hand, we rely on punctuation marks to convey these verbal signals. Here is a list of the punctuation marks in English:
- Apostrophe [’]
- Brackets []
- Colon [:]
- Comma [,]
- Dash [--]
- Ellipsis […]/omission marks
- Exclamation point [!]
- Hyphen [-]
- Parentheses ()
- Period/full stop [.]
- Question mark [?]
- Quotation marks [“”]
- Semicolon [;]
- Slash [/]
In this article, we will talk about a few of the more challenging punctuation marks to use, including the colon, semicolon, dash, hyphen, brackets, apostrophe, quotation marks, and ellipsis.
Colon
The colon is used primarily to call attention to the words that follow it.
Case 1 – Lists
Example: The daily routine should include at least the following: twenty knee bends, fifty sit-ups, fifteen leg lifts, and five minutes of running in place.
Case 2 – An appositive
Example: My roommate is guilty of two of the seven deadly sins: gluttony and sloth.
Case 3 – A quotation
Example: Consider the words of Benjamin Franklin: “There never was a good war or a bad peace.”
Case 4 – A summary or an explanation
Example: Faith is like love: It cannot be forced.
Case 5 – At the end of a business letter greeting
Example: To Whom It May Concern:
***Note*** Capitalize the first word after a colon if it begins an independent clause.
Example: Clinical trials called into question the safety profile of the drug: A high percentage of participants reported hypertension and kidney problems.
Semicolon
The semicolon is used to connect major sentence elements of equal grammatical rank.
Example: In 1800, a traveler needed six weeks to get from New York City to Chicago; in 1860, the trip by railroad took as little as two days.
Example: Many corals grow very gradually; in fact, the creation of a coral reef can take centuries.
Case 1 – When the second clause restates the first or when the two clauses are of equal emphasis.
Example: Road construction in Dallas has hindered travel around town; streets have become covered with bulldozers, trucks, and cones.
Case 2 – To join elements of a series when individual items of the series already include commas.
Example: Recent sites of the Olympic Games include Athens, Greece; Salt Lake City, Utah; Sydney, Australia; Nagano, Japan.
When to Use a Semicolon Instead of a Comma
A comma splice is one of the most common punctuation errors; it occurs by using a comma between two independent clauses. This can be avoided by breaking the sentence into two or by using a semicolon.
Incorrect Example: I like this class, it is very interesting.
Correct Example: I like this class. It is very interesting. (or) I like this class; it is very interesting.
Dash
When typing, use two hyphens to form a dash (–). Do not put spaces before or after the dash. If your word processing program has it, you can use an “em-dash” (—) instead.
Case 1 – A single dash can introduce words that explain or elaborate on what has gone before (you can also use a colon here, but the dash is more conversational).
Example: Each school can, once again, become what it was always meant to be – a building that has four walls with tomorrow inside.
Case 2 – A dash can also introduce an extra point or afterthought.
Example: She had always imagined he would go on for years – and perhaps he would.
Case 3 – You can use a pair of dashes to mark asides and added comments that don’t form part of the main statement.
Example: It sounded – yes, that was it – like something heavy being dragged across the stony yard in front of the cottage.
Case 4 – Use a dash to set off an appositive phrase that already includes commas.
Example: The cousins—Tina, Todd, and Sam—arrived at the party together.
Hyphen
The spelling hyphen is used adjacent to letters and is a link for certain types of words.
Case 1 – To form compound words (take-off, to date-stamp)
Case 2 – To join a prefix (anti-American, ex-president)
Case 3 – To stand for a common second element in all but the last word of a list (two-, three-, or fourfold)
Round brackets or parentheses () and square brackets []
Round brackets are used to add explanation or extra comment.
Example: Each age finds its own killer (in our day, for example, the cigarette and the motor car).
Case 1 – To show words that are optional or reflect doubt in the writer’s mind.
Example: The dust has yet to settle on this issue, but a consensus (perhaps incorrect) seems to be emerging.
Case 2 – You can also use brackets and dashes, more informally, as you can with other asides.
Example: Her father – a local policeman – had something to say about it.
Example: Her father (a local policeman) had something to say about it.
Example: Her father, a local policeman, had something to say about it.
Case 3 – Mostly used in formal writing and editing to put in extra information to clarify a point that might otherwise be unclear or ambiguous to the reader.
Example: Kate had said that after Joanna had been to see her, she felt much better about it all.
To be specific about who felt much better, we can add square brackets.
Example: Kate had said that after Joanna had been to see her, she [Kate] felt much better about it all.
Apostrophe
We use an apostrophe to form contractions (can’t, won’t) and to show ownership (possessives).
Examples of Possessives
- one man’s decision
- the women’s section
- IBM’s policy
- Jones’/Jones’s reaction
- my boss’ idea
- the employees’ goal
- the companies’ supplier
- FBI and CIA’s shared task – joint ownership
- Walker’s and Pang’s theories help explain climate change – no joint ownership
- someone else’s problem – compounds
- three months’ notice – expressions of duration
Quotation Marks
Quotation marks can be either single (‘’) or double (“”). In printing style, it is more usual to use single quotation marks in BrE (British English) and double quotation marks in AmE (American English). Double quotes are also more common in informal writing.
Case 1 – Direct speech
Example: ‘I hope he’s not really hurt,’ she said.
Example: ‘How long will it take us to get there?’ he asked.
Case 2 – Speech is interrupted by mention of the speaker
Example: ‘So that’s what real life is like,’ Jinny said. ‘No money and a mountain of runner beans.’
Example: ‘Copperfield,’ said Mr Smith, ‘accidents will occur in the best-regulated families.’
Case 3 – One quotation inside another – the inside one has double quotation marks if the main ones are single (BrE – British English).
Example: ‘What do you mean, “news”?’ she asked.
Case 4 – If a quotation is formally introduced, a colon is appropriate. A formal introduction is a full independent clause, not just an expression such as he said or she remarked.
Example: Thomas Friedman provides a challenging yet optimistic view of the future: “We need to get back to work on our country and on our planet”.
Case 5 – The novel, ironic, or reserved use of a word
Example: History is stained with blood spilled in the name of “justice.”
Case 6 – Around the titles of short poems, song titles, short stories, magazine or newspaper articles, essays, speeches, chapter titles, short films, and episodes of television or radio shows.
Example: “Self-Reliance,” by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Example: “Just Like a Woman,” by Bob Dylan
Example: “The Smelly Car,” an episode of Seinfeld
Ellipsis
If an original quote is too long and you feel not all the words are necessary in your own paper, you may omit part of the quote. Replace the missing words with an ellipsis.
Example – With Original Quote: The quarterback told the reporter, “It’s quite simple. They played a better game, scored more points, and that’s why we lost.”
Example – Omitting Some Material: The quarterback told the reporter, “It’s quite simple. They . . . scored more points, and that’s why we lost.”
Additional Punctuation Resources
If you would like additional punctuation guidance and resources, please visit a sister page on this website dedicated to the comma – Comma Punctuation Guide.