PUNCTUATION

PERIOD / FULL STOP

Use a period to show the end of a sentence.

Mary is at home.
What's the point of going on.

Use a period after certain abbreviations.

p.m.
a.m.
St.
Mr.

QUESTION MARK

Use a question mark at the end of a sentence to show a direct question.

How many provinces are there in Canada?
Can you see it?
How can we win the war?
Are you alone?
I often wonder, what am I doing here?
Won't you stay?
Who is that?
How's it going?
Did somebody yell, "Fire!"?
Have you read Heart of Darkness?

Note: do not use a question mark for indirect questions.

The teacher asked the class a question. Do not ask me why.

EXCLAMATION MARK

Use an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence to show surprise or excitement.

We won the Stanley Cup!
The forest is on fire!
Leave me alone!
Wow! That's great.

COMMA

Use a comma to show a pause in a sentence.

Therefore, we should write a letter to the prime minister.

Use a comma with quotation marks to show what someone has said directly.

"I can come today," she said, "but not tomorrow."
"Mary, John and Harry are here." / "Mary, John, and Harry are here."
"Mr. Mayor, when will you travel to the moon?"

Use commas for listing three or more different things.

Ontario, Quebec, and B.C. are the three biggest provinces.

Use commas around relative clauses that add extra information to a sentence.

Emily Carr, who was born in 1871, was a great painter.
The soil, which, in places, overlies the hard rock of this plateau, is, for the most part, thin and poor.

APOSTROPHE

Use an apostrophe to show ownership of something.

This is David's computer.
These are the player's things. (things that belong to the player)

Note: For nouns in plural form, put the apostrophe at the end of the noun.

These are the players' things. (things that belong to the players)

Use an apostrophe to show letters that have been left out of a word.

I don't know how to fix it.

QUOTATION MARKS

Use quotation marks to show what someone has said directly.

The prime minister said, "We will win the election."
"I can come today," she said, "but not tomorrow."

COLON

Use a colon to introduce a list of things.

There are three positions in hockey: goalie, defence, and forward.
Bacteria are everywhere: in the air, water, . . .

Use a colon to introduce a long quotation.

The prime minister said: "We will fight. We will not give up. We will win the next election."

SEMICOLON

Use a semicolon to join related sentences together.

The festival is very popular; people from all over the world visit each year.

Only three families out of the hundreds who lived on the hill have trekked the few miles home. The front door on the adjacent house remains padlocked; it is not known if the owner is alive.

Use a semicolon in lists that already have commas.

The three biggest cities in Canada are Toronto, Ontario; Montreal, Quebec; and Vancouver, B.C.

DASH

Use a dash before a phrase that summarizes the idea of a sentence.

Mild, wet, and cloudy - these are the characteristics of weather in Vancouver.
We will fly to Paris in June--if I get a raise.

Use a dash before and after a phrase or list that adds extra information in the middle of a sentence.

The children - Pierre, Laura, and Ashley - went to the store.
Most Canadians - but not all - voted in the last election.
The three elements--earth, air, and water--are mixed in all entities.

Use a dash to show that someone has been interrupted when speaking.

The woman said, "I want to ask - " when the earthquake began to shake the room.
"In the long dark night of the soul, it is always three o'clock in the morning." --Fitzgerald.
"Happy is the man"--she was being sarcastic--"who laughs at love."

She attended the university from 1999-2004.
He lived in Washington between 2000-2006.

HYPHEN

Use a hyphen to join two words that form one idea together.

sweet-smelling
fire-resistant

Use a hyphen to join prefixes to words.

anti-Canadian
non-contact
pre-Civil War literature
pro-civil rights activity.

Use a hyphen when writing compound numbers.

one-quarter
twenty-three

The poster spelled out L-O-V-E.

Parentheses

May be used to set off numbers or letters used to list:

(a) ... , (b) ... ,
(1) ... , (2) ...

brackets

Use brackets for information from other than original writer, e.g., editor's note, or author's interpolation within a quotation, such as providing a first or last name or identifying features, spelling out an abbreviation, etc.

"I called up Buck [White] and told him we had been tailed."
"[The high school principal] is being held pending inquiries," a police spokesman said.

ellipses

Use for omitted material.

Use for a pause longer than a dash (but do not let a writer overuse this device).

The text was trailing off ...