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PUNCTUATION REVIEW
CONJUNCTIONS
• A conjunction is a word that connects words, phrases, or clauses in a
sentence.
• A coordinating conjunction is used connect similar words or groups of
words. Some example of coordinating conjunctions are: and, but, or, nor,
and yet.
INTERJECTIONS
• An interjection is a word or phrase that expresses a strong sudden emotion
such as happiness, disgust, pain, amazement, sadness and so on. They are
usually set off in a sentence with an exclamation point.
• Some common interjections are: Oops!, Wow!, Hooray!, Yikes!
EXCLAMATION POINTS AND
QUESTION MARKS
• Exclamation points are used after exclamatory words and interjections that
express strong emotion.
• A question mark is used at the end of a question.
PERIODS
• Periods are used at the end of declarative and imperative sentences.
• They are used with abbreviations of names, titles, addresses, time and units
of measure.
• Periods are NOT used in metric measures or in postal abbreviations for
states.
COMMAS
• Commas are used to separate words or groups of words in a series. We
study math, science, geography, and social studies.
• To set off parts of dates, addresses, and geographic locations.
• To set off appositive phrases. John, our neighbor, has moved to
Phoenix, Arizona.
• To separate clauses of a compound sentence connected by
coordinating conjunctions.
• To set off direct quotations. “Marcos took my paper,” said Tim.
SEMICOLONS
• Semicolons are used to separate the clauses of compound sentences when
they are not separated by coordinating conjunctions.
• To separate items in a series when the items themselves contain commas.
• We visited Phoenix, Arizona; San Diego, California; and
Albuquerque, New Mexico.
COLONS
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A colon is used for the salutation of a business letter.
Dear Professor Reed:
Before a list of items.
Please pack the following: sleeping bag, pillow, toothbrush and toothpaste.
A colon is never used after a verb.
QUOTATION MARKS
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Quotation marks are placed before and after every complete quotation, and
every part of a divided quotation.
“I am going to the mall after school today.” Arianna said.
“ I am going to the mall,” Arianna said, “I need to finish my Christmas shopping.”
A question mark or exclamation point is placed outside of an end quotation
mark when it is part of the entire sentence.
Who said, “I’ll be back in a minute”?
Quotation marks are used to set off titles of songs, poems, articles and T.V.
series.
“The Walking Dead”
Titles of books, movies, plays, and operas are printed in italics and when handwritten are underlined.
APOSTROPHES
• Apostrophes are used to show possession
• In contractions
• To show the plural of lowercase letters
HYPHENS
• Hyphens are used in compound numbers from twenty-one and ninety-nine
when they are written out.
• In compound terms: sister-in-law, drive-in
• To break words into syllables. Lo-co-mo-tive
CAPITALIZATION
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Capital letters are used as the first letter in a sentence and the pronoun I .
First letter of a direct quotation
With a proper noun or proper adjective
Principal words in a title
First words in poems and songs