#punctuation

[willowcrowned]

semicolons are not only for formal essays and anyone who tells you otherwise wants to deprive you of the second most satisfying punctuation mark; do NOT believe them. i promise they get no bitches

[writingraven]

Writing Tips

Punctuating Dialogue

✧

➸ “This is a sentence.”

➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.

➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”

➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”

➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”

➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”

➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.

“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.

“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”

➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”

➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”

However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!

➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.

If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)

➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“

“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.

➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.

➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”

➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.

“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”

➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.

“This shows it’s the same character continuing to speak.”

[writingwithfolklore]

Punctuation Rules

Punctuation is like the very last thing I actively think about when writing something (what's the point of fixing the punctuation of a sentence you'll end up taking out or editing anyway?) but it is still an important step!

Having proper punctuation increases your credibility and the overall quality of your work. Also, it’s doubly important in professional work, emails, and resumes. With that, let’s get into it!

Commas

We use them all the time. We get them wrong all the time. There are six rules for where you can use commas:

Use to separate items in a list or series:

The book was long, tedious, and painful.

The comma after tedious is called the Oxford’s comma. Feel free to debate if you need it in the reblogs, but you won’t get in trouble professionally if you use it or leave it out (in most cases.) It always comes before ‘and’ in a list to prevent confusion of the items:

I ran into my mother, my best friend and a scientist. (1 person?)

Is very different from

I ran into my mother, my best friend, and a scientist. (3 people)

2. Use to separate independent clauses, with a coordinating conjunction.

An independent clause is just a sentence that makes sense on its own.

A coordinating conjunction is: and, but, or so.

Miley had a ton of work to do, so she set her alarm early.

3. Use after an introductory statement.

Introductory statements begin with many different words, but typically: Before, after, when, while, as soon as, etc.

Before her first class, Stacy looked up her prof on Rate Your Teacher.

Main point about this, “Before her first class” is not an independent clause, it needs a second part.

4. Use to surround info in a sentence

This info is not essential to the sense-making of the sentence, but it should be relevant.

Parents, no matter how skilled, cannot function at 100% all the time.

5. Addresses and Dates

6. And with direct quotes

Important for essay writing.

Casey said, “I hate this house!”

Colons:

Introduce a list after a complete sentence:

I have three favourite foods: spaghetti, chowder, and garlic bread.

2. Use after ‘the following’ or ‘as follows’

Please provide the following information: your date of birth, full name, and address.

3. Don't use with sentence fragments

A sentence fragment is an unfinished sentence (that doesn’t make sense on its own).

My favourite foods are: spaghetti, chowder, and garlic bread.

This is wrong because, “My favourite foods are.” Isn’t an independent clause.

4. Introduce an explanation

My parents ask one thing of me: that I try my hardest.

5. Introduce a quotation

Mom always quoted the bible: “The truth will set you free.”

6. And times (12:00)

Semi-Colon:

Not super common, but makes you look good if you can use it properly.

Separate two related independent clauses

I never drink Starbucks; it tastes burnt.

2. Similar, but with conjunctions: however, moreover, therefore, nevertheless, etc.

I don’t like Starbucks; however, it does the job.

Agatha didn’t witness anything; nevertheless, she was called in to court.

3. Use to avoid misreading in a series

The invited guests are the club leader; the treasurer; the new member, Jason Tanner; and Wanda Johnson, the investor.

Semicolons clarify the separation between the four people. Had it been, “The club leader, the treasurer, The new member, Jason Tanner…” it would seem that the new member and Jason Tanner are two different people.

Apostrophes – Possessive

‘s shows possession of a singular noun

The girl’s parents were quite rich.

2. S’ shows possession of a plural noun

The students’ books were all over the place. (there are multiple students who have books)

3. ‘s to singular words ending in s, and nouns that are plural

My boss’s office My children’s toys

Apostrophes – Contractions

Use to combine two words (they are, he is, there is, etc.)

It is -> It’s a beautiful park They are -> They’re really good friends You are -> you’re good at this and so on.

[cosette141]

Tag with your punctuation of choice

[ideas-ideasideasideas]

Headcanon that instead of signing his threats Red Hood uses semicolons liberally (and correctly) because nobody up to their eyeballs in crime in his part of Gotham uses semicolons. ‘Don’t even try to run; I know all of your hideouts’ is a Certified Red Hood Threat. ‘I’m always watching; every minute every second’ is someone impersonating Red Hood.

[perryfellow]

[punctuation-completionist]

since today is punctuation day, i figured i'd talk with you about my favorite punctuation that is sadly not in unicode

(my apologies if these crop weird)

these six marks were invented by french writer hervé bazin in his essay plumons l'oiseau (or 'let's pluck the bird')

while the essay also had aim to switch the french language to a more phonetic writing system, it also gave us six new punctuation marks!

from left to right and top to bottom these are, the acclamation point, the authority mark, the conviction point, the doubt point, the irony mark, and the love point. so let's go over what these all were supposed to convey! (or at least what i expect they were supposed to)

the acclamation point was meant for praise, goodwill, and enthusiasm (ie "Well done [acclamation point]")

the authority mark was meant to be used in situations where the exclamation was serious and involved a degree of command or urgency (ie "Get in my office right now [authority mark]") i think this— along with the love point and irony mark— shows how a lot of these punctuation marks were a bit like early examples of tone tags, i'll get into it more later

the certitude point was used to show sureness in a fact. (ie "It's absolutely positively true [certitude point]") i think this might be the most useless of the bunch but whatever. i digress.

the doubt point is kind of the opposite of the certitude point, used when you aren't sure of something (ie "It should be done tomorrow [doubt point]") also it should be noted that the example used above is not the only way you'll see the doubt point, some also have it looking like this

the idea of irony marks has been widely suggested, for example the poet/art critic/song writer (i think, this guy's only wiki page is in french and i am guessing a bit on the word 'chansonnier') alcanter de brahm suggested an irony mark that resembled a backwards question mark (not to be confused with the percontation point which indicated a rhetorical question) and belgian inventor (among other things) marcellin jobard suggested a point that looked like an upwards arrow (this △ on top of this |, i can't paste it)

^ de brahm's mark

all that to say, bazin's mark was based off of the greek letter psi (Ψ) which some of you may recognize if you are familiar with the greek language or comics that shall not be named. it's used in situations of irony (ie saying "Wow, that sure was brilliant [irony mark]" if someone did something stupid)

and our last point is the love point, known for being so adorable, and indicating love or affection after a sentence (ie "Thanks a lot bud [love point]")

now we can obviously see that some of these are very similar to tone tags! the love point could be like a /pos, the irony mark is kinda like a /sarc, the authority mark could be like a /srs . i just thought it was interesting i guess. i don't have a point (heh) here exactly except that i guess people might actually need these punctuation marks ? so unicode? give me the love point or give me death

anyways so that's some fun niche history for y'all! hope you enjoyed

[the-football-chick]

Does anybody care anymore?

[writeouswriter]

There was a spill at the comma factory and my WIP was right in the splash zone, oh no, oh my God, my sentences are drowning in commas, help.

[willowcrowned]

“your sentence has too many commas” well maybe it’s just not to your taste did you think of that. maybe run on sentences are a bourgeois concept invented by the elites to keep the masses from true self expression. maybe you’re repressing the voices of the downtrodden by telling me my paragraphs are “tangled messes” and “nigh unreadable”

[sxnniiwrites]

Hyphens, En Dashes, and Em Dashes

Did you know that there's a difference between -, –, and —? There is! Your local grammar geek is here to help.

Hyphens: Hyphens are the shortest dash (-). These are used for compound words and phrases with hyphens in the middle. This post (https://www.grammarly.com/blog/open-and-closed-compound-words/) has a lot of great information about different types of compound words.

Note that hyphens are not used to cut a phrase short. Father-in-law, pet-friendly, self-motivated. The hyphen is used to connect the words of a compound phrase.

En Dashes: En dashes (–) are the second longest dash. They are used to indicate a range. For example, you may write a time period as 1993–1995. If you're estimating a number of objects, you may write that there are 3–5 objects.

For clarity, here's a hyphen and an en dash side by side again: -, –.

Em Dashes: Em dashes (—) are the longest dash and used similarly to commas or parentheses. They can be used to cut off a sentence or add facts and information. For example:

"'You lied! You told me that—' 'I didn't know she would be there!'"

"The dachshund—known for its long body and short legs—is a clever and playful breed."

To recap: Hyphens (-) are used for a certain type of compound words. En dashes (–) are used to indicate ranges. Em dashes (—) are used to interject. Note that none of these three dashes have spaces before or after. I hope this helps!

[writingwithfolklore]

Common Punctuation Mistakes

Last time we did punctuation rules, now we’re looking at mistakes you might be making in your sentences!

Sentence Fragments

This is an incomplete sentence—it lacks a subject, a verb, or a complete thought.

Wrong: “Because it was raining.” Fixed: “Because it was raining, we got soaked yesterday.” Or “We got soaked yesterday because it was raining.”

Run-on Sentences

This is two complete sentences that are joined together where there should be a pause, or they express more than one thought.

Wrong: "I never drink Starbucks it tastes burnt." Fixed: "I never drink Starbucks. It tastes burnt." Or “I never drink Starbucks because it tastes burnt.”

Comma Splices

This is when you connect two independent clauses with a comma.

Wrong: "Anna wants to go to the beach, Linda doesn’t want to go with."

Fixed: "Anna wants to go to the beach, but Linda doesn’t want to go with." Or “…go to the beach; Linda doesn’t…” Or “go to the beach. Linda doesn’t…”

Any other common punctuation mistakes you can think of?

[hometoursandotherstuff]

[thatsbelievable]

[vangoghs-other-ear]

les signes de ponctuation en fraçais

le point - period (🇺🇸) full stop (🇬🇧) [ . ]

la virgule - comma [ , ]

le point-virgule - semicolon [ ; ]

les deux points - colon [ : ]

Les trois points de suspension- ellipsis [ ... ]

le point d'interrogation- question mark [ ? ]

le point d'exclamation - exclamation mark [ ! ]

l'apostrophe (f) - apostrophe [ ' ]

les guillemets - guillemets [ « » ] (En anglais, on n’emploie jamais de guillemet français)

les guillemets anglais/les guillemets en apostrophe - quotation mark [ " " ] (🇺🇸) [ ' ' ] (🇬🇧) rarely/never used in French

les parenthèses - parenthesis [ ( ) ]

les crochets - brackets [ [ ] ]

les acolades - curly brackets/braces [ { } ]

le tiret - dash [ - ]

le tiret long/tiret cadratin - em dash [ — ]

la barre oblique/le slash - slash [ / ]

la barre oblique inversée/ le backslash - backslash [ \ ]

l'esperluette (f) - ampersand [ & ]

l'arobase - at sign [ @ ]

l'astérisque - asterisk [ * ]