The content below is not my own work. It comes from Lumen Learning, and it will assist you in understanding basics of punctuation.
Outcome: Punctuation
Critique the use of common punctuation marks.
Now that we’ve learned about the different types of words, it’s time to learn punctuation. These little marks can often be the cause of a lot of heartaches and headaches. Errors in punctuation can often have unintended meanings. For example consider the difference the comma makes in these two sentences:
However, punctuation doesn’t exist simply to cause problems; in fact, it was created to help communication. These marks were invented to guide readers through passages—to let them know how and where words relate to each other. When you learn the rules of punctuation, you equip yourself with an extensive toolset so you can better craft language to communicate the exact message you want.
As we mentioned at the beginning of this module, different style guides have slightly different rules for grammar. This is especially true when it comes to punctuation. This outcome will cover the MLA rules for punctuation, but we’ll also make note of rules from other styles when they’re significantly different.
What You Will Learn to Do
- Critique the use of end punctuation: periods, question marks, exclamation marks
- Critique the use of commas
- Critique the use of semicolons and colons
- Critique the use of hyphens and dashes
- Critique the use of apostrophes and quotation marks
- Critique the use of brackets, parentheses, and ellipses
End Punctuation
There are three punctuation marks that come at the end of a sentence: the period ( . ), the question mark ( ? ), and the exclamation point ( ! ). A sentence is always followed by a single space, no matter what the concluding punctuation is.
Periods
Periods indicate a neutral sentence, and as such are by far the most common ending punctuation mark. They’ve been at the end of every sentence on this page so far. They occur at the end of statements.
Question Marks
A question mark comes at the end of a question (How was class today?). A rhetorical question is asked to make a point, and does not expect an answer. Some questions are used principally as polite requests (Would you pass the salt?).
All of these questions can be categorized as direct questions, and all of these questions require a question mark at their ends.
Indirect Questions
Indirect questions do not have question marks at their ends. They can be used in many of the same ways as declarative ones, but they often emphasize knowledge or lack of knowledge:
- I can’t guess how Tamika managed it.
- I wonder whether I looked that bad.
- Cecil asked where the reports were.
Notice how different word order is used in direct and indirect questions: in direct questions the verb usually comes before the subject, while indirect questions the verb appears second.
Exclamation Points
The exclamation point is a punctuation mark usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feelings or high volume, and often marks the end of a sentence. You’ve likely seen this overused on the internet.
While this kind of statement is excessive, there are appropriate ways to use exclamation points. A sentence ending in an exclamation mark may be an exclamation (such as “Wow!” or “Boo!”), or an imperative (“Stop!”), or may indicate astonishment: “They were the footprints of a gigantic duck!”
The exclamation mark is sometimes used in conjunction with the question mark. This can be in protest or astonishment (“Out of all places, the water-hole?!”).
Informally, exclamation marks may be repeated for additional emphasis (“That’s great!!!”), but this practice is generally considered only acceptable in casual or informal writing, such as text messages or online communication with friends and family.
PRACTICE
Are ending punctuation marks used appropriately in these sentences? Explain why or why not. The sentences have been numbered to aid in your comments:
(1) One famous eighteenth-century Thoroughbred racehorse was named Potoooooooo, or Pot-8-Os! (2) He was a chestnut colt bred by Willoughby Bertie, 4th Earl of Abingdon, in 1773, and he was known for his defeat of some of the greatest racehorses of the time. (3) With a well-to-do background like this, where do you suppose his strange name came from.
(4) The horse once has a stable lad, who facetiously misspelled Potatoes. (5) Apparently, the owner thought the misspelling was funny enough to adopt it as the horse’s real name!
Punctuation Clusters
Occasionally, you’ll come across an instance that seems to require multiple punctuation marks right next to each other. Sometimes you need to keep all the marks, but other times, you should leave some out.
You should never use more than one ending punctuation mark in a row (period, question mark exclamation point). When quoting a question, you would end with a question mark, not a question mark and a period. If an abbreviation, like etc., ends a sentence, you should only use one period.
- Carlos leaned forward and asked, “Did you get the answer to number six?”
- I think we’ll have enough food. Mary bought the whole store: chips, soda, candy, cereal, etc.
However, you can place a comma immediately after a period, as you can see above with etc. This rule also applies to the abbreviations e.g. and i.e.
Periods and parentheses can also appear right next to each other. Sometimes the period comes after the closing parenthesis (as you can see earlier in this section), but sometimes it appears inside the parentheses. (This is an example of a sentence where the period falls within the parentheses.) We’ll learn more about this in Text: Brackets, Parentheses, and Ellipses.
PRACTICE
Identify punctuation errors in the following sentences. Type the corrected sentences in the text frame below:
- Dana had a lot of skills: reading, writing, note-taking, listening, etc..
- My sister looked over and asked, “Why do you have so many grapes in the shopping cart?.”
- Lucinda was the reigning Spring Queen (i.e. she had won the student vote at the last spring dance).
Commas
Commas: these little demons haunt the nightmares of many a professor after an evening of reading student papers. It seems nearly impossible to remember and apply the seventeen or so comma rules that seem to given out as the standard.
Perhaps the best and most instructive way for us to approach the comma is to remember its fundamental function: it is a separator. Once you know this, the next step is to determine what sorts of things generally require separation. This includes most transition words, descriptive words or phrases, adjacent items, and complete ideas (complete ideas contain both a subject and a verb). Commas are also used to separate similar items in lists.
Transition Words
Transition words add new viewpoints to your material; commas before and after transition words help to separate them from the sentence ideas they are describing. Transition words tend to appear at the beginning or in the middle of a sentence:
- Therefore, the natural gas industry can only be understood fully through an analysis of these recent political changes.
- The lead prosecutor was prepared, however, for a situation like this.
Note: As was mentioned, these words require commas at the beginning or middle of a sentence. When they appear between two complete ideas, however, a period or semicolon is required beforehand:
- Clint had been planning the trip with his kids for three months; however, when work called he couldn’t say no.
- Sam was retired. Nevertheless, he wanted to help out.
As you can see from these examples, comma is always required after transition words.
Descriptive Phrases
Descriptive phrases often need to be separated from the things that they describe. Descriptive phrases tend to come at the very beginning of a sentence, right after the subject of a sentence, or at the very end of a sentence:
- Near the end of the eighteenth century, James Hutton introduced a point of view that radically changed scientists’ thinking about geologic processes.
- James Lovelock, who first measured CFCs globally, said in 1973 that CFCs constituted no conceivable hazard.
- All of the major industrialized nations approved, making the possibility a reality.
In each example, the phrase separated by the comma could be deleted from the sentence without destroying the sentence’s basic meaning. If the information is necessary to the primary sentence meaning, it should not be set off by commas. Let’s look at a quick example of this:
- Jefferson’s son, Miles, just started college.
- Jefferson’s son Miles just started college
You would write the first sentence if Jefferson only has one son and his name is Miles. If Jefferson only has one son, then Miles is not needed information and should be set off with commas.
You would write the second sentence if Jefferson has multiple sons, and it is his son Miles who just got into college. In the second sentence, Miles is necessary information, because until his name is stated, you can’t be sure which of Jefferson’s sons the sentence is talking about.
This test can be very helpful when you’re deciding whether or not to include commas in your writing.
Adjacent Items
Adjacent items are separated so that the reader can consider each item individually.
The river caught fire on July 4, 1968, in Cleveland, Ohio.
The dates (July 4, 1968) and places (Cleveland, Ohio) are juxtaposed, and commas are needed because the juxtaposed items are clearly different from each other. This applies to countries as well as states: “Paris, France, is beautiful this time of year.”
PRACTICE
The commas have been removed from the following sentences. Re-type them, adding the correct commas back in.
- Sergi Sousa the top-ranked shoe designer in Rhode Island is going to be at the party tonight.
- Sergi only wears shoes that he created himself.
- Nevertheless he is incredibly courteous and polite to everyone he meets.
- He was born in Barcelona Spain on April 19 1987.
Coordinating Conjunctions: FANBOYS
We learned about coordinating conjunctions earlier in the course. These are words that join two words or phrases of equal importance. The mnemonic FANBOYS helps us remember the seven most common: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so.
When these conjunctions join two words or phrases, no comma is necessary (for more than two, take a look at “Commas in Lists” just below). However, when these conjunctions are used to join two complete ideas a comma is required:
- Paula and Lucca had a great time on their date.
- Danny studied the lifespan of rhinoceroses in their native Kenya and the lifespan of rhinoceroses in captivity.
- Minh turned off the lights but left the door unlocked.
- We could write this as two separate sentences, but we’ve chosen to join them together here.
Commas in Lists
Perhaps one of the most hotly contested comma rules is the case of the serial comma. MLA style (as well as APA and Chicago) requires the use of the serial comma—AP style highly recommends leaving it out. But what is the serial comma?
The serial comma is the comma before the conjunction (and, or, and nor) in a series involving a parallel list of three or more things. For example, “I am industrious, resourceful, and loyal.” The serial comma can provide clarity in certain situations. For example, if the and is part of a series of three or more phrases (groups of words) as opposed to single words:
Medical histories taken about each subject included smoking history, frequency of exercise, current height and weight, and recent weight gain.
The serial comma can also prevent the end of a series from appearing to be a parenthetical:
I’d like to thank my sisters, Beyoncé and Rhianna.
Without the serial comma, it may appear that the speaker is thanking his or her two sisters, who are named Beyoncé and Rhianna (which could be possible, but isn’t true in this case). By adding the serial comma, it becomes clear that the speaker is thanking his or her sisters, as well as the two famous singers: “I’d like to thank my sisters, Beyoncé, and Rhianna.”
By always using a comma before the and in any series of three or more, you honor the distinctions between each of the separated items, and you avoid any potential reader confusion.
PRACTICE
The commas have been removed from the following sentences. Re-type them, adding the correct commas back in.
- Victor and Ava were housesitting for Ava’s uncle while he was on vacation.
- Ava had purchased food at a grocery store and Victor decided to cook Ava one of her favorite meals.
- Ava’s favorite meals are cauliflower soup steak and eggs lasagna and chicken parmigiana.
- Victor thought about the work needed for each meal. Unfortunately his skills are mostly limited to eating buying or serving food.
- Victor and Ava decided to choose a restaurant and go out to eat.
Just as it is common for someone to have to look up the same tricky word dozens of times before committing its proper spelling to memory, you may need to reference comma rules multiple times before they feel natural to use. As with spelling, commas (or the absence of commas) must be repeatedly challenged in your writing.
As you perfect your comma usage, you will learn to recognize and reevaluate your sentence patterns, and the rewards are numerous. There is no foolproof or easy way to exorcise all of your comma demons, but a great place to start is reminding yourself of the comma’s basic function as a separator and justifying the separation of elements. In the end, you simply must make a habit of reading, writing, and revising with comma correctness in mind.
Hyphens and Dashes
Hyphens
The Oxford Manual of Style once stated, “If you take hyphens seriously you will surely go mad.” Hyphens belong to that category of punctuation marks that will hurt your brain if you think about them too hard, and, like commas, people disagree about their use in certain situations. Nevertheless, you will have to use them regularly because of the nature of academic and professional writing. If you learn to use hyphens properly, they help you to write efficiently and concretely.
The Hyphen’s Function
Fundamentally, the hyphen is a joiner. It can join several different types of things:
- two nouns to make one complete word (kilogram-meter)
- an adjective and a noun to make a compound word (accident-prone)
- two words that, when linked, describe a noun (agreed-upon sum, two-dimensional object)
- a prefix with a noun (un-American)
- double numbers (twenty-four)
- numbers and units describing a noun (1000-foot face; a 10-meter difference)
- “self” words (self-employed, self-esteem)
- new word blends (cancer-causing, cost-effective)
- prefixes and suffixes to words, in particular when the writer wants to avoid doubling a vowel or tripling a consonant (anti-inflammatory; shell-like)
- multiple adjectives with the same noun (blue- and yellow-green beads; four- and five-year-olds)
A rule of thumb for the hyphen is that the resulting word must act as one unit; therefore, the hyphen creates a new word that has a single meaning. Usually, you can tell whether a hyphen is necessary by applying common sense and mentally excluding one of the words in question, testing how the words would work together without the hyphen. For example, the phrases “high-pressure system,” “water-repellent surface,” and “fuel-efficient car” would not make sense without hyphens, because you would not refer to a “high system,” a “water surface,” or a “fuel car.” As your ears and eyes become attuned to proper hyphenation practices, you will recognize that both meaning and convention dictate where hyphens fit best.
Examples of Properly Used Hyphens
Some examples of properly used hyphens follow. Note how the hyphenated word acts as a single unit carrying a meaning that the words being joined would not have individually.
| small-scale study | two-prong plug | strength-to-weight ratio | high-velocity flow | frost-free lawn |
| self-employed worker | one-third majority | coarse-grained wood | decision-making process | blue-green algae |
| air-ice interface | silver-stained cells | protein-calorie malnutrition | membrane-bound vesicles | phase-contrast microscope |
| long-term-payment loan | cost-effective program | time-dependent variable | radiation-sensitive sample | long-chain fatty acid |
When Hyphens Are Not Needed
By convention, hyphens are not used after words ending in –ly, nor when the words are so commonly used in combination that no ambiguity results. In these examples, no hyphens are needed:
| finely tuned engine | blood pressure | sea level |
| real estate | census taker | atomic energy |
| civil rights law | public utility plant | carbon dioxide |
Note: Phrases like containing the word well like well known are contested. Well is an adverb, and thus many fall into the school of thought that a hyphen is unnecessary. However, others say that leaving out the hyphen may cause confusion and therefore include it (well-known). The standard in MLA is as follows: When it appears before the noun, well known should be hyphenated. When it follows the noun, no hyphenation is needed.
- She is a well-known person.
- She is well known.
Prefixes and Suffixes
Most prefixes do not need to be hyphenated; they are simply added in front of a noun, with no spaces and no joining punctuation necessary. The following is a list of common prefixes that do not require hyphenation when added to a noun:
| after | anti | bi | bio | co |
| cyber | di | down | hetero | homo |
| infra | inter | macro | micro | mini |
| non | photo | poly | stereo | thermo |
When prefixes are added to a proper noun, they require a hyphen (e.g., nonviolent, but non-European).
Note: The prefix re generally doesn’t require a hyphen. However, when leaving out a hyphen will cause confusion, one should be added. Look at the following word pairs, for example:
- resign (leave a position) v. re-sign (sign the paper again)
- recreation (an activity of leisure) v. re-creation (create something again)
Common suffixes also do not require hyphenation, assuming no ambiguities of spelling or pronunciation arise. Typically, you do not need to hyphenate words ending in the following suffixes:
| able | less | fold | like | wise |
Commonly Used Word Blends
Also, especially in technical fields, some words commonly used in succession become joined into one. The resulting word’s meaning is readily understood by technical readers, and no hyphen is necessary. Here are some examples of such word blends, typically written as single words:
| blackbody | groundwater | airship |
| downdraft | longwall | upload |
| setup | runoff | blowout |
PRACTICE
Identify the compounds in the following sentences. All compounds have been treated as open compounds. Correct any compounds that this is incorrect for:
- Have you ever seen someone with such a stereo typical appearance?
- This is all publicly available information.
- I bought a new yellow orange skirt last week.
- One half of participants failed to complete the study.
Dashes
The dash functions almost as a colon does in that it adds to the preceding material, but with extra emphasis. Like a caesura (a timely pause) in music, a dash indicates a strong pause, then gives emphasis to material following the pause. In effect, a dash allows you to redefine what was just written, making it more explicit. You can also use a dash as it is used in the first sentence of this paragraph: to frame an interruptive or parenthetical-type comment that you do not want to de-emphasize.
- Jill Emery confirms that Muslim populations have typically been ruled by non-Muslims—specifically Americans, Russians, Israelis, and the French.
- The dissolution took 20 minutes—much longer than anticipated—but measurements were begun as soon as the process was completed.
The dash we typically use is technically called the “em dash,” and it is significantly longer than the hyphen. There is also an “en dash”—whose length is between that of the hyphen and the em dash, and its best usage is to indicate inclusive dates and numbers:
- July 6–September 17
- The date range began on July 6 and ended on September 17.
- Barack Obama (1961–)
- This indicates the year a person was born, as well as the fact that he or she is still alive.
- pp. 148–56
- This indicates pages 148 through 156. With number ranges, you can remove the first digit of the second number if it’s the same as the first number’s.
It can also be used for flight or train routes.
- The London–Paris train will be running thirty minutes late today.
When you type the hyphen, en dash, and em dash, no spaces should appear on either side of the punctuation mark.
PRACTICE
Read the following passage. Identify any errors with hyphens or dashes. Type the corrected version of the passage in the text frame below:
John Milton Cage Jr. (1912-1992) was an American composer, music theorist, writer, and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music and the non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post—war avant-garde. Critics have lauded him as one of the most influential American composers of the twentieth-century.
Cage is perhaps best known for his 1952 composition 4′33″ a performance of the absence of deliberate sound. Musicians who present this piece do nothing aside from being present for the duration specified by the title. The content of the composition is not “four minutes and 33 seconds of silence”—as is often assumed, but rather the sounds of the environment heard by the audience during performance.
Apostrophes and Quotation Marks
Apostrophes
Possession
With possessives, the apostrophe is used in combination with an s to represent that a word literally or conceptually possesses what follows it. Singular words whether or not they end in s, are made possessive by adding an apostrophe + s. For plural words, we typically indicate possession simply by adding the apostrophe without an additional s. However, a plural that does not end in an s (e.g., bacteria), we would add an apostrophe + s.
- a student’s paper
- one hour’s passing
- Illinois’s law
- interviewees’ answers
- her professors’ office (an office shared by two of her professors; if it were just one professor we would write her professor’s office)
Contractions
A contraction is a shortened phrase. He will becomes he’ll, are not becomes aren’t, would have becomes would’ve, and it is becomes it’s. In all of these cases, the apostrophe stands in for the missing letters.
You may find yourself being steered away from using contractions in your papers. While you should write to your teacher’s preference, keep in mind that leaving out contractions can often make your words sound over formal and stilted. (And you shouldn’t eliminate contractions in your papers just to up your word count!)
YOUR VERSUS YOU’RE
Your versus You’re
- Your v. you’re
- Its v. it’s
- Their v. they’re
All three of these pairs are the same kind of pair: a possessive pronoun and a contracted version of a pronoun + to be (you’re = you are; it’s = it is; they’re = they are). These are easy to mix up (especially its/it’s) because—as we’ve learned—an apostrophe + s indicates possession. The best way to use these correctly is to remember that possessive pronouns never have an apostrophe: if there’s an apostrophe with a pronoun, it’s a contraction, not a possessive.
Acronyms and Numbers
In technical writing, acronyms and numbers are frequently pluralized with the addition of an apostrophe s, but this is falling out of favor, and there is typically no need to put an apostrophe in front of the s. Therefore, SSTs (sea surface temperatures) is more acceptable than SST’s when your intention is simply to pluralize.
Ideally, use the apostrophe before the s with an acronym or a number only to show possession (i.e., “an 1860’s law”; “DEP’s testing”) or when confusion would otherwise result (“mind your p’s and q’s”).
When talking about a specific decade the 1920s should be shortened to the ’20s. Notice that the apostrophe curls away from the numbers, indicating that the missing characters originally appeared prior to the apostrophe.
PRACTICE
Read the following passage. Identify any errors with apostrophes. Type the corrected words in the text frame below:
Thanks to NASAs’ team of sniffers, led by George Aldrich, astronauts can breathe a little bit easier. Aldrich is the “chief sniffer” at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico. His’s job is to smell items before they can be flown in the space shuttle.
Aldrich explained that smells change in space and that once astronauts are up there, their stuck with whatever smells are onboard with them. In space, astronauts aren’t able to open the window for extra ventilation. He also said that its important not to introduce substances that will change the delicate balance of the climate of the International Space Station and the space shuttle.
Quotation Marks
There are three typical ways quotation marks are used. The first is pretty self-explanatory: you use quotation marks when you’re making a direct quote.
- He said “I’ll never forget you.” It was the best moment of my life.
- Yogi Berra famously said, “A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.”
If you’re just writing an approximation of something a person said, you would not use quotation marks:
- She told me about Pizza the three-toed sloth yesterday.
- He said that he would be late today.
The second is when you’re calling attention to a word. For example:
- I can never say “Worcestershire” correctly.
- How do you spell “definitely”?
Note: It is this course’s preference to use italics in these instances:
- I can never say Worcestershire correctly.
- How do you spell definitely?
However, using quotes is also an accepted practice.
The last use is scare quotes. This is the most misused type of quotation marks. People often think that quotation marks mean emphasis.
- Buy some “fresh” chicken today!
- We’ll give it our “best” effort.
- Employees “must” wash their hands before returning to work.
However, when used this way, the quotation marks insert a silent “so-called” into the sentence, which is often the opposite of the intended meaning.
Where do Quotation Marks Go?
Despite what you may see practiced, the fact is that the period and comma always go inside the quotation marks. (The rules in British English are different, which may be where some of the confusion arises.)
- Correct: The people of the pine barrens are often called “pineys.”
- Incorrect: The people of the pine barrens are often called “pineys”.
The semicolon, colon, dash, question mark, and exclamation point can fall insider outside of the quotation marks, depending on whether the punctuation is a part of the original quote:
- This measurement is commonly known as “dip angle”; dip angle is the angle formed between a normal plane and a vertical.
- Built only 50 years ago, Shakhtinsk—“minetown”—is already seedy.
- When she was asked the question “Are rainbows possible in winter?” she answered by examining whether raindrops freeze at temperatures below 0 °C. (Quoted material has its own punctuation.)
- Did he really say “Dogs are the devil’s henchmen”? (The quote is a statement, but the full sentence is a question.)
PRACTICE
Has the following passage been punctuated correctly? Type any corrections in the text frame below:
Gabrielly and Marcelo both knew a lot of “fun facts” that they liked to share with each other. Yesterday Gabrielly said to Marcelo, “Did you know that wild turkeys can run up to twenty-five miles per hour?”
“Well, an emu can run twice that speed,” Marcelo responded.
“Did you know that there’s a dinosaur-themed park in Poland called JuraPark Bałtów”? Gabrielly asked.
Marcelo then told her about “Rusik, the first Russian police sniffer cat, who helped search for illegal cargoes of fish and caviar”.
Brackets, Parentheses, and Ellipses
Parentheses
Parentheses are most often used to identify material that acts as an aside (such as this brief comment) or to add incidental information.
Other punctuation marks used alongside parentheses need to take into account their context. If the parentheses enclose a full sentence beginning with a capital letter, then the end punctuation for the sentence falls inside the parentheses. For example:
Typically, suppliers specify air to cloth ratios of 6:1 or higher. (However, ratios of 4:1 should be used for applications involving silica or feldspathic minerals.)
If the parentheses indicate a citation at the end of a sentence, then the sentence’s end punctuation comes after the parentheses are closed:
In a study comparing three different building types, respirable dust concentrations were significantly lower in the open-structure building (Hugh et al., 2005).
Finally, if the parentheses appear in the midst of a sentence (as in this example), then any necessary punctuation (such as the comma that appeared just a few words ago) is delayed until the parentheses are closed.
You can also use parentheses to provide acronyms (or full names for acronyms). For example, “We use the MLA (Modern Language Association) style guide here” or “The Modern Language Association (MLA) style guide is my favorite to use.”
Remember, parentheses always appear in pairs. If you open a parenthesis, you need another to close it!
PRACTICE
Have the parentheses been used correctly in the following sentences? Correct any errors you find.
- (Escobar et al., 2014) wrote about this phenomenon in their most recent paper.
- NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) just announced three new initiatives.
- Michael lost the wrestling competition. (He also lost his temper).
- Helena took the chocolate bars (her favorites) and gave Davi the sour candies.
Brackets
Brackets are a fairly uncommon punctuation mark. Their main use is in quotations: they can be used to clarify quotes. For example, say you want to quote the following passage:
“I finally got to meet Trent today. I had a really great time with him. He was a lot taller than expected, though.”
However, you only want to relay the fact that Trent was taller than the speaker expected him to be. In order to do this, you would write the following: “[Trent] was a lot taller than expected.”
The brackets let the reader know that while the word Trent wasn’t in the original quote, his name was implied there. When using brackets, you need to be careful not to change the original meaning of the quote.
Another use of brackets is when there is a spelling or informational error in the original quote. For example, “Gabriel sat down on the river bank to fed [sic] the ducks.” (The term sic means that the typo was in the original source of this quote.)
PRACTICE
Read the following passages. Imagine you want to quote the numbered sentences. Each sentence would appear separately. Use brackets to indicate the best way to do so.
(1) Mont Vesuvius is a stratovolcano in the Gulf of Naples, Italy, about 5.6 mi east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of several volcanoes which form the Campanian volcanic arc. (2) It consists of a large cone partially encircled by the steep rim of a summit caldera caused by the collapse of an earlier and originally much higher structure.
(3) Mount Vesuvius is best known for its eruption in CE 79 that led to the burying and destruction of the Roman cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and several other settlements.
Ellipses
An ellipsis (plural ellipses) is a series of three periods, as you can see in the icon to the right.
As with most punctuation marks, there is some contention about its usage. The main point of contention is whether or not there should be a space between the periods (. . .) or not (…). MLA, APA, and Chicago, the most common style guides for students, support having spaces between the periods. Others you may encounter, such as in journalism, may not.
Quotes
Like the brackets we just learned about, you will primarily see ellipses used in quotes. They indicate a missing portion in a quote. Look at the following quote for an example:
Camarasaurus, with its more mechanically efficient skull, was capable of generating much stronger bite forces than Diplodocus. This suggests that Camarasaurus was capable of chomping through tougher plant material than Diplodocus, and was perhaps even capable of a greater degree of oral processing before digestion. This actually ties in nicely with previous hypotheses of different diets for each, which were based on apparent feeding heights and inferences made from wear marks on their fossilized teeth.
Diplodocus seems to have been well-adapted, despite its weaker skull, to a form of feeding known as branch stripping, where leaves are plucked from branches as the teeth are dragged along them. The increased flexibility of the neck of Diplodocus compared to other sauropods seems to support this too.
It’s a lengthy quote, and it contains more information than you want to include. Here’s how to cut it down:
Camarasaurus, with its more mechanically efficient skull, was capable of generating much stronger bite forces than Diplodocus. This suggests that Camarasaurus was capable of chomping through tougher plant material than Diplodocus. . . . This actually ties in nicely with previous hypotheses of different diets for each, which were based on apparent feeding heights and inferences made from wear marks on their fossilized teeth.
Diplodocus seems to have been well-adapted . . . to a form of feeding known as branch stripping, where leaves are plucked from branches as the teeth are dragged along them.
In the block quote above, you can see that the first ellipsis appears to have four dots. (“They are instantly recognized by their long, sweeping necks and whiplashed tails. . . .”) However, this is just a period followed by an ellipsis. This is because ellipses do not remove punctuation marks when the original punctuation still is in use; they are instead used in conjunction with original punctuation. This is true for all punctuation marks, including periods, commas, semi-colons, question marks, and exclamation points.
By looking at two sympatric species (those that lived together) from the fossil graveyards of the Late Jurassic of North America . . . , [David Button] tried to work out what the major dietary differences were between sauropod dinosaurs, based on their anatomy.
One of the best ways to check yourself is to take out the ellipsis. If the sentence or paragraph is still correctly punctuated, you’ve used the ellipsis correctly. (Just remember to put it back in!)
PRACTICE
Quote the following passage, using ellipses to remove the bolded portions and using brackets for clarity where necessary.
Sauropod dinosaurs are the biggest animals to have ever walked on land. They are instantly recognized by their long, sweeping necks and whiplashed tails, and nearly always portrayed moving in herds, being stalked by hungry predators. In recent years, a huge amount of taxonomic effort from scientists has vastly increased the number of known species of sauropod. What we now know is that in many areas we had two or more species co-existing alongside each other. A question that arises from this, is how did we have animals that seem so similar, and with such high energy and dietary requirements, living alongside one another? Was there some sort of spinach-like super plant that gave them all Popeye-like physical boosts, or something more subtle?
The ellipsis can also indicate . . . a pause. This use is typically informal, and is only be used in casual correspondence (e.g., emails to friends, posts on social media, texting) or in literature. Because this use occurs in literature, you may find yourself quoting a passage that already has an ellipsis in it. For example, look at this passage spoken by Lady Bracknell, in The Importance of Being Ernest.
Well, I must say, Algernon, that I think it is high time that Mr. Bunbury made up his mind whether he was going to live or to die. This shilly-shallying with the question is absurd. Nor do I in any way approve of the modern sympathy with invalids. I consider it morbid. Illness of any kind is hardly a thing to be encouraged in others. Health is the primary duty of life. I am always telling that to your poor uncle, but he never seems to take much notice . . . as far as any improvement in his ailment goes. I should be much obliged if you would ask Mr. Bunbury, from me, to be kind enough not to have a relapse on Saturday, for I rely on you to arrange my music for me. It is my last reception, and one wants something that will encourage conversation, particularly at the end of the season when every one has practically said whatever they had to say, which, in most cases, was probably not much.
If you were to quote the passage, it may appear that something has been removed from the quote. So how can we indicate that this is not the case? If you think back to the bracket rules we just discussed, you may remember that [sic] can be used to show that an error was in the original. In a similar practice, we can enclose the ellipsis in brackets to show it appeared in the original work:
Well, I must say, Algernon, that I think it is high time that Mr. Bunbury made up his mind whether he was going to live or to die. This shilly-shallying with the question is absurd. Nor do I in any way approve of the modern sympathy with invalids. I consider it morbid. Illness of any kind is hardly a thing to be encouraged in others. Health is the primary duty of life. I am always telling that to your poor uncle, but he never seems to take much notice [. . .] as far as any improvement in his ailment goes. I should be much obliged if you would ask Mr. Bunbury, from me, to be kind enough not to have a relapse on Saturday, for I rely on you to arrange my music for me. It is my last reception, and one wants something that will encourage conversation, particularly at the end of the season when every one has practically said whatever they had to say, which, in most cases, was probably not much.
Semicolons and Colons
Semicolons
The semicolon is one of the most misunderstood and misused punctuation marks; in fact, it is often mistaken for the colon (which we’ll discuss next). However, these two punctuation marks are not interchangeable. A semicolon connects two complete ideas (a complete idea has a subject and a verb) that are connected to each other. Look at this sentence for example:
Anika’s statue is presently displayed in the center of the exhibit; this location makes it a focal point and allows it to direct the flow of visitors to the museum.
The first idea tells us where Anika’s statue is, and the second idea tells us more about the location and it’s importance. Each of these ideas could be its own sentence, but by using a semicolon, the author is telling the reader that the two ideas are connected. Often, you may find yourself putting a comma in the place of the semicolon; this is incorrect. Using a comma here would create a run-on sentence (we’ll discuss those more in Text: Run-on Sentences). Remember: a comma can join a complete idea to other items while a semicolon needs a complete idea on either side.
The semicolon can also be used to separate items in a list when those items have internal commas. For example, say you’re listing a series of cities and their states, or you’re listing duties for a resume:
- As a photographer for National Geographic, Renato had been to a lot of different places including São Paulo, Brazil; Kobe, Japan; Kyiv, Ukraine; and Barcelona, Spain.
- As an engineering assistant, I had a variety of duties: participating in pressure ventilation surveys; completing daily drafting, surveying, and data compilation; and acting as a company representative during a roof-bolt pull test.
Colons
The colon: well-loved but, oh, so misunderstood. The colon is not just used to introduce a list; it is far more flexible. The colon can be used after the first word of a sentence or just before the final word of a sentence. The colon can also be used to introduce a grammatically independent sentence. Thus, it is one of the most powerful punctuation marks.
The colon is like a sign on the highway, announcing that something important is coming. It acts as an arrow pointing forward, telling you to read on for important information. A common analogy used to explain the colon is that it acts like a flare in the road, signaling that something meaningful lies ahead.
Use the colon when you wish to provide pithy emphasis.
- To address this problem, we must turn to one of the biologist’s most fundamental tools: the Petri dish.
Use the colon to introduce material that explains, amplifies, or summaries what has preceded it.
- The Petri dish: one of the biologist’s most fundamental tools.
- In low carbon steels, banding tends to affect two properties in particular: tensile ductility and yield strength.
The colon is also commonly used to present a list or series:
- A compost facility may not be located as follows: within 300 feet of an exceptional-value wetland, within 100 feet of a perennial stream, or within 50 feet of a property line.
PRACTICE
Are the semicolons and colons used correctly in the following sentences? Write your corrections and comments in the text frame below. The sentences have been numbered to aid in your comments.
(1) The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient analogue computer likely used for several purposes including: predicting astronomical positions and eclipses and calculating Olympiads: the cycles of the ancient Olympic Games. (2) The device is a complex clockwork mechanism composed of at least 30 meshing bronze gears. (3) Its remains were found as one lump; it was recovered from a shipwreck, and the device was originally housed in a wooden box. (4) This lump was later separated into 82 separate fragments after extensive conservation work.
(5) The artifact was recovered probably in July 1901 from the Antikythera shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera. (6) Believed to have been designed and constructed by Greek scientists; the instrument has recently been dated to 205 BC. (7) After the knowledge of this technology was lost at some point in antiquity, technological artifacts approaching its complexity and workmanship did not appear again until the development of mechanical astronomical clocks in Europe in the fourteenth century.
(8) All known fragments of the Antikythera mechanism are kept at the National Archaeological Museum, Athens.
Try It: Punctuation
Read the following introduction to an academic paper written by an undergraduate linguistics student. Has the punctuation in this passage been used effectively? Identify any errors, and comment where punctuation might be used to a better effect. The sentences have been numbered to aid you in your comments.
(1) American culture today is filled with external references—every piece of media seems to be connected to at least three others in some way or another. (2) Its almost jarring to sit through a movie, that doesn’t make some type of reference to a preexisting work. (3) This kind of interplay between different works is called intertextuality a term coined in 1986 by Julia Kristeva. (4) This paper will look at the intertextuality present in the children’s movie Enchanted; specifically, it will examine the kind of references made and the reason behind those references.
(5) Intertexuality in children’s movies is a little unique because these films must appeal to two vastly different audiences: young children and their parents. (6) While children are the primary target audience for these movies parents are the ones who will ultimately purchase the movie (or not). (7) Because of these two distinct audiences, intertextuality appears constantly in childrens’ media to create humor and to add interest for adults who may find themselves watching the same movie tens of times.
The speech below is given by Gwendolen in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest (Act 1, Scene 1). Imagine you want to quote this speech in a paper, leaving out the bolded portions. How would you insert this quote into your paper? Be sure to correctly cite the quotation as well.
Jack? . . . No, there is very little music in the name Jack, if any at all, indeed. It does not thrill. It produces absolutely no vibrations . . . I have known several Jacks, and they all, without exception, were more than usually plain. Besides, Jack is a notorious domesticity for John! And I pity any woman who is married to a man called John. She would probably never be allowed to know the entrancing pleasure of a single moment’s solitude. The only really safe name is Ernest.
- Outcome: Punctuation. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution
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