Flyer Punctuation Primer WHY IT MATTERS: Proper punctuation serves the same function as road signs along the

highway. It keeps the reader from getting lost. You dont want to lose your reader, do you? GLOSSARY OF OFT-MISUSED PUNCTUATION APOSTROPHE: primarily used to show possession or as a contraction between a noun and the verb is. Possessive cases Ex: The suns rays (there is one sun; the apostrophe comes before the s) Ex: The singers voices (there are many singers; the apostrophe follows the s) Ex: Jamess hat (even if it ends in an s, a singular noun ends in apostrophe s) Ex: The hostess seat. The boss sister. (although hostess and boss are singular, they merely take an apostrophe because the following word begins with s. This is a special case.) Contraction Ex: The trains running late. (While perfectly acceptable, try to avoid such use outside of quotes. Say is.) Ex: Contraction vs. possessive with It Ex: The ball flies over the fence. Its gone. (As in it is gone. Use the apostrophe.) Ex: The ball flies over the fence. Its stitches come loose. (It possesses the stitches; no apostrophe.) COMMA: delineates a brief pause Blocking off interruptive clauses (it takes two!) Ex: Pete Hicks, editor-in-chief of The Flyer, announced his decision. Ex: The Sea Gulls, who were ranked fourth in the Capital Athletic Conference entering the match, managed to win five out of six sets. Separating independent clauses Use commas to separate independent clauses when they are joined by any of these seven coordinating conjunctions: and, but, for, or, nor, so, yet. Ex: The dog leapt into the air, but he failed to catch the Frisbee. (These are independent clauses because you could replace the comma with a period and you would have two complete sentences.)

Ex: I couldnt find my glasses, so I wore contacts instead. Ex: President Barack Obama called on Congress to pass a budget, and the Federal Reserve took steps to head off a financial panic. After phrases, clauses or words that appear before the main clause Ex: Foiled by the stalemate in Washington, advocates turned to a grassroots campaign instead. Ex: After my first year in college, I applied for an internship. Ex: Destitute and alone, the artist bartered away his last painting for a box of Cheerios. Ex: If you cant find chicken stock, just use chicken broth. Two adjectives, one noun Use commas to separate two or more coordinate adjectives that describe the same noun. Ex: A cold, blustery day Ex: The toughest, most strenuous bike route HYPHEN: To combine two words when use together as an adjective (except when the first ends in -ly) Ex: A follow-up question Ex: long-range plans Ex: weather-induced headache Ex: commonly held belief COLON: use at the end of a sentence to introduce a list or a statement or definition. Lists Ex: To make a cake, you need three ingredients: flour, sugar and baking powder. Ex: The City Councils campaign to revive downtown faces several obstacles: a moribund economy, decades of disrepair and a road bypass that shunts traffic toward the suburbs. Statements or definitions (If you read my writing, you know this is one of my favorites) Ex: She had one goal: beating cancer. (The word after the colon isnt capitalized if wh at follows isnt a complete sentence.) Ex: Memo to fifth-year seniors: Its going to cost a lot more to live on campus soon. (Its is a complete sentence so it begins with a capital letter.)

Ex: On this, most city leaders agree: The flooding problem is going to get worse before it gets better. Ex: Liberal arts students face a dilemma that their peers in applied degrees dont: continue following their passion and risk ending up jobless or switch to a major that leads to acquiring marketable skills. (Despite the length of what comes after the colon, its not a complete sentence, so the first letter isnt capitalized.) SEMICOLON: used to join two clauses that could be separate sentences. Jeremy tip: Its just better to use a period 99 percent of the time. Ex: The English call it football; Americans call it soccer. Also used to join two clauses that include connecting words, such as therefore. Ex: He wanted to take a shower; however, the ongoing utility work outside his house meant he had no water. And to link complex lists Ex: The strange string of weather included rain, which fell in torrents; wind that blew hard enough to knock doors off their hinges; and baseball-size hail, the largest recorded in the area in more than a quarter-century. DASH: hated by English teachers, loved by journalists. Its for when a colon or semicolon wont quite do. It indicates added emphasis, an interruption, or an abrupt change of thought. Note on the dash: Its more than just pressing the hyphen key once. Hit it twice in a row like this --. Now youve got yourself a dash. Leave a space before and after it, too. Ex: The cypress knees, the relentless drizzle, the swampy consistency of what passes here for land visitors to this green corner of Delmarva could be forgiven for thinking they have been transported to a place much closer to the equator. Ex: I never met anyone I really liked before you. Ex: Everything about summertime the long days, the mild weather, the blooming flowers is awesome. (Note: The is remains as if the list in the middle doesnt count.) Ex: Our team only had one thing on its mind finding the bus and getting the heck out of that place, the goalkeeper said. (If this werent a quote, Id probably use a colon. But people speak informally. Therefore, the dash is more appropriate inside quotes.)