How to use quotation marks ?
There is only one use of quotation marks (or quotes, speech marks, or inverted commas, as they are often called): To enclose a direct quotation [Hamlet’s most famous speech begins:…
How to use the dash ?
The dash has only one major use: To use in pairs to separate a strong interruption from the rest of the sentence (a strong interruption, as opposed to a weak…
How to use the hyphen ?
There are two main uses of the hyphen: In writing compound words that would be ambiguous, hard to read or excessively long [no-smoking sign and black-cab driver] To indicate that…
How to use the apostrophe ?
The apostrophe is the most misused punctuation mark in the English language by far, but this should not be the case since there are only two major uses of the…
How to use the semicolon ?
The semicolon has two similar major uses: To join two complete sentences into a single written sentence when the two sentences are too closely related to be separately by a…
How to use the ellipsis ?
The ellipsis (…), sometimes called the suspension or omission marks, has three uses: to show that some material has been omitted from a direct quotation [One of Churchill’s most famous…
How to use the colon ?
The colon has two uses: To indicate that what follows it is an explanation or elaboration of what precedes it (the rule being that the more general statement is followed…
How to use the comma ?
The comma is used very frequently but is also often used incorrectly. There are four distinct uses of the comma: A listing comma is used as a kind of substitute…