Self Study Guide for English Punctuation: Punctuation Rules for English
Punctuation is a convention of written language that structures and organizes writing for the ease of both readers and writers. Learning how to use punctuation marks correctly is a technical necessity for becoming a good writer. This self study guide for English punctuation explains how to correctly use punctuation marks in written English and includes activities for reinforcing the learning of these punctuation rules.
Punctuation Study Guide
Give each student a copy of the following self study guide for English punctuation:
Apostrophes
- Form possessive nouns
- Form contractions
- Indicate omissions of letters and sounds
- Pluralize lowercase letters and words used as words
Brackets
- Enclose clarifications within quotation marks
- Enclose parenthetical information within parenthetical information
- Indicate errors in direct quotations
- Indication revisions in direct quotations
- Indicate word origin
Braces
- Enclose numeric sets
- Indicate sets of equal and independent choices
Colons
- Introduce lists that are not part of the grammatical structure of the main clause
- Introduce quotations that are independent from the grammatical structure of the main clause
- Introduce block quotations
- Introduce elaborations that provide additional details about the initial clause
- Join two independent clauses in which the second clause is an emphasization that emphasizes the first clause
- Introduce rules and principles
- Introduce appositives that are not part of the grammatical structure of the clause
- Separate hours and minutes in time notations
- Separate chapters and verses in Bible references
- End business letter salutations
Commas
- Separate items in a series
- Separate two or more independent clauses joined by coordinating conjunctions
- Separate coordinate adjectives
- Separate nonrestrictive modifiers
- Separate appositives that are not essential to the meaning of the sentence
- Separate prepositional phrases and clauses that precede the main clause
- Separate alternative or contrasted coordinate phrases
- Transition between quotations
- Indicate thousands, millions, billions, and so on in higher numbers
- Separate the day of the week from the month, the day from the year, and the year from the rest of the sentence in dates
- Separate street addresses and city names, city names and state names, and state names and countries in geographical locations
- Separate a personal title that follows a name
- Separate a brief interjection from the main clause
- Separate a direct address from the main clause
Dashes
- Separate appositive that contain commas or commas and semicolons
- Introduce explanations that are not part of the grammatical structure of the main clause
- Introduce an explanation of a preceding series
Double Quotation Marks
- Enclose direct quotations
- Indicate titles of minor works and smaller parts of whole works including short stories; magazine, newspaper, journal, and other periodical articles; short poems; essays; songs; one-act plays; speeches, lectures, and sermons; chapters; short films; and television and radio show episodes
- Mark a special sense of a use of a word or phrase
- Indicate words and phrases being purposely misused or being used ironically
- Enclose translations of a foreign word or phrase
Ellipses
- Indicate omissions in direct quotations
- Indicate pauses and interruptions in speech
Exclamation Marks
- End sentences including imperative and declarative sentences that convey strong emotion
- Mark emphatic interjections that are not part of the grammatical structure of the main clause
Hyphens
- Spell compound numbers between twenty-one and ninety-nine
- Separate numerators and denominators in fractions
- Spell some compound nouns
- Join coequal nouns
- Join compound modifiers that precede nouns
- Separate words in phrases functioning as modifiers that precede nouns
- Spell certain prefixes and suffixes
- Avoid confusion and misreading
Interrobangs
- Ask questions with excitement or disbelief
Italicization
- Indicate titles of major works including books; magazines, newspapers, journals, and other periodicals; music albums and long musical pieces; full-length plays; long poems; television and radio shows; movies and films; artworks; famous speeches; and pamphlets
- Emphasize words and phrases
- Identify letters and words used as words
- Identify linguistic examples
- Identify foreign words and phrases
Parentheses
- Introduce emphasizations with a moderate level of emphasis
- Enclose clarifications
- Enclose asides and additional information that are not part of the grammatical structure of the main clause
- Enclose numbers or letters in a list that is part of the grammatical structure of the clause
Periods
- End most declarative and some imperative sentences
- Mark most abbreviations
- Separate integrals from fractional parts of numbers
- Separate elements in poetry and play citations
- Separate computer file names with computer file extensions
- Separate elements of Internet addresses
Question Marks
- End interrogative sentences
- Indicate uncertain dates and numbers
Semicolons
- Join to related independent clauses of equal emphasis
- Join two independent clauses in which the second clause begins with an adverb or short parenthetical that is not essential to the meaning of the sentence
- Separate items that contain commas in a series
Single Quotation Marks
- Enclose direct quotations inside direct quotations
- Enclose translations of a foreign word or phrase
Slashes
- Separate alternatives
- Represent the word per
- Indicate certain abbreviations
- Indicate line breaks in poetry in quotations of less than four lines
- Separate numerators and denominators in numerical fractions
- Divide the month, day, and year in the informal representations of dates
This self study guide for English punctuation is also available for download at Self Study Guide for English Punctuation.
Punctuation Practice Activities
Use one or more of the following punctuation practice activities to supplement the information from the self study guide for English punctuation:
- Have the students find or write an example for each rule
- Have the student correct incorrect punctuation use in sample sentences
- Have the students punctuate passage in which all the punctuation marks have been removed
- Use the same sentence with different punctuation to demonstrate how punctuation marks affect meaning, e.g., “Woman, without her man, is nothing.” versus “Woman: without her, man is nothing.”
Teaching students to properly punctuate written language is easy with this self study guide for English punctuation. Once student writers learn and understand the punctuation rules for written English, punctuating their own writing will come naturally.