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Period .

  1. Used to end a sentence.
  2. Used to end an abbreviation.
  3. If an abbreviation comes at the end of a sentence, one period ends both the abbreviation and the sentence etc.
  4. Three periods in succession is an ellipse and is used in quotes to tell the reader that there is more to the quote.
    1. "I was walking home...I found some money."
  5. The three periods is also known to denote the brief passage of time.
    1. Example: 10...9...8...7...6

Question Mark ?

  1. Used to end a sentence that asks a question.
  2. Do you understand?
  3. Where were you?
  4. When do you use a comma?

Sidenote Indirect Questions

  1. Indirect questions are statements that relay a questions someone else has asked.
  2. Examples
  3. Jenny wants to know what time we are leaving for the movies.
  4. They want to know why we don't want to buy the house.
  5. The students are wondering why they all did so poorly on the test.

Exclamation Point !

  1. Use sparingly--repeat sparingly.
  2. Often used with Interjections. Ouch! That hurts.
  3. Learn Microsoft Office! Exclamation points don't make boring things exciting.

Semicolon ;

Used to connect two sentences together instead of a period.

    1. Measles and Influenza are two viruses that have vaccines to defend against them; however, some people are afraid of vaccines.
    2. I am happy; you are not happy.
    3. Machines break down; a team can’t get moving fast enough, or a simple step is forgotten.

Semicolons are used to separate items in a list when those items contain commas.

  1. Typically, this involves a panoply of technology—if the lungs have failed, a mechanical ventilator and perhaps a tracheostomy tube; if the heart has given out, an aortic balloon pump; a dialysis machine if the kidneys don’t work.
  2. To save this one child, scores of people had to carry out thousands of steps correctly: placing the heart-pump tubing into her without letting in air bubbles; maintaining the sterility of her lines, her open chest, the burr hole in her skull; keeping a temperamental battery of machines up and running.

Dash — and Colon :

  1. Dash = informal; Colon = formal
  2. Used to demark a clarification or summarization at the end of a sentence.
    1. For every drowned and pulseless child rescued by intensive care, there are many more who don’t make it—and not just because their bodies are too far gone.
    2. Intensive-care medicine has become the art of managing extreme complexity—and a test of whether such complexity can, in fact, be humanly mastered.
    3. Forty-eight hours later, the results returned: all of them were infected.
    4. This is the reality of intensive care: at any point, we are as apt to harm as we are to heal.

Used to start a list that comes at the end of a sentence.

  1. The damage that the human body can survive these days is as awesome as it is horrible: crushing, burning, bombing...
  2. To save this one child, scores of people had to carry out thousands of steps correctly: placing the heart-pump tubing...
  3. Typically, this involves a panoply of technology—a mechanical ventilator and perhaps a tracheostomy tube if the lungs have failed...
  4. Success required having an array of equipment and people at the ready—helicopter-rescue personnel, trauma surgeons...

Apostrophe

  1. Contractions and Possession
  2. Contraction: Two words are contracted together or one word is shortened.
  3. Possession: Something or someone owns something else.
  4. Singular Possession: One thing owns one or many.
  5. Plural Possession: More than one thing or person owns one or many.
  6. Compound Possession: Two separate things or persons own one or many.

Contractions
When you put two words together or shorten one, put the apostrophe in place of the missing letters. If you want to avoid problems with contractions, don't use them.

  1. Examples
  2. it's = it + is
  3. would've = would + have
  4. could've = could + have
  5. isn't = is + not
  6. you're = you + are
  7. they're = they + are
  8. here's = here + is

Singular Possession = one person or thing possesses one or many things. Add an 's for singular possession.

  1. Mike's bikes or bike...
  2. The city's downtown...
  3. The wolf's winter coat...
  4. The child's Christmas presents...
  5. Mr Jones's brand new car...(older rule)
  6. Mr Jones' brand new car...(book rule)
  7. Maria's driver's license...
  8. One day's pay...
  9. A good night's sleep...

Plural Possession = More than one person or thing possesses one or many things. Add an s' to words that are not already plural.

  1. Mikes' bikes or bike...
  2. The students' books...
  3. The Jones' brand new family farm...
  4. Three weeks' vacation...
  5. My teachers' tests...
  6. Two weeks' notice...
  7. Twenty-four hours' notice...

Plural Possession for words that have different endings when plural, such as cities, wolves, and theives, simply add an apostrophe to the end of the word.

  1. The wolves' territory...
  2. The cities' affordable housing problem...
  3. The theives' plan...
  4. The elves' treasure...

Compound possession occurs when compound subjects of a sentence possess something together. For these add an 's to the last subject in the list of subjects.

  1. Michael and Christina's bike...
  2. The students and teachers' books just came in.
  3. Ben and Jerry's ice cream is delicious.
  4. Jenny and Donny's burger restaurant...
  5. Carrie, Amanda, Charlotte, and Samantha's television show...
  6. Dr Martin and Dr Czechovsky's research paper...

If all the subjects in a compound possession have own their own thing or item, they then each get their own 's and what they possess must be plural because they each are getting their own thing to possess.

  1. Michael's and Christina's bikes...(Each owns their own bike.)
  2. The student's and teachers' books just came in. (Each gets their own book.)
  3. Ben's and Jerry's ice creams taste different. (Each owns a different ice cream.)
  4. Mark's and Donny's burger restaurants...(Each gets their own restaurant.)
  5. Carrie's, Amanda's, Charlotte's, and Samantha's television shows are doing well this season. (Each has their own TV show.)

Quotation Marks

  1. Text wrapped in them signifies exactly what someone or something said: a direct quote.
  2. Examples
  3. Bill said, "I don't like all the tolls in Illinois."
  4. "I was walking down the street counting my money," Lisa stated to the police, "when a dog jumped up and grabbed it out of my hand."
  5. "If we expect to have a nation that is both ignorant and free, we expect to have something that has never happened and will never be," wrote Thomas Jefferson in 1778.

Quotation Marks

  1. Text wrapped in them signifies exactly what someone or something said: a direct quote.
  2. Examples
  3. Bill said, "I don't like all the tolls in Illinois."
  4. "I was waking down the street counting my money," Lisa stated to the police, "when a dog jumped up and grabbed it out of my hand."
  5. "If we expect to have a nation that is both ignorant and free, we expect to have something that has never happened and will never be," wrote Thomas Jefferson in 1778.

Sidenote Paraphrasing

  1. Paraphrasing is a restatement of what was said so no quotes are necessary.
  2. The difference...
  3. Thomas Jefferson said that ignorance and liberty are incompatible.
  4. Rudy Guiliani stated that what he was about to say will sound aweful.
  5. Richard Feynman said that it is better to have questions that have no conclusions rather than having conclusions that can't be questioned.

Quotation Marks

The title of a short work or the title of a work that is part of a larger work.

  1. Magazine or journal articles and essays:
    "The Checklist," "Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us," "The Missing Ingredient"
  2. Short stories, poems, song titles:
    "The Raft," "If," "Zombie"
  3. The title of a television, radio, or podcast episode:
    "Soup Nazi," "Israel Nash," "Rocket City Rednecks"

Commas

  1. When do you use commas?

Commas come after introductory words, phrases, and clauses.

  1. Typically, this involves some technology.
  2. In the morning, I saw a loon in the lake.
  3. If you get an infection, the doctor will treat it with antibiotics.
  4. Although Grammar Girl says that using a serial comma is a style choice and not a rule, academic writing requires the use of a serial comma.

Commas separate items of three or more in a list or one or more adjectives before a noun.

  1. This exercise involves a keyboard, mouse, and monitor.
  2. Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Dolly Parton are three country western singer song-writers.
  3. The human body can survive a lot: crushing, burning, bombing, a burst blood vessel, gun shots, stabbing, and a massive heart attack
  4. There are many different types of punctuation, such as commas, semicolons, colons, and dashes.
  5. The old, gray, Russian, cargo plane could barely get off the ground.
  6. The ugly, putrid-green, steel, American made, AMC Hornet couldn't get out of the driveway without stalling.

Commas are combined with a coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS) to connect two sentences together.

  1. Coordinating Conjunctions:
    for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.
  2. Now survival is commonplace, and a large part of the credit goes to the irreplaceable component of medicine known as intensive care.
  3. The team tried to put her on a breathing machine, but the pond water had damaged her lungs too severely for oxygen to reach her blood.
  4. We considered the possibility that one of his lines had become infected, so we put in new lines and sent the old ones to the lab for culturing. .

Commas are used to separate phrases, non-restrictive appositives and clauses.

  1. One of the influenza vaccines, Adenovirus, only protects against Adenovirus Type 4 and Type 7. (non-restrictive appositve)
  2. The police car, rounding the corner, is chasing after some bank robbers.(participle)
  3. The Army ultimately ordered almost thirteen thousand of the aircraft, which it dubbed the B-17, for combat operations. ( non-restrictive clause)
  4. To save this one child, scores of people had to carry out thousands of steps correctly.(infinitive phrase)
  5. ZMapp, the only effective treatment for Ebola, is the product of a genetically modified version of the disease itself that was being developed for the distribution of stem cells.(non-restrictive appositive)
    6.

Commas are used to separate phrases, non-restrictive appositives and clauses.

  1. Imelda May, D.D.S., is a very competent dentist.
  2. The police officer yelled at the child, making her cry.
  3. The only homeless man in our town, who everyone makes fun of, is actually a multi-millionaire.
  4. William Dolittle, MD, saved a man's life last week when he had a heart attack.
  5. You can, for example, find free software at PortableApps.com.
    6.

American vs English Publications

Problem: American grammar and usage is different than British grammar and usage, which often confuses students.

How do you tell if a piece of writing is British or American?

  1. Find a sentence with the word because in it.
  2. Because needs to be in the middle of the sentence.
  3. If a comma precedes the word because, you have a British document.
  4. If there isn't a comma, you have an American document.

British Example

I didn't go to work today, because it was snowing

American Example

I didn't go to work today because it was snowing

British Example

You brought an umbrella, because you thought it was going to rain?

American Example

You brought an umbrella because you thought it was going to rain?

Conclusion

Notice how grammar and punctuation are used in what you read, making sure that the publication is American and not British

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