Punctuations
The most common punctuation marks in English are: capital letters and full stops, question marks, commas, colons and semi-colons, exclamation marks, and quotation marks.
In speaking, we use pauses and the pitch of the voice to make what we say clear. Punctuation plays a similar role in writing, making it easier to read.
Punctuation consists of both rules and conventions. There are rules of punctuation that have to be followed, but there are also punctuation conventions that give writers greater choice.
Punctuation: question marks (?) and exclamation marks (!)
We use question marks to make it clear that what is said is a question. When we use a question mark, we do not use a full stop:
Why do they make so many mistakes?
A:So you’re Harry’s cousin?
B:Yes. That’s right.
We use exclamation marks to indicate an exclamative clause or expression in informal writing. When we want to emphasise something in informal writing, we sometimes use more than one exclamation mark:
Listen!
Oh no!!! Please don’t ask me to phone her. She’ll talk for hours!!!
Punctuation: commas (,)
We use commas to separate a list of similar words or phrases:
It’s important to write in clear, simple, accurate words.
They were more friendly, more talkative, and more open than the last time we met them.
We do not normally use a comma before and at the end of a list of single words:
They travelled through Bulgaria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland.
American English does use a comma in lists before and:
We took bread, cheese, and fruit with us.
We use commas to separate words or phrases that mark where the voice would pause slightly:
I can’t tell you now. However, all will be revealed tomorrow at midday.
We had lost all of our money.
James, our guide, will accompany you on the boat across to the island.
Full Stop (.)
A full stop should always be used to end a sentence. The full stop indicates that a point has been made and that you are about to move on to further explanations or a related point.
Less frequently, a series of three full stops (an ellipsis) can be used to indicate where a section of a quotation has been omitted when it is not relevant to the text, for example:
“The boy was happy… at the start of his summer holiday.”
A single full stop may also be used to indicate the abbreviation of commonly used words as in the following examples:
- Telephone Number = Tel. No.
- September = Sept.
- Pages = pp.
