Hello everyone!

Today I want to tackle one of the most useful but perhaps most confusing elements of punctuation: the dash family.

The first thing to understand is that there are actually three members of what I’m calling the “dash family”: the hyphen, the en dash, and the em dash. Each of these family members has a different length and a different purpose. I also want to make sure that you note that different style guides and different types of publications sometimes have different rules for these family members. The rules I’m explaining here apply to the Chicago Manual of Style and most books; if you’re using a different style guide or are working on an article, please be sure to check your style guide before following the guidelines I’m presenting here!

Most people are pretty familiar with the hyphen and the em dash, even if they aren’t familiar with those technical names for them. The hyphen is the shortest of the dashes, and it’s used to form compound words, like “gluten-free” or “non-GMO.” The em dash is the longest of the dashes (about the length of two hyphens), and it’s primarily used to set words or phrases apart in a sentence–kind of like this. An em dash can be used in the middle or at the beginning of a sentence–on its own or in pairs–and there are no spaces between an em dash and its surrounding words.

Where things get tricky is with the en dash. Somewhere between a hyphen and an em dash in length, the en dash has three uses. The first is as a sort of super-hyphen in compound words where part of the compound is itself two or more words, like “post–World War II Europe” or “San Diego–based company.” The second use of an en dash is to replace the word “through” when presenting a range of numbers; for example, “World War II lasted from 1939–1945.” The final use of an en dash is to present scores or totals, such as “the Patriots defeated the Seahawks 28–24 in the 2015 Super Bowl.” As with em dashes (and hyphens, for that matter), there is no space between an en dash and the words or numbers on either side of it.

I hope this review has given you renewed confidence when you use any member of the dash family. Hyphens, en dashes, and em dashes are all incredibly useful punctuation tools–and knowing the differences between them and using them properly in your writing can really make your prose stand out from the crowd!

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Other punctuation marks you’d like me to review? Please let me know! Otherwise, I’ll see you all next time!

Hello everyone!

I’m back with another little punctuation lesson. Today’s victim? The quotation mark.

Now, the tricky part about quotation marks isn’t how or when to use them; it’s whether other punctuation marks go inside or outside closing quotation marks. Part of the vast confusion about the rules governing punctuation mark order stems from the fact that British English and American English differ when it comes to this issue. For simplicity’s sake, the rules I outline here will be for American English. The other part of the vast confusion stems from the fact that different rules apply to different punctuation marks when they’re used in conjunction with quotation marks. But not to worry! I’m going to lay it all out for you now…

So, you’ve got your quotation, and you’re all set with your opening quotation mark and all the punctuation that comes within the quotation. But now you’re at the end of the quotation, and you have no idea whether that comma, period, exclamation point, question mark, colon, or semicolon should go before or after your closing quotation mark!

Commas and periods are easy: They always go before the closing quotation mark. Always. No exceptions. It is always “Let’s go to the store,” she said and never “Let’s go to the store”, she said.

Colons and semicolons are also easy: They always go after the closing quotation mark. Always. No exceptions. It is always She said, “Let’s go to the store”; then she went and never She said, “Let’s go to the store;” then she went.

Question marks and exclamation points are slightly more difficult because they vary depending on context. If they are part of the quotation, they go before the closing quotation mark, and if they are not part of the quotation, they go after the closing quotation mark. So, She asked, “Do you want to go to the store?” but Did she say, “Let’s go to the store”?

And that’s all there is too it! Getting the order right is really just about remembering which rule applies to which punctuation marks…and hopefully this will serve as a handy guide to help you remember! Next time, I’ll be discussing dashes. But until then, go forth and quote away!

Hello all!

I’m back again with more tips for your punctuation pleasure! Today is all about the colon, one of the most misunderstood punctuation marks out there. Somewhere along the way, we all (and I include myself in this group!) seem to get the idea that the colon is designed to introduce any list we include in a sentence. We think, for example, that it’s perfect for use in a situation like this: I went to the store and bought: apples, bananas, and oranges. Well, brace yourself, because that is actually a completely incorrect use of the colon!

So what’s the secret to a correct use of the colon? It’s actually quite simple: It must follow an independent clause (which, as you may recall from last week, is a phrase that could be a complete sentence in and of itself). So, while it’s incorrect to say I went to the store and bought: apples, bananas, and oranges (because “I went to the store and bought” isn’t really a complete sentence), it’s absolutely correct to say I went to the store and bought several kinds of fruit: apples, bananas, and oranges (because “I went to the store and bought several kinds of fruit” can stand on its own). Thus, the idea of a colon as something meant to introduce a list is not an entirely incorrect one; it’s simply that that colon and list must be preceded by an independent clause.

Now, there’s one more nuance to cover when it comes to colons: the capitalization of the first word following the colon. There’s some debate about this, but I subscribe to the camp that uses a lowercase letter if what follows the colon is not an independent clause and a capital letter if what follows the colon is an independent clause. Thus (as you can see above), Now, there’s one more nuance to cover when it comes to colons: the capitalization of the first word following the colon, but It’s actually quite simple: It must follow an independent clause. An easy way to remember that rule is that the first word of any sentence gets capitalized, so if what follows the colon could be a sentence, its first word needs to be capitalized.

I hope you’re now ready to use colons in a whole new–and more correct–way in your writing! As with semicolons, they’re an incredibly useful tool with a very specific purpose, and using them in your writing will add the clarity and elegance readers so appreciate. Next time, I’ll be talking about the wonders of quotation marks.

Until then!

Hello everyone!

I thought I’d take a few posts to review some of the trickier aspects of punctuation (or at least, those aspects that seem to trip up writers most often), and I’m going to start with my favorite of punctuation marks: the semicolon. I learned proper use of the semicolon from my English teacher my senior year of high school, and I’ve loved it ever since. I tend to think of the semicolon as the best-kept secret in punctuation: Most people are uncertain about its purpose or how to use it properly, but it’s blessed with a specific utility that allows it to meet particular punctuation needs that no other mark can fulfill–and it does so with great elegance. So, without further ado…

The semicolon has two primary uses, the first of which is to replace the comma/conjunction combo when joining two independent clauses. In case it’s been a while since your last grammar class, I’ll remind you that an independent clause is simply a stand-alone, complete sentence. An example of an independent clause is John went to the store (see how it forms a complete sentence on its own, with noun and verb?). If you wanted to join that independent clause with another independent clause, like Mary stayed home, you would probably use the comma/conjunction combo. The list of conjunctions includes and, but, for, or, nor, yet, and so. We could use any of these conjunctions with a comma to join our two independent clauses to form a single sentence: John went to the store, and Mary stayed home. John went to the store, but Mary stayed home. John went to the store, so Mary stayed home. And so on.

So, if we have the comma/conjunction solution, why do we need the semicolon? Well, the semicolon comes in handy when the two independent clauses express closely related ideas–so closely related that they’re almost two halves of the same thought. In such a case, using a comma/conjunction combo doesn’t quite express the closeness of the relationship between the two clauses; you need a semicolon for that. (See what I did there?) Here’s another example: John went to the store; he couldn’t bear to stay home with Mary. Do you see how the semicolon expresses the closeness of those ideas, with just a single mark? That is the beauty of the first use of the semicolon. (Remember, though, that the semicolon only works in this usage when the two clauses are independent and could each stand as their own complete sentence!)

The second primary use of the semicolon is as a “super-comma.” Sometimes, sentences wind up having a lot of commas, and that leaves anyone reading the sentence prone to getting lost in all the punctuation. Here is an example: John went to the store and bought meat, including chicken, turkey, and beef, dairy, including milk, cheese, and yogurt, vegetables, including lettuce, green beans, and zucchini, and fruit, including apples, oranges, and bananas. Whew! That’s a lot of commas, and a reader might easily get lost in that sentence and start wondering if the author thinks that dairy is a type of meat. In a case like this, a semicolon can provide a lot of clarity, replacing a few of the commas to separate the bigger ideas and leaving the other commas to separate the smaller ideas. So: John went to the store and bought meat, including chicken, turkey, and beef; dairy, including milk, cheese, and yogurt; vegetables, including lettuce, green beans, and zucchini; and fruit, including apples, oranges, and bananas. Do you see how the semicolons are functioning as “super-commas” to separate the ideas of meat, dairy, vegetables, and fruit from one another? They provide some much-needed clarity without requiring the sentence to be rewritten.

I hope that this brief review has shown you the beauty of the semicolon and that you’re ready to tackle your next piece of writing with its power in your arsenal. Please don’t hesitate to leave me questions in the comments if I’ve left you wondering about anything or if you’d like some additional examples. Otherwise, I’ll see you next time for more fun with punctuation!

Yes, it’s true. I’m a huge fan of the serial comma. Guilty as charged.

It’s remarkable to me the power that that tiny little piece of punctuation–also called the “Oxford” or “Harvard” comma–carries. Not only does it have the ability to provide immense clarity, it’s also managed to make itself one of the most highly debated points of English grammar. People tend to either love it or hate it, and most are willing to argue the correctness of their opinion until they are blue in the face. I am one of those people. And now I’m going to present my case in favor of the serial comma.

Take these two sentences, potentially written by an author in her Acknowledgments, as an example: “I’d like to thank my fans, my mother and my husband” and “I’d like to thank my fans, my mother, and my husband.” In the first sentence (the one without the serial comma), the author’s only fans are her mother and her husband. Even if that were true, it’s highly unlikely that any author out there would want to advertise that fact. By contrast, the second sentence (the one with the serial comma) makes it clear that the author is thanking three distinct entities. In this case, as in many others, the serial comma makes a huge difference in meaning.

“But wait!” you might say, “Even if such a sentence were to appear in print, wouldn’t the reader’s common sense dictate the true meaning regardless of whether the serial comma was there?” And you would have a point. But I contend that “just because most readers will probably understand the meaning anyway” is not a valid reason to risk confusing readers. Why leave open the potential for misunderstanding when it can be fixed with a simple comma? After all, sometimes readers might think it’s more fun to interpret things the wrong way: http://i.imgur.com/IBBd2F2.png and http://i.imgur.com/OTJQAeh.jpg.

The truth, though, is that for every style guide or language expert who says using the serial comma is the thing to do, there’s another style guide or language expert out there who will argue the opposite. There is no definite right answer; it really is just a matter of opinion. But I’m hoping that I’ve made some progress in convincing you to use the serial comma in your writing. And who knows? Maybe someday we’ll all agree that using the serial comma is, in fact, the “write” thing to do.