Grammar and Proofreading Course

6Punctuation Essentials: What You Need To Know

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

• List when, why, and how to use the comma.

• List when, why, and how to use the semicolon, colon, dash, and parentheses.

• List the two purposes of the apostrophe.

• List the three forms of end punctuation and how to use them to add variety to your written work.

PUNCTUATION: THE PROFESSIONAL TOUCH

Punctuation is often intimidating for writers. They may remember some of the rules they learned in school but not clearly enough to apply them with confidence. Or they may make the very common mistake, for instance, of placing a comma ...