■ Common punctuation marks are: full stop, comma, apostrophe, quotation, colon, semi-colon, capitals ■ Leave only one space after punctuation
Full stop ■ Use a period at the end of a complete sentence that is a statement. e.g. I know that you would never break my trust intentionally. ■ If the last word in the sentence ends in a period, do not follow it with another period. e.g. Please shop, cook, etc. I will do the laundry. ■ Use the period after an indirect question. e.g. He asked where his suitcase was.
Comma ■ The most important punctuation mark after the full stop. ■ Its main use is for separating parts of sentences. ■ Commas function in five main ways: 1. Before or after adverbial clauses and groups. e.g. After dinner, he walked around the town. If we work at night and sleep during the daytime, we have difficulty in adjusting our habits. 2. Before various connectives to join two independent clauses (and, but, or, so nor, for yet). e.g. The house badly needed painting, and the roof needed repairing. Lord Knollys was not particularly pleased with these proposals, nor were other members of the Cabinet. 3. To separate some non-defining phrases from the rest of the sentence. e.g. Malaria, once a widespread disease, is under control. 4. To separate words, groups and clauses in a series. e.g. The meal consisted of soup, salad, and macaroni and cheese. Note: For three or more elements of a series, use a comma before the last item in the list in order to avoid ambiguity 5. To separate adjectives that modify the same noun. e.g. Critics praise the novel's unaffected, unadorned style. !!! Do NOT use a comma to separate a subject from a predicate e.g. A man of great abilities, would always be successful.
Apostrophe ■ The apostrophe has two main functions in English, but only