When To Use A -
Learn how to use semicolons, colons, and dashes in your writing with examples and explanations. Find out when to use these punctuation marks to separate lists, join sentences, or express time, titles, and more. Learn how and when to use semicolons (;), colons (:), commas (,), and dashes () to make your writing more effective.
Double possessives, semicolons, apostrophes, comma splices, and more explained here. You can use a period to express a neutral tone, a question mark to show that the sentence is an inquiry, or an exclamation point to indicate excitement or a command. One way to use it is when introducing something, such as a quote, an example, a series, or an explanation.
She took four classes last semester: history, biology, arts, and economics. We commonly use a colon between sentences when the second sentence explains or justifies the first sentence: Try to keep your flat clean and tidy: it will sell more easily. Use a dash when making a brief interruption within a statement.
The dash ("--" or "") is slightly longer than the hyphen and is used to convey a sudden change of thought, an additional comment, or a dramatic qualification within a sentence. When speaking, we can pause or change the tone of our voices to indicate emphasis. When writing, we must use punctuation to indicate these places of emphasis.
This resource should help to clarify when and how to use various marks of punctuation. They may have different feelings regarding the use of dashes, hyphens, and the Oxford comma. But in general, these tips can help you create a checklist so you can ensure you catch any errors before submitting your work.
We use colons to introduce lists, series, quotations, and explanations. A colon is used to announce, introduce a list, a quotation, and before a final clause that explains something in the sentence.
