1. Place a colon after a word, phrase, or sentence introducing a list, an enumeration, or an explanation. In this use the colon is a mark of anticipation and usually follows formal introductory wording.

The novels I have read this term are the following: "Silas Marner," by George Eliot; "Treasure Island," by Stevenson; and "The Talisman," by Scott.

When there is no introducing word like thus, this, these, the following, or as follows, the colon is not used.

The following sentence illustrates the use of the colon to introduce an appositional element. In this use the colon competes with the dash.
There were three reasons for his failure: lack of industry, poor preparation, and poor
adjustment.
A list of particulars or an enumeration following a colon is begun with a small letter.An independent sentence following a colon is usually begun with a capital letter.
There are two questions which we have not yet debated: Is capital punishment justifiable?
and Should chapel attendance be compulsory?
2. The expressions namely, for instance, for example, and that is may be preceded by a colon and followed by a comma. This style is very formal and is, on the whole, less desirable than the style with the prededing dash and following comma.

Movies of golf strokes reveal what many people are unaware of: namely, that the initial
movement is an unwinding of the hips.
Good English is English in good usage--that is, usage which is present, national, and
reputable.
3. Place a colon instead of a comma after a formal expression like thus or as follows which introduces a long quotation.
The headmaster thus addressed the school: "We have assembled this morning to..."
Place a colon after a sentence which introduces a short quotation like the following.
Remember the old maxim: Honesty is the best policy.
4. Place a colon after the salutation of a business letter. Modern practice favors the colon alone rather than the combination of colon and dash.

Dear Sir: Gentlemen: Dear Mr. Black:

5. In a statement of time the colon is used to separate the figures denoting the hour from those denoting the minute.

The train leaves at 8:45 p.m.

6. The colon is used in scriptural and literary references and in bibliographical entries.
Matthew I: 4-8
Gaylcy : Classic Myths

1. Use the dash or a pair of dashes to indicate abruptness, incompletion, interruption, suspension, special emphasis, or a shift of structure. The dash is stronger than the comma, with which it is sometimes used. In modern practice, however, the dash is usually employed as a substitute for an internal point, not as an addition to it.

Do not capitalize the word following a dash. The expression enclosed by a pair of dashes does not take terminal punctuation unless the thought requires a question mark or an exclamation mark.

2. Use the dash before a word which sums up what has preceded.

3. Use a pair of dashes to enclose explanatory and parenthetical statements which it is desired to emphasize. Commas or parenthesis marks are used to enclose parenthetical matter to which no special emphasis is attached.

4. Use the dash or a pair of dashes to set off an appositive

(a) when the appositive consists of a series.

(b) when it is desired to give the appositive more emphasis than that afforded by the comma.

(c) when the appositive is introduced by namely, that is, for example, or for instance. Use a dash before the introductory expression and a comma after it.

CAUTION--Do not use the dash as a general utility mark. Use it only under the conditions specified in this discussion. Perhaps the worst offender in the use of the dash as a general utility mark is Sterne. Tristram Shandy is filled with dashes. The student should not be misled by this. Modern usage does not favor such an extravagant use of this mark.

1. Use curves to enclose parenthetical matter which is inserted solely to give additional information or explanation and which the writer does not wish to emphasize. Commas are too weak to set off from the context matter of this kind, and dashes give it too much emphasis. When the matter is purely incidental, it should be enclosed within curves. Curves may enclose words, phrases, subordinate clauses, sentences, and even long passages.

Curves do not alter the punctuation of a sentence. The elements enclosed by curves are punctuated as they would be anywhere except that a sentence enclosed within a sentence by curves does not begin with a capital and does not take a period.

2. Use curves to enclose dates, figures, letters, or symbols used to indicate items and divisions in sentences, eompositions, and outlines.

A capital letter is used (1) to mark a proper name and (2) to mark the beginning of a sentence.

CAUTION--Beginning writers should use curves very sparingly. Very often a revision of the sentence is preferable to the use of curves. Using curves to enclose matter essential to the meaning of the sentence is simply an evidence of poor writing. Avoid sentences like the following:

The use of curves to enclose a question mark or an exclamation mark expressing doubt or irony is a practice easily overdone. It is best to avoid sentences like the following: After this clever (?) remark he sat down.

1. Use brackets to enclose matter, such as interpolations, corrections, substitutions, explanations, or comments, made by the editor and not found in the original quotation or text. Brackets are really editorial marks; students will seldom have occasion to use them.

With pitch'd pavilions of his foe..." --Tennyson: The Coming of Arthur o. Many modern authors, among them Edith Wharton and John Galsworthy, make use of a group of three periods either within the sentence or at its end to indicate incompleteness or suspension.

He would hide his valise under the seat of the sleigh, and Zeena would suspect nothing till she went upstairs for her afternoon nap and found a letter on the bed...--Edith Wharton: Ethan Frome

Mechanical Pointing is pointing regulated by mechanical rules. In Structural Pointing the writer selects the mark which best conveys the thought and structure of his sentence. In Structural Pointing there is frequently a choice of points; in Mechanical Pointing there is no choice.

The following are the points employed in Mechanical Pointing: hyphen, quotation marks, abbreviation period, ellipsis periods, and apostrophe.

1. Use the hyphen to join the parts of a compound word.

2. Use the hyphen to divide a word at the end of a line, placing the hyphen after any complete syllable.

Never place a hyphen at the beginning of a line. Never divide a monosyllable. Avoid dividing words at the end of lines whenever possible.

The words today, tonight, tomorrow may be written solid or hyphenated. Newspapers generally write these words solid.

1. Use double quotation marks to enclose the exact phraseology of another person. "I don't know what we are going to do," he replied grimly.

When the quotation continues through several paragraphs, use quotation marks only at the beginning of each paragraph and at the end of the closing paragraph. When quoting a poem of several stanzas, use quotation marks at the beginning of each stanza and at the end of the last one.

2. Use double quotation marks to enclose a quoted fragment of a sentence.

3. Do not enclose within quotation marks an indirect quotation.

The exact words of another forming part of an indirect quotation should be enclosed within quotation marks.

4. Use single marks to enclose a quotation within a quotation. The Atlantic Monthly and a few publishers use single marks for the main quotation and double marks for the secondary quotation. This practice is an exception to the usual rule.

5. It is permissible to treat as quotations the names of books, magazines, plays, newspapers, articles, poems, works of art, slang, and words used merely as words. In print, however, these expressions are usually italicized. Italics are indicated in manuscript by underscoring with a single line. This practice is preferable to the use of quotation marks for expressions of this kind. Do not use both quotation marks and underscoring.

6. When quotation marks and other marks occur together, observe the following practice:

The words introducing a quotation are usually set off by commas. (For discussion see page 15)

Here the writer wishes to indicate that Ferncliff is the name of his house or estate. It is unnecessary to enclose the word in quotation marks.

2.Do not use quotation marks around the title of a composition which is not a quotation.

Turn to Exercise 17

The period is not only a terminal mark, but is often used as an internal point to indicate the abbreviation of a word. In compositions it is better to avoid abbreviations, though they may be employed in lists, tabulations, foot notes, and references. In general abbreviations are capitalized if the words from which they are derived would be capitalized; otherwise not. The following list contains the most common abbreviations.

A.B Bachelor of Arts
A.D anno Domini--in the year of our Lord. Usually written with small capitals.
a.m ante meridiem--before noon. Written with small capitals or with small letters.
Anon Anonymous
bk book
B.C Before Christ. Usually written with small capitals.
cf confer---compare
ch chapter
C.O.D Collect On Delivery
e.g exempli gratia--for example
ete et cetera--and so forth
f. or ff following
f.o.b free on board
ibid ibidem--in the same place
i.e id est--that is
LL.D Doctor of Laws
Messrs Gentlemen
Mr Mister
Mrs Mistress
MS. and MSS manuscript, manuscripts. Usually with capitals; sometimes with small letters.
N.B Nota Bene---note well
Ph.D Doctor of Philosophy
p. or pp page or pages
p.m post meridiem--after noon
P.S Postscript
viz videlicet--namely

When an abbreviation period and an end period come together at the end of a sentence, use only one period.

Do not place periods after nicknames, such as Tom, Bill, Joe, etc., or after contractions, such as 1st, 2nd, etc.

In quoting a passage, it is sometimes desirable to omit words that do not bear directly on the matter at hand. Such omissions are indicated by three dots (...). If the omitted part comes at the end of the sentence, quotation marks must be placed after the periods (... ").

The Victorian Age... was distinguished less by fundamental unity and singleness of purpose than by range and variety.--Fuess and Stearns: Selections From The Victorian Poets

1. Use the apostrophe to indicate the genitive case of nouns.

(b) To form the genitive plural of a noun (1) when the nominative plural ends in s, add the apostrophe to the nominative case; (2) when the nominative plural does not end in s, add the apostrophe and s to the nominative case.

(c) Proper names ending in s regularly form their genitive singular by adding the apostrophe and s to the nominative case. Awkwardness of pronunciation, however, makes it permissible to form the genitive singular of such words by adding the apostrophe alone. Dickens' s (or Dickens') novels are interesting.

(d) Words like conscience and righteousness when followed by the word sake form the

For conscience' sake.

(e) Never use the apostrophe with the possessive adjectives its, hers, ours, yours, or

2. Use the apostrophe in contractions to show the omission of a letter.
We don't go very often.
He came at nine o'clock.

3. Use the apostrophe to form the plural of numerals, letters of the alphabet, and

signs.

Your t's are not crossed and your 3's look like 5's.

The plural of a word used as a word and not as the name of an idea is formed by adding s alone. The practice, once generally observed, of forming the plural of such words by adding 's has been largely supplanted by the form without the apostrophe.

There are too many ands and ifs in your theme.

In the writing of numerals there is an increasing tendency to use the forms without the apostrophe. Thus it is equally correct to write in the 1800's or in the 1800s.
The plural of a proper name like Mary or Henry is formed by the addition of s alone.
There are two Marys in the class.

1. The first word of every sentence:

2. The first word of every quoted sentence:

3. The first word of every direct question written as part of a declarative sentence: What I want to know is, Will this credit be accepted by Yale?

4. The first word of every line of poetry:

5. The words Resolved, That of a formal statement or resolution for debate:

6. The pronoun I and the interjection 0. The interjection Oh is capitalized only when it begins a sentence:

7. Proper nouns and adjectives:

English, Spanish, French, Latin, Greek are proper nouns and should be capitalized. Do not capitalize ordinary common nouns, such as history, mathematics, physics, music, biology, etc.

8. All titles when they are used with proper names:

9. The titles of persons of high rank when they stand for the names of persons: the President, the Secretary of the Navy, the Pope

10. Any epithet which regularly forms part of the name of a person: Alexander the Great, Richard the Lion-hearted

10a. Personified nouns:

11. The names of the days of the week, of the months of the year, of holidays and festivals:

12. The names of the season are not capitalized unless they are personified.

13. The names of political parties, religious sects, nations, and races:

The exceptions to this rule are the words negro and gypsy, which are always written with a small letter.

14. The names of historical events, periods, and documents:

The word Constitution is capitalized only when it refers to the Constitution of the United States.

15. Geographical proper names:

16. The names of organizations, institutions, and buildings:

17. The names of government bodies and departments:

18. The names of the Deity, of Jesus Christ, of the Trinity, of the Virgin Mary, and names for the Bible and divisions of the Bible:

19. North, South, East, West, and their compounds (Northwest, etc.), when they designate particular sections of the country:

20. The words father and mother when they are used as a substitute for a proper name: I bought a gift for Mother.

When the words father and mother are preceded by a possessive adjective, they are not capitalized.

21. Common nouns, such as club, high school, street, river, society, or any similar common noun, when it is made part of a proper noun phrase:

22. Words indicating the division of a book or play:

23. The first word and all important words in literary titles:

24. The first word and all nouns in the salutation of a letter; in the eomplimentary close the first word only:

Italics are indicated in manuscript by underscoring with a single line.

1. Underscore the titles of books, poems, plays, stories, essays, musical compositions, and other works of art. When an article (a, an, or the) forms the first word of the title, it is capitalized and underscored.

While it is preferable for the sake of accuracy always to include the article when quoting a title, it is also good current usage to omit the article in sentences where the title is preceded by the name of the author. Inclusion of the article in such eases often makes the sentence very clumsy.

It is not good form to underscore the name Bible or the books of the Bible, and such titles as Gettysburg Address, the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Introduction, or chapter names in a series of three or four.

2. Underscore the title of newspapers, magazines, and other periodicals. The article the limiting the title of a newspaper or a periodical should not be capitalized or underscored even though it is part of the title. The name of a city modifying the noun of the title should be capitalized, but not underscored.

3. Underscore foreign words which are still felt to be foreign.

Discarding introductory remarks, the speaker plunged in medias res and described the actual conditions of life in Russia.

4. Underscore words spoken of merely as words and not used to represent ideas. Most people do not know the original meaning of the word nice.

5. Underscore the names of ships.

6. Sometimes words are underscored to give them emphasis. In general this practice should be avoided. Frequent underscoring for emphasis is crude and inartistic.