QUIZ

This exercise will test your understanding of all kinds of different punctuation marks, particularly commas, colons, semi-colons and apostrophes.

Select the correctly punctuated sentence.

1- a) Spain is a beautiful country; the beache's are warm, sandy and spotlessly clean.
b) Spain is a beautiful country: the beaches are warm, sandy and spotlessly clean.
c) Spain is a beautiful country, the beaches are warm, sandy and spotlessly clean.

d) Spain is a beautiful country; the beaches are warm, sandy and spotlessly clean


2- a) The children's books were all left in the following places: Mrs Smith's room, Mr Powell's office and the caretaker's cupboard.
b) The children's books were all left in the following places; Mrs Smith's room, Mr Powell's office and the caretaker's cupboard.
c) The childrens books were all left in the following places: Mrs Smiths room, Mr Powells office and the caretakers cupboard.

d) The children's books were all left in the following places, Mrs Smith's room, Mr Powell's office and the caretaker's cupboard.


3-    a)      She always enjoyed sweets, chocolate, marshmallows and toffee apples.
b) She always enjoyed: sweets, chocolate, marshmallows and toffee apples.
c) She always enjoyed sweets chocolate marshmallows and toffee apples.
d) She always enjoyed sweet's, chocolate, marshmallow's and toffee apple's.


4-  a) Sarah's uncle's car was found without its wheels in that old derelict warehouse.
b) Sarah's uncle's car was found without its wheels in that old, derelict warehouse.
c) Sarahs uncles car was found without its wheels in that old, derelict warehouse.
d) Sarah's uncle's car was found without it's wheels in that old, derelict warehouse.

5-  a)    I can't see Tim's car, there must have been an accident.
      b)   I cant see Tim's car; there must have been an accident.
      c)   I can't see Tim's car there must have been an accident.
      d)    I can't see Tim's car; there must have been an accident.

PUNCTUATION JOKE

IMAGE

PRACTICE

VIDEO

Taken from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgcokHqAXUk

Other Punctuation

Parentheses 

Parentheses (always used in pairs) allow a writer to provide additional information. The parenthetical material might be a single word, a fragment, or multiple complete sentences. Whatever the material inside the parentheses, it must not be grammatically integral to the surrounding sentence. If it is, the sentence must be recast. This is an easy mistake to avoid. Simply read your sentence without the parenthetical content. If it remains grammatically correct, the parentheses are acceptable; if it doesn’t, the punctuation must be altered.

Apostrophe 

The apostrophe ( ’ ) has three uses: contractions, plurals, and possessives. Contractions Contractions (e.g., let’s, don’t, couldn’t, it’s, she’s) have a bad reputation. Many argue that they have no place at all in formal writing. You should, of course, observe your publisher’s or instructor’s requirements. An absolute avoidance of contractions, however, is likely to make your writing appear stilted and unwelcoming. If you are unsure where to insert the apostrophe when forming a contraction, consult a good dictionary. Avoid two of the most common contraction–apostrophe errors: the contraction of it is is it’s, and the contraction of let us is let’s; without the apostrophe, its is the possessive form of it, and lets is a form of the verb let, as in “to allow or permit.”

Slash 
The slash ( / ), also known as the virgule, has several uses, most of which should be avoided in formal writing. Never use a backslash ( \ ) in place of a slash.

Angle brackets

 In ordinary writing, angle brackets < > are rarely used. In the early days of the internet, angle brackets were sometimes used to enclose an email or web address. This was thought to avoid confusion about whether certain punctuation marks belonged to the address or to the surrounding sentence.

Braces

 Braces { }, also known as curly brackets, are used in various programing languages, certain mathematical expressions, and some musical notation. They should never be used in place of parentheses ( ) or square brackets [ ].

Taken from: https://www.thepunctuationguide.com/braces.html

Quotations

Quotation marks 

Quotation marks are primarily used to indicate material that is being reproduced word for word, as well as some other important uses. Quotation marks and adjacent punctuation Though not necessarily logical, the American rules for multiple punctuation with quotation marks are firmly established. (See here for a brief explanation of the British style.) Commas and periods that are part of the overall sentence go inside the quotation marks, even though they aren’t part of the original quotation.

Ellipses 

An ellipsis is a set of three periods ( . . . ) indicating an omission. Each period should have a single space on either side, except when adjacent to a quotation mark, in which case there should be no space. Informal writing In informal writing, an ellipsis can be used to represent a trailing off of thought.

Brackets Brackets 

allow the insertion of editorial material inside quotations. Clarification If the original material includes a noun or pronoun that is unclear, brackets can be used for clarification.
TAKEN FROM: https://www.thepunctuationguide.com/brackets.html