1.

Capital Letters

Always use a capital letter for…

 the first word of a sentence

Ex. Thank you for the letter.

 the first word in a quotation

Ex. She said, “Today is beautiful.”

 the greeting and closing in a letter

Ex. Dear John Sincerely, Sherry

 the names of days, months, and holidays

Ex. Thursday, November, Thanksgiving

 people’s first and last names, their initials, and their titles

Ex. Mrs. Smith and Phil were seen by Dr. Lee

 the word that names yourself - I

Ex. My friend and I love horses.

 the names of streets, cities, and states

Ex. Palm Avenue Mesa, Arizona

 the names of specific buildings and monuments

Ex. Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building

 the titles of stories, movies, TV shows, video games, etc.

Ex. Night at the Museum, Star Wars

2. Quotation Marks
Use quotation marks…
 before and after words that are spoken by someone
Ex. “I love to read chapter books,” said Sharon.
 around words that are being discussed or emphasized
Ex. A man-made lake is called a “reservoir.”
 newspaper articles, titles of poems, songs, short stories, etc
Ex. “Hot and Cold” by Katie Perry
 End Punctuation

Use a period, a question mark, or an exclamation point…

 period – when you end a statement

Ex. I like cookies.

 question mark – when you ask a question

Ex. Do you like cookies?

 exclamation point – when you have an excited or emotionally charged statement

Ex. I absolutely love cookies!

3. Commas

Always use a comma to separate…

 a city and a state

Ex. Miami, Florida Mesa, Arizona

 the date from the year

Ex. December 25, 2009 April 15, 2010

 the greeting and closing of a letter

Ex. Dear Jane, Sincerely,

 two adjectives that talk about the same noun

Ex. Shawn is a clever, smart boy.

Use a comma to show a pause…

 between three or more items in a series

Ex. Jim likes pizza, spaghetti, and lasagna.

 between the words spoken by someone and the rest of the sentence

Ex. “I know,” answered Mary.

 after a short introductory phrase

Ex. After all that candy, nobody was hungry for cake.

4. Apostrophes

Add an apostrophe…

 when there is one owner, add an apostrophe first, and then add an S

Ex. The cat’s dish is empty.

  when there is more than one owner, add an S first and then an apostrophe

Ex. All of the cats’ dishes were empty.

 when you put two words together to make a contraction

Ex. Now he’s on the table.

Colons

Add a colon…

 after the salutation of a business letter

Ex. Dear Ms. Matthews:
 between numerals indicating time
Ex. Meet me at the park at 12:35.
 to introduce a list
Ex. Please bring the following items to class: pencil, paper, eraser, and folder.

5. The Semicolon
 Semicolons can be used in English to join phrases and sentences that are thematically
linked without having to use a conjunction

Ex. I like your brother; he's a good friend.

 Semicolons can also be used instead of commas to separate the items in a list when the
items themselves already contain commas

Ex. Many great leaders, Churchill, leader of Britain during the Second World War; Alexander,
the great Emperor and general; and Napolean…

Brackets and Parentheses

we use square brackets - [ ] - for special purposes

 to add clarification:
Ex. The witness said: "He [the policeman] hit me."
 to add information:
Ex. The two teams in the finals of the first FIFA Football World Cup were both from
South America [Uruguay and Argentina].
 to add missing words:
Ex. It is [a] good question.
 to add editorial or authorial comment:
Ex. They will not be present [my emphasis].
Round brackets - ( ) - are used in a similar way to commas
Ex. The government's education report (April 2005) shows that the level of literacy is
rising in nearly all areas.
Ex. I visited Kathmandu (which was full of tourists) on my way to the Himalayas for a
trekking expedition.