Chicago Manual of Style devotes 16 pages to the correct usage of the comma. I’m sure you’re familiar with its use with coordinate adjectives, transitional adverbs, appositive clauses, and participial phrases. I won’t insult you by repeating that information here. Instead, here are the most common errors in comma usage spotted around the Web. Omitting […]
Top 5 Comma Errors Read More »
By Beth Hill Dialogue has its own rules for punctuation. Commas go in particular places, as do terminal marks such as periods and question marks. Only what is spoken is within the quotation marks. Other parts of the same sentence—dialogue tags and action or thought—go outside the quotation marks. Dialogue begins with a capitalized word, no
How To Punctuate Dialogue Read More »
The Punctuation Guide was created by Jordan Penn, a longtime enthusiast of American language, usage, and style. He earned a BA in sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a JD from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law: After searching the web for a comprehensive guide to American punctuation and
The Punctuation Guide Read More »
What Is Who? First up, let’s introduce this exceptionally tricky pronoun. It has many forms, and many a brave soul has cowered in the attempt to use it correctly. Who Who is a subject pronoun, like he, she, I, or they, but it’s the interrogative used for animate subjects. In other words, use it to ask a question about which person did something