British Versus American Style There are two major styles of English punctuation: American (commonly followed also in Canada) and British (commonly followed also in Australia and New Zealand). Over the years, these two styles have converged. The few major differences that remain are described below. Quotations American style uses double quotes (“) for initial
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By Erin Wright erinwrightwrinting.com Suspended hyphens sound like troublemakers, don’t they? Before we accuse them of cutting class or being chronically late for work, let’s look at their less-than nefarious definition. We’ll follow up with five guidelines for how to use them in your writing (without getting into mischief). What Are Suspended Hyphens? Suspended hyphens,
What the Heck are Suspended Hyphens? Do You Really need to Know? Yes. Read More »
Mignon Fogarty, Grammar Girl Today’s topic is how to use colons. One of my favorite old grammar books, titled “Punctuate It Right,” has a wonderful name for the colon: the author calls it the mark of expectation or addition. That’s because the colon signals that what comes next is directly related to the previous sentence. Often, it’s almost
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