Lesson 3 - Punctuation & Mechanics Pt 1

         Greetings once again! This should be a quick and helpful lesson on punctuation and mechanics. No, I’m not going to teach you how to change the oil in your car. Hell, I don’t even know how to do that…

Quotation Marks

         Quotation marks (i.e. “…”) are used to quote something that is written or said by someone else. They are also used more commonly to writers in dialogue. I know that quotation marks may seem self-explanatory, but I’ve seen the mechanics of them used incorrectly.

         Say you’re writing a research paper. Yeah, it’s a scary thought to me, too. You’ve done mountains of research from articles, books, and internet sources. You want to spice up your writing with a direct quote. Here are some examples from my own academic papers:

Example 1:
Mozart was well aware of Salieri’s success and even states his frustration in a letter to his father, “the Emperor has spoilt everything, for he cares for no one but Salieri.”

Example 2:
ADHD is defined as “children, adolescents, and even some adults who are inattentive, easily distracted, abnormally overactive, and impulsive in their behavior” (Millichap 3).

         In each of these two examples, the quotation marks are used to quote the direct words from something that I obviously didn’t write. In the first instance, I used a comma to introduce it, because the quote did not fit into the sentence. In the second example, there is no need for a comma, because it is part of the new sentence I created.

         Ok, forget about academic writing! Let’s get to the use that you’ll be writing!

Example 1:
         “Orcs?” Grom asked, pulling on Kravitz’s arm. Kravitz crawled backward toward a large stone, pressing his body against it. Grom knelt down in front of him and grabbed his shoulder. “Tell me more. When did this happen?”
         “Our leader Edwin protect us. He use magic to defend home, but he disappear and orcs take everything from us. They say they look for something, but we not have what they want,” Kravitz explained.
- The War of Fallen Heroes, Chapter 7

Example 2:
         “What were they?” Katt whispered.
         “I’m not sure. I remember screaming for Sean, but everything went black before my eyes. I must have lost consciousness,” Tamara said.
         “Do you see why wandering through the forests alone is so dangerous?” Azure said to Katt, who pouted. Azure lifted Sean up with some difficulty, throwing one of his arms over his shoulder. Munt walked back toward the living room and Azure grunted at him, “Give me a hand, will ya? Let’s take him to your guest bedroom.”
-The Premonition, Chapter 2

         Both of these examples from my own writing display the correct formatting for using quotation marks. Punctuation ALWAYS goes inside of the quotation marks. If you are interrupting dialogue with “so-and-so said,” the period becomes a comma. If you are continuing the quote in the same paragraph, you capitalize the first word in the continuation if it’s the beginning of a new sentence. If it’s a continuation, don’t capitalize.

         One final note on quotation marks: If you are quoting inside of quotes, you use single quotes.

Example:
         “She came up to me and said, ‘What the hell is your problem?’ I didn’t know what to say!” the woman said to her husband.

Colons

         Colons are used in three instances: lists, explanations or exemplifications, and subtitles.

         See how I used the colon above? I just displayed how you would use a colon in lists. Here are some more examples to help you.

Example 1:
Don’t forget to bring the following: toilet paper, towels, toothpaste, and soap.

Example 2:
My brother plays all of these sports: soccer, baseball, and football.

         The second use for colons is to further explain something. Here are some examples:

Example 1:
There is only one way to beat the opposing team: hard work.

Example 2:
The schools are failing due to a single factor: poor funding.

         The third use is an easy one. Here’s a good example!

Example:
The War of Fallen Heroes: Passage into Darkness

         So I’m a little heavy on my own writing. It’s always been said to write what you know! Hehe.

Semicolons

         This is one of the harder punctuation marks to get your head around. Semicolons are used to combine two separate independent clauses into one sentence.

Example:
The boy likes toy trains.
+
His train is red and white.
=
The boy likes toy trains; his train is red and white.

         That’s a fairly simple example, but I hope you get the idea. Make sure that you only use semicolons in this way when the two clauses are COMPLETE and RELATED! Here are some examples of what NOT to do!

Bad Example 1:
The White Sox are going to win the World Series; good defense and killer hitting!

Bad Example 2:
The boy ran across the room; his mother made pancakes for his father.

         Example 1 has two ideas that are similar, but the second clause is incomplete. The second example has two complete clauses, but they are not linked!

         The other use for semicolons is to combine sentences with the use of a subordinating conjunction. Subordinating conjunctions are words like therefore, however, and whereas.

Example:
Many people are excited about the success of the White Sox; however, they still have a long way to go to win the World Series.

         I’m actually a Cubs fan, but I’ll give the Sox their due.

Ellipses

         Ellipses are those three periods (. . .) that we see sometimes in people’s writing. As writers, we often use ellipses in the wrong way. I see ellipses in dialogue all the time, but that isn’t the proper use for them. The real use for ellipses comes in leaving words out of quotations. This may occur most often in academic writing. Here are some examples of how to use ellipses for the following quote from Hamlet: “A dream itself is but a shadow.”

Examples:
“A dream . . . is but a shadow.”
“A dream . . . is . . . a shadow.”
“. . . dream itself is but a shadow.”

         The ellipses (one space before, between, and after each period) are used to show that words are being left out of the quotes.

         Writers like to use the ellipses to show a pause or stop in speech. I see it all the time, and although it is not the correct use, it is commonly recognized.

In Conclusion

         Tune in next week for further discussion of mechanics in writing! Such topics will include: the apostrophe, capitalization, the hyphen, italics, and numbers. As always, if you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at [e-mail] or on my writing.com account! I hope this lesson has been helpful! Happy writing, everyone!