PUNCTUATION

MARKS
PUNCTUATION MARKS of the
Day!
• Monday: Period and Question Mark. [Pop Quiz! Check!]
• Tuesday: Colon. [Pop Quiz! Check!]
• Wednesday: Semicolon. [Pop Quiz! Check!]
• Thursday: Em Dash. [Pop Quiz! Check!]
• Friday: Quotation Marks. [Pop Quiz! Check!]
PERIOD (.)
If the parenthetical is just a part of
a sentence, the period is placed
outside the closing parenthesis.
If the parenthetical is an entire
sentence, the period is placed
inside.
Today we had pronunciation drills
for “R/L” sounds before checking
your homework (as you
requested).
We’ll have to continue with the
remaining items on Monday next
week. (We didn’t have enough
time.)
PERIOD (.)
If the sentence ends with a
quoted material, the period is
placed inside the closing
quotation mark.
If the quoted material ends with
an exclamation or question mark,
the period is omitted.
We managed to accomplish
answering all the questions in
“Talk About It.”
You asked me this question,
“What do you think about
Duterte?”
PERIOD (.)
If the sentence ends with an
abbreviation, the period of the
abbreviation serves as the period
of the sentence.
We lost track of time so we ended
our class at 11:57 a.m.
The prepared material for your
Reading practice was about Apple
Inc.
QUESTION MARK
If the title (of topic/lesson/book)
with a question mark is within a
sentence, a comma is necessary
The topic Who Pays?, wasn’t
interesting for you; however, you
managed to summarize it in
details with fewer pauses.
QUESTION MARK
If the title with a question mark
comes at the end of a sentence,
no other punctuation mark is
needed
You were asked to do an advanced
reading of the topic Are Humans
Smart?
QUESTION MARK
Requests phrased as questions Would you please give me a call
end with a period. back when she arrives.
POP QUIZ!
We had a long conversation about food and his personal experiences
related to this. Such as his life in the military and the food here in the
school.

We also checked your homework which you were able to answer

except that you lack information.

Wait for the chef to say How’s the food is it good

CHECK!
We had a long conversation about food and his personal experiences
related to this (such as his life in the military and the food here in the
school).

We also checked your homework which you were able to answer

(except that you lacked information).

Wait for the chef to say, “How’s the food? Is it good?”

COLON (:)
• Use to substitute “namely”
We came up with two (2) possible
topics for your presentation
namely Tokyo 2020 and Flying
Cars.
Substitute “namely”
We came up with two (2) possible
topics for your presentation:
Tokyo 2020 and Flying Cars.
COLON (:)
• ONLY use after a COMPLETE We came up with two (2) possible
sentence topics for your presentation:
(COMPLETE)

Incorrect: The two (2) topics we

came up with are:

Correct: The two (2) topics we

came up with are “Tokyo 2020”
and “Flying Cars.”
COLON (:)
• Capitalization of the first word We have two monkeys: Abu and
after a colon is a style choice but Galapana
is often not done unless that
word is a PROPER NOUN.
We talked about your hobbies:
sleeping and eating.
POP QUIZ!
She mentioned the most successful person in her eyes and that
person’s contribution. She mentioned Gandhi.

There was something missing on your grammar and that was the article
a.
CHECK!
She mentioned the contribution of the most successful person in her
eyes: Gandhi.

There was something missing in your sentences’ grammar: the article

“a.”
SEMICOLON (;)
• Can replace a period to narrow
the gap between closely-linked
sentences
I am A. You are B.
Replace “.”
I am A; you are B.
You have a test tomorrow. We
reviewed for it today.
You have a test tomorrow; we
reviewed for it today.
SEMICOLON (;)
• Use to separate units of a series
when one or more of the units
contain commas.
Our new students come from
different cities and countries:
Chika from Tokyo, Japan; Elena
from Moscow, Russia; and
Yangseon from Busan, South
Korea.
SEMICOLON (;)
• Use before namely, however,
therefore, that is, i.e., for
example, e.g., for instance, etc.
when they introduce a
COMPLETE sentence
You were allowed to rest;
however, the test for tomorrow
would not be moved to another
day or date.
POP QUIZ!
CHECK!
Em Dash (—)
Can be used in place of commas You finally got a perfect score –
to enhance readability. (Dashes after three tries – in your review
are more “emphatic”). test!
Em Dash (—)
Can be used in place of You were asked to prepare a
parentheses to emphasize the family tree – three generations –
parenthetical content. for tomorrow’s class.
Em Dash (—)
Can be used in place of a colon to
emphasize the conclusion of a
sentence. (The dash is less formal)
After a lengthy discussion on the
case on page 12, we came up a
conclusion – the root of the
problem is communication.
POP QUIZ!
CHECK!
QUOTATION MARKS (“ ”)
Used to refer to specific letters or You asked the difference between
words “say” and “tell.”

We figured you needed more

practice with the “Th” sound
QUOTATION MARKS (“ ”)
Used to indicate titles of articles,
blog entries, chapters in books,
songs, essays, short poems, short
stories, episodes of television
shows.
You talked about the TV show
“Breaking Bad” when we still had
a few minutes left before class
ends.
QUOTATION MARKS (“ ”)
Used to cast doubt on a word or
phrase, or to emphasize that the
word or phrase is being used as a
euphemism
Most of your errors in your “diary
entry” were on articles and
prepositions: (You wrote 10
sentences about random things
instead of writing about how your
weekend went).
POP QUIZ!
CHECK!