Questions tagged [punctuation]
This tag is for questions about punctuation. This encompasses marks such as the period/full stop, comma, dash, and parentheses, used to separate structural units and perform other roles that clarify the meaning. USE THE 'SYMBOLS' tag for currency symbols, accents and so forth.
3,040 questions
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Best instructions on handling commas [closed]
How to best know when you need to insert a comma. I always have issues understanding when to add a comma.
Thank you.
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2
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Use of semicolon followed by conjunction: standard English punctuation?
I recognize my query nearly duplicates this question from 9 years back, but since usage evolves apace and because the below hurts my ear while my supervisor insists the sentence sounds as sweet as ...
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In APA style, is “i.e.” always needed to express “that is” in a parenthetical material, or can it be omitted sometimes?
It can be unclear when “i.e.” needs to be used in parenthetical material in an APA style paper and when it can be left out. For example, does the parenthetical material in the examples below require “...
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Do you place quotations marks around a term after the word “call” in APA style?
The 7th edition of the APA Style manual says to use quotation marks “to refer to a letter, word, phrase, or sentence as a linguistic example or as itself” (p. 157). Here are examples from APA: https://...
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Will there be a comma after the word, "called" in the following case? [duplicate]
I was posting a puzzle on my instagram page and I am supposed to write where I got the puzzle from.
I wrote it like this:
The puzzle above was taken from a facebook page called, "Fun Logic and ...
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How to follow a quoted question with a comma [migrated]
Which of these is correct?
Some questions, like "what is one plus one" or "what is two plus two," can be easily answered.
Some questions, like "what is one plus one?" or ...
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Modern usage of colon in tech writing / WEB is broken, can I fix it with dash? [closed]
Colon's usage is for lists and explanations.
Tech publishing often requires to present excerpts in a form:
Something, for example:
command /arg1 -arg2
Substituting and simplifying we get:
E = ...
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"Is" followed by a comma
Is there a pause after is that requires a comma in the following sentence?
First of all, it’s important to know what the flu vaccine is(,) to be able to decide if we really need it.
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What punctuation do I use for two back-to-back quotes from different sources?
UPDATE: The answers/comments are focusing too much on the context/example, and not enough on the question*: I want to learn the proper punctuation for this scenario, not workarounds to avoid it. "...
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Punctuation in reporting habitual speech [duplicate]
How would you punctuate:
Gran always said, everyone knows this.
Should I put quotation marks round 'everyone knows this'? But it's reported rather than direct speech. I feel like a comma would be good ...
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Comma usage in a series containing an element made of a pair connected by "and" [closed]
I would like to ask your help with the following test quetion:
Jenny Tung is an evolutionary anthropologist who studies the connections between genomics, health, and social experiences in different ...
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Question mark: exemplifying list after colon [duplicate]
What exact meaning of come/go is used in examples such as:
His words came flooding back to me.
All her worries came spilling out
A large branch came/went crashing down / to the ground.
Where should ...
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Was the rule around apostrophe after s different before? [duplicate]
I was watching the 1978 version of Watership Down and intrigue by the subtitle which showed "Richard Adams's". Assuming that this wasn't an error because it went into production and was ...
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How do you hyphenate a prenominal compound containing "most" (e.g., "the most experienced debater")?
I have a simple question, but someone (not I!) has misplaced my copy of CMS.
How do you hyphenate a prenominal compound containing "most"? For example:
the most experienced debater
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Hyphenate attributive measuring phrases: '-old'
Singular forms are used as modifiers before nouns in plural measuring expressions:
five-pound note
three-mile walk
four-foot deep hole
six-foot tall man
twenty-two-month-old baby
80-plus-year-old ...
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