English Composition

English Composition Study Guide

o Add a semicolon between the two clauses • A comma splice is a sentence in which a comma is used in place of a semicolon. A fused sentence has no punctuation between clauses. Special Punctuation Rules Titles: There are different rules for punctuating titles depending on the type of title. • Titles that exist independently, like a book or movie, are underlined or italicized. o Entertainment Weekly o Little House on the Prairie o Iron Man • Titles referring to a part of another work are set off with quotation marks. o “Teen Struck by Car” from The Boston Globe o “The Barber and His Wife” from Sweeney Todd Quotations: Whenever another writer’s words are used verbatim, the words must be enclosed in quotation marks. How to punctuate the quote depends on how and where the quote is being used. If the quote is a complete sentence, treat the quotation as a clause. • “Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful,” is the first line of Gone with the Wind . If the quote is a complete sentence, but nothing more is added, enclose the sentence in quotation marks. • “Give me liberty or give me death.” If using a period or comma, enclose the mark within the quotation marks. Colons and semi-colons go outside the quotation marks. Quotations that are a piece of dialogue are separated from additional words by a comma. • Matthew said, “We are out of eggs.” Colons: Colons are used to introduce a list, or to indicate that the second part of a sentence is an explanation of a term or idea from the first part of the sentence. • My backpack contained all the clothes I needed: shorts, shirts, underwear, and pajamas. • There is only one thing left to do: win the game! Semi-colons: Semi-colons are most often used as a way to join independent clauses in a compound sentence. However, they can also be used to replace commas if the use of commas would be confusing. Some lists of information use semi-colons to help avoid confusion. • I have worked in Denver, CO; Phoenix, AZ; and Portland, OR. Semi-colons are used to make it clear which words are meant to be read together, such as Denver, CO.

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