There are many types of punctuation which do not finish a sentence: commas, apostrophes, brackets (or parentheses), colons, semi-colons, ellipses, slashes, hyphens, dashes and speech marks (or quotation marks).
- separate many words in a sentence: I’ll buy a cup, a plate and a bowl - show a pause: Well, I guess it’s okay in the end. - surround a person’s name when speaking directly to them: Do you, Liz, agree to marry Ben? - do not finish a sentence
5. Apostrophes '
- show possession (ownership): It was Robert’s pen. (Shows ownership- it belongs to Robert) - show contraction (shortening): You’re late! (Shows a missing ‘a’ = You are late!) -- do not finish a sentence
6. Parentheses (Brackets) ( )
- give extra information: View the example (see page 12). - separates words that can be left out of a sentence: Today is Friday (my favourite day). - may be square brackets [ ]: “Thats [sic] the problem…” - can surround an ‘s’ at the end of a word to show when a word can be singular or plural at the same time: Don't forget your bag(s). This can mean "Don't forget your bag.” and/or “Don't forget your bags." - do not finish a sentence
7. Colons :
- are used before a list when no words introduce it Include: References, Notes, Draft - can also introduce an explanation I'll tell you what I'm going to do: I'm going to quit! - can introduce a definition of something Cruel: someone who is unkind - can be seen after ‘Dear sir/madam:” in American writing but we use a comma, not a colon in Australia. - do not finish a sentence
At 1:39 in the video, it says you can use a colon to introduce speech. This is not very common in Australia.
8. Semi-colons ;
- join two complete sentences into one sentence when they are related and there is no conjunction (joining word) Today is Friday; I love Fridays! Some love dogs; others hate dogs. - do not finish a sentence
9. Ellipses (1 ellipsis, 2 or more ellipses) ...
- show when part of a quote is missing Hews argues “…only 3% remain.” - show when a sentence is not finished If only… - are used when a sentence trails off (not a sudden stop) I wanted to tell you but… - do not finish a sentence (they show an unfinished one)
10. Slashes /
- can show abbreviations or contractions Write c/o - replace ‘or’ and ‘per’Then write his/her name. - can show time and contractionsThe speed limit is 60k/hour. - are used in fractions¼ cup of milk - are used in URLs/website addresseshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNKBut921qM - can be a backslash / - can be a forward slash \
11. Hyphens -
- are used to make clear compound words It was a blue-green colour. - are used with two names Jonathan Daly-Smith - are used with compound modifiers I am scared of man-eating sharks! - are used when a word is split over 2 lines She was unhappy because she was late to her workplace. - are shorter than dashes
12. Dashes –
- are used to deliberately interrupt a sentence He hates dogs– if possible – even more. - show an unfinished sentence John can you – oh don’t worry. - show an sudden stop to a sentence Hey, where are you– - are longer than hyphens