Questions and Answers on Punctuation
Question 1 : What is ellipsis?
Answer : An ellipsis is a series of periods that indicates missing words in a quote. If the ellipsis comes a the beginning of somewhere in the midst of the sentence, it consists of three periods. If the ellipsis comes at the end of the sentence, it consists of four periods, one of which closes the sentence.
Question 2 : What type of information do nonrestrictive commas set off?
Answer : Nonrestrictive commas set off information that is not vital to the meaning of the sentence.
Question 3 : What does the colon often mean?
Answer : The colon often means “following” or “as follows.”
Question 4 : When does a semicolon separate items in a series?
Answer : The semicolon separates items in a series when one or more of those items contain internal punctuation.
Question 5 : Which two punctuation marks almost always go outside the closing quotes?
Answer : The colon and the semicolon will go outside the closing quotes unless they are part of the quoted material.
Question 6 : How do we create the possessive form of the noun classes?
Answer : Add a lone apostrophe: classes’.
Question 7 : Does parenthetical material affect the punctuation of the primary portion of the sentence?
Answer : No, the primary portion of the sentence should be punctuated as if the parenthetical material were not there.
Question 8 : Why is there a hyphen in the word re-formation?
Answer : There is a hyphen in the word re-formation, meaning “to form again,” to distinguish it form the word reformation, meaning “a change”.
Question 9 : Do periods ever appear outside of closing quotes?
Answer : No, periods always appear inside the closing quotes.
Question 10 : Hoe does one punctuate an item in a bulleted list?
Answer : If the item is a sentence, it requires a period, question mark, or exclamation mark. If the item is a word or a phrase, it requires no punctuation.