Punctuation Sheet

The Period, Semicolon, & Exclamation Mark

Complete Thought  .  Complete Thought .
	Complete Thought  ;  Complete Thought .
Complete Thought  !  Complete Thought .

THE DASH
Complete Thought  -  Incomplete Thought .

Complete Thought : A, B, and C.

THE COMMA (Fan Boys)

Complete thought	,  for	Complete Thought .
,  and			
,  nor
,  but
,  or
,  yet
,  so

	SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTION

Complete Thought	because	after		Complete Thought .
				Since		unless     
if		until   
although	while    
   		as (as if)	when (ever)
  		before		whereas    

because	after		Complete Thought  ,  Complete Thought .
since		unless     
if		until   
although	while 
as (as if)	when (ever)
before		whereas    

	TRANSITIONAL PHRASE

Complete Thought 	;  furthermore  ,	Complete Thought .
;  however  ,
;  indeed   ,
;  in fact  ,
;  moreover , 		

	QUOTATIONS

Identifying phrase at the beginning:

Malcolm Forbes once said, "Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one." 

Einstein said, “Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.” 

Identifying phrase at the end:

"... [Y]ou reproach us with intending to do away with your property. Precisely so: that is just what we intent," said Marx.

Identifying phrase as an interrupter:

“Next to silence,” said Aldous Huxley, “that which comes closest to expressing the inexpressible is music.”

Quoting more than four lines:

Buddha said:

For the five senses are rather like arrows which have been smeared with the poison of fancies, have cares for their feathers and happiness for their points, and fly about in the space provided by the range of the sense-objects; ... they hit men in their very hearts as a hunter hits a deer, and if men do not know how to ward off these arrows they will be their undoing; when they come near us we should stand in self-control ...

Note, use ellipsis ( ... ) to omit words, and use brackets [ ] to add words. You indent on both sides when quoting more than four lines, and you don’t use quotation marks.