English: Punctuation That Does a Job

This is Unit Two, part two, of ACT Preparation. Part one ended with the apostrophe; this part takes up the marks that join and set off larger pieces: semicolons, colons, dashes and parentheses. The rule is unchanged: every mark has a job. Here the jobs are bigger breaks, between crowded items, between whole clauses, and around asides. By the end you will be able to use semicolons to separate a series whose items hold commas. To place a colon only after a complete clause. To choose among the four ways to join two clauses. To set off an aside and close it with the matching mark. And to end a sentence with the right mark while making several decisions in one paragraph.

Five entries on semicolons and colons, and on choosing among four ways to join two clauses.

A second job for the semicolon.

ACT 0119 Semicolons in a Series

When the items in a series already contain commas, semicolons separate the items so the reader can see where each ends: the tour visited Austin, Texas; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Wichita, Kansas. Both of the semicolon's jobs mark a bigger break than a comma, between clauses or between items.

Punctuating a crowded series.

ACT 0120 Series With Commas Inside

To punctuate a crowded series, list the items and find any that holds its own comma; if one does, separate every item with a semicolon, including the last before the final and, and keep the internal commas where they are. A panel of "Ana Ruiz, a nurse, Tom Bell, a pilot, and Jo Kim, a teacher" could be three people or six until semicolons separate the items. Switching is all or nothing: semicolons between some items and commas between others lose the signal.

The colon's one condition.

ACT 0121 Colon After a Complete Clause

A colon introduces a list, an explanation, a summary or a quotation, and what comes before it must be an independent clause: "the kit held three tools: a saw, a drill and a level." No colon after such as or for example, or between a verb and its object.

Testing a colon, step by step.

ACT 0122 Colon or No Colon

A colon question is answered by reading only the words before it. Cover everything after the colon, ask whether what remains is a complete sentence, and keep the colon only if it is and what follows lists or explains. "The recipe needs" lacks its object, so that colon goes; a colon after such as goes too; but "she had one goal: to finish the race" stands. Whether the words after the colon form a sentence does not matter.

Four ways to join two clauses.

ACT 0123 Four Ways to Join Two Clauses

Two independent clauses can be joined or separated four correct ways: a period separates them fully; a comma with a coordinating conjunction names the relation; a semicolon joins closely related clauses; and a colon says the second explains the first. A comma alone is never one of the four. For "the plan had one flaw, nobody had tested it," a period or a semicolon is correct, but is wrong because there is no contrast, and a colon fits best because the second clause names the flaw.

Five entries on asides and endings: dashes, parentheses, matching pairs, end marks, and the unit in one paragraph.

Two more ways to set off an aside.

ACT 0124 Dashes and Parentheses

Dashes and parentheses, like commas, set off nonessential information. A dash can also mark a contrast, a pause or a change of direction, and parentheses enclose asides, examples and dates. The witness, Writing for Success, adds that a dash sets information off for emphasis.

Marks that come in pairs.

ACT 0125 Matching Paired Punctuation

Paired punctuation must match: an aside opened with a dash closes with a dash, and one opened with a comma closes with a comma. "The ferry, dash, the last one of the night, comma, was late" mixes the pair. The course derives this rule from both sources, which each describe the marks as enclosing information between a pair.

Choosing the closing mark.

ACT 0126 Dash, Comma or Parenthesis

When an aside is set off, find where it begins and ends and confirm it can be removed; then look at the opening mark, because the closing mark must be the same kind; and if the aside runs to the end of the sentence after a comma or a dash, the period closes it. "Our guide, open parenthesis, a retired ranger" needs a closing parenthesis, and an aside opened by a dash needs a dash, however natural a comma sounds.

How a sentence ends.

ACT 0127 End Marks and the Indirect Question

A period ends a statement or a command, a question mark ends a direct question, and an exclamation point ends an emphatic sentence. "Where is the gym?" asks directly; "she asked where the gym was" reports a question, so it ends with a period. A question mark belongs only to a question being asked.

The whole unit in one paragraph.

ACT 0128 Five Decisions in One Paragraph

Every mark in this unit does a job: commas join clauses before a conjunction, close introductions, separate series items and enclose nonessential information; they never cut subject from verb, split a two-part compound, follow a series, or precede a reported that-clause. Apostrophes show possession or stand for missing letters. Semicolons join related clauses or separate crowded items, colons follow complete clauses, and paired marks match. In the library paragraph, a comma closes the introduction after reopened, two commas enclose the clause about working from home, a colon introduces the reading room, and room takes apostrophe s. Find the clauses first, and give each mark a reason.

Look at what you can now do. You can separate a crowded series with semicolons, all of them or none. You can place a colon only after a complete clause, never after such as or before an object. You can choose among a period, a semicolon, a comma with a conjunction and a colon by what the clauses mean to each other. You can close an aside with the mark that opened it. And you can end a reported question with a period and make five punctuation decisions in one paragraph. Unit three turns from marks to words that must agree.