Anna Watson's writing tips: Because I've run out of ideas

Tip 11: Punctution!

Pretty basic stuff but I often see people misuse commas or full stops, etc...

Hey, sometimes I misuse them, or don't use them at all!

So let's go with endings:

If someone is exclaiming something you use the exclamation mark "!", self explanatory.

If someone is asking a question you use the question mark "?".

To finish a sentence you put a ".".

To give the reader a "breath" or moment to stop in the middle of a sentence you put a ",".

COLONS:

Now if someone was to list something or give an example you use ":" not ";". This is called a colon.

E.g. "I went to the mall to buy only three things: shoes, a shirt and a pair of pants."

Never use the colon like this: "My favourite cake is made of: milk, flour, eggs."

The correct way to punctuate that would be: "My favourite cake is made of milk, flour and eggs." No need for a colon.

SEMI-COLONS:

You use a semi-colon ";" to join sentences.(Never more than two)

E.g. "I went to the mall today; I bought some shoes, shirts and pants."

Not "I went to the mall today; I bought some shoes, shirts and pants; then I went for dinner."

DASHES:

Now dashes can be used to connect words such as well-being and Cheshire-like.

But they can also be used like this:

The mall—covered in trash and grime—was empty.

This is when you use two dashes alongside one another. You use this to add an extra note instead of doing this:

"The mall, which was covered in trash and grime, was empty."

Sometimes you can't use commas because they would be confusing:

"Even the simplest things, reading, writing, drawing, were boring." So authors use (—) to isolate the emphasis.

They can also be used to introduce or conclude something:

"Books, pencils, papers—these kids couldn't even remember the simplest necessities."

And it can also be used to break up dialogue:

"Oh! I-I'm so sorry-"

"Don't worry about it,"

COMMAS:

Now, commas are tricky because people tend to over or under use them.

To put it simply, use the comma to give the reader a "breath"; a moment to pause.

So, people put one after beginning words such as "Now", "However" and "Usually", etc... To emphasis the first word, to emphasis the beginning.

I hope that makes sense? You don't always have to but you should.

If you have any questions or something wasn't clear, maybe I missed something, just ask!

- Anna ❤️