Complete Guide to Punctuation: Improve Your English Writing!

1. Punctuation: You want you to know how to use proper punctuation in order to help you communicate any more concise and effective way in all areas of your writing, you find that you struggle with punctuation and would like a simple way to learn the most important aspects of it that's both easy and enjoyable. Hi, my name is Jodie, and I've been helping students successfully mastered the fundamentals of punctuation. Now I want to personally help you inside my signature course compete guide to punctuation. I cover all the most vital components of proper punctuation that include how to use commas, colon, semi-colons, ellipses, question marks, and other key punctuation. How to avoid the most common and embarrassing punctuation errors in your writing. Hundred crepe parenthetical expressions and compound modifiers. How to write with confidence and clarity to get your point across any concise manner. How do we know when to use square brackets and versus parentheses in your reading? How and when you should use bullet points, quotation marks, and apostrophes in the right way. And that's just for starters. The number one goal with this course is to teach you how to use proper punctuation in a way that's both easy to do to understand and easy to implement. This course is perfect for anyone who's looking to improve their use of punctuation, including college and university students, professional writers, editors, journalists, and other communication professionals. You'll finally get access to complete a step-by-step course that remove the complexity and confusion associated with punctuation and make it more interesting and beneficial to you. So thank you so much for taking the time to check out my punctuation course. 2. Eliminating Confustion: In this lecture, I want to show the importance of using a comma to eliminate confusion. Often the meaning of a sentence can change completely just by placing a comma at a different point in the sentence. So what do I mean by this? Well, it classic example of where a comma can change the meaning of a sentence is that the grandma versus, let's eat grandma. The first one indicates that we're going to eat grandma, as in cannibalism, versus the second one which suggested grandma that we should eat food. Two completely different meanings, simply with a comma or for instance, I love baking my family and friends. It sounds to me that she loves putting your family and friends in the oven and baking them, which I'm sure is not the case. So to clarify this misunderstanding, we need to place a comma after the word speaking and family. This will show that she loved baking. She loves her family, and she loves her friends and not baking them. I hope now you understand the importance of correctly placing and comma and how we misplaced comma can lead to huge misunderstandings. So let's move on to the next lecture where we talk about how you can connect two sentences with a comma. 3. Connecting Two Sentences : Commas are also great when you want to combine two standalone sentences. There are somewhat related into one sentence with a comma. But before we do that, we need to define what a sentence is. A sentence comprises two things, are subject and a predicate. A predicate is essentially something that's being said about the subject. These two things are all you need to make a complete sentence. So if I said Jake and Andrew speak Spanish at home, the subject would be Jake and Andrew, While the predicate would be speaks Spanish at home. Another example, this would be Jason prefers English where the subject is adjacent and the predicate is prefers English. Most of these are complete sentences, but if you wanted, we can combine them into one sentence. We could do this with a comma like this. Jake and Andrew speak Spanish at home, but Jason prefers English. You can see that we combine the two sentences simply by placing a comma after the word home and placing the conjunction between the two. Another great example of two related sentences being combined with the comma and a conjunction are someone who to go to the museum and also the ticket prices were expensive. Now you can leave these as individual sentences because they both have their own subjects and predicates. But if we wanted, we can combine them and change it to, Sam wanted to go to the museum, but the ticket prices were expensive. Mold examples are not wrong as individual sentences, but it makes more sense to combine the two with a comma and a conjunction. Now, hope that clears things up. And in the next lecture we'll be talking about using commas to create parenthetical expressions that allow you to add additional information mid-sentence. 4. Parenthetical Expressions: Now let's talk about parenthetical expressions and how they can be used with commas to give the reader additional information. The reason for this is that often you want to add additional non-essential information within the texts. But you want to do it in a way where it's concise and to the point. So e.g. it says Sierra hates hot weather. But let's say I also want to add to that, that ironically he comes from Iran, which is a hot climate country. How they do that? Well, it's simple outright. Sarah, although she comes from Iran, hates the hot weather. Here, the additional information added was, although she comes from Iran, I specifically mentioned that between the two commas, the cool thing about it is that if we remove the information between the commas, it would still make sense. And that's the whole point of parenthetical expressions. It's adding additional information that if removed, which still makes sense. Now parent audible expressions aren't only applicable in mid sentences. They can also be added to the beginning or the end of a sentence. E.g. it says, she likes football, as I later realized. Here we added the additional information as I later realized at the end of the sentence, but we could also switch it up to, as a leader relies, she likes football. Now, the parenthetical expression is at the beginning of the sentence. Again, the key aspect of it is that if removed, the sentence should still make sense. I hope this helps. And in the following lecture we'll be talking about using commas to make list, which is by far the easiest and simplest way to use the comma. 5. Making a List: In this lecture, we'll be talking about making lists using commas. And as I mentioned earlier, this is by far the easiest use of the comma. The way it works is to list something like I went to the grocery store to grab the milk, avocado carried and cranberry juice, you would place a comma after every item except the last one, which is cranberry juice. It's that simple, or is it the heat controversy on whether there should be a comma before the word end. This is a specific name for this comma or the Oxford comma. Some are totally against it, while others thinks it's mandatory. And both sides have the reasons. The one that I see we don't need it or against it because they claimed that the meaning of the sentence is clear width or without the comma. So it just takes extra, unnecessary space on the page. They also say that technically you using a comma in a list is a replacement for the word. And so I went to the grocery store to grab the milk of a caudal cared and cranberry juice is basically short for. I went to the grocery store to grab some milk and avocado and carried and cranberry juice. So why would we need another comma when there's already the word end there, which is understandable. But the ones I said, we do need it claimed that without the final column or there can be confusion. So for instance, if I said I allow my parents, Jason and Emily, it might seem like the author is saying, I love my parents, who are json and Emily, and that's because of the missing comma. If we add the comma, it will change too. I love my parents, Jason and Emily. Here it's quite clear that the parents aren't actually in json and Emily, but maybe her friends. And if it weren't for the comma, we'd never know. But cases like these are rare and usually you'd figure out the correct meaning based on context. So both sides have valid points, and it's up to you to decide which one is best and stick with it as long as you're consistent, you can't go wrong either way. 6. Colon Elaborating on a thought: In this lecture, we'll be talking about Colin's and how you can use them to elaborate on a thought. Now the purpose of the colon is to introduce additional information after an independent clause. So if I said a dolphin is not a fish, then that wouldn't be an independent clause. And we could follow that up with the colon and add to it by saying it's a warm-blooded mammal. Now you can see that the information before the colon is complete, but the information after it essentially elaborate on the first part of the sentence. Now that's the primary use for equaling. Something we can do is write a dolphin is not a fish because colon, it is a warm-blooded mammal. And that's because the information before the colon is not a complete sentence. I also want to add to that the information after the colon does not necessarily have to be independent clause, like in our first example, both parts of the colon can be independent clauses, providing that they are related to one another. So e.g. a. Dolphin is not a fish holding. Fish are cold blooded mammals. You can see here that both statements are independent clauses that are related to one another. And the second part elaborate on the first, although this is a primary use case for the colon. In the next video, I'll be talking about another use that is just as useful. 7. Colon Creating a List: Like I mentioned, another great use for the colon is to create a list. This is similar to elaborating on a thought like in the last sector. But here, when you're elaborating, all you're really doing is listing items. E.g. who's going to buy three things from the store, colon, chairs, tables, and the lamp. Here we have a colon being used to list items were the first half is an independent clause, and the second is a dependent. Something you don't want to do is I have packed my Craig kid with the equipment I need including colon, bats, balls, gloves, and pads. This is incorrect because the sentence before the colon is not considered a complete sentence. If we remove everything after the colon, it wouldn't make sense. So how do we fix this? What we changed it to aipac, my cricket kid with the equipment, I need colon, bats, balls, gloves, and pads here. If we removed everything after the colon, it would still make sense. I hope these few examples give you a better understanding of how to use the colon. It can be tricky sometimes, but with practice, you should be able to get the hang of it. 8. Semicolon Connecting Two Thoughts: Now let's move on to the semicolon. The best when you describe what a semicolon does is it sort of a mix between a comma and a period. Same cones up plates and importance of a sentence where you could place a period. But you want to let the reader know that the following sentence is related to the last one, e.g. I. Went to the restaurant with my wife. I thought it was amazing. She thought it was terrible. These last two sentences are closely related. So instead of placing the period between them, we can connect them using a comma plus a conjunction. I thought it was amazing, but she thought it was terrible. That works, but it's not as concise as placing a semicolon. I thought it was amazing. She thought it was terrible. Instead of saying the exam went, well, I got his 75 and my friend got a 93. We could change that to the exam went well. I got a 75, my friend got a 93. It's a very subtle difference and it's up to you to decide which one you like better. You may be wondering, what's the difference between a semicolon, any colon? Well, they may seem similar at first, but there's a subtle difference. The semicolon is used more to connect two complete sentences with similar thoughts, as I mentioned earlier, while the colon is used more to elaborate on the first part of the sentence, I don't want to go outside colon, It's cold, wet and windy here the second part elaborate on the first, rather than it being a stand-alone sentence. I hope that clears things up. And in the next lecture, we'll be talking about how you can use semi-colons to meet complex list, making it easier to understand. 9. Semicolon Breaking down a Complex list: As I mentioned, a semicolon, It's essentially a mix between a period and a comma in the left side. Do we use a semicolon to replace a period? And in this lecture we'll be talking about how you can use a semicolon as a replacement for commerce to prevent confusion in your writing. What do I mean by that? Well, let's take a look at this sentence. For instance, the counseling comprises ten members through from Sydney, Australia for from Auckland, New Zealand to Francois Fiji and one from Han area, Solomon Island. Grammatically speaking, there's nothing wrong with this sentence, but you may have noticed that there's tons of commas, little too many if you asked me, and it can get confusing trying to identify which column is for what purpose. So let me tell you. These commas are two separate city from country, while these are two separate number of council members from each city, this means that there are two uses for the comma, and it might be difficult for someone to tell them apart. So in this case, we can continue to separate the cities and countries with commas, but separate the Council Member locations with a semicolon. Now, even if you were to quickly glance over the texts, you can still visually separate the items on the list because of the semi-colons, listens, he act as a stronger alternative, two commas, the semicolon can act as a great alternative to using commas in the list or to connect two independent clauses. But they can't replace every use for the coma. For instance, we can replace the comma that is placed between cities and countries. That would be incorrect. We also can use semi-colons for dates are numbers. That just looks a bit odd and that's it. I hope this helps you get a better understanding of the semicolon and the few uses it has in writing. I do want to say that using a semicolon is not a must like a comma or a period. You can get away with writing an entire novel without a semicolon. But it can occasionally be helpful. 10. Contractions: Now we move on to the apostrophe. There are several uses for it, but in this lecture, we'll be focusing on contractions. Contractions or when we combine two words into one, making it easier to speak with fewer syllables. For instance, the word is stored per i m, or the word won't short for we'll not. The apostrophe is pleased with the missing letters goal. And although there's only one positively, often you can count for many missing letters. Like contracting sheet is short for she had where she would in both cases, we have several missing letters. Let's look at some examples of contractions being used in complete sentences. He's not coming, his mother won't allow him. I'll just go loan. Here. There are several examples of contractions. He's a short for, he is won't, a surfer will not. And i'll is short for I will. You'll notice if you expand all the contractions from the sentence, it will still make sense. He is not coming, his mother will not allow him, so I will just go loan. The only difference is that u sound formal and that's a key difference between contractions and using the complete form. If you're writing a call Jesse, then it's not recommending that you use contractions. But if you're having a regular conversation, it would be weird not to use them. That's just one of the more common ways to use the apostrophe. 11. Marking Possession: Last lecture we talked about using apostrophes for contractions. And in this lecture, we'll be discussing how you can use them to mark for possession. Possession is essentially when someone or something has owns or is a part of something else. So when I say That's Jacobs core, the word data is a contraction for that is, put the word Jacobs is not necessarily a contraction, but to more possession. A quick test to prove it would be to read it, assuming it is a contraction and see if it makes sense. That is Jacobs is car. You can see it clearly doesn't make any sense. So we know that the apostrophe S is two more precision that Jacob owns the car. A couple of other examples of this would be the car's engine broke down here, although the core doesn't necessarily own the engine, It's still a part of the core, so we must add an apostrophe S. Now this is different from saying I have many cars without the apostrophe. This means there are multiple cores, meaning the essay to indicate plural rather than possession. It's a minute difference that many tend to overlook. So I want you to be aware of it. A couple more examples of using a posture pupil possession would be Leary's laptop. Stop working here again, there aren't multiple layers, but instead is to indicate that Larry owns a laptop or let's say my apartment's air conditioner stopped working by now. I'm sure that you know, the apostrophe S refers to the fact that the air conditioner is a part of the apartment and not that there are several apartments. So it's important to note the differences between just adding an S to the end of a word versus adding an impossibly than the S, because this changes the meaning of a sentence. For the most part, this is simple, but it definitely gets confusing once we combine plurals would possessive terms, which is why the next lecture is dedicated to teaching you how to combine the two correctly. 12. Plural: Hopefully by now you have a better understanding of using apostrophes for possession. Now let's move on to combining possessions and plural nouns. So let's say you're at the airport and you're admiring how massive all the planes are, specifically the size of their wings. Answer you think, wow, the plane's wings are massive. How would you rate the word planes? The planes with an apostrophe, S. Is it Plains with an S, Then an apostrophe? Or is it Plains with an S and no apostrophe at all? Let me give you a second to think about it. If you guys two planes with an S and then the apostrophe, then you'd be correct because DSB for the apostrophe S to indicate that there are multiple planes. And the apostrophe is for the S, which is to indicate that the wings are a part of the plane, but we drop it because it looks odd with Domini essays. This applies to every plural that ends with an editor. So I want to do in the boys club, again, there is an SMB for the apostrophe to indicate multiple boys in the apostrophe plus the invisible S tissue, the possession of the word club. Now I mentioned this applies to plural dot n with an es. Plural nouns that don't end with an S, e.g. women, children, teeth, or even feed. All these words are plural. Yeah, they don't have any S's. In that case, if I were to say the men's change is always packed, although the word man's is plural and possessive, I wouldn't drop the S after the apostrophe because the plural word men doesn't have an S. So there is no doubling of the letter, meaning there's no need to drop the possessive S. Now, this applies to all plural nouns that don't end with the letter S. 13. Periods : Let's move on to periods. Periods are quite similar in that they're used to mark the endings of an imperative or a declarative sentence, among other things, all of which we'll discuss later in the class. What is an imperative sentence? Will, an imperative sentence is any command or request. So, grabbed my wallet from my room. Don't forget to lock the house before you leave. You've got to help me clean up around the house. These are just some examples of imperative sentences. Now what about declarative? A declarative sentence is any sentence that declares a fact, observation or a statement. So the river looks dirty, it's quite cloudy today, or I love pizza. No declarative and imperative sentences are just different types of sentences. But what is a sentence? A sentence is a grammatically complete idea that contains a subject and a predicate, a subject being a noun or a pronoun, any predicate being a verb or something being said about the subject. Let's take a look at one of the previous statements. And breaking down. The river looks dirty. Here. The river is a subject and looks dirty is the predicate. When we say it looks dirty, it describes a subject which is the river. Keep in mind that not all sentences explicitly mentioned the subject. Sometimes it can also be assumed. So if we take the imperative sentence, grabbed my wallet from my room, here, the predicate is the entire sentence, whereas the subject or something is indirectly stated, but rather it's implied. In this sentence. The subject is you. You grandma wanted from my room, you being the person he's talking to. So that's all there is to know about periods to end sentences. But what about abbreviation? That's something that we'll discuss in the phone lecture. False you there. 14. Abbreviations: Let's talk about abbreviations. Abbreviations are used to shorten the length of a word, e.g. DOB is short for date of birth or app is short for application. This makes it easier to say or write commonly used words or phrases. There are four types of abbreviations. The first one being initialism. This is when you form an abbreviation using the first letters are big group of words. So if we wanted to abbreviate unidentified flying object, we would shorten it to UFO or for law enforcement agency like Federal Bureau of Investigation, which are new to FEI and leave out the proposition words like of to keep the abbreviation short. This is also white USE for United States of America and not us. Another type of abbreviation is acronyms. These are similar to initialism in that we write the first letters of each word. But when we say acronyms, we don't see the first letters of each word like USA. Instead we pronounce the letter is like they were an actual word. E.g. SIM is short for a subscriber identification module, but we don't say I need to get a SIM for my new number. We see it as a complete word, same. Another example of this would be the word RAM, which stands for random access memory. We just call it RAM instead of RAM. The third type of abbreviation is contractions. This is when you remove letters from the middle of the word. And this type of abbreviation is often used to address someone. Words like Dr. Mr. or Miss can all be contracted to DR. Mr. And MS. Notice how the first and last letters remain while the rest are removed. Now, it's not always necessary that we remove everything between the letters. It's just that we keep the first and last letter, e.g. the word government can be sure to Geo VT. A quick note, and depending on whether you follow American English or British English, we must place a period at the end of the contraction. British English central, leave it out while American English keeps it. And that takes us to my last type of abbreviation, which is to use abbreviations to shorten words similar to contractions and that will be removed letters. But in this, there is no set rules as to where you must remove the letters. It could be the middle of the word, like contractions, or it could be the beginning or the end. Another difference is that once we shortened the word, the condensed version itself becomes the Word e.g. the word influenza can be shortened to flu, and you'll rarely hear people saying influenza. Instead, you'll just hear them say the word flu. Take the word out, for instance. That's short for application. And we've essentially removed the entire second half of the word. Also, you don't need to place a period after the shortened word in there, you have it. That's about all you need to know about abbreviations. It's an important topic that many overlook, which is why I've created an entire lecture on it. In the following lecture, I'll be teaching you how to use ellipses correctly. See you there. 15. Ellipsis: In this lecture we'll be talking about ellipses because although it looks is rarely used in writing, they can definitely come handy from time-to-time. The ellipses can be used for many things. One of them is to show that we remove something from speeds when quoting others. So if someone were to say after school, I went to my friend's house to work on a group assignment, which was extremely difficult. And then we went to the park here if we wanted to quote this person, but felt that we could remove extra, unnecessary information from the speech. We could do this with the help of the ellipses. So the court would change to after school. I went to my friend's house to work on your group assignment ellipses. Then we went to the park here. We placed the ellipses on the part of the speech that was removed. And we do this so it's clear to the reader that we've left out some parts of the speech. Another great way to use the ellipsis is to indicate that there is a pause in speech. And this pause could be for many reasons. It could be to create suspense, show a losing train of thought or debating whether or not they should see what they're about to say. The reasons are endless. So a quick example of one would be the winner for the 2023 spelling competition is amber gray. Here the ellipses was used to create suspense for the crowd before announcing the winner of the competition. Another example would be Jason, can you go to the supermarket to grab chili pepper and garlic? Don't forget about the garlic. Here the ellipses is used to create a pause where the speaker was trying to remember what the last item on her list was. Again, the uses for the ellipses are endless, but at the end of the day, they're used to give the reader the feeling of actually being there. Because we're not always using words to pass on information, but rather the lack Oldham and you lift these can help portray that. 16. Dashes: Now we move on to the dash, and this symbol is quite unique in that it can be used to replace quite a few punctuation marks, whether it'd be commas, brackets, or even Colin's. Although it can be used everywhere these punctuation marks are used, there's still quite a few examples where there are interchangeable. Let's take calls. For instance, here it says, I went skiing comma with my brother comma in Alberta. The information between the commas with my brother is additional information that can be removed and it wouldn't change the meaning of the sentence. We can replace the columns with dashes, and that would also be grammatically correct. So would change too. I went skiing dash with my brother dash in Alberta. Let's try another example. But with Colin's making banana smoothies is quite simple. All you need are three ingredients. Milk, banana in yogurt. This works, but we can also replace the colon with the dash. So making banana smoothies is quite simple. All you need are three ingredients. Dash milk, banana in yogurt. Both examples are fine, and it's up to you to decide which you prefer. Finally, Dustin can also be used as replacements for brackets. Because brackets are often used to elaborate on a specific point where your reader might be confused. E.g. Johnny McDonald, the first Canadian Prime Minister, served his final year in office in 18 91. The information between the brackets is one that many of the leaders may already know, but it's there in case someone doesn't. That's why I can get away with it by placing it in a bracket. But if not, and you feel that this is crucial information, then you may want to change it to a Dutch. This will indicate a stronger emphasis on the importance of the information and that's about it for dashes, I recommend you try using dashes in your next piece of writing as they can add sort of an elegance to your writing. 17. Hyphens The Importance of a Hyphen: Hyphens are an essential aspect of punctuation because without them, it can cause a lot of confusion and ambiguity. And a change in hyphenation can completely change the meaning of a sentence. What do I mean by that? Well, it's simple statements like I have 24 h shares can have three different meanings just by moving the position of the hyphen. If I were to place a hyphen between the words for an hour, then that would mean that I have 24 hour shifts. But if I move the hyphen and place it between the words 24, then that would mean I have 24 1 h shifts. So 24 of them. What if I place a hyphen between both places? Now have 24 hour shifts as in the last 24 h, and it doesn't specify how many of them. I just know that there's more than one because there is an S at the end of the word shift, you can see just a simple change in placement of the hyphen can completely change the length n number of fifths. It's no wonder how you still always a mess my shifts. But jokes aside, this can cause a lot of confusing, not just in this, but in many other cases as well. Which is why in the next lecture, I'll be covering some of the rules that you need to be aware of when using hyphens. 18. Hyphens Compound Modifier: Hi friends can also be used between two words that are combined to be used as a single adjective to describe a noun, e.g. it's impossible to eat this rock hard pizza. Here the words rock hard or compound adjectives describing the noun pizza. So we must hyphenate all compound modifiers.com before a noun. I specifically say before a noun because if it comes after, then you no longer need a hyphen. So if I were to change it to the pizza is raw card, I would no longer need the hyphen. A few more examples of this would be, I met the well-known actor, Will Smith. Brad Pitt is a well-known actor. My parents gifted me this brand new car. My car is brand new. In all these examples, you can see that when the compound modifier comes before the noun, there is a hyphen, and when it comes after, then you no longer need the hyphen. A quick bonus tip is that you also need to place hyphens between compound numbers. So basically all numbers 21-99 except for 304-050-6070, 80.90 because they're not compounds. So if I were to write 29, then you will need to place a hyphen between the words 29. Or let's say you want to write out 45. You would also do it like this. The hyphen between the word 45. Now if you have a number that's greater than 100, then you will also place a hyphen, the numbers that are 21-99. So e.g. 378. Notice how we don't place a hyphen between the 300, but we do so between the numbers 78, even though the number as a whole is above 99, this also applies to when you're using them in a sentence. So I have $39 to spend at the carnival or it took me 69 days to renovate the house. In both cases, we must place a hyphen in between the numbers. 19. Hyphens Prefixes and Suffixes: In this lecture, we'll be talking about prefixes and suffixes and how you can use them in combination with hyphens, because not all prefixes or suffixes require a hyphen. Let's start with prefixes. What are the prefixes are letters added to the beginning of the word that modify its meaning, e.g. here with unlock, the original word is locked and the prefix is ARN, which means the opposite or to reverse something. So unlike means the opposite of Locke, not all prefixes are combined into one word. Some may be separated with a hyphen, e.g. recover, which means to cover something. Again, we add a hyphen here because without it, the meaning would completely change. Removing the hyphen could change it to recover, which means to return to an original stage or regain access to something they always lost. Another example would be recreation, which means to do something for fun or enjoyment. Like his only form of recreation is football. Now if we were to add a hyphen, it will change some recreation to re-creation and recreating. Nice to create some new again, which is totally different from doing something for enjoyment. A basic rule of thumb is that if it changes the meaning, then we must add or remove the hyphen accordingly. If not, we just remove it. What about suffixes? Suffixes work the exact same way as prefixes, but the only difference is that instead of letters being added at the beginning of the word, we add them at the end. So words like worldwide, childlike, or even province wide, which subjects is, generally speaking there is in a hyphen because they don't change much regardless of whether or not we add the hyphen, so we just remove it. But that comes with time. It starts off as two words, then the hyphen gets added. And over time, if we continue to use these two words in combination, it just turns into province wide. But not all suffixes start off as two words or every getting hyphened words like sadness, treatment, jealousy, or taxable includes suffixes. And at no point were they separated or had a hyphen between them. 20. Exclamation Marks How and Where to use them : Let's talk about the exclamation mark. The exclamation mark is used primarily to convey strong emotion, whether that be positive or negative. E.g. I. Can't believe I pass the exam. Here. The motion is a mix of excitement and shock at the fact that the person pass the exam. If you took the same sentence and remove the exclamation mark, it will change too. I can't believe I pass the exam. With this in mind, it's hard to tell whether the person is actually excited about passing the exam. This can also be used to convey a negative emotion. I hate this job. Here the emotion is anger with a bit of frustration, and this is shown with the exclamation mark. Could also get a similar meaning across without the exclamation mark, I hate this job. This delivered the exact same message, but doesn't necessarily convey a strong emotion, just a fact. Exclamation marks and also be used to emphasize a specific word. And this is done with the help of the bracket. They charged me $87 in late fees. Here the radial wanted to place an emphasis on the $87 and that's because he thinks that $87 is a lot for late fees. He did this by placing an exclamation mark in between the brackets right after the dollar amount. Something to keep in mind is that whenever you use an exclamation mark, it replaces a period. You don't need to please both in one sentence. So if I were to say I finally got hired, which is a complete sentence. I don't need to place a period after the sentence ends because the exclamation mark acts as a period with all that being said. Although the exclamation mark can be quite handy, especially when you want to convey strong emotion. It is recommended that you keep it to a minimum, especially when it comes to formal writing, because the overuse of the exclamation mark reduces the effectiveness of each one. So be mindful of that. 21. Quotations for Direct Speech: In this lecture, we'll talk about using quotation marks and more specifically, using quotation marks for direct speeds. E.g. he said, I don't like playing outside. Here we're quoting what someone else said word for word. And we indicate this by putting quotation marks at the beginning and end of his speech. I'm sick and tired of this job. She yelled at the top of her lungs. Here again, we're using quotation marks to show the exact words you use to express herself. We don't always have to put an entire sentence if we don't want to. E.g. if we feel that there are parts of the quote that don't add value to what is being said. We can eliminate it with the help of the ellipses. Let's say the concrete quote is, my brother who is ten, loves playing outside. And I want to put this person, but I feel that it's too long and contains unnecessary information. I can simply change it to my brother. Ellipses loves playing outside this way you're condensing the information while still being honest as to where you remove the information from. Now that we've put your knowledge to the test, where would you place the quotation marks in the following sentence? I really don't like playing soccer. She said, where would you place the quotation marks? I'll give you a second to pause the video and think about it. If you chose to put one question work at the beginning and one right after the word soccer than you'd be correct. I really don't like playing soccer. She said, Now let's try one that's a bit more difficult. He called them loud, messy, and disrespectful, and then he loved to go for a smoke. Where do you think we should place the quotation mark? Please pause the video until you feel that you have the correct answer. If you pick one right before the word loud and the other one after disrespectful, then you'd be correct. Hopefully, this gives you a better understanding of the correct ways to use direct quotation marks. And in the next lecture, we'll move on to using quotation marks for indirect speech. 22. Quotations For Indirect Speech: Tensions are not just limited to quoting direct word for word speech. They can also be used indirectly. E.g. my brothers quick trip to the grocery store cause numerous soccer practice. In this way, we put single quotation marks around the word quick to indicate that there was nothing quick about it. And in fact, he took longer than expected. Another example of this would be the service on first-class was horrible. Here we put quotation marks around the words first-class to let the readers know that it didn't seem like first-class. First-class is often portrayed as luxurious with exceptional service. But that's not how they felt when they imported, which may be a bit ironic. Another example of using quotation marks indirectly is when you referring to words as actual words and not their meaning. So let me give you an example. The word Date can be used in many different ways. Here, we're not actually using the word Date and meaning, but rather just referring to it. We do this by placing quotation marks around the word. One more example would be, what does it mean to be biased? Here, we're not using the word with its meaning, but rather we're just referring to the word. I hope that's easy to understand and I know it can be a bit complex. So if you have any questions, feel free to ask. 23. Types of Quotes : Now let's talk about the two different types of single and double. You're probably more familiar with the ladder because it's more commonly used. But the body sends you do the same thing which is called the others. If you wanted to say, she said, I don't like winter, you could write it either with single quotes like this or double-quotes like this. It's up to you and your style guide, because some style guides place restrictions on which one you're supposed to use. But at the end of the day, it really doesn't matter. But where it doesn't matter is when you have a quote within a quote, this is to make things easier to understand. E.g. Sam told me, Jason said there's no point in trying which is absurd. When it starts with Sam told me there's a quotation mark. Then it's Jason said, then there's another quotation mark followed by, there's no point in trying with yet another quotation mark. And then he says, which is absurd, which ends with a final quotation marks. Now this can get confusing very quickly, like the words adjacent said are in-between to quote marks. So does that mean that that's a complete quote? Well, the answer is no, but how do we let the reader know this? Well, we let them know this by using two different types of quotes. So for the first one we can use a regular double-quotes. And for the second one, we'll switch it over to single quotes. And this makes it much easier to identify which quotes starts and ends where. Now it's up to you to decide which one is single quote and which one is doubled. 24. How to Use Question Marks: Now we'll be moving on to the question mark. Question mark. So quite easy to understand. You simply add them at the end of a question. So when is the next assignment due? When can we afford the house? What time do we meet up? Keep in mind that this doesn't apply to when there's a question within a statement. In other words, when the statement presents a question, instead of asking the question, what do I mean by this? For instance, she asked me if she needed to dress formally for work. The question is, does she need to dress formally for work? But the person making this statement is not the one asking, but rather paraphrasing her. In this case, we don't need to place a question mark another place where he may be a bit confusing as to where you may need to place. A question mark is when it comes to quotations, if I were to say, participants were asked, how often do you exercise per week where I placed the question mark, would it be on the outside of the quotation mark or inside? If you get inside, then you'd be correct because the question is inside the quote, How often do you exercise per week would have, I would say deci really say, I hate working here. The question is starts on the outside of the code and whatever is inside the quotation mark as a part of the question. Which is why we should place a question mark on the outside of the quotation marks. Let's move on to a trickier example and see if you can figure it out. What should I say when she asked, Where have you been all night? Do I place a question mark on the inside of the code or the outside? Or do you place one in both the outside and the inside? Pause the video until you think you have the answer. And the answer is, you drop the second question. Mark, the one that's on the outside of the quotation mark. If there are two direct questions than the first one that's on the outside of the quote becomes a statement. And we don't need a question mark for it, and that about covers it for question marks. There's not much else you need to know. They're quite simple and to the point. 25. The Correct use of Parenthesis: In this lecture, I want to talk about using parentheses or what somebody called brackets. Either one is correct, but what about the correct methods of using them? Parentheses are mainly used to add extra information to texts, similar to the way we can use commas and dashes. The differences that commas and dashes require you to keep the information quite relevant to what is being said. This same limitation does not apply to the parentheses. Although it does have to be somewhat relevant. It's not to the same extent as a comma or a dash. So what types of information can be included, what you can use them for years, dates, citations, creating a list, and even to clarify or elaborate on something e.g. she bracket, Jessica bracket loves to go on adventures. The name Jessica was never part of the original sentence, but it was added for clarification for the reader because we may not know who they're referring to when they say see. Another example of where it can be used to clarify something would be Jason bracket and his husband bracket works at a coffee shop. Here we're using brackets to introduce a new character into the scene. Because if Jason was being mentioned for the first time, we may not know who he is or why he's been mentioned. We can also use brackets to elaborate on something, e.g. all workers bracket, we're now gaining attention. Bracket protests for higher wages, the worker is protesting is important information, but the fact that they're gaining attention is great to know. Removing it doesn't take much away from the main point and the sentence still makes sense without it, all workers protest for higher wages. Parentheses are also great for adding time period, e.g. if we're talking about the Great Depression, we can say the Great Depression bracket, 1929 to 1939 bracket was the worst economic downturn in the industrialized world. We've included the years in which agreed to person took place. And it makes it concise and to the point, otherwise we would have to write the Great Depression, which lasted 1929-1939, was the worst economic downturn in the industrialized world. Now this can also apply to birth and death years. E.g. Albert Einstein bracket 18 70 to 1955 bracket is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Again, we're using brackets to place additional information. Parentheses can also be used to let your reader know that they can choose how they would like to interpret the information. E.g. read the participant's name, bracket, bracket. I think the S in parentheses. This means that you could just have one name or multiple names is up to you. These are just some of the most common uses for the parentheses, and there are many more ways that you may come across. But by now, you should have a solid understanding of what parentheses are and how they can be used. And in the next lecture, we'll be talking about square brackets, which look quite similar to the parentheses, but serve very different purposes. 26. Best Uses for Squared Brackets : In this lecture, I'll be talking about how to use square brackets because many people confuse them with the parentheses and use them interchangeably, but that's simply not correct. One of the most common uses for the square brackets is using the sick. You may have seen this in the past, but may not be sure what exactly it means or what it does. Let's start with a former SEC comes from the Latin word, which is sick. It x script them, which translates to dose. It was written. It's using tags when an author is quoting someone for verbatim and there happens to be a mistake in the text, and the author could correct it, whether it'd be a spelling mistake, mixing between homonyms or even a punctuation error that would be disingenuous. The other lets the reader know that exactly what was written in the original texts by placing your sick right next to it? E.g. if the original texts was I can't come. It's Friday. There's a missing apostrophe in the word. It. We simply place a sick right next to the word, letting the reader know that it's a mistake made by the original writer and not the author. Another way to use the square brackets is by adding additional information to the text. This one is quite similar to the use case for the parenthesis, e.g. with parentheses, if the radio was referring to a character that the reader may not know. The reading can do something like this. John bracket, plumber bracket hates working on older homes. We're letting the reader know that John is the plumber. But when it comes to the square brackets, we add them when we're quoting others. And the information within the brackets was never part of the original speech. E.g. she told me, I hate it. Square bracket, work, square bracket. It absolutely drains me. The word work with never part of the original speech. Bot is rather liter added by the author. It's a slight difference, but one that you may want to take a note of nuts it for square brackets. They're not as commonly used, especially when compared to the parentheses, which you'll see all over the place.