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Mastering Punctuation: Colons, Dashes, Hyphens, and Brackets

Enhance your writing skills by mastering the rules of punctuation. This guide covers the use of colons for lists, explanations, and appositives; dashes for parenthetical thoughts and emphasis; hyphens for compound words, fractions, and prefixes; and brackets for deletions and clarifications. Each rule is illustrated with clear examples, allowing you to apply these concepts effectively in your writing. Follow these guidelines to create precise, polished prose that communicates your ideas clearly.

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Mastering Punctuation: Colons, Dashes, Hyphens, and Brackets

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Presentation Transcript

  1. Your Mission: • To Study the Colon • To Study the Dash • To Study the Hyphen • To Study Brackets

  2. colon : • Rule 1: Introduce a List. • Example: • Bring the following: forks, knives, and spoons.

  3. colon : • Rule 2: Introduce a Second Main Clause Which Explains the First. • Example: • Her excuse is valid: she does not have transportation.

  4. colon : • Rule 3: Emphasize a Following Appositive. • Example: • He had only one motive: love.

  5. Dash -- • Rule 1: Set Off a Parenthetical (information in between) Element. • Example: • He told her—believe it or not—to leave.

  6. Dash -- • Rule 2: Emphasize an Appositive. • Example: • English, history, and science—all are required.

  7. Hyphen - • Rule 1: Join Compound Words Functioning as a Single Unit. • Example: • May I introduce my mother-in-law? • Donny has a better-late-than-never disposition. NOTE: The hyphen is shorter than the dash.

  8. Hyphen - • Rule 2: Join Fractions and Compound Numbers from 21 to 99. • Example: • He gave me two-thirds of his pay check. • Nathan is twenty-one years old today.

  9. Hyphen - • Rule 3: Use with Prefixes Ex- and Self-. • Example: • Mr. McCaslin is the ex-president of the company. • Self-denial builds character.

  10. Brackets [ ] • YOU HAVE NO TIME in timed writing to copy unnecessary words, so leave them out! • Use a bracket […] to show your deletions.

  11. … • "Rome had several mad emperors. [Nero] was the maddest of them all. . . . Legend has it . . . he played his harp while the city went up in flames." • The 4th dot after “all” is a period for the end of the sentence. • DO NOT leave out a phrase like “legend has it,” because that would change the author’s meaning!

  12. "Rome had several mad emperors. [Nero] was the maddest of them all. . . . Legend has it . . . he played his harp [some say he fiddled] while the city went up in flames.“ • Notice the brackets to replace “he” with the name. Notice it’s not “He [Nero] was…” • Notice the brackets to make an inserted comment after “harp.” Only do that if it’s really necessary and will save you time later.

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