Punctuate Your Writing.

Use:

For contractions and possessives, never for plurals.

Example

You can’t write “the 1990’s” but you can write “the ’90s”

Can’t shows that the “no” of cannot has been removed.

To indicate that the 19 part has been removed

Use to:

Represents a pause in the flow of words

Example

My uncle Harry, who was a colonel in the army, made the best martinis I’ve ever tasted.

It is separated into subject, verb, complement

Replace “and” when you have a string of items

Example

Dogs, cats, snakes, birds and fish.

Use when:

Sentence string is very long

Example

You have two things already connected by “and”

Mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish and shellfish, and birds.

Use:

To introduce a list of items, or to give a summary

Example

The research team studied a number of different breeds: shorthaired, longhaired and exotic.

Use when:

Sentences always end with a period

Periods are also used to indicate that a word has been abbreviated

Use to:

Introduce an independent clause

Something that could stand alone as a sentence

But is related to the first part

You always need a verb in the second clause