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Week 4 Writing Center Tips

April 13, 2022 /

Week 4 Writing Center Tips: Use punctuation correctly.

Semi Colons ( ; ) are used to conjoin two complete sentences.

  • Ex: She was always covered in cinders from cleaning the fireplace; they called her Cinderella.

Colons ( : ) are used to:

Precede a list

  • Ex: Before her stepmother awoke, Cinderella had three chores to complete: feeding the chickens, cooking breakfast, and doing the wash.

Precede a revelation

  • Ex: One thing fueled the wicked stepmother’s hatred for Cinderella: jealousy.

Dashes, made by typing two hyphens (no space goes between the dash and the text), are used to:

Bracket off explanatory information

  • Ex: Even Cinderella’s stepsisters—who were not nearly as lovely or virtuous as Cinderella—were allowed to go to the ball.

Add information that fits better in one sentence rather than two

  • Ex: Prince Charming would find this mystery lady—even if he had to put the slipper on every other girl in the kingdom.