Capitalization and Punctuation Glossary

1. Capitalization and Punctuation Glossary This category of vocabulary will make up approximately 25% of the test.

2. Apostrophe This is used to show the possessive form of a noun and is used to show that a letter or letters have been left out of a contraction. • Brackets These are used around any word or phrase that has been added to a direct quote.

3. Colon This is a punctuation mark used before a list of items or details, before a statement that summarizes the original statement, before a long, formal quotation or statement, or in a business letter after the salutation.

4. Comma Splice This results when two or more independent clauses are joined by a comma without a coordinating conjunction. • Conjunctive Adverb This may be used with a semicolon to connect independent clauses and usually serves as a transition between the clauses.

5. Coordinating Conjunction... This is a word used to connect grammatically equal elements. These include and, but, or, nor, for, so, and yet. • Dash... This is used to set off parenthetical material that merits emphasis, to set off appositives that contain names, and to prepare for a list, a restatement, an amplification, or a dramatic shift in tone.

6. Dialogue... These are the words spoken by characters in a literary work. • Ellipsis Mark... This, three spaced periods, is used to indicate that a word or words have been deleted from a direct quote.

7. Exclamation Point... This is used after a word or words that have special emphasis or feeling. • Interrogative Sentence... This asks a question. It is easily identified because the end punctuation is a question mark.

8. Italics... These should be used in lieu of underlining. Do this to most titles of printed material and names of airplanes, trains and automobiles. • Non-Restrictive Element... This adds additional descriptive information to a noun or pronoun. Therefore, it is considered nonessential to the sentence and should be set off by commas.

9. Parentheses...  These may be used to enclose supplemental material, minor digressions and afterthoughts. • Quotation Marks...  These are used to enclose direct quotations and to designate titles of short works (like newspaper and magazine articles, poems, short stories, songs, episodes of television and radio programs, and subdivisions of books or web sites).

10. Restrictive Element...  This defines or limits the meaning of the word it modifies and is essential to the meaning of the sentence. Because it contains essential information, it should not be set off by commas. • Run-on Sentence...  This results when independent clauses have not been joined correctly.

11. Semicolon...  This is a punctuation mark that is used between clauses of a compound sentence when a conjunction is not used, before conjunctive adverbs that join independent clauses, and in a series when the series already contains commas.

12. Sentence Fragment...  This is a group of words that does not have both a subject and a verb and cannot stand alone. • Slash...  This separates two or three lines of poetry and separates paired terms.