PLUG-INs A Student’s Guide to Information Literacy

1. PLUG-INs A Student’s Guide toInformation Literacy PUNCTUATION MARKS ETC. for Writing References & Citations

2. Today we will review the pesky little symbols called PUNCTUATION MARKS. We need to use Punctuation Marks correctly when we write References and Citations. Don’t worry; they don’t bite or pinch like a lobster.

3. Let’s start with the easy ones. This is a PERIOD, FULLSTOP or DOT . Use it after a book title and at the end of a reference. Always put a space after a dot.

4. This is a COMMA , A Comma is used between words to separate them. Always put a space after a comma. For example, use a Comma after the author’s name in MLA style.

5. This is a COLON : Use a Colon after the city and before the publisher in citations. Also a Colon is used after a book title and before a subtitle. Always put a space after a colon.

6. This is a SEMICOLON ; ASemicolon is not used in formatting MLA or APA citations. But, a semicolon might be in text that you are quoting.

7. These are QUOTATION MARKS or QUOTES “ … ” They are used to show you are using words from another person. Quotes come before and after the borrowed words.

8. These are PARENTHESIS MARKS (……...) They show something inside something else. Use them for intext citations.

9. These are SQUARE BRACKETS […….…] Use them to add words to a text. ANGLE BRACKETS look like this <……..> Use them for URLs.

10. This is a SLASH / It leans to the right. Use a Slash in URLs. There is no space after a slash.

11. This is a HYPHEN– Use a hyphen to divide words. A DASH –- is 2 hyphens. Use to divide ideas.

12. An ELIPSIS is three dots . . . Use an Elipsis to show that words are missing.

13. An APOSTROPHE looks like a comma but it is over a letter. For example it’s. Use an apostrophe to make noun possessives or a contraction. Sometimes a book title has an apostrophe in it.

14. This is an AMPERSAND & It means and. Sometimes book titles use an Ampersand instead of the word and.

15. An EXCLAMATION POINT !indicates surprise or something strong or funny. Some book titles have one. A QUESTION MARK ? indicates a question. Some book titles have one. An ASTERISK * is like a little star. It is not very common. But a book title may have one.

16. Roman Numerals use the letters X, I, V, C, M, D instead of 1,2,3,4,54,6,7 etc. ROMAN NUMERALS are sometimes used in book titles. Sometimes book pages before the main text are written in Roman Numerals.

17. Book titles sometimes use an ACRONYM. This is a word spelled with the first letters of other words. For example, CEO means Chief Executive Officer.

18. Be careful with CAPITAL LETTERS in book and article titles. Use a Capital Letter for CONTENT WORDS like nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Do not use Capital Letters for FUNCTION WORDS like articles, conjunctions and prepositions. Ask your English teacher to explain if you have forgotten about these words.

19. This is the first letter of a name. For example J. for John. Tim J. Smith Sometimes an author uses a middle INITIAL. A dot follows the initial. If an father and son have the same name, write Jr. after the son’s name. This means junior.

20. INDENT or TAB OVER means to put 5 spaces from the left side of the page. In a long intext citation, you do this. In for the Reference List in MLA, you do not indent the first line of a reference but additional lines are indented.

21. To learn more about punctuation marks, go to http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/department/docs/punctuation/node00.html FUN ! ! ! Just kidding.

22. I hope this helps you understand punctuation marks for writing references. Ask your teacher or your friendly librarian if you have any questions.

23. Thank you for listening. HAPPY WRITING !