This is a good skill to know later on in life, especially if you're working in an
office or something where you have to
write letters,
memos, and such.
If you don't know how to punctuate, you must have not paid attention to the teacher in English class, or maybe you're just slow.
A few common mistakes in punctuation are:
Comma splice:
A comma splice is when you combine two sentences together with a comma. This is bad. You CAN combine 2 sentences with and, but, or any of those combination words, or you can use a semicolon (;). Ex: "I got a new bike today, My bike's black." should be "I got a new bike today and it's black," or "I got a new bike today; it's black."
Ending a quote:
"Hi, my name's Jeff." said Jeff. - wrong. "Hi, my name's Jeff," said Jeff. - Correct. '"What's your name?" said Moe.' is also correct.
The apostrophe: OH NO! RUN! HIDE!
- Possession - Mike's bike, not Mikes bike.
- "not" - Couldn't, not couldnt.
- is/has - "What's happened?" (as in "What has happened") is the correct use. Without an apostrophe the word would be plural.
The It's/Its Conundrum:
"Its" is the possessive case of "it" (belonging to it). "It's" (with an apostrophe) is the contraction of "it is." Proper usagle of "it's" would be something along the lines of "It's cold outside!" while "its" would be used as "That dog is always wagging its tail."