Formatting

Punctuation 

To give clarity and stress in sentences. 

To structure and organize the writing. 

• Let’s cook Uncle 
• Let’s cook, Uncle! 

Capital Letters  

Placed at the beginning of any sentence. 

All proper nouns– Names, Monuments, Geographical Locations, Nationalities, Languages, Days, Months, Holidays  

Titles of Books, Magazines, Newspapers, Plays, Movies 

• Lewis is the Owner of The New York Times. 

Full Stop 

Placed at the end of the sentence. 

Used between initials / personal names 

Used after Abbreviations 

• M.J. James is a doctor. 

 Comma  

To separate a list of similar words or phrases. 

• Janet was young, pretty, kind and intelligent. 

Place a comma after digits signifying thousands, except when referring to temperature or year. 

• That would be 7,500 dollars.  
• The year is 2022. 

To introduce a complete quote. 

• Tom said, “Jerry irritates me a lot!”  

Do not use a comma in names ending with Jr. or a numeral. 

• Martin Luther King Michael D. Smith Jr. 
• William Edwards III 

For a date, place a comma between the date and the year, and after the year. 

• On July 4, 1776, the country celebrated its first Independence Day. 

Do not place a comma between the month and year when the day is not mentioned. 

• April 2022 

Question Mark  

Used to showcase that a question has been asked placed at the end of the interrogatory sentence. 

• Do you speak Korean? 

 Exclamation Mark 

Used to indicate expression in a sentence 

Used to showcase emphasis in a sentence 

Placed at the end of the exclamatory sentence 

• I can’t believe we won! 
• I can’t believe we lost! 

 Apostrophe  

To make contractions of words 

• they + will = they’ll 
• they + have = they’ve 
• are + not = aren’t 

To show possession. 

• This is Davy Jones’ locker.  
• Someone broke into my grandparents’ home. 
• Drake’s wife is an astronaut.