Ten tips for perfect punctuation - Emphasis

Ten tips for perfect punctuation Ten tips for perfect punctuation More people are unsure of their punctuation than would ever care to admit it. Use our quick guide to make sure youre not one of them. Never use its with an apostrophe unless it means it is or it has – its amazing how many people use it wrongly. Beware also the greengrocers apostrophe (peas, carrots) when forming plurals. Apostrophes should usually only be used to show possession or omission. The exception is to avoid confusion when forming plurals of letters (eg As, which looks like As if you leave out the apostrophe). Some people object to using and or but at the beginning of sentences. But this probably has more to do with lingering fears of that scary old English teacher you had years ago than any real grammatical rule. And thats all there is to it. If you dont believe us, look again at a Shakespeare play – or even a well-respected business magazine such as The Economist. Semi-colons (;) can replace and or but. They denote a pause thats longer than a comma but shorter than a full stop (or period). Think of them as super commas if it helps. Dont overuse them, though (see below). Colons can replace so, therefore and because. The full stop (period) is the readers best friend – and it could be yours. It shortens sentences, making them easier to read. And it can get you out of a pickle when youre trying to find a clever way of saying two or three things in the same sentence: just use two or three sentences instead. Use semi-colons, brackets and dashes sparingly, as theyre stylistically heavy. If in doubt, split the sentence. If you put additional information in a sentence, like this, remember to use commas or dashes either side of the information. Its hard for the reader if theyre left out. Using all capitals on headings is hard on the eye, as it removes the all-important shape from words. (We use shape to recognise words more than you may realise.) So use initial capitals only. Too many exclamations are irritating!