Complete a sentence that is a statement with a period (.).
Separate word groups with a comma (,). Grammarbook.com says to use a comma between two adjectives, around the name or the title of a person addressed, and to separate the day of the month from the year or a city from the state. Use a comma after phrases of three or more words that begin a sentence. Introduce or interrupt direct quotations with a comma. There are many rules governing the use of commas, but these are some common guidelines.
Use a semicolon (;) to separate two complete sentences. In addition, separate a series of ideas or words with a semicolon when one of the ideas contains commas.
Introduce a list or a long quotation with a colon (:). According to Grammarbook.com, use a colon after a sentence if the following sentence explains or illustrates the first sentence. Use a colon after a salutation in a business letter.
Always place periods and commas inside quotation marks (" "). If a question is part of a phrase in quotation marks, place the question mark (?) inside the quotation marks. Use single quotation marks (' ') when there is a quotation within a quotation.
Clarify words or figures with parentheses [( )]. Enclose number or letters in a list with parentheses. Only place a period in parentheses if they enclose a complete sentence.
Show possession with an apostrophe ('). Place the apostrophe before an "s" if an object belongs to one person. Place the apostrophe after the "s" if an object belongs to more than one person. Grammarbook.com instructs people not to use an apostrophe after a proper noun, pronouns, numbers or capital letters, unless omitting the apostrophe would cause confusion. Use an apostrophe when writing contractions to replace the omitted letter or letters.
Always capitalize proper nouns, like the name of a person, city or place. Nouns are a person, place, thing, animal, activity or idea.
Use a pronoun to take the place of a noun (the antecedent). The University of Calgary states that the pronoun has to agree with the antecedent in terms of gender and number.
Use verbs to express an action or a state of being. Most verbs are action words that describe what the subject (noun) in a sentence is doing.
Modify, or describe, nouns with adjectives.
Modify verbs, adjectives and sentences with adverbs. The University of Calgary states that adverbs describe items in a sentence in terms of who, what, why, where, when, the order and frequency.
Connect nouns or pronouns with other words in a sentence with prepositions. Many prepositions are direction-oriented words; for example, "up," "below," "beside" or "within."
Use conjunctions to connect words, phrases or clauses together.