Punctuation Written

                                                                   Punctuation marks 

Are symbols that indicate the structure and organization of written language, as well as intonation and pauses to be observed when reading aloud.

Brackets ( )

are tall punctuation marks used in matched pairs within text, to set apart or interject other text.

Curly brackets { }, – also called braces (US) or flower brackets (India) – are sometimes used in prose to indicate a series of equal choices: "Select your animal {goat, sheep, cow, horse} and follow me". They are used in specialized ways in poetry and music (to mark repeats or joined lines).

The colon (:)

is a punctuation mark consisting of two equally sized dots centered on the same vertical line.

A colon may also be used for the following:

• introduction of a definition

A: the first letter in the Latin alphabet

Hypernym of a word: a word having a wider meaning than the given one; e.g., vehicle is a hypernym of automobile

• separation of the chapter and the verse number(s) indication in many references to religious scriptures, and also epic poems; it was also used for chapter numbers in roman numerals

John 3:14–16 (or John III:14–16) (cf. chapters and verses of the Bible)

• separation of hours, minutes and seconds when reporting the time of day (cf. ISO 8601; alternatively, a period (.) may be used^[3])

The concert finished at 23:45

This file was last modified today at 11:15:05

• separation of a title and the corresponding subtitle

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Home 

The comma ( , ) 

is a punctuation mark. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline of the text.

 

Commas are often used to separate clauses. In English, a comma is generally used to separate a dependent clause from the independent clause if the dependent clause comes first: After I brushed the cat, I lint-rollered my clothes. (Compare I lint-rollered my clothes after I brushed the cat.) A relative clause takes commas if it is non-restrictive, as in I cut down all the trees, which were over six feet tall.

  Commas are always used to set off certain adverbs: however, in fact, therefore, nevertheless, moreover, furthermore, still, instead, too (meaning 'also').

• Therefore, a comma would be appropriate in this sentence.

If these adverbs appear in the middle of a sentence, they are enclosed in commas.

• In this sentence, furthermore, commas would also be called for.

Using commas to offset certain adverbs is optional: then, so, yet.

• So, that's it for this rule.
• So that's it for this rule. 

Two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) or having a complementary relationship^[4] may or may not be separated by commas, depending on preferred style, or sometimes a desire to overcome ambiguity.

A dash 

is a punctuation mark. It is similar in appearance to a hyphen, but a dash is longer and it is used differently. The most common versions of the dash are the en dash (–) and the em dash (—).

 

An exclamation mark, exclamation point, or bang (!)

is a punctuation mark usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feelings or high volume, and often marks the end of a sentence. Example: "Watch out!" The character is encoded in Unicode at U+0021 !​ 

 

The question mark (?) 

also known as an interrogation point, interrogation mark, question point, query,^[1] or eroteme, is a punctuation mark that replaces the full stop at the end of an interrogative sentence. The question mark is not used for indirect questions. 

Quotation marks or inverted commas (informally referred to as quotes and speech marks)

 are punctuation marks used in pairs to set off speech, a quotation, a phrase, or a word. They come as a pair of opening and closing marks in either of two styles: single ('…') or double ("…").

The semicolon (;)

is a punctuation mark with several uses.

Semicolons are followed by a lower case letter, unless that letter is the first letter of a proper noun. They have no spaces before them, but one space after (possibly two when using monospaced fonts). Applications of the semicolon in English include

• Between closely related independent clauses not conjoined with a coordinating conjunction
  • "I went to the basketball court; I was told it was closed for cleaning."
  • "I told Ben he's running for the hills; I wonder if he knew I was joking?"
  • "Nothing is true; everything is permitted."
  • "A man chooses; a slave obeys."
• Between independent clauses linked with a transitional phrase or a conjunctive adverb
  • "Everyone knows that he is guilty of doing the crime; of course, it will never be proven."