Quotation Mark

Quotation Mark’s rules are also very crucial because if students sometimes want to enhance their essays or make their essays seem fancy and more supportive , the most common solution is to quote some famous people’s famous sayings or maxim. So I want to post this to remind the test takers of the essential quality of how to follow rules of Quotation Mark:

Rule 1. Use double quotation marks to set off a direct (word-for-word) quotation.

Correct: “When will you be here?” he asked.

Incorrect: He asked “when I would be there.”

Rule 2. Quotation marks and italics are common for titles: magazines, books, plays, films, songs, poems, article titles, chapter titles, etc.

Periods

The period is often neglected by students, especially SAT students, for I have many smart friends in Viet Nam who lost their points for wrong period grammars. So I just want to post this to remind people about the most basic rules for using right dots:

Rule 1. Use a period at the end of a complete sentence that is a complete statement (that means a statement has to have subject and verb).

Example: I know him well.

Semicolon

Like commas, semicolons indicate an audible pause—slightly longer than a comma’s, but short of a period’s full stop.

Semicolons have other functions, too. But first, a caveat: avoid the common mistake of using a semicolon to replace a colon (see the “Colons” section).

Incorrect: I have one goal; to find her. ( this is wrong because after the semicolon we have to have a full and complete sentence, not just the verb and the object)

Correct: I have one goal: to find her.

Rule 1. A semicolon can replace a period if the writer wishes to narrow the gap between two closely linked sentences.

Examples:
Call me tomorrow; you can give me an answer then.
We have paid our dues; we expect all the privileges listed in the contract.

Comma splices

This is the rules that I synthesized through all my sources and shortened them a little bit.

Commas and periods are the most frequently used punctuation marks. Commas customarily indicate a brief pause; they’re not as final as periods.

Rule 1. Use commas to separate words and word groups in a simple series of three or more items.

Example: My estate goes to my husband, son, daughter-in-law, and nephew.

Note: When the last comma in a series comes before and or or (after daughter-in-law in the above example), it is known as the Oxford comma. Most newspapers and magazines drop the Oxford comma in a simple series, apparently feeling it’s unnecessary. However, omission of the Oxford comma can sometimes lead to misunderstandings.

Example: We had coffee, cheese and crackers and grapes.

Adding a comma after crackers makes it clear that cheese and crackers represents one dish. In cases like this, clarity demands the Oxford comma.

We had coffee, cheese and crackers, and grapes.

Fiction and nonfiction books generally prefer the Oxford comma. Writers must decide Oxford or no Oxford and not switch back and forth, except when omitting the Oxford comma could cause confusion as in the cheese and crackers example.