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.