In this section you will learn how to use full stops, exclamation marks, question marks, quotation marks, apostrophes and commas etc. correctly.

• Full stops are used for two functions. The first of these is to denote the end of one sentence and the start of another. The second is to denote an abbreviation e.g. co. for company.
• Exclamation marks are usually used in speech, and are to denote shocked or angry statements e.g. How dare you! ; Help! ; or Damn!
• Question Marks denote a question. e.g. Where are you going? What shall we do now?
• Quotation Marks are used to denote speech. They often give people trouble because the rules are complicated. (Look in the next section for full details on writing dialogue, monologue, and internal monologue or thoughts correctly.)
• Apostrophes are used for the possessive, as mentioned in the previous section, or to shorten words e.g. do not becomes don't; have not becomes haven't. Note that the apostrophe goes where the letter is missed out not between the original two words. They can also be used in colloquial speech to designate that part of a word is missing, like because becomes 'cause.
• Commas are a little more complicated than other punctuation marks.

1. First and foremost, they are used to denote a change between main sentence and subordinate clause e.g. I was born in this town, in which I have lived less than half my life.
2. Secondly, a comma is used to mark a list e.g. Apples, bananas, grapes and oranges are all types of fruit.
3. A comma is also used to separate who speaks in speech from the actual speech itself e.g.

• "Arthur dear, there's a dragon over there," said Guinevere.
• Guinevere said, "Arthur, dear, there's a dragon over there."
• "Arthur dear, there's a dragon over there," said Guinevere, " and he's looking this way."

Note that the second part of the speech is in the same sentence as the conjunction and is used so there is a comma after Guinevere and a small a is used. Compare this with a new sentence in the second part of the conversation: "Arthur dear, there's a dragon over there," said Guinevere. "He's looking this way. There must be some punctuation: comma, full-stop, question mark or exclamation mark before the final quotation mark (as in the examples above). The use of a comma before speech begins is mandatory and cannot be replaced with anything. Another use of the comma is to separate a linking phrase from a sentence e.g. Not only this, but he repeatedly and maliciously ripped up the wallpaper. Ellipses (...) are often used in speech, or sometimes narrative writing to denote something missed out or left unsaid. For instance, a flabbergasted character may say "Oh my..." at some horrible sight. These are also good for indicating cliff-hangers, or the end to an unfinished story e.g. "And so the first journey ended..." They are definitely acceptable English punctuation, but they should not be overused. Remember that they indicate dramatic pauses, and like so many of the tools available to a writer, if used too often, they will lose their effect.

Dialogue, Monologue, Internal Monologue
When writing a story, chances are your characters are going to want to speak to themselves, in their heads, and to each other. In order to write these correctly, you will have to follow a number of rules.
First, every time there is a change of speaker, you start a new paragraph. This generally means moving down to the next line and indenting the line (technically indentation is required, but it is sometimes acceptable to not use it, so long as you are consistent). Here is an example of this:
"The dog is over there," she said.
"Yes, I see it," he replied.
This example highlights another important rule, already mentioned in the comma section. When adding narrative description to your dialog, you must end the speech with a comma, exclamation mark, or question mark inside the quotation marks. The following description will begin with a lower case letter, as it is a part of the same sentence. You can also add description in the middle of a speech like this:
"What's that?" he shouted, turning, "Did I hear a gundark over there?"
If the sentence is continued across the narrative interjection, resume it with a lower case letter to indicate that.
"I saw it run that way," said the nervous Padawan, "and I think it is coming after us."

Monologue and internal monologue are set out using the same rules as dialog; except that thoughts should be specified: he thought to himself is a good one. Also, when writing long speeches that require more than one paragraph, either in dialog or monolog, you do not close quotation marks if the same character will be speaking the next paragraph, though you still put the opening speech marks at the beginning of the paragraph. Like this:
(Long paragraph of speaking ending with)... and he was killed by the dragon.
"But that was not the end of the story." (continuing long speech.)
Sometimes, it is acceptable to denote internal monolog with italics, but again, the key is to be consistent so your reader will understand what you are doing.

Capital Letters
Capital letters are used for several functions in English. Firstly, they are used to denote the start of a new sentence. Secondly, they denote a proper noun (name of a specific person, place, or thing) e.g. Guinevere; Camelot; a Tuesday in August. Abbreviations like EH or DB should also be capitalized. These are the only cases in which a capital letter should be used.