I'll be straight with you: the apostrophe (that's a single quotation mark) is utter hell. There is constantly mass confusion as to when one should be used, and where it should be placed. I still have trouble on occasion. However, there are only two main uses for the apostrophe: to show ownership or possession, and to indicate contractions (that letters have been removed from a word).
Possesive Apostrphes
A possessive apostrophe distinguishes the possessive form of the noun from the simple plural (meaning more than one). You never need to show an apostrophe to indicate a plural. For example:
I bought a kilo of tomatoes
The animals slept outside
The shoes were a good fit
There are many books in the library
Do not write
I bought a kilo of tomatoe's
The animal's slept outside
The shoe's were a good fit
There are many book's in the library
The nouns used above (tomatoes, animals, shoes, and books) are in the plural form (usually tomato, animal, shoe, and book). However, none of them own anything in these sentences. None of them need an apostrophe.
Singular nouns
An apostrophe plus "'s" at the end of the final letter of a singular noun indicates ownership of the word immediately following. For example:
The student's experiment (being the experiment of the student)
The committee's decisions (being the decisions make by the committee)
The animal's characteristics (being the characteristics of the animal)
Singular propers nouns (i.e. names of people and places) ending in an "'s" can be followed by either just an apostrophe, or an apostrophe plus the letter "s". For example:
James's father or James' father
Plural nouns
If a noun is plural and already ends in "s", then, to show possession, you must add an apostrophe alone after the final "s":
The students' experiment (the experiments of the students)
The committees' decisions (being the decisions made by the committees)
The animals' characteristics (being the characteristics of the animals)
Some plural nouns don't end in "s", like "women", "men", "children", and "sheep". You should treat these words in the same way as the singular forms and add "'s" to indicated if they are possessive. For example:
The children's toys (being the toys of the children)
The women's work (the work of the women)
The sheep's wool (the wool of the sheep)
Possessive apostrophes are used only with nouns. The pronouns his, hers, your, my, our, their and its are already possessive. (There is often a lot of confusion about whether to put an apostrophe in the word "its". In this case, it doesn't need one. Without an apostrophe, "its" means "belonging to it".)
Contractions
A contraction is when two words are connected to form one, and the letters taken out are replaced by an apostrophe. We use them in every day life without even realising it. For example:
You will becomes you'll
They are becomes they're
Do not becomes don't
It is becomes it's
A verb expresses an action of some kind. It always has a subject. When a verb in the active voice, the subject of the verb, is the one that performs the action. For example:
Musicians (subject) perform (active verb) many songs.
Most patients (subject) feel (active verb) anxious before surgery.
Books (subject) provide (active verb) more information for students.
When a verb is in the passive voice, the subject of the verb is acted upon. The sentences above used in the passive voice would look something like this:
Many experiments (subject) are performed (passive verb) by scientists.
Anxiety (subject) is felt (passive voice) by many patients before surgery.
Most information (subject) for students is provided (passive voice) by books.
Even those both sets of example say the same thing, the examples using the passive voice use more words, are less direct and sound impersonal, and are weaker in their impact on the reader than the examples using the active construction.
Commas
Commas, believe it or not, have specific functions in structuring clear sentences. You don't just put a comma into a sentence to imitate the way you would break it up if you were speaking. Remember that written expression is different from spoken expression and by inserting commas as you would in speech, you break up the rhythm of the sentence and often confuse the reader.
Unfortunately, you have to use your own judgement about using commas to a certain extent, considering that the rules governing their rules aren't exactly hard and fast.
1.1.Use a comma before and, but, for, or, nor, yet and so when they join two independent clauses. For example:
2. 2.Use a comma after an introductory expression to divide it from the pain part of the sentence. For example:
3. Use commas around information that is not essential to the sentence's meaning to divide it from the rest of the sentence in the same way as you would use brackets. For example:
4. Use commas between the items in a series if those items could be separated by "and". For example:
Writers are increasingly placing a comma before the "and" in the final pair of a series. This is a relatively new usage, and not universally accepted, but one that avoids ambiguity. (In other words it's not technically correct, but then again it's not wrong either.)
5. Use commas around the name of a person you are addressing. For example:
6. Use commas around a word that interrupts the sentence, like "however", "moreover", "therefore". For example:
7. Use a comma to introduce a short direct quotation. For example:
Capitals
Using capitals is pretty straightforward. They should be used in the following positions:
1. For the first word in a sentance. For example:
2. For the proper names of specific individuals, institutions, official positions, languages, races, countries and nationalities. This is where Uncle Fred lives, but not, This is where my uncle lives. For example:
3. For the days of the week, months, and special days of the year. For example:
4. For the title of a relationship if it is taking the place of a specific person's name. For Example:
5. For the first word in quoting direct speech. For example:
6. For the first, last, and every important word in the title of a book, journal article, painting, musical or dance composition, song, video or film. For Example:
Capitol letters are seldom used in modern writing. Some writers use capitols to begin any word that is important to the phrase, or use whole words in capital for expression. You might see titles on Quizilla where the author has chosen to use all capitals, or none at all. This is called technique. You have to be solid when it comes to something like this, and it helps if you have a lot of practice before you look into writing in a particular style. If you're not confident enough to use these techniques, it is much easier to writer using the rules listed above.
Numbers can be written in either figures or words. Whether you use one or the other depends on the context in which you are writing, and the function of the numbers in the sentence.
As a general rule, use words rather than figures. In creative writing, figures break up the flow of the sentence and it takes longer for the brain to process what is being written. Basically use words for anything but the date of a year. For example:
In 2008 I will be turning nineteen.
Look at your keyboard. Go on. See the key next to the "l"? It's like two full stops, one on top of the other. That's a colon. The one underneath it with the comma is called a semi colon.
Colons
Here's something you wouldn't know: a colon is short hand (we're talking proper short hand, not chat speak) for "as follows". Colons have three uses:
- To introduce a list of items
- To introduce a quotation
- To separate an example from the statement that introduces it.
Semicolons
Semicolons have also got very limited functions in modern writing (mostly because they're so damn hard to use). There is only really one place where a semicolon is useful, and that is separating items in a list, where each individual item has subgroups within it which are divided by commas. For example:
The teeny's favourite band boys are: Gerard, Frank and Mikey of My Chemical Romance; Pete and Patrick of Fall Out Boy; and Gabe of Cobra Starship.
The other reason we use a semicolon is to join independent clauses which you would otherwise join by a conjunction or divide into two separate sentences (see: run on sentences, part a). For example:
The girl is a teeny bopper; she likes the band for the lead singer.
All information taken from "ENGL1003 (Imagined Words; Approaches to Literature) 2007 Language Notes", supplied by the Department of English and Cultural Studies of Flinders University.
