4.0 Punctuation Guide

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4.2 Colon [:]

When to use it	When not to use it
when you're introducing a list or other detail(s) mentioned in a complete sentence: The following activities appeal to my dog: eating food off the sidewalk, especially greasy pastries; making gurgling noises as she bites herself; rolling in dead fish, cow manure, and garbage piles; and chasing squirrels. I wanted one thing only: glow-in-the-dark dentures.	after sentence fragments: [x] The reason I was late was: my car decided not to start today.
Type colons with two spaces after and no spaces before.

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4.3 Hyphen [-]

When to use it	When not to use it
in general, whenever you're creating a new word from two other words, or using a word as a different part of speech than usual: to create a compound adjective: I bought a ten-gallon hat; it holds ten gallons. It was a five-minute job, but they took an hour. to create a noun from a verb phrase: Didn't I meet you at the sit-in? to join prefixes to words, if they don't flow together smoothly ex-accountant; pro-active; semi-useful	to join regular verbs and their adverbs, or nouns and their adjectives, or prefixes to words they're part of [x] They wanted to clean-up the house. [x] The hat held ten-gallons. [x] That was an un-fortunate decision.
Type hyphens with no spaces on either side.

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4.4 Comma [,]

When to use it	When not to use it
to mark the end of a long introductory clause After I walked the dog and read the dictionary, I fell asleep. (with a conjunction)to join a sentence to a dependent clause It was a five-minute job, like I told you. to set aside intrusive parenthetical comments, direct addresses, states, countries, and years, and exclamations: She stood, tired and joyful, on top of the mountain. I was born in Morgantown, West Virginia, in January, 1970, and I weighed about 7 pounds. Hello, Your Royal Highness, would you like to hear our specials for today? Heck, if I had known, I would have brought more salad dressing! to separate items in a series of three or more: Quietly, calmly, and resolutely, the cat walked toward the birdcage.	to separate a large subject and its verb: [x] The reason I was late, was that my car decided not to start. after conjunctions: [x] I went home because, I was really tired. between two sentences with no conjunction (comma splice): [x] My plants are big, however they don't need much water. between pairs joined by conjunctions, except pairs of sentences: [x] He liked the fuschia couch, and the tea-green pillows. [x] The cat sat on the windowsill, and occasionally glared at passers-by. to surround all "unnecessary items" in a sentence
Type commas with one space following and none preceding.

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4.5 Dash [--]

When to use it	Cautionary Notes
for interruptions, when a colon or semicolon doesn't fit: She walked a long way--twenty miles, in fact. to interrupt sentences with fragments: It was a five-minute job--maybe even a two-minute job--but they took an hour.	in very formal essays, dashes can give the impression that the author doesn't know how to use colons and semicolons. because they're interruptions, you'll want to use them sparingly type them correctly--two hyphens, with no spacing on either side.