The plane dipped abruptly and so

did Barrys stomach straight into his

worn boots then his internal organs
jolted just as jarringly back through
his system and reorganized within
him a chain reaction puzzle clicking
together all by itself he had to grip
the armrest his fingers clutched
knuckles paling under his sweating
palms he felt the cold metal become
slippery he held to it tighter

parentheses
brackets
Quotation
mark

slash

Punctua
tion

colon

Gives rhythm to
a sentence. It
usually denotes
a pause in
thought.

semicolon

comma
period

dash

hyphens

capitalizati
on

italics

abbreviations

Period .
Use a period to end a complete
sentence.
Use them carefully in
Abbreviations
Quotation marks
Numbers
References

 Use periods when making an abbreviation

within a reference (Vol.3,p.6, 2nd ed.)
Use periods in citing initials in personal names
(e.g., J. R. R. Aslam or Aslam, J.) (Reference)
Do not use a period in using standard
abbreviations for measurements, like m for
meter(s) or hr for hour or hours, do not add
an s to make it plural (100 seconds is 100 s)
lb, ft, s
Do not use periods within degree titles and
organization titles
(PhD, APA)

 Place the period after the

brackets
Ali (1999) reported that the creature
walked like a duck and quacked like a
duck (p. 23).
within the quotation marks
"They [the Irish Republican Army]
called for a cease-fire."

Commaindependent
,
Separate
clausesDont use a comma
Use a comma
with a comma, before a
Before an essential
coordinating conjunction
clause
(and,but,or,nor)
The switch that stops
the recording device
I am going home, and I intend to
also controls the light.
stay there.
Between two parts of a
Between an interrupting
compound predicate
element in a sentence
The results
The teacher, Ms Aaliya, frequently
grows impatient when her students
misbehave.

Between elements in a series of three

or more elements
The height, width, or depth
To set off a nonessential clause
Switch A, which was on a panel, controlled
the recording device.
To set off the year in exact dates
April 18, 1992

contradicted Ahmads
hypothesis and
indicated that the effect
was non significant.
To separate parts of
measurements
8 years 2 months
*predicate is that part of a sentence
that makes a statement about
the subject.
Adam
lives in Lahore.
Subject
predicate

ACTIVITY
Add comma(s) where needed.
My uncle Fred who is almost seventy
years old has been sending me
presents since I was born.
My uncle Fred, who is almost
seventy years old, has been sending
me presents since I was born.
I dont want to go out and you dont
want to stay home.
I dont want to go out, and you dont
want to stay home.

Semicolon ;
Use a semicolon
To separate two independent clauses that are
not joined by a conjunction.
The participants in the first study were paid;
those in the second study were unpaid.
To separate elements in a series that already
contains commas.
The colour order was red, yellow, blue; blue,
yellow, red; or yellow, red, blue.
To join two independent clauses together with
one of the following conjunctive adverbs
(adverbs that join independent clauses):
however, moreover, therefore, etc.
I am going home; moreover, I intend to stay
there.

Colon :
Use a colon
Use a colon following an
independent clause (i.e., a
complete sentence) to
introduce a series,
explanation or a quotation.
They have agreed on the
outcome: Informed
participants perform
better than do uninformed
participants.
In ratios and proportions
The proportion (salt:water)
was 1:8
In references between
place of publication and
publisher
New York: Willey

Do not use a colon

After an introduction
that is not a complete
sentence
The instructions for
the task were
Your task is to rank
the 15 items in
terms of their
importance for
the
crews survival.
When your group has
to come to an
agreement..

Activity

Place colon or semicolon where needed.

1. Bring these items to registration a ball point
pen, your ID card, and a check made out to
the college.
Bring these items to registration: a ball
point pen, your ID card, and a check made out
to the college.
2. Harry went on a trip with Fred, his uncle
Susan, his sister Bliff, his dog and his mother.
Harry went on a trip with Fred, his uncle
;Susan, his sister; Bliff, his dog ; and his
mother.

Dash - Use a dash or double hyphen

To indicate only a sudden
interruption in the continuity of a
sentence.
These two participants 1 from
the first group, 1 from the
second were tested separately.
If you want to emphasize an
example, a definition, an
appositive, or a contrast.

Dash - Example
The care-takersthose who are helpers, nurturers,
teachers, mothersare still systematically devalued. Ellen
Goodman, Just Womans Work?
Definition
Although the emphasis at the school was mainly language
speaking, reading, writingthe lessons always began with
an exercise in politeness. Elizabeth Wong, Fifth Chinese
Daughter
Appositive (renaming of nouns)
Two of the strongest animals in the jungle are vegetarians
the elephant and the gorilla.
Contrast
Fire cooks foodand burns down forests. Smokey the
Bear

* Overuse "weakens the flow of the writing

Parentheses ( )

Use parentheses
To set off structurally
independent elements
The patterns were
significant (see Figure 5).
To set off reference citation
in text
Dumas and Dore (1991)
To introduce an abbreviation
Effect on the short term
memory (STM)
To set off letters that
identify items in a series
within a sentence or
paragraph
The subject areas include
(a) life of upper class (b)
effect on middle class (c)
role of lower class.

Do not use
parentheses
To enclose material
within other
parentheses
(the Beck
Depressing
Inventory (BDI))
Back to back
(Defensive
pessimism)
(Norman,1996)

Brackets [ ]
Use brackets
To enclose material that is already within
parentheses and can be set off easily by
commas
(As Ajmal [1990] later concluded)
(As Ajmal,1990, later concluded)
To enclose material inserted in a quotation
by someone other than the original writer

when [his own and others] behavior

was studied

Slash /
Use
a slash
To
clarify
a
relationship in which a
hyphenated
compound is used.
The
classification/similarity
-judgment condition.
To indicate per to
separate units of
measurement
accompanied by a
numerical value.
0.5 km/h
To cite a republished
work in text.

Do not use a slash

When a phrase would be
clearer
Each child handed the ball
to her mother or guardian
Each child handed the ball
to her mother/guardian
For simple comparisons
Test-retest reliability
Test/retest reliability
Between and/or instead
write things out
Monday , Tuesday or both
Monday and/or Tuesday

Quotation marks

Use double quotation

marks

Incorporate a short quotation

(fewer than 40 words) in text
To introduce a word or phrase
used as an ironic comment, as
slang, or as an invented
expression the first time but
not thereafter
Considered " normal"
behaviour
To set off the title of an article
or chapter within text (NOT in
the reference list).
Rigers (1999) article,
"Feminist voices"

Do not use double quotation marks

To identify the
anchors of a scale.
Instead, italicize
them.
We ranked the items
on a scale ranging
from 1 all the time to
5 never.
To introduce a
technical or key term.
The term zero-base
budgeting appeared
frequently in the
speech.

Hyphenation - Use a Hyphen

With two or more words that act as a single unit
describing a noun.
The light-footed burglar
A phrase used as an adjective when it precedes the
term it modifies
Trial-by-trial analysis, to-be-recalled items
If a prefix is attached to a proper noun, capitalized
abbreviation, or number
Post-Freudian era, pre-UCS, pre-1960s civil rights
movement
With a compound with a number as the first element
12th-grade students, six-trial problem
When a fraction is considered a single quantity
One-fourth the audience was comprised of former
refugees.

 The following prefixes always require a

hyphen.

Activity

Use hyphens where needed

1. The light footed burglar silently
slipped open the sliding glass door.
The light-footed burglar silently
slipped open the sliding glass door.
2. With a needle, Rich punctured the
fluid filled blister on his toe.
With a needle, Rich punctured the
fluid-filled blister on his toe.

Capitalization
Capitalize
Formal
names of tests
Stroop Color-Word test
Major words and four letter
words in titles, headings,
subheadings
A Study of No-Win Strategies
First word after a colon or a
dash in a title.
Central Jail : A Place for
Reform or Recidivism
Specific course and
department title
GSU Department of
Psychology
Nouns before numbers but
not before variables

Do not Capitalize

General names of
tests
Stroop color test
Names of laws,
theories, and
hypotheses
the law of effect
When referring to
generalities
Any department,
any introductory
course

Abbreviations
To maximize clarity, APA prefers that
authors use abbreviations sparingly.
The advantage of the LH was clear
from the RT data, which reflected
high FP and FN rates for the RH.
The advantage of the left hand was
clear from the reaction time data,
which reflected high false-positive
and false-negative rates for the right
hand.

Abbreviation
Explain what an abbreviation means the
first time it occurs.
American Psychological Association (APA)
If an abbreviation is commonly used as a
word, it does not require explanation IQ,
AIDS, RAM.
The following abbreviations should NOT be
used outside parenthetical comments:
cf [use compare]
e.g. .. [use for example]
etc. .. [use and so forth]
i.e. .. [use that is]
vs. .. [use versus]

Abbreviations
Use periods when making an
abbreviation within a reference
(Vol.3,p.6, 2nd ed.)
Do not use periods within degree
titles and organization titles (PhD,
APA)
Do not use periods within
measurements (lb, ft, s)
To form plurals of abbreviations, add
s alone, without apostrophe ( PhDs,