Punctuation is the name for marks used in writing. They are to help understanding and correct reading. These are some common punctuation marks used in English:

● (. is a period or full stop)

A period or stop is used to end a sentence.

● (, is a comma)

A comma has many uses. Some of these are shown below:

To separate things in a list:

"cows, horses, pigs, and sheep".

A comma that is used before the word and in a list is called an Oxford comma. Some people do not use Oxford commas: "cows, horses, pigs and sheep".

To separate two sentences with a conjuction: "Most birds have separate toes, but ducks' feet are webbed."

To separate parts of a sentence: "Mimi, hungry as she was, was shy to come forward and have a slice of cake."

To indicate a pause in a sentence or question: "Hallie, did you remember to feed the cat?"

● (? is a question mark or query)

Question marks are used when writing a question, to make an inquiry, or to ask something.

For example:
"Hallie, have you done your homework?"
"Elizabeth said 'How are you?' to Hallie."
"Why is the sky blue?"

● (! is an exclamation mark)

An exclamation mark is used to write about a strong emotion, or to write the words a person shouted. It can be used to make a statement stronger or more forceful.

For example:

"What a bad cat Mimi has!"
"Jane, come here!"
"You did a good job!"

An exclamation mark can be used with a question mark, to make a question more forceful.

For example:

'What did you do that for?!' she said angrily.

● (' is an apostrophe)

An apostrophe has two main uses:

Ownership

An apostrophe can be used to show that something belongs to someone else.

If there is only one thing, the letter s is used after an apostrophe to show ownership.

For example:

"It was the boy's dog."

"We will go in Mimi's car."

Sometimes the letter s is not used after an apostrophe to show ownership. A word will end with just an apostrophe if there is more than one thing and the word already ends with an s.

For example:

"Father put away the girls' clothes" means that Father had to tidy up for several girls.

"Father put away the girl's clothes" means that Father tidied up for only one girl.

Contractions

An apostrophe can be used to put two small words together. Two small words that are put together with an apostrophe to make one word are called contractions.

This is normal in writing about a person speaking. Spoken English often uses contractions because these words are easier to say.

For example:

Cannot can be made into the word can't.

It is can be made into the word it's, for example, "It's a nice day today."

Common mistakes when using apostrophes

Pronouns do not use an apostrophe to show that something belongs to something else. Among these are its, his, hers, theirs.

For example:

"The bird flapped its wings," not "The bird flapped it's wings."

"It is his bike," not "It is his's bike."

Plurals (words referring to more than one thing) do not need an apostrophe.

For example:

"Apples for sale," not "Apple's for sale."

● (" is a quotation mark)

Quotation marks (also called quote marks or quotes for short) are used around the words that people have said, or direct speech. They are used in pairs.

For example:Hallie said, "Mimi, please wash the dishes.""Today," said our teacher, "is the first day of the rest of your lives."Example:"After recording 'Beat It', Michael Jackson went on to record several more hits".

Order of punctuation

When quotation marks sit next to periods and commas, there are two styles of punctuation. These two styles are most commonly referred to as "American" and "British"; the British one is also called "logical quotation".

Both systems have the same rules regarding question marks,
exclamation points, colons, and semicolons. But they differ in how they treat full stops and commas.

In all major forms of English, question marks, exclamation marks, semicolons, and any other punctuation are placed inside or outside the closing quotation mark depending on whether they are part of the quoted material.

Did he say, "Good morning, Dave"?
No, he said, "Where are you, Dave?"

There are three major definitions of the word "gender":
vernacular, sociological, and linguistic.

Ending the sentence

In both (American and British) major styles, regardless of placement, only one end mark (?, !, or .) can end a sentence.
Only the period, however, may not end a quoted sentence when it does not also end the enclosing sentence, except for literal text:

"Hello, world," she said. (American style)
"Hello, world", she said. (British non-fiction)
She said, "Hello, world." (both styles)
"Hello, world!" she exclaimed. (both styles)
"Is anybody out there?" she asked into the void. (both styles)

● (: is a colon)

Colons can be used at the beginning of a list.

"This is a list of animals: birds, cats, insects, pigs, and sheep.".

Colons can be used to replace a semicolon in between two parts of a sentence, but this is not common today.

Standard English usage is to have no spaces before, and one space after a colon.

● (; is a semicolon)

A semicolon has only two uses. First, to connect two independent clauses into a single sentence. For example: "I could tell that it was getting late; it was growing darker by the second." The second use of a semicolon is to separate items in a series when the items contain parenthetical elements within themselves.

For example:

"The following crewmembers were on the bridge: James T. Kirk, captain of the Enterprise; Mr. Spock, first science officer; Mr. Sulu, helmsman; Mr. Scott, engineer; and Dr. McCoy, chief medical officer.

A semicolon is also used with a conjunctive adverb when joining two clauses. In reality, this is the same as the first rule, but it looks different enough to sometimes cause concern. For example:

"The environment is the context in which all life exists; consequently, it is more than a political issue."

● (... is an ellipsis)

An ellipsis is a mark that looks like this: ...

It is used to show where words have been missed out when writing what a person said. It can also be used to show that there is more to be said but the person stopped at that point.

For example:

... one day all Americans will live peacefully throughout the world ... they will be at peace with all other world inhabitants ...So much more could be said ...

● (- is a hyphen)

A hyphen looks like this: -. Hyphens have many uses in writing:

Some words can have a hyphen added to change the meaning.

For example, re-formmeans "start again" but reform means "change".

A re-formed group is different from a reformed group.

A hyphen is used to spell out some numbers (thirty-two, forty-nine, eighty-six).

(Let me know if you want to know more about any particular punctuation mark. However I'm going to publish a detailed chapter on Ellipse and quotation mark as they are mostly misunderstood.)