PLUG-INs A Student’s Guide toInformation Literacy

PUNCTUATION MARKS ETC.

for Writing References & Citations

Today we will review the

pesky little symbols called PUNCTUATION

MARKS.

We need to use Punctuation

Marks correctly when we write References and

Citations.

Don’t worry; they don’t

bite or pinch like a

lobster.

Use it after a book title and at

the end of a reference.

Always put a space after a

dot.

This is a PERIOD,

FULLSTOP or DOT .

Let’s start with the easy ones.

This is a COMMA ,

For example, use a Comma

after the author’s name in MLA style.

A Comma is used between words to

separate them. Always put a space after a

comma.

Also a Colon is used after a

book title and before a subtitle.

Always put a space after a

colon.

Use a Colon after the city

and before the publisher in

citations.

This is a COLON :

This is a SEMICOLON ;

A Semicolon is not used in formatting MLA or APA citations.

But, a semicolon

might be in text that you are quoting.

Quotes come before and after the borrowed words.

They are used to show you are

using words from another

person.

These are QUOTATION MARKS or QUOTES

“ … ”

These are PARENTHESI

S MARKS

(……...)

Use them for intext citations.

They show something

inside something else.

These areSQUARE BRACKETS

[…….…]Use them to add words

to a text.

ANGLE BRACKETS look like this <……..>

Use them for URLs.

This is a SLASH /It leans to the

right.

Use a Slash in URLs. There is no

space after a slash.

A DASH –- is 2 hyphens. Use to divide

ideas.

This is a HYPHEN –

Use a hyphen to divide words.

Use an Elipsis to show that

words are missing.

An ELIPSIS is three dots . . .

Use an apostrophe to make noun

possessives or a contraction. Sometimes a

book title has an apostrophe

in it.

An APOSTROPHE looks like a comma

but it is over a letter. For example

it’s.

This is an AMPERSAND

& It means and.

Sometimes book titles use an Ampersand

instead of the word and.

An ASTERISK * is like a little star.

It is not very common. But a

book title may have one.

An EXCLAMATION

POINT ! indicates surprise or

something strong or funny. Some book titles have

one.

A QUESTION

MARK ? indicates a

question. Some book titles have

one.

ROMAN NUMERALS

are sometimes used in book

titles.

Roman Numerals use

the letters X, I, V, C, M, D

instead of 1,2,3,4,54,6,7

etc.

Sometimes book pages before the

main text are written in Roman

Numerals.

For example, CEO means

Chief Executive Officer.

Book titles sometimes use an ACRONYM. This is a word spelled

with the first letters of other

words.

Be careful with CAPITAL

LETTERS in book and article titles.

Use a Capital Letter for CONTENT

WORDS like nouns, verbs, adjectives

and adverbs.

Do not use Capital Letters for

FUNCTION WORDS like articles,

conjunctions and prepositions.

Ask your English teacher to explain if you have forgotten

about these words.

If an father and son have the same name,

write Jr. after the son’s name. This means junior.

Sometimes an author uses a

middle INITIAL. A dot

follows the initial.

This is the first letter of a name. For

example J. for John.

Tim J. Smith

INDENT or TAB OVER

means to put 5 spaces from the left side of the

page.

In for the Reference List in MLA, you do not indent the first line of a reference

but additional lines are indented.

In a long intext citation, you do this.

To learn more about punctuation marks, go to

http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/department/docs/punctuation/node00.html

FUN ! ! ! Just kidding.

I hope this helps you understand

punctuation marks for writing

references.

Ask your teacher or your friendly librarian if you

have any questions.

Thank you for listening.

HAPPY WRITING

!