1. Use a comma to separate adjectives that equally modify the same noun:  

• A big, hairy monster ate my homework.

2. Use commas to separate words, phrases, or clauses in a series:  

• I need to pack my stamps, rocks, camera, weights, hair dryer, and hat.  

• I must remember to gas the car, check the map, and pack a sandwich.  

3. Use a comma before a coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so) when joining two independent clauses to form a compound sentence:  

I’ve never tried fried liver, and I never will.  

However, do not separate verbs that are part of a compound predicate:  

I also hate broccoli and despise lima beans.  

4. Use a comma at the beginning of a sentence to set off introductory words, a      participial phrase, or an adverb clause:  

Introductory word:   

Unfortunately, that is not my car.  

Participial phrase:    

Running late, I rushed out of the house without my shoes.  

Adverb clause:            

As soon as we left the house, the phone rang.

5. Generally, a comma is not used with short prepositional phrases at the beginning of a sentence (4 words or less):  

Above my head floated a hot air balloon.  

However, you must use a comma after a series of prepositional phrases or a single long one:

Before the office manager would hire me, I had to interview with the president of the firm.  

6. Use commas to enclose nonessential phrases and clauses.  Nonessential phrases or clauses are NOT needed to understand the basic meaning of a sentence. Essential, also called restrictive, phrases or clauses are needed to understand the basic meaning of the sentence.  

Nonessential:

The dragon, which had gleaming teeth, set the house ablaze.

Essential:

The man who is wearing the red jacket just dropped this umbrella.  

Nonessential:

The article was about the Green Bay Packers, my favorite team.  

Essential:

Anna is wearing the shirt she received for her birthday.  

7. Use commas to separate the exact words of a speaker from the rest of a sentence:  

“Off with her head,” the Queen of Hearts yodeled.  “In fact,” she bellowed on, “off with all their heads!”  

8. Use a comma to separate items in an address or date:  

• 1550 Hill Road , Poway , CA 92064 .  
•   Thursday, October 17, 2001 .

1. Use a semicolon to join two or more independent clauses in place of a coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so):  

• Nobody will ever win the battle of the sexes; there’s too much fraternizing with the enemy.  
• On a dare I ate twenty-seven candy bars; I don’t think I’ll do that again.  

2. Use a semicolon before a conjunctive adverb (i.e., an adverb that joins two independent clauses).  Note that a comma goes after the adverb because it is an introductory word.  Common conjunctive adverbs include also, besides, for example, however, in addition, instead, moreover, meanwhile, nevertheless, similarly, then, therefore, thus.  

• My brother was arrested at the zoo just for feeding the pigeons; however, he was feeding them to the lions.  
• I didn’t take my usual route to school; instead, I took a shortcut that took twice as long.

3. Use a semicolon to separate groups of words in a series that already contain commas:  

• Over vacation we visited Paris , France ; Venice , Italy ; Vienna , Austria ; and Madrid , Spain.  

1. Use a dash to show a sharp break or interruption in a sentence:  

• So I told Griswold I was going to—OUCH! That hurt!  

2. Use a dash to divide an introductory series from the explanatory clause that follows it:  

• Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—these are the rights of all Americans.  

3. Use dashes to set off appositives that contain commas:  

• The makings of dinner—pasta, tomato sauce, vegetables, and garlic bread—were waiting on the counter when I arrived home.

1. Use a hyphen to make a compound word or to join coequal nouns:  

2. Use a hyphen to join words in compound numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine and with fractions:  

3. Use a hyphen to divide a word at the end of a line, but only between syllables:  

Wrong: 

The bird peered at Mr. McGillacudy with a pu-
zzled expression

Right:

The bird peered at Mr. McGillacudy with a puz-
zled expression.

4. Use a hyphen to join a capital letter to a noun or participle:  

5. Use a hyphen to join two or more words that serve as a single adjective before a noun:  

6. In general, do not use a hyphen after a standard prefixes (e.g., anti-, co-, multi-, non-, over-, post-, pre-, re-, semi-, sub-, un-, under-):  

1. Use quotation marks around text that is taken from another source, or to indicate a speaker’s exact words.  When quoting material from another source, you must always include the citation for that source (See the section on MLA Citation Format for details on how to cite sources).  

2. To omit words from a quotation, use an ellipsis to represent the part of the text omitted.  An ellipsis is typed as three periods with a single space before and after each one ( . . . ).  When using an ellipsis at the end of a sentence, include a fourth period for the sentence’s end mark ( . . . .). You should never use an ellipsis to distort or change the meaning of the original text you are quoting.  

• “When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one . . . had seen in at least ten years” (Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily”).

3. Use brackets [like this] to enclose words you add or substitute to a quotation for the sake of clarity.  Brackets are often used to replace a pronoun with the name of a character, for instance:  

• “Strange energy was in [Mr. Rochester’s] voice, strange fire in his look” (Bronte 133).  

4. To punctuate a quotation within a quotation, use single quotation marks to surround the inner quotation:  

• Steven said, “My favorite movie line is from Marlon Brando in The Godfather when he says, ‘I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse.’”  

5. Periods and commas are always placed inside quotation marks:

• I’ve heard that line,” said Albert, “but I never saw the movie.”  

However, the period at the end of a citation goes outside the final parentheses, not inside the quotation marks:  

• Lady Macbeth foreshadows her future insanity when she tells her husband: “These deeds must not be thought after these ways; so, it will make us mad” (2.2.45-46).  

6. An exclamation point or a question mark is placed outside the quotation marks when it punctuates the main sentence:  

• What do you suppose it means when a cannibal says, “Well, of course, you’re welcome to stay for dinner”?  

It is placed inside the quotation marks when it punctuates only the quotation. [Note that no additional end punctuation is needed.]:  

• I almost croaked when he asked, “That won’t be a problem for you will it?”  

7. Semi-colons or colons are placed outside quotation marks:  

• Derek’s favorite Springsteen song is “Born to Run”; I prefer “ Thunder Road .”  

1. For dialogue, use quotation marks before and after the exact words of a speaker; place the comma inside the quotation marks when the speaker attribution follows the quotation:  

• “Your driver’s license says you should be wearing glasses,” said the traffic officer to the speeder.  

2. When the speaker attribution is given first, follow it with a
         comma.  The direct quotation following it begins with a capital
         letter:

• The speeding driver explained, “But I have contacts.”  

3. When a quoted sentence is divided into two parts by an interrupting expression or speaker attribution, begin the second part of the quotation with a lower case letter:  

• “I don’t care who you know,” the policeman replied, “because you’re getting a ticket anyway.”  

4. When a question mark or exclamation point is used as an end mark of a quotation, place the end mark inside the quotation marks. (Note that the sentence continues without capitalizing the first word after the end of the quotation):  

• “Who comes up with these lame jokes, anyway?” asked the bewildered student.  

5. When you write dialogue with two or more persons conversing, begin a new paragraph every time the speaker changes:  

•      “That guy is great on the field,” said a college football scout to the player’s coach. “But how’s his scholastic work?”  
       “Why, he makes straight A’s,” replied the high school coach as they watched the player make tackle after tackle.  
       “Wonderful!” said the scout.  
       “Yes,” agreed the coach, “but his B’s are a little crooked.”  

1. Work a short quotation (up to four typed lines of your page) directly into the text of your paper and put quotation marks around it.  [Note that the period at the end of the quotation goes outside the final parentheses of the citation]:  

• “To be, or not to be, that is the question” (3.1.57). This familiar statement expresses the young prince’s moral dilemma in William Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.  

2. For prose quotations that are longer than four typed lines of your page (NOT the original text), use a block quotation format. Indent the entire quotation one inch from the left margin. Do not change the right margin. Because you have indented the quoted material, you do NOT use quotation marks around it as well.  

Based on rumors and gossip, the children of Maycomb speculate about Boo Radley’s appearance:  

• Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that’s why his hands were bloodstained—if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off.  There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time. (Lee 13)  

3. Use a block quotation format when quoting dialogue between two or more speakers:  

During the trial scene, Bob Ewell immediately shows his disrespect for both the court and his family:

• “Are you the father of Mayella Ewell?” was the next question.  
  “Well, if I ain’t I can’t do nothing about it now, her ma’s dead,” was the answer.                       (Lee 172)  

4. Also use block quotation format when quoting dialogue between speakers in a play:  

Mama compares her children to a beloved plant:  

• Mama (looking at her plant and sprinkling a little water on it): They spirited all right, my children.  Got to admit they got spirit—Bennie and Walter. Like this little old plant that ain’t never had enough sunshine or nothing—and look at it. . . Ruth (trying to keep Mama from noticing): You . . . sure . . . loves that little old thing, don’t you?     (Hansberry 335)  

1. When quoting two or three lines of poetry, use a forward slash [/] with one space on each side to show where each line ends. Using the format for a short quotation (see previous section), work the lines directly into the text of your paper using quotation marks. [Note that the period at the end of the quotation goes outside the final parentheses of the citation]:  

• Juliet’s innocence soon turns to passion when she tells Romeo in the balcony scene, “My bounty is as boundless as the sea, / My love as deep; the more I give to thee, / The more I have, for both are infinite” (1.2.141-43).  

2. When quoting more than three lines of poetry, use a block quotation format. [Remember, no quotation marks!]:  

Mercutio shows his sarcasm about love when he mocks Romeo’s lovesickness for Rosaline:  

• Romeo! humors! madman! passion! lover!  
  Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh;  
  Speak but one rhyme, and I am satisfied!  
  Cry but “Ay me!” pronounce but “love”
   and “dove.”   (2.1.9-12)  

3. When the quotation you are using begins in the middle of a line, position the partial line as it appears in the text:  

When the exiled Romeo draws his dagger, Friar Lawrence scolds,  

• Hold thy desperate hand.
  Art thou a man? Thy form cries out thou art;
  Thy tears are womanish, thy wild acts denote  
  The unreasonable fury of a beast.    (3.3.118-121)  

1. Use an apostrophe to signify letter(s) left out of a word to form a contraction:  

2. Use an apostrophe to signify one or more numbers left out of numerals or words that are spelled as they are actually spoken:  

1. Add an apostrophe and an s to form the possessive of singular nouns, even if the noun ends in s:  

2. Add only an apostrophe to form the possessive of plural nouns ending in s.  If the plural does not end in s, add ‘s to form the possessive:  

3. For the possessive form of a compound noun or an indefinite pronoun, place an apostrophe and an s after the last word:  

4. Possessive personal pronouns (his, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs and the relative pronoun whose) do not require an apostrophe.  

5. Remember that the word immediately before the apostrophe is the owner:  

When ownership is shared, the apostrophe is also shared; use the possessive form only on the last item in a series to indicate shared ownership:  

• Caitlin, Chris, and Joshua’s house = the house is shared by all three  

When ownership is individual, each noun in a series gets its own individual apostrophe and s:  

• Caitlin’s, Chris’s, and Joshua’s jackets = each has his or her own jacket  

1. Capitalize the first word of a sentence

• Marco loves to slam dance.  

2. Capitalize the first word of a full-sentence direct quotation:  

• When Joe made it to first base, his coach screamed, “Run to second!”  

• Lady Macbeth foreshadows her future insanity when she tells her husband: “These deeds must not be thought after these ways; so, it will make us mad” (2.2.45-46).