What follows is a list of punctuation marks in alphabetical order. Each explains how the particular mark is used in the context of journalism.

• indicate possession
• indicate omitted figures or letters
• form some plurals

Possessives Add apostrophe and s ('s) to the end of singular and plural nouns or the indefinite pronoun unless it has an s or z sound.

• The woman's coat. The women's coats.
• The child's toy. The children's toys.
• Someone's pistol. One's hopes.

If the word is plural and ends in an s or z sound, add an apostrophe only:

• Boys' books. Joneses' farm.

For singular common nouns ending in s, add an apostrophe and s ('s) unless the next word begins with s:

• The hostess's gown. The hostess' seat.

For singular proper nouns ending in s, add only an apostrophe:

• Dickens' novels. James' hat.

Omitted figures or letters: Use in contractions: Don't, can't. Put in place of an omitted figure: Class of '88.

Some plurals: When figures, letters, symbols and words are referred to as words, use the apostrophe and s.
a) Figures: She skated perfect 8's.
b) Letters: He received all A's on his finals.
c) Symbols: Journalists never use &'s to substitute for the ands in their copy.
The pronouns ours, yours, theirs, his, hers, and whose do not take apostrophes. Its is the possessive pronoun. It's is the contraction of it is.
Compound words and nouns in joint possession use the possessive in the last word:

• Everybody else's homes.
• His sister-in-law's books.
• Clinton and Gore's party.

• Clinton's and Hyde's opinions differed.

2. Bracket
Check whether the newspaper can set brackets. Use to enclose a word or words that the writer inserts within a quotation:

• "Happiness [her note read] is a state of mind."

3. Colon
The colon usually is used at the end of a sentence (independent clause) to call attention to what follows. It introduces a series, tabulations, texts, a long sentence and quotations of more than one sentence.

• Sarah, a young reporter, knows that for any profile there are absolute essentials that will guide some of her observations and questions: appearance, background, occupation, personal details.
• Here is the beginning of the story written by Jeff Sommer:
  PLAINVIEW-By 9 a.m. Tuesday, doctors at Nassau County Medical Center told Gerald and Barbara Goldstein there was little chance that their 12 ½ -year-old-son, Philip, injured in an auto accident, would live.
• Melanie Valdez remembered the advice of her journalism instructor: "On a new beat, introduce yourself to everyone, not to just the people in charge. Give them your phone number."

The colon also can be used to mark a full stop before a dramatic statement:

• She had only one goal in mind: work.

Other uses of the colon include:

• indicating time of day:
• 7:45 p.m.
• elapsed time of an event:
• 4:01.1
• dialogue in question and answer, as from a trial:
• Q: How much did you drink that night?
  A: Only a couple of pitchers.

Should the word immediately following a colon be capitalized? Only if what follows is a complete sentence:

• Tourism looks promising next year: Construction of motels/restaurants is booming.

4. Comma
The best general guide for the use of the comma is the human voice as it pauses, stops and varies in tone. The comma marks the pause, the short stop:

• He looked into the hospital room, but he was unable to find the patient.
• Although he continued his search on the floor for another 20 minutes, he was unable to find anyone to help him.
• He decided that he would go downstairs, ask at the desk and then telephone the police.
• If that also failed, he thought to himself, he would have to give up the search.

The four sentences also illustrate the four principles governing the use of commas:

1. Use the comma to separate main clauses when they are joined by a coordinating conjunction (for, or,nor, and, but).
   • Ida B. Wells made journalism out of her indignation about racial segregation, and in 1891 her articles for the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight so angered school authorities that they fired her.
   The comma can be eliminated if the main clauses are short:
   
   • Wells risked her life but she persisted.
2. Use the comma after an introductory element: a clause, long phrase, transitional expression or interjection.
   • After writing the controversial Silent Spring, natural scientist Rachel Carson became a champion of the ban of the insecticide DDT.
3. Use the comma to separate words, phrases or clauses in a series.
   • Newspapers routinely carry reports of hospital admissions, divorce actions, arrests and traffic violations.
   Do not use a comma before the coordinating conjunction in a series:
   
   • The flag is red, white and blue.
   Use the comma in a series of adjectives:
   
   • He was wearing a long, full cape.
4. Set off nonessential material in a sentence with a comma. When the parenthetical or interrupting nonrestrictive clauses and phrases are in the middle of a sentence, two commas are need:
• The horror of the photograph of the child accident victim might register, as no written word can, the dangers of playing in the street or darting out into traffic.

Here are some other uses of the comma:

• With full sentence quotes, not with partial quotes:
• He asked, "Where are you going?" The man replied that he was "blindly groping" his way home.
• To separate city and county, city and state:
• The explosion occurred in Albany, N.Y.
• To replace of between a name and city:
• Jimmy Carter, Plains, Ga.
• To set off a person's age:
• Orville Sterb, 19, of Fullerton, Calif.
• In dates:
• March 19, 1940, was the date he entered the army.
• In party affiliations:
• Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
• To set off a title:
• Jane Tyrone, the chairwoman, spoke at the meeting.
  
  

5. Dash
The dash is a call for a short pause. Use a dash in the following ways:
(a) to indicate a sudden or dramatic shift in thought within a sentence:

• He stared at the picture — and he was startled to find himself thinking of another's face.

• There were three people watching them — an elderly woman, a youth with a crutch at his side and a young woman in jeans holding a paperback.

• The man stood up — painfully and awkwardly — and extended his hand in greeting.

6. Ellipsis
The ellipsis indicates that material has been omitted from a quoted passage from a text, transcript, play, etc. Put one space before and one space after each of the three ellipsis marks:

• The minutes stated that Breen had asked, "How many gallons of paint . . . were used in the project?

If the omission ends with a period, use four ellipsis marks, one to mark the end of the sentence (without space, as a regular period, three more for the ellipsis):

• In explaining matters of taste in journalism, the textbook stated: "Some regions are considered conservative in taste as well as politics. . . . Still, there is clearly a greater general willingness to use material once considered off-limits--but with caution.

7. Exclamation Point
The exclamation point is used to indicate powerful feelings, surprise, wonder. When using an exclamation point, do not place a comma or period after it. Place it inside quotation marks if it is part of the quoted material.

• Outside the blazing building, a neighbor screamed, "A young boy is in there looking for his dog!"

8. Hyphen The hyphen is used in the following two ways:
(a) to join two or more words that serve as a single adjective before a noun:

• As he said, "A well-known movie is on television tonight," he had a know-it-all expression.

• He re-covered the chair. (Compare: He recovered the chair.)
• They re-entered the room. (Compare: They reentered the room.)
• The vase was shell-like. (Compare: The vase was shelllike.)

9. Parentheses
Parentheses may be necessary to insert background material or to set off supplementary or illustrative material.

• Abbey Hoffman (the Sixties radical) died in 1994.

• Abby Hoffman died in 1994. (Hoffman was a Sixties radical.)

• Abby Hoffman (remember him?) was a Sixties radical.

10. Period
Use a period in the following ways:

• at the end of declarative sentences —
• Every beat reporter is morally bound to find out what works and what's broken in the systems, offices, departments and agencies on the beat.
• most imperative sentences —
• The editor ordered the reporter to perform his work with integrity.
• and most abbreviations —
• p.m.

A period is placed inside quotation marks:

• New York Times critic John J. O'Connor said that the PBS documentary, "Sex and Other Matters of Life and Death," was "bound to raise a few hackles, especially among entities like the New York City Board of Education."

11. Question Mark
A question mark is used for direct questions, not indirect questions.

• DIRECT: Where are you going?
• INDIRECT: He asked where she was going.

• Responsible journalists ask, "Aren't we supposed to give an accurate picture of life?"

• Did you see the musical, "Rent"?

12. Quotation Marks
Use quotation marks to set off direct quotations:

• "I wasn't trying to set the world on fire, but I knew that I was doing what needed to be done," said Hazel Brannon Smith, a weekly newspaper editor in Mississippi who battled the racism of the white establishment in her county.

Use quotation marks to set off titles of books, movies, short stories, poems, songs, articles from magazines and plays:

• She saw Shaw's "Major Barbara" on the same day that she read Mary Wollstonecraft's "Vindication of the Rights of Women."

• Major Albert "Red" Fraser led the attack.

• If you were "it," you had to try to tag the other players.

How should writers punctuate when quoting?
The comma should be placed outside the quotation marks when setting off the speaker at the beginning of a sentence:

• He said, "You care too much for money."

• "I intend to take care of myself," she said.

• He spoke of her "incredible desire for work"; he meant her "insatiable desire for work."

• She asked, "How do you know so much?" Did she really wonder why he knew "so much"?

• "I read 'War and Peace' last summer," he said.

13. Semicolon
Semicolons are not used frequently in journalism, so tread carefully with them. Beginning journalists often overuse them.
Semicolons have two uses:

1. They relate independent clauses whose meaning is similar. (But remember, unless you have a special reason to use a semicolon this way, use a period.)
• By nature, reporters are skeptics; many are cynics.
2. They separate items in a series when one or more of the items has internal punctuation.
   This creates clarity in the series:
• He suggested that she spend her allowance on the new series at the opera, "Operas of the Present"; plays by Shaw, Ibsen and Aristophanes; and novels by Tolstoy, Woolf, Morrison.