This document provides a summary of common punctuation marks used in writing: 1. It describes four basic sentence types: simple, compound, complex, and complex-compound and provides examples of each. 2. It explains the use of capital letters including at the start of sentences, for proper nouns, and to indicate shouting. 3. It provides examples of how to use commas including after introductory phrases, to join short sentences, in dates, and between adjectives.

2. Compound: The dog ran and I fell over.Complex: After the cat went past, the dog ran.

4. First letter of every word in a proper noun (except “of” or “the”): Indiana Jones; Laurence of Arabia; My dog is called Indiana; Tuesday; Melbourne.

5. To indicate shouting (informal writing only): “STOP,” he yelled.

6. Acronyms: NASA, CSIRO

8. To join short and related sentences: I came, I saw, I conquered.

9. After a name used in address: Indiana, sit down.

10. Before a name when used in addressing someone: Welcome to the show, Indiana.

11. After a greeting: Hello, how are you?; Welcome, have a seat.

12. To separate items in a list: Our pets at home are Indiana, Emmylou, Zelda, Cuddly and Winifred.

13. If the items have a comma in them, separate them with a semi-colon: The Olympics have been held in Beijing, China; Athens, Greece; and Sydney, Australia.

14. In between multiple or repeated adjectives or adverbs: I drive an unreliable, white car; Emmylou felt very, very cold.

15. Before the conjunction when you are joining two sentences: Indiana sat by my side, but Emmylou ran off into the creek.

16. Following a speech verb introducing direct speech: I said to Indiana, “You are a terrific dog.”

17. In place of a full stop in direct speech when it is followed by a speech verb phrase. “Indiana is a wonderful dog,” I said.

18. Before “too” when it means also: I have a cattle dog, too.

19. Before “either” or “however” when they are the end of a sentence: Emmylou did not want to stay in the car, either.

20. Around an appositive: I write examples about my dog, Indiana; I spoke to my sister, Rad, just last week.

22. When ownership is shown by a possessive pronoun, no apostrophe is needed: Indiana guarded her toy.

23. Plurals of a single number or letter: I was all at 6’s and 7s.

24. Longer numbers and acronyms do use an apostrophe when plural: Cars became popular in the 1920s.

28. Trailing off: Barry mumbled, “I am certain that I left my keys on the…”

31. To separate items in a list where those items contain commas: Last year I went to Sydney, New South Wales; Perth, Western Australia and Hobart, Tasmania.

33. To introduce a question: As we heard the sound, we wondered: is that Emmylou?

34. To introduce direct speech: Mr O'Meara jumped to his feet and declared: "I'm going to stab you through the heart with a pencil!"

35. To link contrasting sentences: I plant flowers in our garden: Indiana digs them up.

36. To introduce a list: You must bring the following: shoes, hats and sunscreen.

37. To show chapter and verse in the Bible: Ecclesiiastes 3:12

38. Writing time: 8:12AM

39. Ratios: 16:9 screen

40. To break up a title: Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

44. To show doubt: The first house in this town was built in the 1930s(?).