History 406

Shouldn't I have already learned about punctuation by this point in my education?

Punctuation is like any other aspect of language: you need to review and practice it to master it and to remain in mastery of it. I know that most of you studied punctuation in grade school. But you also studied history in grade school, and how much of that do you remember clearly? I know from reading hundreds of essays each semester that many students confuse some of the uses of punctuation, so a brief review is probably in order.

Period

I am going to assume that you all know that the period goes at the end of each sentence. But remember that in the Chicago Style, a period also ends each note and each entry in the bibliography.

Capitalization

Remember that in the main body of the essay, only proper names of persons or places should be capitalized, but they should always be capitalized.

Examples: Huns, Hunnish, Roman Empire, Attila.

Note that some words can be parts of proper names, as in Roman Empire or Kingdom of France, or not, as in "the empire that Charlemagne ruled" or "the borders of the kingdom." The same goes for "King," "Queen," "Count," "Countess," and any titles: if they are placed together with a proper noun, they should be capitalized ("King Edward II," "Emperor Elagabalus") but if not placed together with a proper noun, they should not be capitalized ("the king led his army into battle," "the emperor was known for his orgies"), even if it is clear you are talking about a specific person.

In the Chicago Style, most words in titles of books, journals, articles, and films are capitalized, except for small and less significant words (such as: and, if, of, etc., unless they are the first word in the title), as in: A Tale of Two Cities.

Comma

Commas, of course, are used to separate phrases within a sentence

As a general rule of thumb, a comma should be placed if there are more than a couple of words before the main subject of the sentence.

Example:

"In the fourth century C.E., the Huns arrived on the eastern borders of the Roman Empire."

(Here "the Huns" is the main subject of the sentence)

Two commas should also be used if you are adding words between the main subject and main verb of the sentence, one immediately following the subject and one immediately preceding the verb. But if the main verb follows directly on the main subject, you should never use a comma.

Example:

"The Huns, who arrived on the eastern borders of the Roman Empire in the fourth century, terrified the Roman people."

(Here "the Huns" is the main subject of the sentence, and "terrified" is the main verb of the sentence)

A comma should also be placed between the main clause of a sentence and any subordinate clauses (subordinate clauses may be recognized because they use a different verb than the main verb of the sentence, and often change the form of the verb).

Example:

"The Huns arrived on the eastern borders of the Roman Empire in the fourth century C.E., terrifying the Roman people."

Here the verb, "terrifying," in a different form from the verb "arrived," indicates that it is a subordinate clause and so needs a comma.

Commas also usually separate words added for emphasis from the rest of the sentence, most often with one comma before and one comma after.

Example:

"As terrifying as the arrival of the Huns on the eastern borders of the Roman Empire was, nonetheless, the Huns' domination of the region lasted less than a century."

Words that take commas before and after include: however, moreover, indeed, furthermore, nonetheless.

The final basic use of commas is for something called apposition. It means when you refer to something twice in the same sentence, the second time immediately following the first, but using different words.

Example:

The most famous ruler of the Huns, Attila, led his people in their greatest victories against the Romans.

Here, the words "most famous ruler of the Huns" and "Attila" refer to the same person, and so are an example of apposition.

Commas should be placed before and after any word used in apposition. Common examples are phrases such as: "Justinian and his wife, Theodora," or "one of the sole victories of the Romans over the Huns, the battle of Chalons," or other similar phrases, again, where the same person or thing is referred to in two different ways.

But if the second person or thing is not identical to the first, no commas are used.

Example:

Charlemagne's grandson Charles the Bald ruled over a smaller territory than that of his grandfather.

Here, the words "Charlemagne's grandson" and "Charles the Bald" are not identical, because Charlemagne had more than one grandson, so the second set of words merely clarifies the first but does not repeat it. Another example would be "Henry VIII's wife Anne of Boleyn" since we all know that Henry had more than one wife.

Colon

The colon means "explanation following."

It is often used to introduce quotations, usually following immediately after a verb.

Example:

Spodek writes: "The Romans called all the steppe peoples who invaded Europe in 370 C.E. 'Huns,' but the Huns were, specifically, only one of the principal groups of warrior-nomads who inhabited the flat grasslands from European Russia to Manchuria."

It is also used when you briefly refer to something in the first part of the sentence, and describe it more fully in the second part.

Example:

"Two models characterized the growth of empires in the ancient world: hegemony and dominance."

Semi-Colon

The semi-colon joins two sentences into one.

One good reason for joining two sentences into one is if they both relate closely to each other.

Example:

"Empires brought much devastation to the ancient world; they also brought benefits."

Note that this sentence could have been made into two:

Example:

"Empires brought much devastation to the ancient world. They also brought benefits."

Note also that this sentence could have been joined instead by a preposition, and then separated only by a comma:

Example:

"Empires brought much devastation to the ancient world, but they also brought benefits."

Apostrophe

The apostrophe is mostly used to show the possessive case (that is, it shows that something is "of" something else). In such cases, it is always associated in some way with the letter "s."

When used with pronouns, the possessive case does not take an apostrophe.

Examples: his, hers, its, ours, theirs.

When used with most nouns, the possessive case is shown by adding an apostrophe and s.

Examples: dog's breakfast (= breakfast of a dog), cat's meow (= meow of a cat)

When used with nouns ending in s, however, the apostrophe comes after the s already in place, and without adding another s.

Examples: a circus' clown (= clown of a circus), an ass' ears (= ears of an ass)

When showing the possessive case of plural nouns, since most plural nouns already end in s, the apostrophe is added after the s and without adding another s, as with singular nouns ending in s.

Examples: goats' horns (= horns of [two or more] goats), Athenians' customs (= customs of [two or more] Athenians)

If a plural noun does not end in s, then you must add apostrophe and s to show the possessive case.

Examples: women's rights (= rights of women), men's roles (= roles of men)

The same is true of proper nouns: if they do not end in s, then the possessive takes apostrophe and s, but if they already end in s, then the possessive simply adds an apostrophe. (Note that there are exceptions to this rule in the Chicago Style, but the exceptions are more complicated than this simple rule, so it is best to stick to it.)

Examples: Plato's ideas (= ideas of Plato), Socrates' ideas (= ideas of Socrates), Muhammad's teachings (= teachings of Muhammad), Jesus' teachings (= teachings of Jesus)

The apostrophe is also used in contractions of verbs with pronouns or negatives. In such cases, it is always used to condense two words into one.

Examples: it's (= it is), isn't (= is not), I'd (= I would), you're (= you are)

Parentheses

Parentheses are used in formal writing to provide supplemental information to the reader.

Sometimes this supplemental information is information that would overly complicate a sentence, and so is given briefly in parentheses to avoid integrating it into the sentence.

Example:

Ashoka (died 238 B.C.E.) was the greatest ruler of ancient India.

Sometimes the supplemental information is information that is only tangentially or indirectly related to the topic at hand. In such cases, either phrases or whole sentences may be placed in parentheses.

Example:

Ashoka (who was the third emperor of the Mauryan dynasty) was the greatest ruler of ancient India.

Example:

Ashoka was the greatest ruler of ancient India. (He is also remembered for his conversion to Buddhism.)

And sometimes the supplemental information is information that is intended as an aside to the reader and is not really connected to the topic at all.

Example:

Ashoka (whose name is also the name of a San Diego restaurant) was the greatest ruler of ancient India.

Dash

The dash is used to connect supplemental information or asides to the reader that are very much connected to the topic at hand.

Example:

Ruling in the third century B.C.E., Ashoka--during whose reign the Mauryan Empire reached from modern Afghanistan to modern Bangladesh, and included modern Pakistan as well as most of modern India--was the greatest ruler of ancient India.

In such cases, the dashes take the place of commas, since too many commas in one sentence can make it difficult to read. They usually come in pairs.

Notice the format of the dash: two hyphens (most computer programs will automatically change two hyphens to one long line, which is perfectly okay).

Notice also that the phrase between dashes could be omitted without losing the sense of the sentence or making it an incomplete sentence.