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I had the same experience last year (my story differs only in the details.)
I had the same experience last year (my story differs only in the details).
Alternatively, a complete parenthetical sentence, with the first word capitalized and a period following the last word, can follow the terminal punctuation of the previous sentence: “I had the same experience last year. (My story differs only in the details.)”
That’s my dream car in the window I plan to buy it as soon as I have enough money.
That’s my dream car in the window. I plan to buy it as soon as I have enough money.
Error: run-on sentence. The new thought begins with “I.” Another way to correct it would be to put a semi-colon instead of a period between “window” and “I.”
:
colon
I wondered whether she would ever speak to me again?
I wondered whether she would ever speak to me again.
No question mark is used in an indirect quotation. (The same rule applies when a question within a sentence consists of a single word that often begins a stated question, such as in “I knew it would happen, but I asked myself when.”)
The possible color combinations are green, blue, and red, green, blue, and yellow, green, red, and yellow, blue, red, and yellow.
The possible color combinations are green, blue, and red; green, blue, and yellow; green, red, and yellow; and blue, red, and yellow.
When the final semicolon in a complex series of items replaces a serial comma, it should be followed by a conjunction, just as a serial comma should.
This manual will show you how to fix 1) widgets, 2) gadgets, and 3) gizmos.
This manual will show you how to fix (1) widgets, (2) gadgets, and (3) gizmos.
When enumerating items in a run-in list, frame the numbers in a pair of parentheses rather than placing a closing parenthesis after the numbers.
The boss is really old. He still addresses women clients as Mrs So-and-So.
The boss is really old. He still addresses women clients as Mrs. So-and-So.
U.S. punctuation convention places a period after “Mrs.” and “Ms.”
Why, when she’s already upset, would you say, “I told you so?”
Why, when she’s already upset, would you say, “I told you so”?
A question mark appears after a close quotation mark, not before it, if it applies to the framing sentence rather than the quoted material.
He only had this to say, “I have no use for it.”
He only had this to say: “I have no use for it.”
When an attribution preceding a quotation consists of a complete statement, a colon should follow the attribution.
I'm going to the city, shopping time. I should be back home by 5.
I'm going to the city (shopping time). I should be back home by 5.
Before we get to Phoenix let’s stop at an IHOP for breakfast.
Before we get to Phoenix, let’s stop at an IHOP for breakfast.
A subordinate clause that begins a sentence is set off with a comma.
“Were you in the war?,” I asked.
“Were you in the war?” I asked.
When a question mark appears at the end of a quotation or a line of dialogue, it supplants the comma that would normally be located there.
Let me put it this way, “No.”
Let me put it this way: “No.”
When a quotation is preceded by a complete introductory statement or by a phrase ending in thus or “as follows,” a colon, not a comma, should separate the two elements.
parentheses