Parentheses ( ) are a type of punctuation. Parentheses always come as a pair – in twos. We put parentheses around words and information that are not of major importance. The words in a parentheses can be left out and… Read more172. Parentheses

A direct quotation is the quoting of someone else’s words. When you write someone else’s words into your own document, you must place quotation marks around those quoted words. Quotation marks always come in a set of two. Here is… Read more173. Quotation Marks in Direct Quotations

In writing, we use italics (slanted writing like this) to designate titles of larger pieces of writing. Use italics for book titles, movie titles, television shows, magazine names, newspaper names. I saw the movie Jaws.My mother has a subscription to… Read more174. Quotation Marks and Italics in Titles

A possessive noun shows ownership. We add an apostrophe -s ( ‘s ) onto a noun to show that the noun owns something. This is the boy’s bike. The ‘s on the end of boy shows that the boy owns… Read more163. The Apostrophe With Possessive Nouns

Use an apostrophe whenever you are talking about more than one number, letter, or symbol. Plural letters need an apostrophe. four B’s – I need four B’s to write my full name.seven X’s – I used seven X’s in this… Read more164. Apostrophes for Plural Letters, Numbers, and Symbols

A hyphen ( – ) is a short dash used within certain words. We use a hyphen inside of number words. When we write a number larger than twenty using words, we need a hyphen.23 = twenty-three56 = fifty-six49 =… Read more166. Using the Hyphen With Numbers

We use a hyphen inside a two-word adjective when the adjective comes before the noun it describes.Here are some examples:a two-word adjectivea well-known authora high-profile clienta long-term contractan up-to-date computer system In each of these examples, the hyphenated adjective is… Read more167. Hyphenated Adjectives