Three Punctuation Errors That Plague Me - By Jennifer Wren

 

I’ve just spent hours doing tedious global “Find and Replace” searches to correct several punctuation errors that continue to torment me. I look up these same rules on average about once a year and then find myself making the same mistakes over and over. I am hoping that looking them up yet again and writing them down here for you will finally cement them in my brain!

1. SINGLE SPACES BETWEEN SENTENCES: My son, who teaches writing at a university in New York City, admonishes, “Mom, the use of two spaces at the end of a sentence is archaic.” Oh gee, now I’m not only old, I’m archaic! Here is the RULE: after a period, question mark, exclamation mark, quotation mark, or ellipsis (anything that signifies the end of a sentence) USE ONLY A SINGLE SPACE, not two as you may have been taught in typing class. In fact, if you use two spaces it automatically dates you as having learned to type on a typewriter prior to the advent of computerized word processing. Yes, I am that old. [Hint: To autocorrect these, do a “search and replace.” In the search bar, type a period followed by two spaces, and in the replace bar, type a period with one space. Repeat this process using a question mark, exclamation mark, quotation mark and ellipsis.]

2. LOWER CASE DIALOGUE TAG: You can find people who argue this until their faces turn red and their hands curl into fists, but the rule nevertheless is a RULE: After a dialogue fragment OR sentence, start the tag with a LOWER CASE LETTER (unless it starts with a proper name). Example: “That’s a bunch of crap,” he said. I’ve even had MS Word autocorrect and put in a capital, so I go back to the Internet and confirm: use a lowercase! BTW, periods always go INSIDE the quotation marks and most often, commas do as well. Semicolons and colons are never placed inside quotation marks unless they are part of the direct quote.

Remember, if dialogue ends in a period but has a dialogue tag added, switch to a comma. Check the example: “That’s a bunch of crap.” he said. You’ll note that this is incorrect because the dialogue ends in a period with a tag added. Switch to a comma as shown in the previous paragraph. However, look at the following example: “That’s a bunch of crap!” he said. This is correct. Don’t you just love English?

3. PUNCTUATING AN ELLIPSIS: If you want to indicate a pause, pregnant or otherwise, you may use an ellipsis. RULE: It depends. In most fiction, an ellipsis is THREE dots in a row, no spaces between, with spaces before the ellipsis and after it. The last space is eliminated if the ellipsis ends at a quotation mark. Example: “But I thought …” You can see a space before the ellipsis but not after, since it ends at a quotation mark. Take another example: “But I thought … you knew.” In this case, there is a space both before and after the ellipsis, but no spaces between. (Note that if you added a dialogue tag to that quote, you’d switch the period after “knew” to a comma.) In nonfiction and formal writing, you may see ellipses written with spaces before, between, and after them. They are still three dots (although in certain circumstances there may be a period before or after the ellipsis, which makes it look as if it has four dots). Everyone warns against overusing this handy little device, as it becomes very tiresome for a reader to see that a character, or worse, all the characters can’t seem to speak in a full sentence! Example: “I … don’t know … maybe … it’s just that I … you know ...”

I hope this helps some of you and if you want to argue with me, that’s okay too. Maybe I’m still getting it wrong, but I tried to find at least 3 sources to confirm each rule above.

Arizona Authors Association member Jenny Wrenn lives in the Canelo Hills of Arizona in the borderlands with Mexico. She writes speculative fiction, paranormal romance, and poetry. With degrees in zoology and medicine, Jenny has always lived an outdoor lifestyle full of adventure, with a fascination for the natural world. All of these flavor her writing. While she hasn’t yet published her novels, she admits to having “four or five sitting in my computer.” The Association looks forward to their future release.