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Punctuation and Capitalization
PUNCTUATION . A period ends a sentence or provides an abbreviation.
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1. Ex: The United States emerged as a world leader in the 1940s. 2. , A comma indicates what is before and after can switch places. Ex: The most popular form of music during the war was jazz, but western swing, country, blues, and rhythm blues were also popular.
3. – An em dash draws emphasis and can replace a comma, parenthesis, and colon. Ex: Prejudices about women's working capabilities were extremely prominent in the armed forces – home to 470,000 servicewomen during the war.
4. - An en dash is used to hyphenate to connect words. Ex: A-line skirts which came down to the knee were popular. 5. : A colon tells us whatever comes next is directly related to the previous statement. Ex: The beginning of the war marked the strict rationing of fabric which led to dresses going from calf-length to knee-length. 6. ; A semicolon informs us that whatever is in front is an independent clause and whatever is after is directly related. Ex: An hourglass figure was strongly desired; if a woman did not naturally have this clothing was designed to help her achieve that 7. ? A question mark ends an interrogative sentence. Ex: Why did WW2 have such an impact on women's fashion trends? 8. ! An exclamation point ends an exclamatory sentence. Ex: There was ongoing inequality between men and women!
9. ‘ An apostrophe indicates a possession, contraction, or quote mark (quote within a quote). Ex: The tops of all women's dresses were modest.
“ ” Quotation marks indicate that it is coming from somewhere else. Ex: Cotton became a widely used fabric because it was “light and airy. 11. … The ellipsis means something is unsaid or condensed. Ex: Pants/trousers were primarily considered menswear until... 12. [ ] Brackets indicate you inserted something that was not there. Ex: 1940s shoes [lacked] the detailing of ‘30s shoes, ‘40s shoes were mostly plain, sturdy, and chunky. 13. ( ) Parentheses tell us that whatever is inside is parenthetical, meaning something that might be important but is not necessary. Ex: Plus size fashion was not overlooked in the 1940s (as it had been in previous decades.) 14. / A backslash indicates a choice. Ex: Her/his blouse is a fun striped pattern.
CAPITALIZATION
Rules of capitalization: 1. Capitalize the first letter of every sentence. Ex: For the first time ever, swimsuits came in two pieces. 2. Capitalize proper nouns. Ex: Frank Sinatra was one of the best-selling male artists of the time. 3. Capitalize words in titles except for coordinate conjunctions, prepositions, and articles (a, an, and the.) Ex: The number one song in 1944 was “Swinging on a Star” by Bing Crosby.
