Online Writing Center
Darton State College
TERMINAL PUNCTUATION: PERIOD, QUESTION
MARK, AND EXCLAMATION POINT
THE NEED FOR PUNCTUATION
Punctuation allows us to express, in writing, longer
and shorter pauses, emphasis, full stops, and
general intonation.
 Punctuation is the way we mimic speech in writing.
 Punctuation makes sentences clear.
 Lack of punctuation makes sentences muddled.
 Punctuation allows the reader to interpret our
message correctly.

TERMINAL (ENDING) PUNCTUATION: THE PERIOD

A period closes a declarative sentence (a
statement):
 Vaduz

is the capital of Lichtenstein.
A period closes a statement that contains an
indirect question:
 Maria
wanted to know why her name had not been
called.
PERIODS AFTER ABBREVIATIONS

Personal names:


Titles:


Dr. Frankenstein, Mme. (for Madame) Curie, Gen. Eisenhower.
Geographical terms:



E. B. White, F. Scott Fitzgerald, T. S. Eliot, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle)
Boston, Mass. (state)
123 Mayflower St. (street)
Time:


King Tut ruled Egypt from 1332 B.C. until 1323 B.C.
St. Augustine of Hippo wrote Confessions in the fourth century
A.D.
QUESTION MARK

An interrogative sentence (a question) is followed
by a question mark:


When will the new semester begin?
Question marks with quotations:

Place the question mark inside the quotation mark
when the quotation is a question:
Answer the following question, “What do you admire or not admire
about Chekhov’s story?”

Place the question mark outside the quotation mark
when the entire sentence is a question:
Can you see the sign “Do not enter”?
EXCLAMATION POINT

An exclamation is followed by an exclamation
point.
I
am so upset!
 What a brilliant mathematician you are!

Deal with exclamation points and quotation
marks the same way as it was described above
on Slide #5.