Category: Level 4 pages

Quotation Marks with Dialog You may not find yourself needing to use dialog very often in academic writing, but you may be asked to write narrative essays in some classes, which often contain dialog....

Quotation Marks with Quoted Material You should use quotation marks any time you use words directly from another source. Sometimes, students think putting a citation or reference at the end “covers it,” but you...

What are those single quotes for? Now that you know what quotation marks are used for, you may wonder about the single quotation marks—the one that look like ‘this.’ Single quotation marks are used...

Semicolons to Join Clauses You should use a semicolon when you’re joining two independent clauses without a connecting word. The semicolon functions, structurally, just like a period. The difference is that the semicolon between...

Using Semicolons in Lists So right after telling you that semicolons shouldn’t be used like commas, we should discuss one situation where the semicolon does function more like a comma. However, this is a...

Semicolons can feel a little confusing because sometimes they’re used to separate items in a series, as mentioned on the previous page, but they are really nothing like a comma. In terms of sentence...

A common noun refers to a general group or class of people, places, objects, etc. One way to identify a common noun is called the “the” test.  If you can use the noun with...

Use a comma with a coordinating conjunction when combining two independent clauses. An independent clause is a term for a complete thought or sentence with both a subject and a verb. A coordinating conjunction...

Use a comma to separate items in a series (three or more things). You should even place a comma between the last two, although some writing style guidelines now omit this comma. In academic...

Use commas after introductory words or phrases. Subordinating conjunctions are words that connect, but unlike coordinating conjunctions, which connect equal parts, subordinating conjunctions connect dependent clauses (incomplete thoughts) to independent clauses. When you see...