8.L.GC.1.50 8.L.GC.1.51 8.L.GC.1.52 8.L.GC.1.56 8.L.GC.1.59 8.L.GC.1.60 8.20 8.20.B

Punctuation 8th Grade

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS): 8.20
Students write legibly and use appropriate capitalization and punctuation conventions in their compositions.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS): 8.20.B
use correct punctuation marks including: commas after introductory structures and dependent adverbial clauses, and correct punctuation of complex sentences; and semicolons, colons, hyphens, parentheses, brackets, and ellipses.
Georgia Math and ELA Standards: 8.L.GC.1.50
Mechanics: Use ellipses appropriately. (Master)
Georgia Math and ELA Standards: 8.L.GC.1.51
Mechanics: Use hyphens with appropriate affixes and compound words. (Master)
Georgia Math and ELA Standards: 8.L.GC.1.52
Mechanics: Use semicolons, with or without a conjunctive adverb, to form compound and compound-complex sentences. (Master)
Georgia Math and ELA Standards: 8.L.GC.1.56
Mechanics: Use colons to introduce lists, examples, and explanations. (Master)
Georgia Math and ELA Standards: 8.L.GC.1.59
Mechanics: Use colons to introduce quotations. (Introduce)
Georgia Math and ELA Standards: 8.L.GC.1.60
Mechanics: Use dashes appropriately. (Introduce)

Commas should be used after introductory words, phrases, and clauses.

Introductory Words

Interjections are words or short phrases that come at a beginning of sentence or clause.

Conjunctive adverbs are adverbs that are used to connect and show the relationship between different clauses.

Nouns of direct address refer to a person by his or her name or title directly.

Introductory Phrases

Two or more prepositional phrases or prepositional phrases five words or longer should have a comma after them.

An infinitive phrase consists of the word "to" + a base verb and any modifiers or complements.

A participle phrase is usually made up of an "-ed" or an "-ing" verb along with any modifying or descriptive words.

Introductory Clauses

When a dependent clause begins a sentence or introduces another clause, a comma should come after it.

When a dependent clause ends a sentence or comes after an independent clause, no comma is needed between the clauses.

Semicolons

Semicolons can be used to connect two closely related independent clauses.

When two independent clauses are connected by a conjunctive adverb, a semicolon should be used between the clauses.

Use semicolons between each item in a series when the series already has commas.

Colons

When used in sentences, colons should only be used after a complete sentence. They usually introduce a list or short example.

Colons can also be used to connect two independent clauses, especially if the second clause explains, illustrates, or expands upon the first in some way.

Hyphens

Hyphens are often used in compound words. Check a dictionary if you are unsure if a compound word should be hyphenated.

Hyphens are used when combining the prefixes, great-, self-, ex-, and all-, with another word. Prefixes combined with proper nouns should also be hyphenated.

When writing out the numbers twenty-one through ninety-nine, hyphens should be used.

Parentheses

Parentheses are used to enclose information that clarifies or acts as an aside to other information. Parentheses can be used inside or outside of a sentence.

When parentheses are used inside another sentence, commas (not in a series), semicolons, colons, and periods should go outside the last parenthesis. Exclamation points and question marks should go inside the last parenthesis.

Parentheses that stand on their own always have their ending punctuation inside the last parenthesis.

Remember that any information that is in parentheses is never a part of the subject. The verb should only agree with the noun/pronoun outside of the parentheses.

Brackets

Brackets are almost exclusively used in quoted material, primarily as a way to clarify information. Do not use brackets and parentheses interchangeably.

Any changes made to quoted material, such as capitalization, should be placed inside brackets.

Brackets can also be used to indicate spelling or grammatical errors in the material being quoted. Place [sic] after the mistake. This lets readers know that the mistake was in the original material, and not one the writer made.

Ellipses

An ellipsis is a set of three periods with a single space on each side
( . . . ). In formal writing, ellipses are most often used to omit certain words in a quotation, or only use part of a larger quotation.

NOTE: When the words being omitted by an ellipsis are in the middle of a sentence, use the standard three periods.

If the words being omitted are between sentences, or there are other sentences after, include the period at the end of the sentence before placing the ellipsis.

When using ellipses in a quotation, be sure not to change the meaning of the quotation in any way.

Punctuation

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS): 8.20

Students write legibly and use appropriate capitalization and punctuation conventions in their compositions.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS): 8.20.B

use correct punctuation marks including:

commas after introductory structures and dependent adverbial clauses, and correct punctuation of complex sentences; and

semicolons, colons, hyphens, parentheses, brackets, and ellipses.

Georgia Math and ELA Standards: 8.L.GC.1.50

Mechanics: Use ellipses appropriately. (Master)

Georgia Math and ELA Standards: 8.L.GC.1.51

Mechanics: Use hyphens with appropriate affixes and compound words. (Master)

Georgia Math and ELA Standards: 8.L.GC.1.52

Mechanics: Use semicolons, with or without a conjunctive adverb, to form compound and compound-complex sentences. (Master)

Georgia Math and ELA Standards: 8.L.GC.1.56

Mechanics: Use colons to introduce lists, examples, and explanations. (Master)

Georgia Math and ELA Standards: 8.L.GC.1.59

Mechanics: Use colons to introduce quotations. (Introduce)

Georgia Math and ELA Standards: 8.L.GC.1.60

Mechanics: Use dashes appropriately. (Introduce)

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