1. A PRIMER

3.  An English professor wrote the words, "Woman without her man is nothing" on the blackboard and directed his students to punctuate it correctly.  The men wrote: “ A woman, without her man, is nothing."  The women wrote: “ A woman: without her, man is nothing."

4.  SET OFF INTRODUCTORY MATERIAL IN A SENTENCE:  After taking the last cupcake on the plate, Henry scooted outside to avoid the fury of his sister.

5.  SET OFF ITEMS IN A LIST  Lions, tigers and bears were the featured animals at the Cincinnati Zoo last weekend.  Note**** sometimes you will see a comma in front of the “and.” This is old school style!

6. DIVIDE TWO COMPLETE SENTENCES  Commas team up with conjunctions to separate two full sentences.  The girls won the game, and they celebrated with chicken tenders at Applebee’s.

7.  SETTING OFF A SIDE NOTE- if left out it wouldn’t change the sense of the sentence.  Lisa’s father, who is known to be protective, will not allow her to work after nine.

8.  WHEN ADDRESSING SOMEONE  Mr. Carson, did you assign chapter seven for homework yesterday?  Students, put your homework on the front table!

9.  SEPARATE DIALOGUE FROM THE ATTRIBUTION  I began to cry, “ It was an accident; the roads were covered with ice.”

10.  SEPARATE TWO COMPLETE SENTENCES THAT HAVE NO CONJUNCTION BETWEEN THEM.  The girls won the game; they celebrated with chicken tenders at Applebees.  The SUV flipped over and rolled down the embankment; it was totalled.

11. Colons set up the reader for whatever follows: a list, a long quote, or an explanation.  The directions say: go west on vine, turn left on east main and then left again on 4 th street.  The message here is: “Stay on your toes; it’s coming at you.”  He tried out for several teams: the Wildcats, the Cardinals and the Hilltoppers.

12. Use apostrophe marks for possessive and for plurals.  Those are the players’ shoes. ( plural noun and possessive)  That is Susan’s cellphone. ( single noun and possessive)  John Stamos’s 3 fouls placed him on the bench until the half. ( nouns that end in s also have ‘s endings.)