With the dawn of the Internet, the birth of Internet slang, and the growing use of SMS, many of us are starting to forget the fundamental aspects of English punctuation. Would you like to write a great paper for one of your classes or submit a polished, impeccably-written proposal to your boss? If so, proper punctuation usage is a must. Consider the following rules to get started!

• Always start a sentence with a capital letter.
• Use capital letters to start proper nouns and titles.
• Use capital letters for acronyms.
• Use a period (full stop) to end declarative sentences and statements.
• Use a question mark to end questions.
• Use an exclamation point to end exclamatory sentences.
• Use a comma to indicate a break or pause within a sentence.
• Use the comma when listing items in a series.
• Use a comma to separate two or more adjectives describing a noun.
• Use a comma to separate one geographical area from another that is located inside.
• Use a comma to separate an introductory phrase from the rest of the sentence.
• Use the comma to separate two independent clauses.
• Use a comma when making a direct address.
• Use a comma to separate direct quotations from the sentence introducing them.
• Use a semicolon to separate two related but independent clauses.
• Use a semicolon to separate a complex series of items.
• Use the colon to introduce a list.
• Use a colon to introduce a new concept or example.
• Use a colon to separate parts of a title.
• Use a hyphen when adding a prefix to some words.
• Use hyphens when creating compound words from several smaller words.
• Use a hyphen when writing numbers out as words.
• Use a dash when making a brief interruption within a statement.
• Use a hyphen to split a word between two lines.
• Use the apostrophe together with the letter s to indicate possession.
• Use the apostrophe to combine two words to make a contraction.
• Use the single quotation mark within a regular quotation to indicate a quotation within a quotation.
• Don't use apostrophes with s to make a plural noun from a singular.