The Apostrophe

The apostrophe may be a small mark, but it can make a big impact. You should always use one to show noun possession, letter omissions, and lowercase letter plurality. Examples showing possession include:

James's car
Mother-in-law's living quarters
Lisa and Linda's project
The kid's movies

Examples showing letter omission include:
He'll
Shouldn't
Won't
Don't
I'm

Example showing lowercase plurality:
She was always told to mind her p's and q's.

Using Hyphens

Hyphens are used to bring words together and make them compound. There are several specific conditions when they are used, including to join together two or more words that are serving as one adjective right before a noun, with compound numbers, to avoid confusion, and with some prefixes.

Some examples of joining words together before a noun include:
She is a well-known seamstress.
He loves chocolate-covered raisins.
They drove to the destination at break-neck speed.

Examples using a hyphen with compound numbers include:
Sixty-three
Forty-four

Example to avoid confusion:
She will re-sign the document before leaving. Without the hyphen, there would be a word that could be confused with "resign," which has a different meaning.

Examples for using hyphens with prefixes:
Ex-wife
All-inclusive
T-shirt

Capitalization

This is an area that most people are familiar with because they do it so often. However, there can sometimes be confusion about what should be capitalized and what should not. Items that should always be capitalized include:

The first word that starts every sentence;

The pronoun "I";

All proper nouns, such as West Palm Beach, Miami, Regional Science Center, etc.;

Proper names of all people and places;

The first word of a direct quote;

All major words when writing out the title of a song, book, article, etc.;

Business titles: Is the title capitalized when it comes before the name, or is it capitalized if it comes after the name? This is an area that often confuses people. Most of the time, people want to capitalize all position titles automatically. However, titles should not be capitalized if they follow the person's name. For example:

"He left the house early," said John Dean, associate director.
"He left the house early," said Associate Director John Dean.
We invited Louis Sanches, the mayor of Denbrook.
We invited Denbrook Mayor Louis Sanches.

"President" should only be capitalized if you are specifically referring to a president of the country or if you are writing about the president of the country and the title precedes his or her name.

Names of directions when used as parts of the country but not in giving directions. For example:

They thought the Southwest was the most beautiful area of the country.
Just turn north on that road and you will be fine.

All days of the week and formal holidays.

]]>