No Class April 21, 1998 

Appendix 
Punctuating for Clarity and Grace 

Grammatical sentence: single independent clause and all 
subordinate clauses attached to it

A compound sentence consists of at least two grammatical sentences.
A punctuated sentence is a sentence that begins with a capital letter and 
ends with a period or question mark or exclamation mark. 

Cast of characters: 
period
comma
colon
semicolon
dash 
exclamation mark 
question mark

Punctuating beginnings 

Five Reliable Rules 

1. Punctuate to make the structure of the sentence understood
2. Use a semicolon at the end of a grammatical sentence,
not at the end of an introductory clause.
3. Do not put a comma after a subordinating conjunction.
(Subordinating conjunctions: although, because, if, that, 
unless, which, when, whose, etc.)
4. Do not put a comma after a coordinating conjunction 
if the next element is the subject.
(E.g.: and, but,  for, not, or, so, yet, etc.)
5. Put a comma after a phrase or word that comments on the 
whole of the following sentence or that connects one sentence to 
another. 
Exceptions: now, thus, hence.