Exclamation Mark

An exclamation mark (!) is used to denote emphasis or a strong feeling of anger, excitement, surprise, joy, etc.

Ex.: “That monument is stupendous!”

        “Hold on!” Tom shouted. “We will get you out soon.”         

         “We are just a bunch of fools!” the cop yelled. “That crook escaped!”

                 “Good grief!” the Manager said. “How did the factory catch fire?”

Ellipsis

Ellipsis (…) is used at the end of a sentence to indicate a pause/break in the thought process. In dialogues, it also implies that the thought continues indefinitely.

Ex.: He kept on thinking about the missing link in the case . . . and, finally it dawned upon him.

        Harry said, “I want to stay, but . . .”

Ellipsis

Ellipsis (…) is used when we need to omit some words/phrases/paragraphs from a quoted text.

Ex.:

Original Sentence: “Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.” (Plato)

After Using Ellipsis: “Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly….” (Plato)

Rules for Using Colon

A colon (:) is used to introduce a quotation. The sentence at the end of which the colon is placed, should be a complete sentence.

Ex.: After suffering a huge loss in business, Tom remembered Shakespeare’s famous saying: “All that glitters is not gold.”

Rules for Using Colon

A colon (:) is used to introduce an idea.

Ex.: The murder accused had only one option: confess or face the consequences.

        The audience knew who was going to perform next on stage: Michael Jackson.

Rules for Using Colon

A colon (:) is used to introduce a list.

Ex.: He liked all types of junk foods: fries, pizzas, and burgers.

       The zoo had many wild animals: tigers, lions, and panthers. 

       The restaurant offered various cuisines: Thai, Continental, Chinese, and Indian.

Rules for Using Semicolon

A semicolon (;) is used to distinguish items in a series when those items already contain other punctuation marks.

Ex.: They had planned to visit New York, Las Vegas, and San Francisco in USA; Paris, Switzerland, and Rome in Europe; and Sydney and Tasmania in Australia.