A few points on grammar & usage

Colons
Semicolons
Quotation marks
Italics
Capitalization
Hyphens
Compass directions
Numbers
Dates

For starters, two classic punctuation errors to watch for:
   double commas (,,) and double periods (..).

Punctuation that gives writers fits!

Colons are used:

• To introduce a list. (Much was required: men, horses, arms, provisions.)
• Where namely or for example would fit, again before a list. (Floor coverings came in all sizes: rugs, runners, wall-to-wall carpeting.)
• To introduce a long indented quotation.

Semicolons are used:

• To separate clauses which could stand alone but are closely related. (Nobody agreed; there was an uproar of dissent.)
• When each clause describes an aspect of the same topic. (It was cold; it was damp; it was thick with fog.)
• Before independent clauses that start with therefore, for instance, even so. (He was bankrupt; even so, he was a force to be reckoned with.)
• To separate a series of phrases that contain commas within them. (She collected quilts; good, sold, sensible furniture; and, occasionally, the odd piece of Spode.)

Quotation marks:

• go outside phrases that end with a comma or a period. ("There are the Red Coats and they are ours," said General Stark, "or tonight Molly Stark sleeps a widow.")
• go inside phrases that end with semicolons and colons. (Smith called the report "inflammatory"; it would prove the turning point in the election.)
• go outside when the quoted matter is an exclamation or question. ("I'm home!" he shouted. "Do you hear me?" she asked.)
• go inside when they are not being used to express an exclamation or question and appear at the end of a sentence. (Was it a form of 'political suicide'?)

Double quotation marks are saved for direct quotations only. (John Stark said, "Live free or die death is not the worst of evils.")

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Single quotation marks are used for:

• Technical terms ('Anglicization,' the penchant for naming things for places left behind.)
• Words from another language (Papasequineo was referred to as a 'sachem,' the local native population's term for leader.)
• Nicknames for places and things ('Rundlet's Mountain' or "hunter's Hill' were common parlance but appeared on no maps; William Gardner built what people referred to as an eccentric 'arch-house' which spanned the street and served him as an office.)

Use italics consistently for:

• Foreign words: auf Wiedersehen, raison d'etre
• titles of long poems: Evangeline
• works of art: Nude Descending a Staircase
• long musical compositions: Beethoven's Ninth Symphony
• books: Brewster's Rambles About Portsmouth
• magazines: Newsweek
• newspapers: The New York Times; the Portsmouth Herald (check the masthead; capitalize and italicize the 'The' if it is listed as part of the formal name of the publication)
• pamphlets: Thomas Paine's Common Sense
• plays: Angels in America
• motion pictures: Mutiny on the Bounty
• radio and television series: Desperate Housewives; Ken Burns' The Civil War
• the names of ships, aircraft and spacecraft: the USS Constitution; the Spirit of St. Louis; the shuttle Columbia

Titles of songs, short stories, headlines in newspapers and the titles of articles in magazines are cited in quotation marks:

• The Beatles hit "Let It Be" topped the charts
• A timeless short story, O. Henry's "The Gift of the Maji" is read by every school child in America.
• according to Cheryl Gay Stolberg in her New York Times article, "Senate Chairman Splits with Bush on Spy Program."
• Some 39 new species were discovered, as discussed in "Paradise Found: A startling discover of new species on a remote mountaintop untouched by man," Newsweek, February 12, 2006.

Capitalization
It is standard practice to capitalize personal titles of rank, profession or office when used with the name of the individual (President Bush, Gov. Pataki, City Councilman Barney Smith). The office itself is not capitalized (once a mayor, he is now the governor of New York). The names of governing institutions are capitalized (the New Hampshire Legislature, the United States Senate).

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Hyphens
Use of hyphens at the ends of lines is a matter of taste today. You will be asked to state your preference; your text will be formatted accordingly.

A quick reminder in spelling words with or without hyphens: prefixes require a hyphen where two vowels repeat: co-op, anti-inflammatory, micro-organism. Use hyphens with compound adjectives (a.k.a. unit modifiers): short-term loan, present-day usage, high-speed Internet connection. Hyphens also play an important role when spelling out numbers (see below).

• Do not use hyphens with two-word modifiers when the first word ends in ly: an eagerly awaited performance; a wholly owned subsidiary.
• Do not use hyphens with three-word modified when the first two words are adverbs: in the not too distant future; a very well defined turn of phrase.
• But do use hyphens for other two-word modifiers: a still-lingering doubt; a well-known figure in the literary world. Standard practice also calls for hyphens in such phrases as son-in-law, one-on-one and state-of-the-art, and with words beginning with ex or self: ex-mayor; self-governing.

Hyphens are also used to join a capital letter to a word to create a compound word: V-necked, T-shirt, C-section; x ray, with its lower case x, is an exception to this rule.

Compass Directions
Let's get our bearings straight! Directions are written without a capital. No hyphen is needed for two points of the compass: northwest, southeast. Use a hyphen for three points combined: south-southeast.

Numbers
Consistency is the keyword when it comes to handling numbers. It seems to be pretty generally agreed that in formal writing or with what I like to think of as the semi-formal approach of the Placenames Series, there are some basic rules of thumb.

• Numbers one through one hundred should be spelled out
• Round numbers should be spelled out: fourteen hundred men; two herds of two hundred cows apiece.
• Use numerals for all definite numbers and larger amounts: He sold 138 books.
• Spell out numbers at the beginning of a sentence: One hundred thirty-five mayors agreed.
• Rather than begin a sentence with a long number, reword your sentence so the numbers show up after the beginning:
     NO: 72,435 immigrants arrived in Chicago in 1875.
     YES: In 1875, 72,435 immigrants arrived in Chicago.
• Numbers used as part of a compound adjective should be spelled out and hyphenated: a two-story house, a three-word answer.
• Simple fractions should be spelled out and hyphenated: two-thirds.
• In specifications, also use hyphens: a 3 1/2-foot gap.
• Ages stated as adjectives are hyphenated: a ten-year-old girl. s
  Formal usage says that decades and centuries should be written out: the Roaring Twenties, the seventeenth century. If you prefer a less formal approach, simply be consistent in your usage:

• the 1890s (with no apostrophe)
• the 16th and 17th centuries
• the Spirit of '76

When citing birth and death dates, write out both dates in their entirety.

• NO: John Doe (1801-89)
• *YES: John Doe (1801-1899)

When referring to a continuous series of years within the same century, omit the second reference to the century.

• NO: John Doe, mayor 1921-1925.
• *YES: John Doe, mayor 1921-25.

BUT: if the reference is part of a complete sentence, use the words 'from' and 'to' and do not shorten the final date: John Doe was mayor from 1921 to 1925.

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