Exercise : Punctuation Exercise

Put in semicolons, colons, dashes, quotation marks, Italics (use an underline), and parentheses where ever they are needed in the following sentences.

1. The men in question: Harold Keene, Jim Peterson, and Gerald Greene deserve awards.

2. Several countries participated in the airlift: Italy, Belgium, France, and Luxembourg.

3. “Only one course was open to us, surrender,” said the ex-major, and we did.

4. Judge Carswell, later to be nominated for the Supreme Court, had ruled against civil rights.

5. In last week's New Yorker, one of my favorite magazines, I enjoyed reading Leland's article “How Not to Go Camping.”

6. “Yes,” Jim said, “I'll be home by ten.”

7. There was only one thing to do, study till dawn.

8. Montaigne wrote the following, “A wise man never loses anything, if he has himself.”

9. The following are the primary colors: red, blue, and yellow.

10. Arriving on the 8:10 plane were Liz Brooks, my old roommate, her husband, and Tim, their son.

11. When the teacher commented that her spelling was poor, Lynn replied, “All the members of my family are poor spellers. Why not me?”

12. He used the phrase “you know” so often that I finally said “No, I don't know.”

13. The automobile dealer handled three makes of cars: Volkswagens, Porsches, and Mercedes Benz.

14. Though Phil said he would arrive on the 9:19 flight, he came instead on the 10:36 flight.

15. “Whoever thought,” said Helen, “that Jack would be elected class president?”

16. In baseball, a “show boat” is a man who shows off.

17. The minister quoted “Isaiah 5:21” in last Sunday's sermon.

18. There was a very interesting article entitled “The New Rage for Folk Singing” in last Sunday's “New York Times” newspaper.

19. “Whoever is elected secretary of the club: Ashley, or Chandra, or Aisha must be prepared to do a great deal of work, “said Jumita, the previous secretary.

20. Darwin's “On the Origin of Species 1859” caused great controversy when it appeared.