Punctuation Marks
Taught by Jenny Brown
Jenny Brown is a copy editor and writer who currently works at Real Simple magazine. She earned a B.A. in literature from Wesleyan University and has been reading grammar guides for fun since middle school.
Did you know that "?!" is called an "interrobang"? Or that in American English, commas and periods always go inside quotation marks? You do now! And you'll learn a great deal more in this class on those funny—and often vexing—little symbols we call punctuation marks.
First, we'll briefly go over the origin of punctuation marks and talk about why we use them at all. Then we'll cover common and not-so-common usage questions, including:
When should I use a semicolon?
Is that comma really necessary?
Do periods go inside or outside of parentheses?
How should I hyphenate this term?
What's the difference between an en dash and an em dash?
Finally, we'll discuss little-known marks, such as the irony mark and the love point, that rarely see the light of day—but possibly should.
Bring a pencil! The class will include some (pressure-free) hands-on activities to test your knowledge.
(Class size: 15, lecture/q&a)
