Punctuation

Commas around Non-Restrictive Elements

A comma circled in red, "extra commas needed!" scrawled beside it — the non-restrictive rule, made simple

Roger Fielding 11 min read Punctuation

Apostrophes — Contractions & Misuse

That café sign selling 'apple's' and 'coffee's' — the plural apostrophe that never should exist

Roger Fielding 10 min read Punctuation

Quotation Marks (UK English)

A schoolgirl's dragon story stalls at one line: where do the speech marks actually go

Roger Fielding 11 min read Punctuation

Quotation Marks (US English)

Mid-sentence in a Slack message, you freeze — does the full stop go inside the quote marks

Samantha Callahan 12 min read Caught My Eye

Apple's £1

A greengrocer's sign, seen in a window: Apple's £1. One apple. One pound. And one apostrophe doing a

Samantha Callahan 1 min read The Long Look

How the Period Got Mean

Send a friend the word "okay." Now send them "Okay." Same word. One of them is fine. The

Samantha Callahan 3 min read Punctuation

Commas after Introductory Elements

That little pause after your opening line — comma or not, and why it changes the meaning

Roger Fielding 8 min read Punctuation

The Comma Map — Which Comma Problem?

Your finger's hovering over a comma key and you genuinely don't know why — start here

Roger Fielding 2 min read Punctuation

Semicolons & Colons

One sentence ends, another begins right after it — semicolon, colon or full stop, sorted

Roger Fielding 9 min read Punctuation

Quotation Marks — UK vs US Compared

On the copy desk, halfway through a piece — which side of the Atlantic are your quotes on

Roger Fielding 4 min read Punctuation

Quotation Marks — Pick Your Variety

Single or double, UK or US — pick your quote-mark style once and never wobble again

Roger Fielding 1 min read Punctuation

Dashes (En & Em)

That aside you tack onto an email at 4:55 on a Friday — en dash or em, sorted

Roger Fielding 11 min read