{"id":2913,"date":"2016-03-07T08:00:19","date_gmt":"2016-03-07T16:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=2913"},"modified":"2020-12-10T13:44:02","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T21:44:02","slug":"punctuation-in-english-academic-writing-part-3-apostrophe-exclamation-point-and-question-mark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/punctuation-in-english-academic-writing-part-3-apostrophe-exclamation-point-and-question-mark\/","title":{"rendered":"Punctuation in English Academic Writing, Part 3: Apostrophe, Exclamation Point, and Question Mark"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This is the third of four posts about the use of punctuation in formal academic English-language writing. So far we\u2019ve covered <a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/punctuation-in-english-academic-writing-part-1-period-comma-colon-and-semicolon\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the period, comma, colon, semicolon<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/punctuation-in-english-academic-writing-part-2-parentheses-and-quotation-marks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">parentheses, and quotation marks.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In the entry on quotation marks in Part 2, I briefly touched on one use of apostrophes: their use as an internal quotation mark inside a quote from another source. But there\u2019s a lot more to apostrophes than that. The other uses of apostrophes in formal written English are described below, followed by entries on the use of exclamation points and question marks in academic writing.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Apostrophe<br \/>\n<\/strong>Apostrophes (\u2019) look a lot like commas, but they appear next to the tops of letters instead of appearing near the bottom as commas do. Apostrophes are used in contractions, shortened versions of words with some letters left out. Common contractions include words such as \u201cit\u2019s\u201d (short for \u201cit is\u201d) and \u201ccan\u2019t\u201d (short for \u201ccannot\u201d).This kind of contraction is not allowed in most conventions of academic writing; contractions are considered to be too informal for these purposes. But contractions still appear in academic writing, because contractions are common in speech; when a speaker is quoted in a piece of academic writing, their contractions are reproduced in written form.<\/li>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n\tApostrophes are also used in possessive nouns, sometimes at the very end of the possessive, as in \u201ccats\u2019 different species\u201d and sometimes at the end of a possessive but followed by an \u201cs,\u201d as in \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/author\/rachel\/\">Rachel Wisuri\u2019s blog posts<\/a>.\u201d This special grammatical function of apostrophes is covered in <a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/apostrophes-and-possessive-nouns-part-1-apostrophe-before-s\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">these<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/apostrophes-and-possessive-nouns-part-2-apostrophe-after-s\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">three<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/apostrophes-and-possessive-pronouns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">posts<\/a>.<br \/>\n&nbsp; <\/p>\n<li><strong>The exclamation point<br \/>\n<\/strong>The exclamation point will seldom be used in formal academic writing. It\u2019s much more common in semi-formal or informal writing that\u2019s conversational in tone.It still is sometimes acceptable to use exclamation marks in formal academic writing. They can be used to a limited degree to engage readers and get their attention. And of course, if an academic writer is quoting a source that uses an exclamation point, this punctuation would be included in the quote.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Question marks<br \/>\n<\/strong>I\u2019ve saved the simplest, most obvious type of punctuation in English formal writing for last. Question marks look like this: ? \u2026. And true to their name, they <em>mark questions<\/em>. You\u2019ll see question marks appearing at the end of questions in academic textbooks, and you\u2019ll use question marks to ask questions of your readers in your own academic writing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In these last three posts, we\u2019ve looked at the most well-known punctuation marks in academic writing. Students are expected to know about these kinds of punctuation and their proper use in their very first year of undergraduate studies.<\/p>\n<p>Next, we\u2019ll look at two types of punctuation that are less common, but important in advanced undergraduate writing and graduate level scholarly papers. Get ready for the ellipsis and the asterisk in Part 4. Stay tuned!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is the third of four posts about the use of punctuation in formal academic English-language writing. So far we\u2019ve covered the period, comma, colon, semicolon, parentheses, and quotation marks. In the entry on quotation marks in Part 2, I briefly touched on one use of apostrophes: their use as an internal quotation mark inside [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13603],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[13630],"class_list":["post-2913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grammar"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.7 (Yoast SEO v21.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Punctuation in English Academic Writing, Part 3: Apostrophe, Exclamation Point, and Question Mark - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/punctuation-in-english-academic-writing-part-3-apostrophe-exclamation-point-and-question-mark\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Punctuation in English Academic Writing, Part 3: Apostrophe, Exclamation Point, and Question Mark\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is the third of four posts about the use of punctuation in formal academic English-language writing. 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In the entry on quotation marks in Part 2, I briefly touched on one use of apostrophes: their use as an internal quotation mark inside [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/punctuation-in-english-academic-writing-part-3-apostrophe-exclamation-point-and-question-mark\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/MagooshTOEFL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-07T16:00:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-12-10T21:44:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/files\/2016\/09\/Facebook-SEO-Default.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Recine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@MagooshTOEFL\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@MagooshTOEFL\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Recine\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/punctuation-in-english-academic-writing-part-3-apostrophe-exclamation-point-and-question-mark\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/punctuation-in-english-academic-writing-part-3-apostrophe-exclamation-point-and-question-mark\/\",\"name\":\"Punctuation in English Academic Writing, Part 3: Apostrophe, Exclamation Point, and Question Mark - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-07T16:00:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/#\/schema\/person\/fa2be5405a605e37f4199c90e2236768\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/punctuation-in-english-academic-writing-part-3-apostrophe-exclamation-point-and-question-mark\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/punctuation-in-english-academic-writing-part-3-apostrophe-exclamation-point-and-question-mark\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/punctuation-in-english-academic-writing-part-3-apostrophe-exclamation-point-and-question-mark\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Punctuation in English Academic Writing, Part 3: Apostrophe, Exclamation Point, and Question Mark\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/\",\"name\":\"Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test\",\"description\":\"Online TOEFL Preparation\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/#\/schema\/person\/fa2be5405a605e37f4199c90e2236768\",\"name\":\"David Recine\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/de262e64bb4e3e488753d8c58ff3cc70\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b70c17ee6f3ef87dc4cc5dbdebda911d6dd30dfe15845e4b1d459a3e1b33ef98?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b70c17ee6f3ef87dc4cc5dbdebda911d6dd30dfe15845e4b1d459a3e1b33ef98?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"David Recine\"},\"description\":\"David is a Test Prep Expert for Magoosh TOEFL and IELTS. 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Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT. David has a BS and MA from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew"],"knowsAbout":["TOEFL","IELTS","TOEIC","PET","FCE","BULATS","Eiken","SAT","ACT","GRE","GMAT"],"knowsLanguage":["English","Italian"],"jobTitle":"Content Creator","worksFor":"Magoosh","url":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/author\/davidr\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":13630,"user_id":80,"is_guest":0,"slug":"davidr","display_name":"David Recine","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b70c17ee6f3ef87dc4cc5dbdebda911d6dd30dfe15845e4b1d459a3e1b33ef98?s=96&d=mm&r=g","user_url":"","last_name":"Recine","first_name":"David","description":"David is a Test Prep Expert for Magoosh TOEFL and IELTS. Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT.\r\n\r\nDavid has a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. His work at Magoosh has been cited in<a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/scholar?hl=en&amp;as_sdt=0%2C50&amp;q=Recine+magoosh&amp;btnG=\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> many scholarly articles<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/minds.wisconsin.edu\/handle\/1793\/65479\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> his Master's Thesis<\/a> is featured on the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.readingwithpictures.org\/2013\/09\/research-highlight-teaching-english-language-learners-with-comics\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Reading with Pictures<\/a> website, and he's presented at the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.witesol.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/2014-WITESOL-Program-FINAL-10-28-14.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> WITESOL (link to PDF)<\/a> and<a href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/interoff\/docs\/nafsaregionv_2014conference\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> NAFSA<\/a> conferences. David has taught K-12 ESL in South Korea as well as undergraduate English and MBA-level business English at American universities. He has also trained English teachers in America, Italy, and Peru.\r\n\r\nCome join David and the Magoosh team on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew\"> Youtube<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning\"> Facebook<\/a>, and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/magooshenglish\/?hl=en\"> Instagram<\/a>, or connect with him via<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/\"> LinkedIn<\/a>!"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2913\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2913"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}