...with examples from Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1, Bones, NCIS, Psych, Burn Notice, Angel, and The Vlogbrothers...

( Periods, question marks, exclamation points, semicolons, and colons... )

Is it Ms. or Ms?

The answer is, well, either--and it will take a little more exploration to determine which to use. ( with examples from Alias and James Bond )

Is it just a fanfic thing to drop the periods in the abbreviations or has it become “acceptable” outside of fanfic as well? (ex. NCIS vs. N.C.I.S., SGC vs. S.G.C.)

While fanfic has been around for a long time, so have dropped periods in abbreviations. In fact, if you go to the Official NCIS website, you'll notice even the United States government ( Read more... )

rykaine asks: What is the difference between a semicolon and a colon?

With examples from Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Torchwood.

( Semicolons vs. Colons )

forestgreen wanted to know:

How do you indicate internal thought vs. dialogue? (with examples from Stargate SG-1, Heroes, and Supernatural)

Unlike some of the questions we answer here, this is an issue of style, and there is no simple right or wrong answer. There are, however, common conventions you can follow.

( Meanwhile, on the other side of the cut... )

verilyverity asks: How do you punctuate stammering speech?

with examples from Wonderfalls, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, NCIS, and Stargate: SG-1There are few characters continually afflicted with a stutter or stammering speech, but occasionally characters get tongue-tied and writers have to somehow punctuate that speech. So, how do you punctuate a word to show ( Read more... )

I'm doing a pinch hit this week. The writer for the planned feature has come down with a case of the Real Life, so I'm cobbling this together at the last minute. Thankfully, I'm well-versed in the topic at hand. Are you?

Poll A Special Comma

( A Special Comma with examples from Stargate: SG-1 )

sutlers wanted to know:

In dialogue, is it "Shit," he said, and ran. or "Shit," he said and ran.? (with examples from Heroes and Supernatural)

This question is actually about comma usage in general, not just dialogue specifically.

( Meanwhile, on the other side of the cut... )

...with examples from The Colbert Report, Angel, and Stargate Atlantis...

Question: What is the appropriate use for hyphenation?

( Hyphens! )

What is the correct way to use a possessive when a person's name ends in "s"? Is the rule the same for making possessives for plurals? (with Stargate SG-1 examples)

Let's take these one at a time.

Possessive form of words ending with sibilants (s, ch, sh, z or x)

Possessives of a singular noun are always formed by added an apostrophe and s, ( Read more... )