Arcade · Punctuation Department
Mark Patrol
A sentence comes in missing the mark inside it.
The Mayor: Find the gap inside the sentence, and hand it to the officer who fills it.
Out on the internal-mark beat, the precinct handles every mark that lands inside a sentence. A comma, an apostrophe, quotation marks, a semicolon, a colon. The catch: the same words can want a different mark depending on what the writer means. Read the scene first, then place the mark.
Chief Comma
,
Prosecutor Apostrophe
'
Court Reporter Quotation Marks
" "
Sheriff Semicolon
;
Deputy Colon
:
Chief Comma: Same words, different meaning, different mark. That is the whole beat. Read the scene, then place it. Got it? Good.