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Writing Skills

Brush up on your grammar and punctuation skills to polish your final drafts.

Period

If a sentence is not complete and it is terminated by a period, we have a sentence fragment as in the sentence below.

  • INCORRECT:  I went to the grocery.  To get ready for the cookout.  
  • CORRECT: I went to the grocery to get ready for the cookout.

End of Sentence

A period is used to signal the end of a complete sentence.

  • CORRECT: This is the best taco I've ever had.

A period is also used at the end of an indirect question.

  • CORRECT: The doctor asked us if we understood the diagnosis.  

Polite requests can be followed either by a period or by a question mark.

  • CORRECT: Will you please pick up the kids for me.
  • CORRECT: Will you please pick up the kids for me?

Abbreviations

A period should be placed after every part of the abbreviation

A.D. Dr. Watson
Ave.  

 There are six different ways to write ante meridiem (before noon) and post meridiem (after noon)

All caps with periods 10 A.M., 10 P.M.
All caps without periods 10 AM, 10 PM
Small caps with periods 10 A.M., 10 P.M.
Small caps without periods 10 AM, 10 PM
Lowercase with periods 10 a.m., 10 p.m.
Lowercase without periods 10 am, 10 pm

Lower case abbreviations are usually written with periods

i.e. e.g.

Very common abbreviations and units of measure do not take periods

mph mp3
rpm mpg

Academic degrees can be written with or without periods

DDS EdD
M.S. B.A.

Government agencies and international organizations are written without periods

FBI NATO
EU UN