Academic writing is a more formal and more objective type of general English. Its definition explains specific recommendations that should be followed for the sake of a good mark. Along with common grammar rules that teachers take into consideration when they evaluate your homework, there are particular punctuation guidelines for dissertations, research papers, surveys, and other kinds of academic assignments.

1. Exclamation and question marks

The exclamation mark is a way to demonstrate the writer’s attitude towards what has been said. Academic writing, in its turn, implicates operating with scientific evidence from naked facts and data and not opinions towards them. Exclamation marks are not a mistake on their own but they may decline the objectivity of your paper. Don’t use them.

The same can be attributed to question marks. A writer can insert some questions in the conclusion to make his or her research or survey more involving for a reader. However, rhetorical questions, though they are a great means of oral discourse, are not welcome in formal types of writing. Avoid them.

For the purpose of academic writing, punctuation marks that might be suspected of emotional coloring should be substituted with full stops.

2. Full stops

Sentences in academic papers are longer on average than sentences in common writing. But the use of long phrases with no proper division rarely simplifies the process of reading.

Transition phrases like however, in addition, at this time, nevertheless, etc., when they are used after a full stop, will make your writing more fluent, coherent, and logical than half-a-page sentences and the ignoring of full stops. Use both long and short sentences to make your paper more interesting and easier to read.

3. Dots

Some scholars use dots after abbreviations like Mr., Mrs., or Ph.D., and some don’t. Neither of these options is right or wrong. The only recommendation that counts when you use punctuation with ambiguous regulations is to stay consistent. Choose what rule you like more and follow it throughout your piece of text.

4. Commas

A comma is the most common punctuation mark and there are hundreds of rules applicable to its use. Among them, there are two simple rules that will protect you from the most frequent punctuation mistakes you can commit in your homework.

• Don’t use a comma to put together two simple sentences. If you want to join two independent clauses in one sentence, use a conjunction like and, but, so and a comma. In other cases, you will be accused of a comma splice.
• Don’t put a comma before that. This punctuation mark should be used before other relative pronouns like which, who, where, and when, though.

5. Semicolons

Semicolons are used to make a connection between several points. It makes these ideas tighter than when these independent clauses are divided by a full stop. Use a semicolon before transition phrases to make your writing look more academic. But please, don’t let the striving for a closer connection between several messages do a number on the readability of your writing.

6. Colons and dashes

Colons are widely used in lists and for this reason, they are welcome in academic writing. Dashes help you to emphasize particular notions in your writing and will make your paper look better as well. Don’t mix dashes with hyphens, which are used in compound words and phrases.

7. Brackets

In 90% of cases, brackets are not necessary and can be avoided. As a matter of fact, they simply show that you conceive the information included in them as something less important than the rest of your text. Don’t apply data that is unimportant into your academic assignment. And don’t use brackets.

8. Punctuation for in-text citations

Various formatting styles apply different punctuation marks to indicate sources for in-text citations. In MLA, for example, you will have to indicate an author or a source with the number of the page with no commas between them in the brackets after the cited text. Like this: (Einstein 17-19). In APA, there will be an author, the year of publication, and the page number with the letter p. before the numbers. For example: (Einstein, 1945, p.17-19). In the case of the Chicago formatting style, you will be asked to use footnotes.

Educational institutions use various citation rules. Check out the formatting style guidelines to make sure you’ve wrote your sources correctly. A splice comma or an exclamation mark in your essay is much less of an offense than a wrongly cited source. Some teachers might perceive the later as an attempt to plagiarize.

The main conundrum for writers for whom English is not their mother tongue is about understanding that the rules of punctuation in his or her native language and in English are different. These contrarieties lead to spaces between a word and a punctuation mark in papers written by students from France, full stops and commas outside quotation marks in the case of Russians, and many other broken punctuation rules.

To reduce the number of mistakes you can commit in your paper, always use spellcheckers and keep your writing simple. Even though the abundance of various punctuation marks can make your writing seem more elegant, moderacy in your colons, commas, and parenthesis when you are not totally sure in your literacy skills can cost you a better grade.