Apostrophes, Dashes, and Hyphens

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Apostrophes, Dashes, and Hyphens
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Apostrophe for Odds and Ends

• Awkward Plurals
• I have three CPAs in my family who made fortune
  selling tax preparation CD-ROMs
• Though I made four As and four Bs, Im more
  proud of the two 5s and three 4s on my AP
  Tests. (Spell out numbersno apostrophes.)
• My parents were born in the 1940s (or 1940s)
• 5 oclock

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Missing Letters

• Contractions Cant, Wont, etc.
• Can be used for dialect. Mark Twain wrote the
  novel Puddin Head Wilson.
• Im goin to ask you one more time.

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Possessives

• Singular Possessives ? Bills book. A
  childrens story.
• Mr. Jenkins book

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Dashes

• Used for dramatic separation.
• It was my greatest joywatching her eyes sparkle
  on her birthday.
• You need to knowand I mean this in the nicest
  way possiblethat your breath stinks.

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Hyphens

• Compound Adjectives self-destructive behavior.
  Well-cooked steak.
• NotThe steak is well cooked.
• Relation Names great-aunt
• Usually self- and quasi- will have hyphens
• Fractions a two-thirds majority.
• NotI own two thirds of the property in
  Charlotte.
• Use with ex-, and when adding to a proper noun
  (pro-American).

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Avoid Awkwardness

• For recreation, my father does re-creations of
  Civil War Battles.
• After we recovered the storm, we had to re-cover
  the chairs.
• Back-to-back vowels anti-imperialism