OFTEN MISUSED FORMS OF PUNCTUATION THE APOSTROPHE The apostrophe is used to show possession. Bill’s car. The horse’s blanket. The horses’ blankets. (Plural) The apostrophe is also used in contractions. And, yes, you can–and should–use contractions in your writing. When you use a contraction it makes your writing more conversational and helps to show emphasis when you don’t use it. There is a difference. CONVERSATIONAL I’m going to finish this project. SHOWING EMPHASIS I am going to finish this project. BRACKETS Use brackets [ ] to insert your own words into a quotation. "The market [for stocks] had risen sharply in the last few months," he said. ELLIPSES Use an ellipse ( ...) to show words have been omitted from a quotation. It is NOT used to trail off a sentence at the end of a piece of writing. "The Dow Jones Index shows industrial stock prices...but it’s only one of several indexes investors use to follow stock trends," the broker said. WRITING TIPS | GRAMMAR | MARKETING | TRAVEL WRITING | COPYRIGHTS | FREELANCE TIPS   The contents of this site © 2001-2009 Bob Brooke Communications Go back to Writing at Its Best Site design and development by BBC Web Services.