4.14 End-of-Sentence Punctuation, Hyphenation, and Unnecessary Punctuation

Closing Out the Conventions Cluster

Three sub-skills remain in Conventions of Punctuation:

End-of-sentence punctuation: ...inappropriate uses of ending punctuation in cases in which the context makes the intent clear.

Hyphenation conventions: ...violations of hyphenation conventions.

Unnecessary punctuation: ...cases in which unnecessary punctuation appears in a sentence.

The last of these deserves particular attention, because it is the sub-skill most likely to make NO CHANGE the correct answer.

Part One: End-of-Sentence Punctuation

Three terminal marks exist: the period, the question mark, and the exclamation point. Errors arise when context establishes the intent and the punctuation contradicts it.

Direct vs. Indirect Questions

The most tested distinction:

Direct question — asks outright, takes a question mark:

✓ When will the inspection be scheduled?

Indirect question — reports that a question was asked; it is a statement and takes a period:

✓ The supervisor asked when the inspection would be scheduled. ✗ The supervisor asked when the inspection would be scheduled?

Diagnostics for an indirect question: the word order is statement order (when the inspection would be scheduled, not when would the inspection be scheduled), and it is typically introduced by asked, wondered, inquired, questioned.

Polite Requests

A request phrased as a question but functioning as a directive conventionally takes a period:

✓ Would you please forward the revised figures.

Both are defensible in general usage, so this appears less often than the direct/indirect distinction.

Exclamation Points

Rare in academic and informational prose. On a test built from expository passages, an exclamation point is almost always wrong — it mismatches the register. If an underlined portion ends a neutral factual sentence with one, expect the period to be correct.

Questions Inside Statements

When a direct question is embedded and quoted, it keeps its question mark:

✓ The central issue — who authorized the expenditure? — remains unresolved.

But a statement containing an indirect question ends with a period regardless of length.

Part Two: Hyphenation

Compound Modifiers Before a Noun

Two or more words acting as a single modifier before a noun are hyphenated:

✓ a well-documented review ✓ a two-year delay ✓ a state-funded initiative ✓ a high-pressure valve

The hyphen prevents misreading. Compare:

a small-business owner (owner of a small business) a small business owner (a business owner who is short)

After the Noun: Usually No Hyphen

When the same words follow the noun, the hyphen normally disappears:

✓ The review was well documented. ✓ The delay lasted two years. ✓ The initiative is state funded.

This before/after alternation is the single most tested hyphenation point.

The -ly Exception

Adverbs ending in -ly are never hyphenated to the following adjective:

✗ a carefully-worded statement ✓ a carefully worded statement

The reasoning: -ly already signals that the word modifies what follows, so the hyphen is redundant. This rule is absolute and easy to apply — if you see -ly followed by a hyphen, it is wrong.

Note that adverbs not ending in -ly do take hyphens: a well-known researcher, a best-selling author.

Numbers and Fractions

✓ Compound numbers twenty-one through ninety-nine: thirty-seven samples ✓ Fractions used as modifiers: a two-thirds majority ✓ Number-plus-unit modifiers: a 12-foot clearance, a 40-hour week

Prefixes

Most prefixes attach without a hyphen: nonstandard, preexisting, coauthor, reevaluate. Hyphens are used:

• Before a capitalized word: pre-Columbian, anti-American
• To prevent ambiguity: re-cover (cover again) vs. recover (regain)
• With self- and ex-: self-reporting, ex-officio

Part Three: Unnecessary Punctuation

The test plants superfluous marks as often as it omits required ones. The recurring patterns:

Comma Between Subject and Verb

✗ The engineers who reviewed the structural analysis, recommended reinforcement.

Never separate a subject from its verb with a single comma. (A pair of commas enclosing an interruption is different and correct.)

Comma Between Verb and Object

✗ The committee recommended, that the district delay the project.

Comma Before a Compound Predicate

✗ The district revised the budget, and postponed the vote.

Postponed the vote has no subject, so this is not two independent clauses. No comma. (Compare: The district revised the budget, and the board postponed the vote. ✓ — now both clauses are independent.)

This is among the most common superfluous commas on the test.

Comma With Restrictive Elements

✗ The report, that the committee commissioned, was released Tuesday.

A that clause is restrictive and takes no commas.

Comma Before the First Series Item

✗ The survey measured, density, retention, and depth.

Unnecessary Semicolon

A semicolon joins independent clauses or separates complex series items. Using it elsewhere is an error:

✗ The committee reconvened in April; after the audit concluded.

After the audit concluded is a dependent clause. A comma belongs there, or nothing.

Unnecessary Apostrophe

Plurals never take apostrophes:

✗ The lab ordered three centrifuge's. ✓ ...three centrifuges.

Decades likewise: the 1990s, not the 1990's.

The Strategic Point About NO CHANGE

Many students carry an unstated assumption that an underlined portion must contain an error. It need not. On unnecessary-punctuation items the test frequently presents a clean original alongside three choices that each add a mark — a comma before the compound predicate, a comma after the subject, a semicolon where a comma belongs.

When every alternative adds punctuation and you cannot articulate a rule requiring it, NO CHANGE is very likely correct. The operative question is not "could a mark go here?" but "does a rule require one?"