Parts of Speech

The parts of speech are the building blocks that form sentences.

Nouns
A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea.

Proper Nouns
A proper noun is a word that names a specific person, place, thing, or idea. Proper nouns are capitalized.
        President Lincoln
        Montreal
        Washington Memorial

Common Nouns
Common nouns refer to generic, common categories—and are not capitalized.
        presidents
        cities
        memorials

Pronouns
A pronoun is a word used in the place of a noun.

Categories of Pronouns

Demonstrative Pronouns
A demonstrative pronoun is used to point to a noun.
(this, that, these, those)
    I like those cats.

Indefinite Pronouns
An indefinite pronoun refers to a nonspecific person, place, thing, or idea.
(all, another, any, anybody, anyone, both, each, either, everybody, everyone, everything, few, many, neither, nobody, none, no one, nothing, one, some, somebody, someone, something)
    Many are called, but few are chosen.

Reflexive Pronouns
A reflexive pronoun reflexes or reflects back unto itself. It usually ends in -self or -selves.
(myself, yourself, himself, herself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves)
    I saw myself in the mirror.

Interrogative Pronouns
An interrogative pronoun is used to begin a question.
(Who, Whom, Whose, Which, What)
    Who designed the Empire State Building?

Personal Pronouns
A personal pronoun refers to a specific person, place, thing, or idea.
(I, me, you, she, her, me, mine, your, yours, her, hers, his, its, our, ours, their, theirs)
    That book is Jane’s. That book is hers.

Possessive Pronouns
A possessive pronoun indicates ownership, possession.
(my, mine, your, yours, her, hers, his, its, our, ours, our, yours, their, theirs)
    That is my car.

Relative Pronouns
A relative pronoun is used to connect an adjective clause or phrase to a noun or pronoun.
(who, whom, whose, which, that)
    The runner who won the race trained hard.

Verbs
A verb is a word that expresses an action, condition, or state of being.

Action Verbs
Action verbs express action.
    My dog ate my homework.

Verbs can be finite or nonfinite.
Finite Verbs
Finite verbs make a statement, express a state of being, and are independent—can stand alone.
    My wife’s dog ate her yoga mat.

Nonfinite Verbs
Nonfinite verb forms cannot stand independently in a sentence. They require auxiliary verbs.
    Rachel is dancing in the upcoming competition.

Verbals—formed from verbs but act as nouns, adjectives, and adverbs
Infinitives
Any verb that is preceded by the word to is an infinitive. Here are some examples: to love, to eat, to run, to believe, to follow, to laugh….
    To walk is a pastime of mine.

Participles
A participle is a word that has the qualities of both a verb and an adjective. Present participles end in -ing, and past participles end in ed, d, en, t, or n. They function as adjectives in sentences.
    The flaming sun hurt my eyes.
    The path taken was new.

Gerunds
A gerund expresses an action or state of being. A gerund ends in -ing. Gerunds function as nouns.
    Running is a great sport.

Linking Verbs
Linking verbs tend to be “state of being” verbs (not action verbs) and are primarily used to connect the subject in a sentence with further information about the subject.
(am, are, is, was, were, will be, being, been, etc.)
        I am happy.
      
Helping Verbs
A helping verb precedes the main verb. It helps another verb. Helping verbs often express necessity, obligation, or possibility, as well as the traditional five properties of verbs: person, number, tense, voice, and mood. Helping verbs are often referred to as auxiliary verbs.
(be, am, is, are, was, were, being, been, has, have, had, do, does, did, can, will, shall, should, could, would, may, might, must, etc.)
    Rachel can (helping verb) ride (main verb) her sister’s bicycle.
    Rachel should (helping verb) ride (main verb) her sister’s bicycle before it’s too late!
    Rachel could (helping verb) ride (main verb) her bike faster than anyone.

Tenses to Remember

Present
The present tense is used to portray an action occurring in the present moment or to describe an action that happens habitually or regularly. Formulation: (Subject) + (base form of verb).
    I walk every day.
    I am healthy.

Present Perfect
The present perfect tense describes an action or state of being that began in the past and continued into the present; it also represents an action or state that was finished at an indefinite time in the past. This is formed by adding have or has before the past participle form of the verb: (Subject) + (has/have) + (past participle of the verb).
    I have walked through the park.
    David has walked through the park in the past.

Present Progressive
The present progressive describes an ongoing action. Use the proper be verb before a present participle: (Subject) + (is/am/are) + (verb [+ing]).
    I am walking to the park.
    

Present Perfect Progressive
The present perfect progressive describes an ongoing action. Use the proper be verb before a present participle: (Subject) + (has/have) + (been) + (verb [+ing]).
    I have been walking regularly to the park.

Past
The past tense expresses an action, condition, or state of being that began and ended in the past. Formulation: (Subject) + (past form of verb) or (irregular verb).
    I walked in the park last year.

Past Perfect
The past perfect refers to actions or states of being that happened before another action in the past. It is formed by using had before the past participle form of the verb: (Subject) + (had) + (past participle form of the verb).
    Before my walk, my wife had asked me to wash the car.

Past Progressive
The past progressive refers to a past ongoing action. Use the proper be verb before a present participle: (Subject) + (was/were) + (verb [+ing]).
    I was walking to the park.

Past Perfect Progressive
The past perfect progressive refers to a past ongoing action. Use the proper be verb before a present participle: (Subject) + (has/have) + (been) + (verb [+ing]).
    I have been walking for the past hour.

Future
The future tense describes things or states of being that have not yet happened. It is made by placing shall or will before the present form of the verb: (Subject) + (will/shall) + (base form of the verb).
    I shall walk as much as I can this coming year.
    I will walk as much as I can this coming year.

Future Perfect
The future perfect tense describes an action or state in the future that will be finished before another future action or state of being. It is made by placing will have or shall have before the past participle form of the verb: (Subject) + (will have/shall have) + (past participle form of the verb).
    I will have walked thousands of miles before my birthday.
    I shall have walked thousands of miles before my birthday.

Future Progressive
The future progressive refers to a future ongoing action. Use the proper be verb before a present participle: (Subject) + (will be/shall be) + (verb [+ing]).
    I will be walking to the park.

Future Perfect Progressive
The future perfect progressive refers to a past ongoing action. Use the proper be verb before a present participle: (Subject) + (will have been) + (verb [+ing]).
    I will have been walking for several hours.

*Trying to conjugate irregular verbs requires a good dictionary or verb chart.

Subject-Verb Agreement
Singular subjects have singular verbs, and plural subjects have plural verbs.
Compound subjects with the word and require plural verbs.
Regarding compound subjects with the word or or nor, the following rules apply:
    If the subject closest to the verb is singular, the singular verb is used.
    If the subject closest to the verb is plural, the plural verb is used.
    Indefinite pronouns are singular and take singular verbs.

Active vs. Passive Voice
When a verb is in an active voice, the subject of the sentence is performing the action.
    The football player kicked the ball.

When a verb is in the passive voice, the subject receives the action. A passive voice has a helping verb plus the main verb.
    The ball was kicked by the football player.

Grammarians prefer that writers write in the active voice, with a little of the passive sprinkled in.

Adjectives
An adjective is a word used to describe a noun or pronoun.

Adjectives--Noun Modifiers
Noun modifiers precede the nouns they modify.
            beautiful person
            awful play
            dreadful noise

Predicate Adjectives
Predicate adjectives follow linking verbs and describe the subject.
    The leaves turned brown and yellow.
    The crowd remained calm during the accident.

Determiners
Determiners are modifiers that precede descriptive adjectives.

Articles: the (definite), a, an (indefinite)
    That is a dirty cat.

Demonstrative: this, that, these, those
    Those dirty cats are homeless.

Number Words: one, two, three/ first, second, third/ first last…
    There are three dirty cats on the porch.

Quantifiers: some, many, several…
    The man had many dirty cats in his abandoned house.

Descriptive Adjectives (Comparative, Superlative)
Comparative adjectives have an er or more form:
    I took a larger piece of the pie than Josephine.
    Bob is more friendly than Harry.

Superlative adjectives have an est or most form:
    I took the largest piece of the pie.
    Bob is the most sensitive of all my friends.

Adverbs
An adverb is used to modify a verb, adjective, or another adverb.
    The train arrived yesterday.
    They spoke respectively.
    Danielle sings occasionally.
    That is a completely false assumption.
    It was a terribly cold winter.
    I did my work quite easily.
    I did even worse on my driver’s exam than I thought.

Prepositions
A preposition is a word that modifies a noun or pronoun; it expresses a relationship between the noun and the word, element, or clause it modifies.
(about, above, across, after, against, along, among, around, at, before, behind, below, beside, besides, between, beyond, by, down, during, except, for, from, in, inside, into, like, near, next, of, off, on, onto, out, outside, over, past, since, than, through, to, toward, under, unlike, until, up, with, without)

Prepositional Phrases
A prepositional phrase begins with a preposition followed by a noun group or phrase.
    Josephine enjoys running in the morning.
    Jerry read the Divine Comedy by Dante.
    He hid the gift under the boardwalk.

Conjunctions
A conjunction is a joining word.

Correlative Conjunctions
A correlative conjunction is a pair of conjunctions used to connect two elements.
(either…or, neither…nor, whether…or, not only…but also, both…and)
    Either you come with me, or I will go with you.

*Once Again: With or or nor, the verb agrees with the subject nearest the verb.
    If a relative or friend are outside, . . . . (Wrong.)
    If a relative or friend is outside, . . . . (Correct.)

Coordinating Conjunctions
A coordinating conjunction connects two words or two parts of equal status in a sentence.
(and, or, but)
    I want cereal or fruits for breakfast.
    I dislike geography and anthropology.
    David is smart but conniving.

Subordinating Conjunctions
A subordinating conjunction is used to join a subordinate clause to another clause or sentence; they join words or groups of words of unequal status.
(after, although, as, as if, because, before, even though, if, since, so that, than, that, though, unless, until, when, where, whether, while)
    She trusts me because I am a trustworthy person.

Interjections
An interjection is a word that expresses emotion.
    Hey! Wow! Oh!

Sentence Structure

A sentence begins with a capital letter, ends with punctuation mark (or point), contains a subject and a verb (or verb phrase), and expresses a complete thought. It is an independent clause.
    Josie ran a marathon.

Simple Sentences
Simple sentences contain a subject and a verb and express a complete thought. It can have an object and modifiers. It is an independent clause.
    She ran.
    She (subject) ran (verb)—a complete thought.
    David threw a football.
    David (subject) threw (verb) a football (object).

Compound Sentences
A compound sentence contains two or more independent clauses (i.e., two or more sentences). They are usually combined by a comma with a coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so) or a semicolon.
    David threw a football, and Elena caught the ball.
    The students waited for the bus, but the bus did not arrive on time.
    The students arrived at the bus station at 7 o’clock; that is, they arrived on time.

Complex Sentences
A complex sentence contains at least one independent clause (i.e., a sentence) and a least one dependent clause (i.e., a fragment). Dependent clauses usually can be identified by subordinating conjunctions like after, although, as, because, before, even though, if, since, though, unless, until, when, whenever, whereas, wherever, while, etc. 

If a sentence begins with a dependent clause, a comma follows the clause.
    Even though he enjoyed playing baseball, he was not very good at it.

If a dependent clause follows an independent clause (a sentence), a comma is usually omitted. At times, the flow of the sentence is better suited with the placement of a comma—this is left to the discretion of the writer or editor.
    He was not very good at baseball even though he enjoyed playing it.
    He was not very good at baseball, even though he enjoyed playing it.

Key Grammatical Terms: Phrase, Clause, Sentence, Sentence Fragment

Phrase
A phrase is a single word or a collection of words that work together as a single part or unit. A phrase does not contain a subject and a verb and cannot convey a complete thought. 

Clause
A clause contains a subject and a verb and may or may not convey a complete thought.

Independent Clause
An independent clause is any clause that can stand alone as a sentence: It has a subject and a verb and expresses a complete thought.
I wrote a poem.

A sentence is an independent clause.

Dependent Clause
A dependent clause  is a group of words with a subject and a verb; however, a dependent clause does not express a complete thought and therefore cannot stand alone. Dependent clauses usually begin with  subordinating conjunctions (After, Although, As, As if, Because, Before, Even, Though, If, Since, That, Though, Unless, Until, When, Where, Whether, While, etc.) or relative pronouns introducing subordinate clauses (Who, Whom, Whose, Which, and That):

When she arrives
Because I am waiting for the bus
If you can work on Mondays

Whose stories are always scary
Where I went to high school
Whomever you like

Dependent clauses are sentence fragments. (A sentence fragment is a word, phrase, or clause that appears to be a sentence but lacks the proper grammatical structure. It may have a subject and a verb, but it lacks complete thought.) 

Subject

A subject is a word or word group that does an action.

Josie (subject) ran (verb) a marathon (object).

Who ran the marathon?  Who did the action of running? Josie.

Object

An object is a word or word group that receives the action of a verb.

Josie (subject) ran (verb) a marathon (object).

What did Josie run? She ran a marathon.

What received the action of running? The marathon is what was run.

Question Marks and Exclamation Points

Question Mark

A question mark indicates a question.
Who are you?
What is that?
When are you coming?
Where is the car?
How did he paint that car?

A quotation that ends with a question mark is not followed by a comma.
“Where are you going?” she said.


Quotation and question marks can be omitted in rhetorical questions--that is, sentences that are interrogative in form but declarative in meaning.
What the hell.
Really.
How about that.
You’re kidding.


Exclamation Point

An exclamation point expresses a strong emotion or emotions. Interjections are often used with exclamation points.
No!
Get out!
Help!
Listen!

Like a question mark, a quotation that ends with an exclamation point is not followed by a comma.
“That really hurt!” he said.

Apostrophes

Apostrophes show possession and indicate omitted letters and numbers.

Apostrophes for Possession
Singular Nouns

Add ’s
    horse’s saddle      knife’s edge      Bob’s cat      book’s cover

Singular Common and Proper Nouns
Add an ’s.
        car’s hood
        David’s hat

Plural Nouns Ending in S
Add an apostrophe only.
    students’ grade

For Irregular Plural Nouns

Add ’s
    Children’s hospital

Do not use an apostrophe for his, hers, yours, theirs, or ours.

Shared vs. Non-shared Possessives
When two or more nouns share possession of the same “thing,” only the last noun takes an apostrophe and s.
       Jack and Jill’s car (the same car is owned by Jack and Jill).
When two or more nouns possess a “thing” independently, each noun gets an apostrophe and s.
       Jack’s and Jill’s car (Jack has a car and Jill has a car—two different cars).

Apostrophes in Contractions
Apostrophes form the contraction of two words—usually indicating missing letters or numbers.
    Do not      Do n(o)t      Don’t
    It is          It (i)s             It’s
    1980s      (19)80s      ’80s

Its vs. It’s
Its is the possessive.
It’s is a contraction of it is or it has.

Use contractions sparingly: avoid in formal writing.

Addresses

Use numerals for buildings and house numbers.
                    1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Use abbreviations for Avenue (Ave.), Boulevard (Blvd.), and Street (St.), with numbered addresses.
                    1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

                    1600 Pennsylvania Blvd.

                    1600 Pennsylvania St.  

Spell out when not used with a number:
                    Pennsylvania Avenue

Spell out and lowercase the first letter of avenues, boulevards, and streets when used with two or more street names.
                    Parkland and Hannity streets are in Chicago.

Certain road designations are usually spelled out in AP Style.
                    Drive          Road          Lane          Terrace    Circle

In other stylebooks, however, abbreviations are often used: Dr., Rd., Ln., Ter., Cir.

Some stylebooks prefer no periods for PO Box;  AP Style prefers periods, P.O. Box.

Generally, spell out and capitalize numbers first to ninth; use numerals for 10th and above.

    First Street                11th  Avenue  

The New York Times Company                                     Ballard Inc.
620 Eighth Ave.                                                              830 25th St.
New York, NY 10018                                                      Los Angeles, CA 90210

Abbreviations and Acronyms

Do not start a sentence with an abbreviation beginning with a lowercase letter or symbol.

Abbreviations are created by the first letters of a term.

            Unidentified Flying Object, UFO

Acronyms are created by the first letters of a term and read as a word.

        National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA

        Acronyms are made plural by adding a lowercase s, NASAs.

Contractions--a form of abbreviation--are made by taking the first and last letters of a word.

                            Doctor, Dr.                Mister, Mr.

Avoid using abbreviations and acronyms--with the exception being for use with tables, charts, and figures.  

In MLA Style, abbreviations are discouraged within a text, unless the abbreviations are within parentheses. MLA Style prefers that formal titles such as Dr., Mrs. Miss., not be used. 

                        e.g., i.e., and etc. (Such abbreviations are not italicized.)
e.g. (“for example,") and i.e. (“that is”) are always followed by a comma. (e.g., …) (i.e., …)
etc. is not followed by a comma, unless required by the structure of the sentence (CMOS).

Spell out unfamiliar terms the first time with the abbreviations or acronyms in parentheses. All future references can simply use the abbreviation or acronym.
                            graphics interchange format (GIF) 

In AP Style, spell out unfamiliar terms each time.
                            graphics interchange format

Use a period after abbreviations ending in a lowercase letter.
            Dr.      pp.      et al.      a.m.      p.m.      No.

Do not use a period for abbreviations in all capitals.
        VP      CEO      FBI      UK      CFO      NFL

Do not use a period when letters replace a name.
                    JFK          MLK

Use a period after the initials of a name.
        John J. Pasquini          G.K. Chesterton

Abbreviate titles before a full name.
    Dr.      Gov.      Sen.      Rep.      Lt.      Mr.      Ms.      Rev.

The abbreviations for months are Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr.,  Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., and Dec.--May, June, and July are spelled out. In AP Style March, April, May, June, and July are spelled out.  

Abbreviate junior or senior after a person’s name.
            Martin Luther King, Jr.
In AP Style, omit the comma before the abbreviation.
            Martin Luther King Jr.

The majority of stylebooks use postal abbreviations and therefore do not use periods for abbreviations of states and provinces.

            AL      FL      GA      IN      KS      CA

AP Style prefers the use of state abbreviations.

        N.H., Wash., Va.

        Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas and Utah are spelled out.

In MLA Style the names of countries, states, counties, provinces, territories, bodies of water, and mountains are spelled out.  Abbreviations are used in references and in postal codes.

Use periods for units of measurement.
        lb.      sq.      mi.      fl.      oz.      gal.

APA Style does not use periods for measurements, except for inches (in.).

                lb    sq    mi    fl    oz    gal

Do not use a period for academic degrees in CMOS and APA Style.
            BA      BS      MDiv      MA      PhD

For AP Style and a majority of stylebooks, periods are used for degrees.
            B.A.      B.S.      M.Div.      M.A.      Ph.D.

Either of the above styles is permissible in MLA.

Do not use a comma before the following.
        Company (Co.) Corporation (Corp.) Incorporated (Inc.) 
        Coca-Cola Co.              Chase Corp.              Time Warner Inc.

Some stylebooks add a comma before the abbreviations.

          Coca-Cola, Co.            Chase, Corp.            Time Warner, Inc.

Time

Time of day can be spelled out.

It was three-thirty.

It was four-fifteen.

We ate lunch at noon.

It was four o'clock.
 

Time expressed in a.m. and p.m. can be written in lowercase or uppercase letters: a.m., A.M., p.m., P.M. In most stylebooks, time is preferably expressed with a combination of a numeral or numerals and lowercase a.m., p.m.  
        7:30 p.m.
        7 p.m., or 7 p.m.
        3:48 a.m.
        3:00 a.m., or 3 a.m.

Websites and Blogs

Italicize titles of blogs.
Memories: Life’s Travels

Titles of websites are capitalized in headline style unless the website has a printed counterpart.
                Facebook     Instagram     Twitter     YouTube
            New York Times Online      Encyclopedia Britannica Online

Individual posts of blogs are placed in quotation marks.

Sections, pages, and features of websites are placed in quotation marks.

Quotations

Quoted texts are set off by double quotation marks. Use a comma to introduce the quotation. Capitalize the first letter of the quote. Many stylebooks allow the use of a colon.
            Elaine said, “Don’t forget to bring your umbrella.”
            Elaine said: “Don’t forget to bring your umbrella.”

A comma (or colon) introduces a quotation in a sentence unless the quote is integral to the sentence. No capital letter is used in such a case.
        Plato believed in an ethic that “gave all people equal justice” between nations.

If a quotation is within a quotation, the quotation within is marked off by single quotation marks.
        Rachel said, “President Roosevelt said, ‘You have nothing to fear but fear itself,’ in his speech.”

If both quotations end together, use three quotation marks.
        Bob explained, “Jason said, 'This is no longer fun.’”

Use punctuation quotes around a single word or words that are unfamiliar to the reader. Subsequent use of the word or words does not need to be within quotes.
        He was a “gnostic” believer.

Use quotation marks around a word or words for emphasis (e.g., for irony). 

        There is no such thing as a “free” education.

Quotation marks are used for most titles of books, movies, plays, poems, operas, songs, albums, speeches, etc. in AP Style.  Other styles prefer the use of italics (CMOS, MLA).  

In the majority of styles, articles, essays, chapters, poems, webpages, songs, and speeches are placed in quotations marks.

AP Style, in discussing a word or phrase within a passage, uses quotation marks: whereas, most other styles prefer the use of italics.

The word "hip" was popular in the '60s.

The word hip was popular in the '60s.

Quotation marks enclose a translation of a foreign word or phrase.

    Dios Mio means "Oh, my God."

Thoughts can be placed in quotation marks; if the thought is not placed in quotation marks, then a lowercase letter is used to introduce the thought (unless the sentence is long).

    She thought, "What will happen to him?"

    She thought, what will happen to him?

Quotations of more than four lines or forty to one hundred or more words are set off by block quotes (block quotes are indented on one or both sides and have no quotation marks). Do not tab the first paragraph in a block quote; tab only the following paragraphs.

Once you understand the nature of matter, of mass-energy, you realize that, by its very nature, it could never become ‘aware,’ never ‘think,’ never say ‘I.’ But [for some] the impossible and inconceivable took place. Undifferentiated matter (here we include energy), at some point, became ‘alive,’ then conscious, then conceptually proficient, then an ‘I.’ (Varghese 163)

Parenthetical citations in block quotes fall outside a closing quotation. No period follows the parenthetical citation.

Some stylebooks (e.g., MLA) prefer block quotes to be double-spaced.  

Parenthetical citations for in-line quotes fall outside the quotation but before the closing punctuation mark (i.e., period) or separating punctuation mark (i.e., comma).
        Ray Varghese claimed that at some point in evolution, matter “became ‘alive,’ then conscious, then conceptually proficient, then an ‘I’” (Varghese 163).

Place a comma and a period within a quotation mark. In most manual styles, colons, semicolons, and dashes are placed outside of quotation marks.
Johnny said, “It is scorching outside”: Debbie agreed with Johnny’s assessment.

Question and exclamation marks can fall inside or outside of a quote, depending on the use of the quote: If a question or exclamation mark applies to the whole sentence, the mark is placed outside the quote. If a question or exclamation mark applies to the quoted material only, then the mark is placed within the quoted material.
The poet asked, “What would you do in the same situation?”
“Is it really true?” he asked.
Do you agree with Bob when he said, “He would rather swim three miles rather than walk five miles”?

Ellipses

An ellipsis is three dots (. . .) indicating that words were omitted in a quote. An ellipsis is also used to indicate the interruption of someone speaking.
“Prince Henry took his sword out…and killed the invaders.”

If anything is added within a quote, usually for clarification, use square brackets [ ].
“[Another argument] is based on the behavior of observed nature.”

Some stylebooks place a space between the dots--AP Style does not.
Lincoln wanted government "of the people . . . and for the people."

If an ellipsis occurs after a complete sentence, a period is placed in its proper place. Therefore, the end of the sentence would have four dots. AP Style adds a space between the final punctuation point and the ellipsis. 

"They rode into town on black horses. . . . It was a stunning display of power."
"They rode into town on black horses. ... It was a stunning display of power." (AP)

*Block quote cf. Roy Varghese, in Antony Flew, There is a God (New York: Harper One, 2007), appendix 1, 163.

Capitalization

Proper nouns should be capitalized.
        John Adams          Empire State Building      Grand Canyon

Office titles or honorifics are capitalized when they immediately precede a person’s name; otherwise, they are lowercased. Also, if a modifier (such as the) is used before a title or honorific, the title or honorific uses a lowercase letter.
        It was President George Washington who led the Constitutional Convention.
        George Washington, the president, led the Constitutional Convention.
        George Washington was the president who led the Constitutional Convention.
        It was nice to see former president George Washington retire to his country home.

The full names of administrative and legislative bodies, departments, and offices are generally capitalized.
        United States Congress          Department of Defense          Office of the President

If bodies, departments, or offices are used as adjectives, then lowercase letters are used.
           the congressional delegation

Adjectives derived from proper names are usually capitalized.
        Shakespearean          Thomist          Cartesian

Do not capitalize the second part of a species name.
        Homo sapiens          Australopithecus africanus



*See Titles section for the capitalization of titles.

Lists

Lists, in the majority of stylebooks, begin with an introductory sentence.
In AP Style, a fragment can also introduce a list.

Capitalize the first letter of each word in a list.
Non-AP stylebooks permit the use of lowercase letters as long as none of the items are sentences.

Let us look at some of the finely tuned features that make life possible on this planet:

• · If the temperature that resulted from the initial big bang at the beginning of the universe were a trillionth of a degree colder or hotter, the carbon molecule, which is the foundation of all life, would never have developed.
• · If the cosmic rays existing at the beginning of the universe were slightly different (different angle, time, or intensity), the hemoglobin molecule, necessary for human life, could never have evolved.
• · If the universe's age were older than it is, no stable burning star-types in the right part of the galaxy would be around. If the universe were younger, there would be no stars. In both cases, there would be no life.
• · If the expansion rate of the universe were larger, there would be no galaxies. If smaller, the universe would have collapsed.

He brought the following items to school:

• A pencil
• A pen
• An eraser

or

• a pencil
• a pen
• an eraser

AP style prefers dash style for lists (a dash followed by one space); however, bullet style is not excluded.
He brought to school the following:

- A pencil
- A pen
- An eraser

Be consistent: use the same punctuating mark at the end of each sentence in a list.  All within the list should be structurally consistent.

If numbers or letters are used, they are usually enclosed in parentheses or  ended with a period.

(1)      1.      A.      a.      (a)

(2)      2.      B.      b.      (b)

(3)      3.      C.      c.      (c)


In many stylebooks, if the list is treated as a sentence, then commas and semicolons can be used between the items, as long as the final punctuation mark is a period.

Doctors in training will be evaluated on

• their ability to master the medical equipment,
• their comprehension of medical diagnoses, and
• their ability to display bedside manners.

Doctors in training will be evaluated on

• their ability to master the medical equipment;
• their comprehension of medical diagnoses;
• their ability to display bedside manners.

Parentheses

Similar to dashes, parentheses are used to set off material from a surrounding text in a manner that is stronger than simply using a comma.  

My doctor’s appointment (which I was not looking forward to) was scheduled for Wednesday.

Parentheses are used to insert relevant examples and additional information into a text.

He loved fruits (oranges, apples, bananas).

The different types of palm trees can be hard to name (see section on palm trees).

The new  swim captain (lacking leadership skills) jumped into the pool.

The parentheses material need not be grammatically integral to the surrounding sentence, unlike with a comma.
Jeff loved colored hats (red, blue, green).

Jeff loved colored hats--by the way, some are red, some are blue, and some are green.

With the exception of numbers and letters enclosed in parentheses ([1], [a]), a comma should not precede a parenthesis.

On Monday (when I was sick) I went to school. (No comma after Monday.)

Parentheses are used to set off numbers and letters in a list within a sentence. 
Marilyn is (1) a scholar, (2) a scientist, and (3) a doctor.
Marilyn is (a) a scholar, (b) a scientist, and (c) a doctor.

In the above examples, a semicolon can be used instead of a comma.

Place punctuation marks (such as a period, an exclamation mark, a question mark, a quotation mark) outside the parentheses as long as that which is within the parentheses is not a sentence. Place a capital letter and a punctuation mark within the parentheses when that which is within the parentheses is a stand-alone sentence.
He had a prestigious law degree (Harvard, class of 1953), but his success as a lawyer has been mediocre at best.
(By 1953, Harvard was renowned for its law degrees.)
The judges examined the boxer's gloves. (No one suspected the boxer, but the judges had their doubts.)

Short translations within a text can be in parentheses.
Michelle’s favorite French words were amour (love) and beau (beautiful).

Parentheses can be used with dates.
George Washington (1732-1799) sacrificed his ambition for the good of the new nation by refusing to be a king.

Parentheses can be used with acronyms or abbreviations.
General Motors (GM) is a popular car company.
Martin Connelly is the CEO (the chief executive officer).
Martin Connelly is the chief executive officer (CEO).

Area codes are in parentheses.
(561) 375-9800

Parentheses are used with time zones: 7 p.m. (EST).