{"id":13926,"date":"2026-09-25T16:50:01","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T21:50:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/?page_id=13926"},"modified":"2026-09-25T16:50:01","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T21:50:01","slug":"biographical-sketch-tip-punctuation","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/kassidys-corner\/biographical-sketch-tip-punctuation\/","title":{"rendered":"Biographical Sketch Tip: Punctuation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"387\" src=\"https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.03.27-PM-1024x387.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13927\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.03.27-PM-1024x387.png 1024w, https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.03.27-PM-300x114.png 300w, https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.03.27-PM-150x57.png 150w, https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.03.27-PM-768x291.png 768w, https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.03.27-PM-1536x581.png 1536w, https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.03.27-PM.png 1940w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A while back, I provided a video with some tips for how Grammarly can improve your writing game when it comes to biographical sketches. Now, I&#8217;m back with a few tips for how to tackle those punctuation problems, giving you the tools to write a meaningful biography&#8211;with confidence!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"384\" src=\"https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.07.12-PM-1024x384.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13928\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.07.12-PM-1024x384.png 1024w, https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.07.12-PM-300x113.png 300w, https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.07.12-PM-150x56.png 150w, https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.07.12-PM-768x288.png 768w, https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.07.12-PM-1536x576.png 1536w, https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.07.12-PM.png 1936w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oh, commas! Besides periods, they might be one of the most frequently-used pieces of punctuations&#8211;sometimes, they&#8217;re used even <em>more <\/em>than periods. (And did you catch that in this section already, there&#8217;ve been 4 commas?) Commas are an important part of writing, and chances are good that they&#8217;ll show up frequently in your biographical sketch. So let&#8217;s look at a few helpful rules of thumb when it comes to commas:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Use a comma before <em>and, but, or, fo<\/em>r, and <em>yet <\/em>if they&#8217;re joining two independent sentences. (If you&#8217;re wondering what an independent sentence is, it means that it&#8217;s complete&#8211;it can stand on its own without being a fragment.) Here&#8217;s an example: <strong>My grandfather was a Civil War veteran, and he was a politician in the 1890s. <\/strong>Did you catch something here? The phrase &#8220;<strong>My grandfather was a Civil War veteran<\/strong>&#8221; is a complete, independent sentence, one I could put a period at the end of and then move on. The same is true for &#8220;<strong>he was a politician in the 1890s<\/strong>&#8220;&#8211;this is a complete, independent sentence. Because I wanted to join these two sentence together, I used a comma <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">before<\/span> <em>and.<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>When you referencing just a month and a year (i.e., September 2026), no comma is needed. But that doesn&#8217;t mean you never need a comma when you&#8217;re sharing a date! In fact, you should use commas when you&#8217;re referencing months, days, and years together. Here&#8217;s an example: <strong>The<\/strong> <strong>Battle of Shiloh<\/strong> <strong>was fought April 6 and 7, 1862, in Tennessee.<\/strong> Notice that a comma is present <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">before<\/span> and <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">after<\/span> the year. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Chances are good that you&#8217;ll have a list of three or more items, ideas, or things at some point. That&#8217;s where the Oxford comma comes in handy! (Note that not everyone is team Oxford comma, but I think it helps sentences read more clearly: find a helpful Oxford comma article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.grammarly.com\/blog\/punctuation-capitalization\/what-is-the-oxford-comma\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>). Here&#8217;s an example of when to use an Oxford comma: <strong>My grandmother was an activist, teacher, and housewife. <\/strong>Because there are three items in this list, I separated each with a comma. Have four or more items in a list? No worries, just keep using the comma between items\/ideas. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"388\" src=\"https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.19.11-PM-1024x388.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13931\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.19.11-PM-1024x388.png 1024w, https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.19.11-PM-300x114.png 300w, https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.19.11-PM-150x57.png 150w, https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.19.11-PM-768x291.png 768w, https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.19.11-PM-1536x582.png 1536w, https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.19.11-PM.png 1932w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When I&#8217;m writing biographical sketches, I feel like I use quotation marks a lot! There are some important things to keep in mind with quotation marks, though, and here are a few examples:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Wondering when you should use quotation marks? I always like to use them when I&#8217;m doing something like: directly quoting an oral history interview, sharing information from a secondary source, or providing information from primary sources (censuses, letters, marriage records, birth certificates, etc.). What a quotation mark does is alert readers that this is information that you&#8217;re drawing from somewhere else, be it a family member, a history book, or a 1939 death certificate. Here&#8217;s an example of when you might use quotation marks: <strong>Jerome Adams wrote in his 1863 letter, penned from Alexandria, Virginia,<\/strong> <strong>that he was &#8220;enjoying good health and in wonderful spirits.<\/strong>&#8221; By using the quotation marks, I distinguish my own words (not quoted) from what Jerome Adams had to say. Sometimes, you might quote an entire sentence or multiple sentences, which could look like this: <strong>Adams wrote: &#8220;I&#8217;m doing well and enjoying good health and in wonderful spirits.<\/strong> <strong>I wish you would write me soon. Letters always brighten my spirit.<\/strong>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>When you&#8217;re quoting, make sure you keep the punctuation <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">inside of the quotation marks<\/span>. I feel like I could probably repeat this again because it&#8217;s a common error I see, but the good news it that it&#8217;s also a super easy issue to correct. Here&#8217;s an example of what <mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);color:#e40c0c\" class=\"has-inline-color\"><strong>NOT<\/strong> <\/mark>to do: <strong>&#8220;Buell&#8217;s success turned the tides of the war&#8221;. <\/strong>See how that period is <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">outside<\/span> of the quotation marks? With the backspace button, we can easily correct this error. Here&#8217;s how the sentence <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">should<\/span> appear: &#8220;<strong>Buell&#8217;s success turned the tides of the war.&#8221;<\/strong> This simple grammatical fix can certainly elevate any biographical sketch!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"388\" src=\"https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.33.02-PM-1024x388.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13932\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.33.02-PM-1024x388.png 1024w, https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.33.02-PM-300x114.png 300w, https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.33.02-PM-150x57.png 150w, https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.33.02-PM-768x291.png 768w, https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.33.02-PM-1536x581.png 1536w, https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.33.02-PM.png 1934w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While there are a <em>lot <\/em>of punctuation marks, we don&#8217;t have space to get in to all of them today (and if we talked about all punctuation marks and their uses, this might turn into a 200+ page writer&#8217;s manual), so let&#8217;s wrap up this post by discussing brackets and parentheses. When might you use brackets and parentheses? Here are some instances when these pieces of punctuation are a must-have:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>As a historian, I use brackets most frequently when I&#8217;m working with primary sources. When I&#8217;m transcribing an American Civil War soldier&#8217;s letter, for example, I&#8217;ll use a bracket with the word [sic] in it, which essentially alerts readers that the error is the soldier&#8217;s, not mine. (Here&#8217;s an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/grammar\/sic-meaning-usage-editorial-citation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">interesting article<\/a> about how to use [sic], plus the meaning behind the word.) Let&#8217;s take a look at a practical application for this word: <strong>In his letter to his wife, Sgt. Darius Carneal wrote, &#8220;whe [sic] had a grand time and never imagind [sic] we could eat so good while at war.&#8221;<\/strong> See those two misspelled words in the example? If I didn&#8217;t use [sic], someone might believe I made a typing error: because I used [sic], they know I didn&#8217;t. What happens if the same word is misspelled over and over? Well, reading [sic] a bunch of times in a sentence can be jarring, so that&#8217;s where [sic passim] comes in handy, essentially letting readers know that the word is misspelled throughout the document&#8211;but we&#8217;re just telling them about it once. Here&#8217;s an example: <strong>&#8220;Whe [sic passim] were marching when whe were overrun<\/strong> <strong>by the enemy, so whe darted for the bushes while whe had time.&#8221;<\/strong> Because I used [sic passim], I didn&#8217;t have to write [sic] four times, which saves time and makes reading this sentence a bit easier.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>You might also use brackets if you&#8217;re deciphering a document and there&#8217;s a word you either aren&#8217;t 100% sure about or can&#8217;t transcribe at all. Here&#8217;s an example of a transcription that I *thought* I had right but wasn&#8217;t completely sure about: <strong>Skipworth said in his 1932 letter: &#8220;Our trip went well and we had a [grand?] time.<\/strong>&#8221; Since I wasn&#8217;t 100% certain the word was &#8220;grand,&#8221; I plopped the word in brackets with a question mark, just to alert readers that this word may not be totally accurate. After all, one little word can change the entire meaning of a document, turning a vacation from a &#8220;grand&#8221; time to a &#8220;bland&#8221; time! Sometimes, there are words that&#8211;try as I might&#8211;are just too faded or illegible for me to read. Here&#8217;s what I do in that case: <strong>Skipworth said in his 1932 letter: &#8220;Our trip went well and we had a [illegible] time.&#8221; <\/strong>By placing the word &#8220;illegible&#8221; in brackets, it makes it clear to readers that there&#8217;s another word here that I just couldn&#8217;t decipher with certainty.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>And now let&#8217;s close off our discussion by briefly mentioning parentheses. One of my biggest uses for parentheses when I&#8217;m crafting biographical sketches is to use them to add in notes or share an idea that, while somewhat important, may not warrant its own sentence. Here&#8217;s an example of using parentheses for notes: <strong>When I spoke with Marjorie Wood, she said she was unaware of Ross Hamby having ever operated a farm stand (records show, however, that he operated a stand from 1981 to 1982). <\/strong>By using parentheses, I was able to concisely add in a note to accompany Marjorie&#8217;s statement. Now here&#8217;s an example of using parentheses to add in information that&#8217;s mildly important: <strong>When I talked with Cordelia Randolph (a phone interview that took place May 2026), she noted that her father worked in the coal mines during the Great Depression.<\/strong> Here, I use parentheses to share a bit of additional information. Do readers <em>have <\/em>to know when I spoke with Cordelia in order to comprehend the biographical sketch? Probably not, but I thought it could be an important detail to briefly include.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"387\" src=\"https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.51.01-PM-1024x387.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13935\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.51.01-PM-1024x387.png 1024w, https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.51.01-PM-300x113.png 300w, https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.51.01-PM-150x57.png 150w, https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.51.01-PM-768x290.png 768w, https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.51.01-PM-1536x581.png 1536w, https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-25-at-1.51.01-PM.png 1936w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I hope that you now have a better grasp for how to navigate and implement commas, quotation marks, brackets, and parentheses in the next biographical sketch you&#8217;re crafting! I&#8217;ll also be sharing a few examples for navigating jargon in a future post, so stay tuned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Keep the history alive!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"255\" height=\"124\" src=\"https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Kassidy-TSGS-Signature.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9131\" style=\"width:213px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Kassidy-TSGS-Signature.png 255w, https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Kassidy-TSGS-Signature-150x73.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 255px) 100vw, 255px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/kassidys-corner\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"516\" height=\"205\" src=\"https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/imageedit_3_9956565133.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7182\" style=\"width:259px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/imageedit_3_9956565133.jpg 516w, https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/imageedit_3_9956565133-300x119.jpg 300w, https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/imageedit_3_9956565133-150x60.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 516px) 100vw, 516px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Disclaimer: There a variety of different grammar rules that change based on the writing style (APA, MLA, Turabian\/Chicago, etc.) and a variety of other factors. These tips are meant as a helpful resource only and are not intended to replace carefully editing of one&#8217;s work and doing additional research by using online\/print grammar manuals.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A while back, I provided a video with some tips for how Grammarly can improve your writing game when it comes to biographical sketches. Now, I&#8217;m back with a few tips for how to tackle those punctuation problems, giving you the tools to write a meaningful biography&#8211;with confidence! Oh, commas! Besides periods, they might be&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/kassidys-corner\/biographical-sketch-tip-punctuation\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Biographical Sketch Tip: Punctuation<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":0,"parent":6894,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13926","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","without-featured-image"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13926"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13942,"href":"https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13926\/revisions\/13942"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tsgspaddlewheel.com\/tsgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}