Glossary

comma	a punctuation mark used to: separate items in a series; set off introductory material or words that interrupt the flow of thought in a sentence; join two complete thoughts (together with a conjunction); set off direct quotations, etc.



coordinating conjunction	a word (e.g., and, but, for, or, not, so, yet) used to join two complete thoughts; also called a joining word



independent clause	a group of words having a subject and a verb that expresses a complete thought and is able to stand alone; (e.g., I go to school.)



semicolon	a punctuation mark used to indicate a break between two complete thoughts or to separate items in a series when the items themselves contain internal punctuation (such as commas); sometimes called a strong comma, a semicolon signals more of a pause than a comma alone, but not the full stop of a period

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