Here's a breakdown of common punctuation marks and their purpose:
* Periods (.) mark the end of a sentence.
* Commas (,) separate items in a list, introduce clauses, or indicate a pause.
* Semicolons (;) connect closely related independent clauses.
* Colons (:) introduce lists, explanations, or examples.
* Question marks (?) indicate a question.
* Exclamation marks (!) indicate strong emotion or emphasis.
* Quotation marks (“ ”) enclose direct quotes.
* Apostrophes (’) indicate possession or contractions.
* Parentheses ( ) enclose additional information or explanations.
* Brackets [ ] are used to enclose editorial changes or explanations within quotations.
* Hyphens (-) connect words or parts of words.
* Dashes (–) (—) indicate a pause or break in thought.
* Ellipses (...) indicate omitted words or sentences.
Perhaps you were thinking about something else?
* External formatting: This refers to elements outside the text itself, like headings, titles, or special formatting like bold or italics. These are used for organization and visual presentation.
* Punctuation in technical documentation: Some specialized types of writing, like coding or programming, have specific punctuation rules.
Could you provide more context or a specific example to clarify what you meant by "external punctuation"?