Twelve characters. One precinct.
Chief Comma runs the squad. Officer Period works the boundaries. Prosecutor Apostrophe takes the courtroom. Each Punctuation Department member has a beat, a specialty, and a part of every sentence to enforce.
Click any officer to meet them in their own voice, see what they teach, and find them on every Grammaropolis surface.
The department anthem. Every officer gets a verse.
Meet the Punctuation Department.
Three units, one department. The Precinct works the sentence boundaries, the Courthouse handles quotes and asides, and the K-9 Unit joins and breaks.
The Precinct
6 membersThe beat cops. Chief Comma runs the squad, and her officers patrol the boundary of every sentence: where it ends, where it pauses, and where one thought joins the next.
"To Serve & Correct."
Periods at end of statements and commands, abbreviations, ellipsis (three dots = omission)
"Is who I am really such a question?"
Closing direct questions, converting statements to questions, Spanish inverted question mark, expressing uncertainty or doubt
"Use me with purpose. I'm a tool, not a decoration."
Strong interjections and statements, commands with emphasis, expressing joy or objection; disciplined use (one ! at a time)
"Chief Comma rules."
Series commas, comma before FANBOYS, introductory phrases and clauses, nonessential phrases and clauses, appositives
"I'm a clause wrangler, and we're not talkin' no Santy Claus."
Connecting independent clauses without FANBOYS, using semicolons with transitional expressions and conjunctive adverbs, semicolons in complex lists
"The Great Organizer."
Introducing lists after a statement, clarifying a preceding statement, time (3:10), titles and subtitles, word groups
The Courthouse
4 membersThe legal team. When a quote, a contraction, or an aside needs adjudicating, the case goes to the Courthouse.
"It's my bar."
Contractions (letter removal), possessives (singular, plural, compound, shared vs. separate possession)
"Quote me!"
Direct quotes and dialog tags, upper/lower case rules for quotations, punctuation placement inside vs. outside quotes, quoting famous and literary sources
"(As an aside, she's very nice.)"
Afterthoughts and asides, clarification and non-essential information; punctuation inside for complete sentences, outside for fragments
"[Silent but important.]"
Clarifying quotations from within, signaling interruptions in quoted material, [sic] notation
The K-9 Unit
2 membersThe police dogs. Hyphen joins two words into one; Dash breaks a sentence for emphasis.
Work a shift with the squad.
Phase 2 turns this page into the interactive Punctuation Department: you're the rookie on the beat. Chief Comma assigns the cases. Officer Period is your first partner. Each shift is a patrol of sentences with punctuation crimes you have to diagnose and cite. Twelve characters, one precinct, casework that grows with you from rookie to captain. The Mayor signs off on your final exam.