Punctuation for Effect: Dashes, Colons, Ellipses — Answers
Answer sheet with model answers and success criteria for the Year 9 punctuation worksheet.
Year 9 · English · Punctuation
Punctuation for Effect: Dashes, Colons, Ellipses — Answers
Part A — Which mark, and why?
Circle the best answer.
- AShe packed: a torch, a map and a jumper.
- BShe packed three things: a torch, a map and a jumper.
- CShe packed three things such as: a torch, a map and a jumper.
- DShe packed, a torch: a map and a jumper.
Answer: She packed three things: a torch, a map and a jumper.
A colon follows a complete statement and introduces what it promised. Never put a colon after 'such as' or directly after a verb.
- Aa list
- Ba pause that builds suspense before the reaction
- Ca question
- Da quotation
Answer: a pause that builds suspense before the reaction
The dash makes the reader wait a beat, so the reaction after it lands with more weight.
- Athat words have been missed out of a quotation
- Bthe speaker trailing off or hesitating
- Cthat the sentence is a list
- Da shouted interruption
Answer: the speaker trailing off or hesitating
In dialogue and narrative, an ellipsis usually signals hesitation, uncertainty or an unfinished thought.
- Afull stops
- Bbrackets or a pair of commas around an interruption
- Cspeech marks
- Dapostrophes
Answer: brackets or a pair of commas around an interruption
Dashes set off an interruption more emphatically than commas and less formally than brackets: 'The results — all forty of them — were wrong.'
- AThere was one problem: nobody had the key.
- BBring the following: pens, paper, calculator.
- CThe menu was simple: soup, bread, cheese.
- DThree towns were affected: Dubbo, Orange and Bathurst.
Answer: There was one problem: nobody had the key.
The colon in option A says 'here is what I mean'. The second part explains the first. The others introduce lists.
Part B — Insert the punctuation
Rewrite each sentence with the punctuation requested. Use a spaced en dash ( – ) or an em dash (—) consistently.
Answer: The verdict was unanimous: the bridge would have to close.
Answer: My brother — who had never cooked anything in his life — offered to make dinner.
Answer: There was only one thing she wanted — silence.
Answer: I did not mean to ... I just thought you knew.
Answer: He checked the score again: 98 per cent — one mark short of the record he had chased for three years. (Other reasonable combinations accepted, e.g. a dash then a colon.)
Part C — True or false?
Circle True or False and be ready to explain why.
Answer: True
'You will need: pens' is wrong because 'You will need' is incomplete. 'You will need the following: pens ...' is correct.
Answer: False
An ellipsis is three dots. If it ends a sentence, some styles add a full stop, but the ellipsis itself is three.
Answer: False
A hyphen (-) joins words: 'well-known'. A dash (– or —) separates parts of a sentence. They look and work differently.
Answer: True
Dashes work because they are unexpected. If every sentence has one, the interruption stops feeling like an interruption.
Part D — Punctuate for effect
Answer: Version 1. The dash is abrupt, so the scream feels sudden and the two actions seem almost simultaneous. The ellipsis in version 2 slows the moment down and suggests hesitation, so the scream feels delayed and perhaps less startling.
Model answer: The phone sat on the kitchen table like it was deciding something. Mum had told me not to watch it — as if that were possible. Every few minutes I checked the screen: full signal, full battery, nothing. Outside, the magpies carried on as though the whole afternoon were ordinary. I started a message to Priya, deleted it, started again ... and put the phone face down. Then it buzzed. One word on the screen: Congratulations.
Success criteria:
- At least one colon used to introduce an explanation or list after a complete statement
- At least one dash or pair of dashes used for interruption, afterthought or emphasis
- At least one ellipsis used for hesitation or trailing off
- Each mark creates a clear effect rather than being decorative
- Six to eight sentences with varied length; all three marks underlined
Marking tips
- Give credit for correct method even when the final answer slips — the working shows where the thinking went right.
- For open-ended tasks, use the success criteria as a checklist rather than looking for one "right" answer.
- Celebrate what went well first, then pick one thing to work on next.
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