It was a rainy day, but Joan and I had planned a trip. Joan wanted to go to the beach for a swim. I wasn't sure if we should go.
"I think we should wait a little longer... at least until the rain shows some signs of slowing down," I suggested.
"We can't swim without getting wet anyway," replied Joan, questioning my choice of swimsuit--the one my mom had bought at a secondhand store.
I put the punctuation in the choices are , ... or- its not a hyphen its a dash. they can be used more then once.
do you think this is right?
Read about the ellipsis here:
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/marks/ellipsis.htm
Read about dashes here:
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/marks/dash.htm
Read about commas here:
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/commas.htm
Then make corrections.
Did you figure it all out? The ellipsis (...) is used to indicate missing words in a quoted work, not a pause or a shift in content.
Here's what you should have done:
"I think we should wait a little longer, at least until the rain shows some signs of slowing down," I suggested.
"We can't swim without getting wet anyway," replied Joan, questioning my choice of swimsuit, the one my mom had bought at a secondhand store.
thank-you
Based on your sentence, it looks like you're asking whether your use of punctuation is correct. Let's break it down.
1. Comma (,): You used a comma after "Joan and I had planned a trip." This is correct because it separates the introductory clause from the rest of the sentence.
2. Ellipsis (...): You mentioned "Joan wanted to go to the beach for a swim." It seems that you were considering using an ellipsis, but you didn't include it in your sentence. Ellipses are typically used to indicate omission or a pause in speech, so if you want to indicate a pause in your sentence or show that there was more text that you didn't include, you can use the ellipsis like this: "Joan wanted to go to the beach for a swim..."
3. Dash (-): There is no dash in your sentence, so I'm assuming you mentioned it as an option. Dashes can be used to set off a phrase or clause that adds information or provides emphasis. If you want to use a dash in your sentence, you need to find a suitable place where a phrase or clause can be inserted to provide additional information or emphasis. For example, you could say, "I wasn't sure if we should go - considering the heavy rain outside." This adds some emphasis to your uncertainty.
In conclusion, your use of the comma is correct, but you could consider using an ellipsis or a dash in different parts of your sentence to add more meaning or emphasis, depending on what you want to convey.