The full stop, or period as it is known in North America, is a punctuation mark that indicates a strong pause and is mostly used at the end of a sentence:

Here is a short sentence. This sentence is a little bit longer but also ends in a period.

Remember one very important rule - the full stop is NOT needed at the end of a sentence if the sentence ends in a question mark or an exclamation mark.

The period is also used after abbreviations:

i.e. - e.g. - ff. - No.9 - etc.

When using the full stop in connection with quotation marks, you need to be aware of two rules. When the quotation marks express a full statement, you place the full stop inside the marks:

"What a wonderful day it is today."

When the quotation is part of a statement, the stop is placed outside the quotation marks:

You'll never guess what she said. She said loudly "Stop right where you are".

There are also grammar rules when using full stops with parenthesis (brackets). If the sentence inside the brackets is a full sentence, then you place the period inside the brackets. If the brackets are part of a sentence you place the full stop outside the brackets:

(The dress was very expensive but worth the money.)

The dress was very pretty (but rather expensive).

Periods are not needed after titles, headings or sub-headings:

Great Expectations, Marketing Report, Introduction

Remember also that stops are not needed after common titles that have been abbreviated into contractions and nor are stops needed after capital letters used as abbreviations for titles of countries and organizations:

USA- United States of America, UK- United Kingdom, EU - European Union

Sometimes, a period is used to indicate an omission. This is called an ellipsis point and three stops are used. This is used either when quoting from a text or indicating a lingering pause where words are omitted:

'The scheme will be successful...while respecting the employees involved.'

She looked at him and sighed. 'I don't know what to say...'

Note that a further (fourth) stop was not added in the last sentence. If a sentence ends with an omission you need only use three stops and if any other punctuation marks follow, there is no space before it.

As you can see, there are quite a few ways in which a period is used. If you remember the simple rules, you will be able to use the full stop with confidence.

KJ Hutchings is the owner of KJ Language Services, providing proofreading, editing and writing services to businesses and students, in particular those who use English as a second language. For more information, visit her site at: http://www.kjlanguageservices.com/