How to Use an ASTERISK

Improve the quality of your writing by using punctuation marks correctly. This video discusses the main uses of the ASTERISK.

Here is a transcript:

Slide 2:
The word asterisk comes from a Greek word (asteriskos) meaning “little star”.

An asterisk is mainly used in two ways.
Here’s the first: to indicate a footnote

Insert it into your body text when you want to indicate there is a footnote containing text you didn’t want to include in the body text.

You will find this punctuation mark above the number 8 key on the keyboard.

Slide 3:
This photograph* shows the real Venice!

*Photographer Pedro Szekely

Slide 4:
With multiple footnotes, use 2 or 3 asterisks as needed.

Slide 5:
If you ever visit Niagara Falls, you must take a Maid of the Mist* boat tour**.

*Maid of the Mist is run by the Maid of the Mist Steamship Company

** The tour starts from the American side and briefly crosses into Ontario.

Slide 6:
Regarding the use of the asterisk with other punctuation:

Always put the asterisk AFTER the punctuation mark.

Slide 7:
Did you see the movie where Tom Hanks plays the part of an astronaut?*

*Apollo 13

Notice the asterisk is placed after the question mark.

Slide 8:
There is one exception: Always put the asterisk BEFORE a dash or hyphen.

Slide 9:
Out of the 50 states in the U.S.A. two*—Alaska and Hawaii—are non-contiguous.
*See “50 States: A State-by-State Tour of the USA” by Erin McHugh

Notice the asterisk is placed before the hyphen.

Slide 10:
Here’s the second way to use an asterisk:
to sanitize speech that may contain obscene words or swear words. In other words, the asterisk is often used to indicate a swear word.

For example, in British English the word ‘bloody’ can refer to something that’s covered in blood but it is also used as a mild swear word to mean ‘very’. It is commonly used in Australia in this way.

The vowels in the swear word are replaced with asterisks or the first letter of the swear word is shown followed by asterisks.

Slide 11:
Here is a quote from the BBC web site.
A Conservative MP . . . called the idea “bloody stupid”.

It’s common to just pronounce the first letter of the swear word if a speaker doesn’t want to use the word. In writing it could appear like this with the first letter written followed by asterisks:

“b*** stupid”.

or with asterisks in the place of the vowels:

“bl**dy stupid”.

Source: BBC
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-54481234

Slide 12:
So remember the two main ways to use the asterisk:

to indicate a footnote for text you don’t want to include in the main body
to sanitize text by indicating a swear word

Slide 13:
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Slide 14:
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Slide 15:
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In addition to learning how to use an asterisk, check this page:
When to Use an ELLIPSIS

Image Credits:

Slides 1, 3 – Venice
Creative Commons
https://flic.kr/p/X62daw

Slide 4 – Maid of the Mist
Creative Commons
https://flic.kr/p/n518P

Slide 6 – Tom Hanks
Creative Commons
https://flic.kr/p/d8sSAo

Slide 8 – USA map
Creative Commons
https://flic.kr/p/Unqwjk

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Regarding the use of illustrations and photographs used in this video:

Creative Commons Attribution Licence
Others are allowed to copy, distribute, display, and perform copyrighted work – and derivative works based upon it if they give credit to the creator or source.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode