Dear V:
You wrote:

Dear English Plus+:
I have some grammar questions that need answers.
1. What does the contraction for let’s mean? Let us?

Yes, it does.

2. What is the difference between his self and himself?

“His self” is nonstandard and should be avoided. Use “himself.”

3. What is the difference between the word and, and the & symbol? And, when should the & symbol be used in writing?

The ampersand is like an abbreviation. You should avoid it in formal writing. In informal writing or signage, it is acceptable.

4. When writing line items, such as:
Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Should one use a comma, virgule, & symbol, or another punctuation mark to separate items?

Normally there would be no punctuation since the model number is part of the name. The analogy would be names of monarchs followed by numbers. We call the king “Henry VIII”, not “Henry, VIII”.

I hope this helps.

V replied:

You misunderstand. Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are video game consoles, not part numbers. Therefore, as a line item, should they be separated with a comma? e.g., Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3.
I would think so. They are two different items, are they not?

If they are two different items in a series, then they are separated by commas. If there are only two items and you are writing formally, you would use the word and between the two items.

Should one always use quotation marks at the beginning and end of song, book, game titles etc.? Or, is that unnecessary?

Use quotation marks for short works (articles, poems, songs, chapter); use italics or underlining for titles of longer or complete works (books, epics, plays, operas, symphonies, works of art, names of vessels). For more on this see “Quotation Marks in Titles” and “Underlining Titles” in Grammar Slammer.

If a quoted title is the last word of a sentence, should the period be placed within the ending quotation marks or outside? e.g., “Season.” or “Season”. Wouldn’t the latter be correct, as that is not a complete sentence?

It varies. Normally in the UK the period goes after the quotation marks; in the US the period goes before. Sometimes writers will make exceptions for either rule: In the UK if the quotation ends with a period, then the period is included; in the US sometimes the period is placed outside to avoid confusion. For example, in my last posting I deliberately put the period after the quotation mark in the “Henry VIII” quotation, so you would not be led to believe that the period had to be included.