Cold Fusion -> MySQL/PHP newbie question

Hey folks, This must be pretty basic, but I have a question. I'm creating a series of pages that let you browse, edit, add or delete info in and out of a MySQL table (similar to the types of pages that Cold Fusion Studio will auto-create for you). I'm running into problems with some of the text fields contents. I want to have <textarea> type of fields that allow the user to enter larger volumes of text. However, when certain puncuations are used in the field, it's generating sytax errors in the the sql sections of the code. How do I get around this? Thanks for you help, Kelly