Punctuation
Ampersand
Use the ampersand (&) only when it is part of a company's formal name.
The ampersand should not otherwise be used in place of the word "and."
| Right: | Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, U.S. News & World Report |
| Right: | the Office of Alumni and Parent Relations |
| Wrong: | the Office of Alumni & Parent Relations |
Apostrophe
Apostrophes indicate where letters or figures have been omitted in contractions
and class years.
| Right: | rock 'n' roll, Lunch 'n' Learn |
| Right: | can't |
| Right: | Class of '77 |
| Right: | Robert Smith '77 |
Use the apostrophe to show a possessive. (See Possessives entry, later
in this guide.) Use an apostrophe with bachelor's degree and master's
degree.
Colon
Use a colon to introduce a formal statement. Capitalize the first word
after a colon only if it is a proper noun or the start of a complete
sentence.
| Right: | The policy is this: Students should be enrolled by Sept. 1. |
| Right: | She promised this: There would be no more exams. |
| Right: | There were three criteria: expense, time and feasibility. |
Use a colon to introduce a series.
| Right: | There were four colors of crayons: orange, blue, green and red. |
Use a colon with no spaces to separate chapter and verse in scriptural
references.
| Right: | Mark 4:2-6, Exodus 2:1-5 |
Place colons outside quotation marks or parentheses.
| Right: | The following are what Smith dubbed "the best movies of the '80s": Annie, Can't Stop the Music, Dune, Ishtar ... |
Comma
Use commas to separate elements in a series, but do not put a comma
before the conjunction in a simple series.
| Right: | The flag is red, white and blue. |
Put a comma before the concluding conjunction in a series, however,
if an integral element of the last item of the series requires a conjunction.
| Right: | I had orange juice, toast, and ham and eggs for breakfast. |
Also use a comma before the concluding conjunction in a complex series
of phrases.
| Right: | The main points to consider are whether the athletes are skillful enough to compete, whether they have the stamina to endure the training, and whether they have the proper mental attitude. |
Use a comma to separate an introductory clause or phrase from the main
clause.
| Right: | When he had tired of the mad pace of Northfield, he moved to New York. |
The comma may be omitted after short introductory phrases if no ambiguity
would result. But use the comma if its omission would slow comprehension.
| Right: | During the night he heard many noises. |
| Right: | On the street below, the curious gathered. |
When a conjunction such as "and," "but" or "for" links two clauses that
could stand alone as separate complete sentences, use a comma before
the conjunction in most cases. If there is no such conjunction, use
a semicolon. (See Semicolon)
| Right: | She was glad she had paused, for a car was running the red light. |
| Right: | She wanted to go skiing, and he wanted to go to a movie. |
| Right: | They drove to the mall and went to the movie. |
Use a comma if the subject of each clause is expressly stated. But do
not use a comma when the subject of the two clauses is the same and
is not repeated in the second.
| Right: | We are visiting Washington, and we also plan a side trip to Williamsburg. |
| Right: | We are visiting Washington and plan to see the White House. |
When "etc." is used at the end of a series (and it should be used sparingly),
set it off with commas. Right: The professor discussed dates, tests,
extra help, etc., during her opening remarks. Use a comma for most figures
greater than 999. The major exceptions are: street addresses, broadcast
frequencies, room numbers, serial numbers, telephone numbers and years.
Commas always go inside quotation marks.
| Right: | "When we arrive," she said, "I want to go snorkeling." |
Dashes
There are two primary kinds of dashes, varying from one another in length.
The most commonly used dash is the "em" dash, so called because it is equal in length to a typeset lowercase "m." Use an "em" dash — with a space on either side — to indicate an interruption or break in faltering speech or to give emphasis. It should be created with these keystrokes: Alt/option + Shift + - (hyphen) in the Macintosh OS; Control + Alt + - (hyphen) on number pad on PCs. Avoid using two hyphens in place of an em dash.
| Right: | "Rosebud — " The glass ball slipped from his lifeless hand. |
| Right: | Smith offered a plan — this was unprecedented — to raise revenues. |
| Wrong: | Smith offered a plan - - this was unprecedented - - to raise revenues. |
| Right: |
We will fly to Paris in June — if I get a raise. |
"En" dashes are the same length as a typeset "n." They are used primarily
to indicate continuing, or inclusive, numbers in dates, time or reference
numbers. They are created with these keystrokes: Alt/option + - (hyphen)
in the Macintosh OS; Control + - (hyphen) on number pad on PCs. Use
an "en" dash — without a space on either side — to indicate
the passage of a period of time. Do not precede such a phrase with the
word "from," which should only be used together with the word "to."
| Right: | The growing seasons were shorter in 1995–2000. In May–June 2001 there were 12 incidents. |
| Right: | The reception will take place 1–3 p.m. in the Kings' Room complex of Buntrock Commons. |
| Wrong: | The reception will take place from 1–3 p.m. in the Kings' Room complex of Buntrock Commons. |
| Right: | The scripture reading for the day was Ruth 1:16-17. |
Use an en dash followed by a space when the concluding date of an expression
is in the future: John Doe (2001– )
The en dash is also used in place of a hyphen in a compound adjective one element of which consists of two words or a hyphenated word:
| Right: | In the post-Civil War period ... |
| Right: | On the New York-London flight |
| Right: | a quasi-public-quasi-judicial body |
Ellipsis
Use an ellipsis to indicate the deletion of one or more words in condensing
quotes, texts and documents. Leave one full space on both sides of an
ellipsis.
| Right: | I . tried to do what was best. |
If the words that precede an ellipsis constitute a grammatically complete
sentence, either in the original or in the condensation, place a period
at the end of the last word before the ellipsis. Follow it with a regular
space and an ellipsis.
| Right: | I no longer have a strong enough political base. . |
Hyphen
Hyphens are joiners. Use them to avoid ambiguity or to form a single
idea from two or more words. Consult a dictionary for usage in specific
words.
Use a hyphen whenever ambiguity would result if it were omitted.
| Right: | When he recovered his health, he re-covered the leaky roof. |
When a compound modifier — two or more words that express a single
concept — precedes a noun, use hyphens to link all the words in
the compound except the adverb "very" and all adverbs that end in "ly."
| Right: | a first-quarter touchdown |
| Right: | a full-time job |
| Right: | a very good time was had by all |
| Right: | an easily remembered rule |
But when a modifier that would be hyphenated before a noun occurs instead
after a form of the verb "to be," the hyphen usually must be retained
to avoid confusion.
| Right: | The man is well-known. |
| Right: | The woman is quick-witted. |
| Right: | The children are soft-spoken. |
| Right: | The play is second-rate. |
Use a hyphen to avoid duplicated vowels or tripled consonants.
| Right: | anti-intellectual |
| Right: | pre-empt |
| Right: | shell-like |
Do not hyphenate between "non" and a word except when a double "n" is
created.
| Right: | nonmajor |
| Right: | nonentity |
| Right: | non-native |
Do not use a hyphen in a compound noun with vice:
| Right: | vice president |
| Right: | vice chancellor |
Use a hyphen, a space and the word "to" when joining two or more hyphenated
phrases ending in the same word.
| Right: | He received a 10- to 15-year sentence in prison. |
| Right: | The first- and second-quarter touchdowns resulted from fumbles. |
Parentheses and brackets
Use parentheses to add incidental information to a sentence.
| Right: | The recent election affected the stock market (see Diagram A), but only temporarily. |
Use brackets to enclose editorial comments, corrections or explanations.
| Right: | Many of them [the candidates] questioned the policy. |
Place a period outside a closing parenthesis if the material inside
is not a sentence (such as this fragment).
| Right: | (A parenthetical sentence such as this one takes a period before the closing parenthesis.) |
Periods
In text, follow a period with a single space before beginning the next
sentence. This is contrary to what has been taught in typing courses,
but now that computers and word processors are used more often than
typewriters, offering proportional spacing to text, double spaces are
no longer needed.
Plurals
Plurals are formed in many ways in the English language but only very
rarely by adding an apostrophe and an "s." (See below.) Consult the
dictionary for a definitive answer.
Form the plural of single letters by adding " 's":
| Right: | Mind your p's and q's. |
| Right: | He brought home a report card with four A's and two B's. |
Form the plural of figures by adding "s":
| Right: | The custom began in the 1920s. |
| Right: | The airline has two 727s. |
| Right: | Temperatures will be in the low 20s. |
Form the plural of multiple letters by adding "s":
| Right: | She knows her ABCs. Right: I gave him five IOUs. |
| Right: | Four VIPs were there. |
Possessives
With plural nouns not ending in "s," add an apostrophe and an "s":
| Right: | the alumni's contributions, women's rights |
With plural nouns ending in "s," add only an apostrophe:
| Right: | the churches' needs, the girls' toys, the horses' food, the ships' wake, states' rights, the VIPs' entrance |
With nouns that are plural in form but singular in meaning, add only
an apostrophe. Often, these references would be better phrased by recasting
the sentence:
| Right: | mathematics' rules, measles' effects |
| Right: | the rules of mathematics, the effects of measles |
With singular nouns not ending in "s," add an apostrophe and an "s":
| Right: | the church's needs, the girl's toys, the horse's food, the ship's route, the VIP's seat |
With singular common nouns ending in "s," add an apostrophe and an "s"
unless the next word begins with "s":
| Right: | the hostess's invitation, the hostess' seat; the witness's answer, the witness' story |
With singular proper names ending in "s," use only an apostrophe:
| Right: | Achilles' heel, Descartes' theories, Hercules' labors, Jesus' life, Kansas' schools |
Personal interrogative and relative pronouns have separate forms for
the possessive. None of them involve an apostrophe:
| Right: | its, mine, ours, your, yours, his, hers, theirs, whose |
With joint possession, use a possessive form after only the last word
if ownership is joint. If the objects are individually owned, use a
possessive form after both words.
| Right: | Fred and Sylvia's apartment, Fred and Sylvia's stocks |
| Right: | Fred's and Sylvia's libraries, combined, contained every Hardy Boys book ever published. |
Quotation marks and italics
Use quotation marks to surround the exact words of a speaker or writer.
Use quotation marks around the names of articles, poems, songs, one-act plays, television programs, series of books and sculptures.
Italicize the names of books, newspapers, journals, films, full-length plays, symphonies, operas, ships and airplanes.
A period is placed inside the quotation mark.
| Right: | "Remember your appointment, Harry." |
A colon should be placed outside the quotation mark.
| Right: | "Don't tread on me": that was their motto. |
A comma is always placed inside the quotation mark.
| Right: | "There's no place like home," Dorothy said. |
A semicolon is placed outside the quotation mark.
| Right: | They were advised to "follow the yellow brick road"; they did so. |
Place the exclamation point or question mark inside the quotation mark
when it is a part of the quoted matter. Otherwise, place it outside.
| Right: | "Remember the Alamo!" |
| Right: | I shall slap you if you tell me again that "Love means never having to say you're sorry"! |
Semicolon
In general, use the semicolon to indicate a greater separation of thought
and information than a comma can convey but less than a period implies.
| Right: | The package was due last week; it arrived today. |
Use semicolons to separate elements of a series when individual segments contain material that also must be set off by commas. Note that the semicolon is used before the final "and" in such a series.
| Right: | He leaves a son, John Smith of Chicago; three daughters, Jane Smith of Wichita, Kan., Mary Smith of Denver, and Susan, wife of William Kingsby of Boston; and a sister, Martha, wife of Robert Warren of Omaha, Neb. |
Place semicolons outside of quotation marks.
| Right: | The first week they studied the "theory of conspicuous consumption"; the following week they went to the Mall of America and practiced it. |
