6: Punctuation
- Overview
- 6.1The role of punctuation and the scope of this chapter
- Punctuation in Relation to Surrounding Text
- 6.2Punctuation and italics
- 6.3Punctuation and boldface or color
- 6.4Punctuation and font—aesthetic considerations
- 6.5Parentheses and brackets in relation to surrounding text
- 6.6Quotation marks in relation to surrounding text
- 6.7Punctuation and space—one space or two?
- 6.8Punctuation with URLs and email addresses
- Punctuation in Relation to Closing Quotation Marks
- 6.9Periods and commas in relation to closing quotation marks
- 6.10Other punctuation in relation to closing quotation marks
- 6.11Single quotation marks next to double quotation marks
- Periods
- 6.12Use of the period
- 6.13Periods in relation to parentheses and brackets
- 6.14When to omit a period
- 6.15Periods in ellipses
- Commas
- 6.16Use of the comma
- 6.17Commas in pairs
- 6.18Commas relative to parentheses and brackets
- Series and the Serial Comma
- 6.19Serial commas
- 6.20Commas with “etc.” and “et al.”
- 6.21Omitting serial commas before ampersands
- Commas with Independent Clauses
- 6.22Commas with independent clauses joined by coordinating conjunctions
- 6.23Commas with compound predicates
- Commas with Dependent Clauses
- 6.24Commas with introductory dependent clauses
- 6.25Commas with dependent clauses following the main clause
- 6.26Commas with intervening dependent clauses (two consecutive conjunctions)
- Commas with Relative Clauses, Appositives, and Descriptive Phrases
- 6.27Commas with relative clauses—“that” versus “which”
- 6.28Commas with appositives
- 6.29Commas with descriptive phrases
- Commas with Participial and Adverbial Phrases
- 6.30Commas with participial phrases
- 6.31Commas with adverbial phrases
- 6.32Commas with a participial or adverbial phrase plus a conjunction
- Commas with Introductory Words and Phrases
- 6.33Commas with introductory phrases
- 6.34Commas with an introductory “yes,” “no,” or the like
- 6.35Commas with an introductory “oh” or “ah”
- Commas with Two or More Adjectives Preceding a Noun
- 6.36Commas with coordinate adjectives
- 6.37Commas with repeated adjectives
- Commas with Dates and Addresses
- 6.38Commas with dates
- 6.39Commas with addresses
- Commas with Quotations and Questions
- 6.40Commas with quotations
- 6.41Commas with quoted or italicized titles and expressions
- 6.42Commas with questions
- Commas in Personal and Corporate Names
- 6.43Commas with “Jr.,” “Sr.,” and the like
- 6.44Commas with “Inc.,” “Ltd.,” and the like
- Commas with Antithetical Elements
- 6.45Commas with “not” phrases
- 6.46Commas with “not . . . but,” “not only . . . but also,” and the like
- 6.47Commas with “the more,” “the less,” and so on
- Other Uses of the Comma
- 6.48Commas with parenthetical elements
- 6.49Commas with “however,” “therefore,” “indeed,” and the like
- 6.50Commas with “such as” and “including”
- 6.51Commas with “that is,” “namely,” “for example,” and the like
- 6.52Commas with “too” and “either”
- 6.53Commas with direct address
- 6.54Commas to indicate elision
- 6.55Commas between homonyms
- Semicolons
- 6.56Use of the semicolon
- 6.57Semicolons with “however,” “therefore,” “indeed,” and the like
- 6.58Semicolons with “that is,” “for example,” “namely,” and the like
- 6.59Semicolons before a conjunction
- 6.60Semicolons in a complex series
- Colons
- 6.61Use of the colon
- 6.62Space after colon
- 6.63Lowercase or capital letter after a colon
- 6.64Colons with “as follows” and other introductory phrases
- 6.65Colons to introduce quotations or questions
- 6.66Colons in formal communication
- 6.67Some common misuses of colons
- Question Marks
- 6.68Use of the question mark
- 6.69Direct and indirect questions
- 6.70Question marks in relation to surrounding text and punctuation
- Exclamation Points
- 6.71Use of the exclamation point
- 6.72Exclamation rather than question
- 6.73Exclamation point as editorial protest or amusement
- 6.74Exclamation points in relation to surrounding punctuation
- Hyphens and Dashes
- 6.75Hyphens and dashes compared
- Hyphens
- 6.76Hyphens in compound words
- 6.77Hyphens as separators
- En Dashes
- 6.78En dash as “to”
- 6.79En dash with an unfinished number range
- 6.80En dashes with compound adjectives
- 6.81En dashes with campus locations
- 6.82En dashes and line breaks
- 6.83En dash as em dash
- 6.84En dash as minus sign
- Em Dashes
- 6.85Em dashes instead of commas, parentheses, or colons
- 6.86Em dash between noun and pronoun
- 6.87Em dashes for sudden breaks or interruptions
- 6.88Em dashes with “that is,” “namely,” “for example,” and similar expressions
- 6.89Em dashes with other punctuation
- 6.90Em dashes and line breaks
- 6.91Em dashes in lieu of quotation marks
- 6.92Em dashes in lists, indexes, and tables
- 2-Em and 3-Em Dashes
- 6.932-em dash
- 6.943-em dash
- Parentheses
- 6.95Use of parentheses
- 6.96Parentheses for glosses or translations
- 6.97Parentheses within parentheses
- 6.98Parentheses with other punctuation
- Brackets and Braces
- 6.99Use of square brackets
- 6.100Square brackets in translated text
- 6.101Square brackets for parentheses within parentheses
- 6.102Square brackets in phonetics
- 6.103Square brackets with other punctuation
- 6.104Angle brackets and braces
- Slashes
- 6.105Other names for the slash
- 6.106Slashes to signify alternatives
- 6.107Slashes with two-year spans
- 6.108Slashes with dates
- 6.109Slashes in abbreviations
- 6.110Slashes as fraction bars
- 6.111Slashes to show line breaks in quoted poetry
- 6.112Slashes in URLs and other paths
- 6.113Slashes and line breaks
- Quotation Marks
- 6.114Quotation marks relative to other punctuation and text
- 6.115“Smart” quotation marks
- Apostrophes
- 6.116Use of the apostrophe
- 6.117“Smart” apostrophes
- 6.118Apostrophes relative to other punctuation
- Spaces
- 6.119Use of the space
- 6.120Spaces with different widths
- 6.121Nonbreaking spaces
- Multiple Punctuation Marks
- 6.122Likely combinations for multiple punctuation marks
- 6.123Abbreviation-ending periods with other punctuation
- 6.124Periods with question marks or exclamation points
- 6.125Commas with question marks or exclamation points
- 6.126Question mark with exclamation point
- Lists and Outline Style
- 6.127Lists and outlines—general principles
- 6.128Run-in versus vertical lists
- 6.129Run-in lists
- 6.130Vertical lists—capitalization, punctuation, and format
- 6.131Vertical lists punctuated as a sentence
- 6.132Vertical lists with multiple levels (outlines)