Punctuation Guidelines Some punctuation guidelines from the Howe Writing
Initiative Fall 1998
Think of punctuation as a help to you and your reader rather than a hindrance
or an obscure set of rules. Punctuation serves as road signs for your reader,
signaling stop, go, yield, slow down, detour. Without clear punctuation,
you are likely to confuse readers or lead them in directions you do not
intend. Punctuation is not difficult, and knowing how to use it can make
an enormous difference in the impact of your writing. Here are some basic
guidelines for making your writing clear, effective, and easy to read.
Period (.)
A period is the red light at the end of a sentence, signaling that whatever
thought you were trying to convey has been delivered. Most people don't
make mistakes with periods, except to leave them out. Make sure that you've
put a period at the end of every complete sentence (unless you've chosen
to separate them with a semi-colon -- see below). Read your writing out
loud to hear complete sentences.
Comma (,)
Commas are yellow traffic lights, signaling slow down, look around. They
can make all the difference in the ways readers understand your sentences.
For example: David said his boss did not understand economic theory.
Without commas, we assume David's boss is ignorant. But add a pair of commas,
and David becomes the one who doesn't understand:
David, said his boss, did not understand economic theory.
However, about commas even experts disagree. (They would even disagree about
whether to put one after the word "commas" in the previous sentence.) Learn
some of the straightforward rules and if you need to, look up the fine points
in a good writing handbook. Here are four rules that cover the majority
of comma uses:
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Use commas to separate items in lists: The
strike will have mixed effects on the labor market, the goods market,
and the money supply. NOTE: the final comma in those series, the
one just before the and, can be left out. It's a matter of taste.
But it makes the meaning clearer to leave it in.
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Use commas before and, but, or, for, nor, so, and
yet when they join complete sentences. The economic theory
behind the NAIRU is essentially Keynesian, but it has also been influenced
by monetarist and neoclassical theories. NOTE: be sure that sentences
are complete and are, in fact, joined by one of the words above, called
coordinating conjunctions. When you join sentences with longer conjunctions,
like however, or therefore, you need a semicolon. (See below)
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Use commas after introductory words and phrases
unless these elements are followed immediately by verbs. In
May of 1997, the inflation rate in Italy hit a twenty-nine year record
low of 1.5%. First, this price decrease in petroleum should
be recognized as a temporary positive shock to the economy. As such
studies show, the NAIRU grows in part from the theoretical existence
of a Phillips curve. In the labor market, a decline in output disturbs
the equilibrium between real wage and work effort.
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Use a pair of commas to enclose elements that interrupt.
The NAIRU's empirical record, nevertheless, is rather weak.
H.R. 2966, a bill to amend the Petroleum Marketing Practices Act,
attempts to protect independents from price inversion. The "Year 2000
Problem" will have a negative, but temporary, effect on the economy.
While there might be a trade-off in the short-run, they argue, the
trade-off would disappear in the long run.
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Use commas around which clauses, but not around
that clauses. The stock market, which attracted little attention
from the public fifteen years ago, now consumes almost everyone's
attention. The stock market that once was the province of the wealthy
is now every American's concern.
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Semicolon (;)
If a period is a red light, and a comma is a flashing yellow light, then
the semicolon is a flashing red -- requiring a short stop before you move
on. It's used to signal something stronger than a comma but not quite so
final as a period. It's one of the most useful marks of punctuation, but
many people seem afraid of the semicolon. Maybe it intimidates us; it shouldn't.
(See?) Here's when to use the semicolon: ·
| Use a semicolon to substitute for the period between two closely-related statements, each of which could be a sentence on its own. Management wants more productivity and accountability; the union wants higher salaries and job security. |
| Use a semicolon to separate two related complete statements that are linked by a word like however, nevertheless, moreover, therefore, furthermore, consequently, meanwhile, for example, for instance, in conclusion, on the other hand. To the monetarists, then, the NAIRU is simply another name for the natural rate; however, to the Keynesians, the NAIRU is more accurately a range of unemployment rates. |
| Use semicolons to avoid confusion when items in a list or series already have their own punctuation. The company regularly sends press releases to Newsweek, especially its Far East edition; Time, all editions; Business Week, every edition except the European; and Forbes. |
Colon (:)
Colons also function as flashing red lights. Colons basically replace words
or phrases like "for example" or "what I mean is." A colon stops the thought
and says "here's the meaning."
| Use colons after complete statements to introduce lists or quotations. There are many overall effects of this temporary negative shock: lower output, higher interest rate, lower wages, lower spending, and increased prices. One recent analyst describes the effect of the Year 2000 Problem: "Think of it as an economic El Nino." |
| Use colons between complete sentences when the second one illustrates the first. Procter and Gamble has one main rule for memo-writers: Say it in one page. |
| Use colons to introduce bulleted or numbered lists. In writing
a job ad, consider: 1. Your budget 2. Your target audience 3. Your time
and resources |
Dash (--) Dashes are the more informal way of interrupting sentences.
Think of them as detours in the sentence, taking your reader down another
road. ·
| Use a dash to make a dramatic change in a sentence -- to amplify, contradict, or restate. Postage and handling costs have reached $3,000 per week --exactly one-third of our profits. |
| Use dashes to enclose inserted elements. The job involved forty hours of driving a week and-- as if that weren't enough--sixteen hours of waiting on call. |
Parentheses () Parentheses are more gentle interruptions than dashes.
Think of them as slowing down to look around, or to remind your reader that
there are other sights to see, other places to go.
| Use parentheses to enclose supplementary material, cross references, acronyms, and citations The antitrust complaint, filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ), has been characterized as "highly unusual" (Smith, 1993). Essentially, the small Utah travel agencies (Embassy Travel, Travel Plex, and Crossroads Travel) contend that the airlines have participated in anti-competitive business practices. |
| NOTE: Punctuation goes inside the parentheses if your interruption is a whole sentence; put punctuation outside parentheses within a sentence. According to some theorists, the economy will continue to grow for the rest of the century. (They are mistaken.) Some experts say the economy will grow for the next five years (they're mistaken). |
Punctuating Quotations
There are some simple rules for punctuating quotations. Common sense won't
help you figure them out, so learn these rules.
| Put periods and commas inside quotation marks. Put colons and semicolons outside. "Think of it as an economic El Nino: It's headed this way; its has global impact and may cost a fortune." In the long run, unemployment would return to a "natural rate," a long-run equilibrium reached at the original unemployment rate. Many in the US cite Japan's anti-competitive practices as the "culprit to blame for US trade deficits in the late eighties"; others cite ineffective US responses. Bill Gates, according to one AT&T executive, has "given consumers what they want": low-cost, innovative PCs. |
| Put question marks and exclamation points outside quotes when they refer to the sentence as a whole, inside when they belong to the quote. She said, "Who needs money?" Did she say "Who needs money"? · With a tag like "he said" or "she wrote" before or after a quotation, use a comma. "It is so-called 'market forces' of this nature (deregulation) that caused many carried to declare bankruptcy," argued Mr. Carey at the hearing. Lee Iococca wrote, "The day Henry Ford told me, 'You're fired' was the worst day of my life." NOTE the single marks to indicate a quote within a quote. |
Apostrophes (')
This is the mark of punctuation that most clearly signals that you know
what you're doing as a writer or you don't. It's the most common mistake
writers make, and its misuse makes you look careless. Learn these rules.
| Possessives: To indicate ownership, add 's to a singular noun or to a plural noun that does not already ends in s The economy's stability The children's agency Add an apostrophe alone to a plural noun that ends in S The airlines' argument Bill Gates' reputation |
| Contractions: Use an apostrophe to indicate that a letter (or letters) is missing. can't, shouldn't, don't, etc. NOTE: Be careful not to confuse contractions with possessives, particularly it's / its. It's the most common mistake writers make, and its misuse makes you look careless. |
| NOTE: When you need a mark of punctuation after an apostrophe, the
punctuation goes outside. The idea was the committee's, but the responsibility
was the manager's. |
These rules were adapted from Woe is I: A Grammarphobe's Guide to Better
English in Plain English, by Patricia O'Conner (Putnam, 1996) and Writing
on the Job, by John Brereton and Margaret Mansfield (Norton, 1997).
FOR OTHER USEFUL GUIDES TO BUSINESS WRITING, SEE:
Anson, Chris. The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers. Longman,
1997
Lanham, Richard. Revising Business Prose. MacMillan, 1992
Strunk, William and E.B. White. The Elements of Style. MacMillan,
1979
To test your punctuation skills try our punctuation
test.