Use the following rules in relation to punctuation.
Commas
- Place a comma before a coordinating conjunction
- The meeting will start late, but it will still last 2 hours
- After an introductory phrase
- Before and after appositives
- The M1, which was built after the M2, is open again.
- Don‘t overuse!
Colons
Used to introduce a list:
- Bring the following items to the meeting: pens, paper and a book.
- Do not use after a verb - If you are going to the meeting, bring.....
Semicolons
- Used to connect ideas that are closely related
- Longer pause than comma, shorter than a period
Dashes, Hyphens and Ellipses
Hyphens connect two things that are closely related:
- Twenty-one
- High-resolution
- Daughter-in-law
An en dash shows a range
- January-October
- 44-56
Use the em dash (—) to indicate a break or change in thought or in the structure of a sentence. Always place one space before and one space after an em dash to separate it from surrounding words. An em dash is used for emphasis or can replace a colon
- The team members are all here – John, Jack, and Emily
Ellipses indicate a pause/omission
Brackets
- Parentheses - Adds an explanation or afterthought
- Brackets - Used with quoted material only
- Braces are used mainly in maths and science
- Angular brackets are used to show web links
General Points
- Do not use an extra space after end punctuation, including periods and colons.
- Always place periods and commas inside quotation marks. Place the dash, semicolon, question mark, and exclamation point within the quotation marks when they apply to the quoted matter only; outside when they apply to the entire sentence.
- Do not use the serial comma (do not use a comma before 'and' or 'or' in a short series unless clarity requires it: red, white and blue.
- The em dash and hyphen (-) are different forms of punctuation; do not use them interchangeably.
- Do not use ellipses (. . .) in printed or online material except to indicate that some quoted material has been omitted. To aid speakers, ellipses may be used in speech texts to indicate pauses.
- Place an apostrophe at the end of a word ending in 's' to form the possessive; do not use a second 's'.
- Avoid using exclamation points unless absolutely necessary.