About Steve Stop Boring Us! Punctuation Junction Marketing Network Forum College: TWU

 

 

 

.

>  Period.

 
 

>  Comma,

 
 

>  Semicolon;

 
 

>  Colon:

 
 

>  Question?

 
 

>  Exclamation!

 
 

>  Dash—

 
 

>  “Quotations”

 
 

>  Ellipse . . . .

 
 

>  [Bracket]

 

Welcome to Punctuation Junction

Punctuation enhances clarity and readability;

It can add impact—
or soften disappointment . . . .

Here are the rules, with examples and exceptions that apply
to most business documents.

Coming soon: 10 most-misused applications of punctuation marks.
Mastering this quiz is a must for those who desire to be concise
and precise.

It's all part of Steve Toms' upcoming book, Stop Boring Us!
(Click the title to learn more.)

> question?

.

Keep it short—period.

The average sentence should be 11-17 words. To encourage readership,
vary the length of sentences and paragraphs.

Like this.

A period has a simple task that we learned at an early age. When your
parents said: "That's the way it is—period," we knew that was the end
of the discussion.

 

Tips for business writers:

  • No longer necessary to put 2 spaces
    after each period. Save the key stroke.

  • Place periods after bullet points that express
    a complete thought. Fragments don't get one.

  • Periods make horrible bullet points. 
    Use an emdash (see below) or double
    hyphen (see Dash below).

  • No periods...
    ...after contractions |
    don't
    ...ordinal numbers | 1st
    ...nicknames | Barb
    ...shortened words | taxi, ad
    ...acronyms | KPRC, TV
    ...numeral after names | Henry VII

^ top | question?

 

Commatosis, it is said, is, and can be, cured.

If you edit your documents by inserting a comma every time
you take a breath between periods, you're infected.

The comma is a relatively weak, overused, and often misused mark. 
When in doubt leave it out.

Except when a word or phrase following a modifier makes the reader
stop to figure out the intended meaning. Then, separate them
with a comma:

On short notice statements will be issued.
(Is that "short notice" or "notice statements"?)
 

By inserting a comma after "notice," the reader
doesn't have to stop and reread it for meaning.

On short notice, statements will be issued.

When your reader understands the meaning of your sentence you can
leave out the comma (as in this sentence, where some might insert
a comma between ". . .sentence, you...").

Omitting commas works best with short sentences.

To be sure, have someone read it aloud. If there's a problem,
they'll stumble or stop reading to figure it out. Add a comma.

 

Tips for business writers:

  • While consistency dictates that items in a series (ex: red,
    white, and blue) be preceded by commas, omit the final comma
    only if you know that the reader understands the relationship.

    According to their father's will, drawn up by the family attorney,
    siblings "Harriet, Bill and Eric" were to receive equal shares
    of their father's $4 million estate. Harriet went to court, claiming
    that the absence of a comma between Bill and Eric indicated
    that her father wanted the two brothers to get only 50%
    of the estate, not 33% each. The judge ruled in her favor:
    Harriet got $2 million; Bill and Eric each got $1 million.

  • Titles after names: Raymond Hart, Jr.

  • Separate short complementary adjectives for emphasis:
    Terry is an efficient hard-working employee.

But, to show equal weight for efficient and hard-work:
Terry is an efficient, hard-working employee.
The comma creates a pause, thus emphasis on "efficient."

  • Death to the comma splice! It's now in vogue to separate
    2 complete thoughts with a comma. Even so, 2 separate and
    short sentences are much easier to read.

Formal: He delivered a speech; then he returned to work.

New:     He delivered a speech, then he returned to work.

Better:  He delivered a speech. He then returned to work.
            or
            He delivered a speech, then returned to work.

  • Dates: American English places a comma between the day
    and year: April 5, 1948. British, military, and aviation usage
    reorder the elements: day, month, and year. No punctuation
    is required: 5 April 1948.

^ top | question?

 

Semicolons divide; semicolons join.

There's no reason to fear this mark; let's make it simple.

The semicolon is the Cleopatra of Punctuation Marks. It joins 2 complete
thoughts that share something in common.

He reads Drucker; he speaks Toffler.

The above example demonstrates the best application of semicolons
in business documents. Use them sparingly to separate short related
thoughts of less than 9-12 words. The shorter the better.

Proper use of semicolons signals a higher level of communication.
It raises your credibility in the mind of the reader.

 

Tips for business writers:

  • Semicolons are stronger than commas; they signal
    a stronger break; suggest a longer pause; but even
    so, are weaker than a period. 

    Semicolons:

    — gives a feeling of expectancy;
    — hey, read on;
    — there's more to come to make it clear.

    • Semicolons bring order to strings of commas.

      Attending the morning session are Dan,
      Lanette, and Marianna; Andres and Shirley
      prefer the afternoon workshop.


      He toured Madrid, Spain; and Paris, France.

^ top | question?

 

Colons: they fulfill promises.

Colons signal what's to come and introduce long lists. 

It's a rather strong mark that tells the reader: pay attention.

Watch out:  > here's why. . . .

That said:  > now I'll tell you what's really important. . . .

Dear Sir Edgar:  > what follows is serious or formal. . . .

The greatest misuse of colons is after prepositions or linking verbs:

NO >   Your trip is approved to: Paris, Madrid, and Milan.

YES > Your trip is approved to Paris, Madrid, and Milan.

or...

YES > Your trip itinerary is approved: Paris, Madrid, and Milan.

NO >   The committee's choice of colors are: red, blue, and green.

YES > The committee's choice of colors are red, blue, and green.

or... 

YES > The committee chose these colors: red, blue, and green.

 
 

Tips for business writers:

  • Don't place colons after prepositions—with 1 exception.
    Use them to introduce a series of 1 or 2-word bullet lists:

    The supply cabinet is in need of:
    · pens
    · paperclips
    · tape
    · rubber bands

  • Use colons to set up long quotes (+3-4 lines).

  • In letters, there's a significant difference between a colon
    and comma in the salutation:

Dear Steve: (respect; serious content to follow)

Dear Steve, (informal or friendly relationship)

  • It's okay to capitalize the first letter of the text following a colon,
    especially if it contains a quote or is a full thought. It's also okay
    to use lower case. Just be consistent throughout your document.

^ top | question?

 

What's missing after question marks?

Effective business documents are concise and precise.

Thus, the only effective use of a question mark is to set up an answer
that immediately follows this mark. Or it can serve to act as a rhetorical
question to which the reader already knows the answer.

When used to request action, make sure you tell the reader who, when,
where, and in what form the action should be taken.

Imagine receiving the following from your boss:

In our next staff meeting on Tuesday, we'll address: 
How to lower overhead?

Does this mean:

  1. Think up some answers in your spare time?

  2. Write them down and bring them to the meeting?

  3. Submit 3 recommendations via email
    no later than Noon on Monday?

Time and energy are wasted when responses fail to provide answers. 
Replace the question mark with the specific request? To ensure efficacy,
give an example of the type of response you seek.

^ top | question?

 

Exclamations in business are horrific!

When you use this mark on a business document, you're either laughing
at your own joke or telling the reader you didn't take time to find
the precise words to express your thought. In other words, you're lazy.

Remember our former president's memos!
Better to list the specifics in those memos.

I'll make sure this never happens again!!!
This is the ultimate cosmic joke: what's the difference
between 1 and 3 exclamation or question marks???

This mark serves no purpose in business communications.
Focus emphasis by placing the important text in bold or color. 

Better yet, find the precise words or phrase that makes this mark
unnecessary. In Word software, access your thesaurus (Shift+F7).

^ top | question?

 

Dash—the thought.

It's a sudden interruptiona sharp break—a shift in thought.

When overused, it loses impact and conveys a gushy emotional style. 

You're bound to see all kinds of dashes in business documents;
most are incorrectly structured.

First, there are several ways to display a dash:

-    This is a hyphen (the key to the right of "0"). It's not a dash.
It's used to indicate a syllable break within a word. Hyphens
always appear at the end of a line.


–  This is an endash, slightly longer than a hyphen.
It's used to signal a continuing relationship, as in marking dates:
JanuaryMarch.

To insert an endash in your Word document, turn on your number
key, hold the ALT key, input 0150 on the number pad. The mark should appear.


—  This is an emdash, the longest dash.
It's used in place of 2 hyphens to indicate a pause,
or to separate phrases—like this—in a sentence.


To insert an emdash in your Word document, turn on your number
key, hold the ALT key, input 0151 on the number pad. The mark should appear.


(A parentheses is like a dash, but softer.)
It's a digression or amplification in the middle of another thought.
It signals the reader that what's inside a parentheses can be eliminated
without affecting the meaning of the sentence. In business documents,
parentheses encourage readers to stop reading. (See Bracket for more.)
 

Tips for business writers:

  • If you can't create en- or emdashes, use a double hyphen (--).
    And turn off the auto-hyphen feature in your Word software
    program. Keeping words intact and on the same line
    improves readability.

  • Many technical book authors abhor the use of 2 hyphens
    as emdashes, branding the writer as "lazy." Using the proper
    en- and emdash signals your reader you know the rules
    and how to apply them.

  • Never use a dash and comma together—-the dash is stronger.

  • Leave no spaces before, between, or after a dash (as above).

^ top | question?

 

Quotations say “who.”

Among those who know how to properly place these marks,
misuse of quotation marks discredits your message and your credibility.

Abandon logic on how these marks should be displayed. Learn and follow
these simple rules.

But first, there are 2 sets of rules. American placement is decidedly
different than British-influenced countries such as the U.K., Australia,
and New Zealand.

Take TV's Jeopardy. Though a U.S.–inspired game show, it applies
British rules when displaying anything in quotation marks, all because
the first head writer was a Brit. It's just tradition.

You can avoid this mark by setting quotes in italics, a different color,
or using a different  typestyle. Establish a set of rules for your document
and apply them consistently.

 

Tips for American business writers:

  • Place quotation marks outside commas and periods,
    except for numbers and letters.

He could not spell the word "precedence."
Her flight arrives at gate
"A".

Avoid the dilemma. Reformat:
He could not spell the word precedence.
Her flight arrives at
Gate A. (different color or bold text)

  • Place them inside dashes, parentheses, semicolons,
    and colons (unless part of the quoted material).

"Happiness is the ideal"—follow your passion.
("Happiness is the ideal"); follow your passion.
"Happiness is the ideal"; follow your passion.
"Happiness is the ideal": Follow your passion.

  • For question and exclamation marks:

    Place quotation marks outside when the question applies
    only to the quoted material.

Sid asked, "When will the project be completed?"

Place them inside when the question applies to the whole
sentence in which the quote appears.

Did Sid ask, "When will the project be done"?

  • For quotes extending beyond a single paragraph,
    place them at the beginning of each new paragraph,
    and at the end of the final paragraph.

  • Same rules apply to quotes within other quotes:

Nathalie said, "I read the article 'Beyond Excellence.'"

  • Some fonts don't display true quotation marks (with curls):

> "Arial font double quotation marks on keyboard."

To insert quotation marks: turn on the number lock key,
place cursor where you want to quotation marks to appear,
and type:

Alt+0147, Enter >
.....beginning set of quotation marks
Alt+0148, Enter > .... ending set of quotation marks

Alt+0145, Enter >
....single beginning quotation mark
Alt+0146, Enter >
....single ending quotation mark

^ top | question?

 

An ellipse signals something's missing. . .

Be leery when you see this mark.

Something is missing. Someone has altered the content, or stopped
before telling you how it's going to end. Sometimes, it changes the
meaning of the message.

In business, ellipses work best when the reader already has a familiarity
with the information and knows what's missing. It speeds readability.

But overuse may lead the reader to question the validity of the content.
And it also makes your text more difficult to read. Think of it as someone
who doesn't finish his thoughts.

Ellipses are formed by placing a space before and after 3-4 periods:

NO >   During the semester...students improved.

YES > During the semester . . . students improved.

Because the appearance of an ellipse is cause for caution, try to avoid it
in your business documents.

 

Tips for business writers:

  • If something is missing, use 3 dots (periods):

Al was in the plant. Out of nowhere, we heard a crash.
After running there
. . . nothing seemed different.

  • To show that words have been left out at the end of a sentence
    or complete thought, use 4 periods (the period + 3 dots):

The deficit ran out of control . . . . We couldn't believe it!

  • Though a full thought should include a fourth period, 
    you may use 3 to indicate a soft ending or trailing off
    . . . 
    (like this)

  • . . . if you begin a quote in the middle
    of a sentence, use 3 at the beginning.

  • Several credible references say to use a full line
    of periods when omitting portions of quotes
    that are longer than a paragraph.
    Others recommend the use of 4 periods.

Punctuation Junction says:

  • Unless you’re drafting a technical report
    or proposal, you’re unlikely to refer
    to multi-paragraph quotes. Use 4 periods.

  • A full line of periods is an obscure rule
    that few know about . . . or follow.
    Use 4 periods.

^ top | question?

 

He [Steve] says brackets impare [sic]* readability.

Brackets enclose comments, criticisms, or corrections inserted
by someone other than the original writer or speaker.

Anyone who met him [the author] respected his authority.

I think the day was the 3rd [4th] that you were here.

* A bracketed sic [meaning "thus in the original"] indicates an error
in the original quoted material ("impare is misspelled: "impair").

"i [sic] felt very bad."   < "I" should be capitalized.

"He was a nown [sic] criminal."  < misspelling "known"

Brackets are a literary device for editing and clarification of manuscripts.
From time to time you may see them in business documents, often
misused in place of parentheses or dashes. (See Dash for the proper use
of parentheses.)

Avoid them by using a different font or color to indicate suggestions
or corrections by your proofreaders.

For those who wish to be creative, it's okay to use brackets for all kinds
of purposes. Just use them consistently to avoid confusing your reader.

^ top | question?

 

 

© 2005 by Steve Toms
    All materials posted on the webpage are for educational purposes