Punctuation

Punctuation can either clarify the written message or confuse its meaning. It pays to know how to use these small but powerful marks. Resist the temptation to punctuate according to guesswork. While careful use of punctuation enhances the meaning of what you write, idiosyncratic punctuation has the opposite effect.

Accents
See Diacritical Marks below.

Ampersand
Commonly known as the and sign, the ampersand shouldn't be used as an abbreviation for and in reference to UO offices or policies. Write it out. The ampersand may be used to refer to the official name of a nonuniversity business and—rarely—in an abbreviation for a university office.

arts and sciences (not arts & sciences)


School of Architecture and Allied Arts


but: 


AT&T


A&AA (to distinguish the school from the Automobile Association of America)

Apostrophe
Of all punctuation marks, the apostrophe is the most abused. The most common misuses are inserting an apostrophe before the -s in a plural noun—where it doesn't belong—and omitting it from a possessive noun, where it does.

Prizes are awarded. (not Prize's are awarded.)


Have you seen the book's cover? (not Have you seen the books cover?)

Plural Nouns
Don't use apostrophes in plural nouns. This includes dates such as 1870s and 1990s. The only time you need to use an apostrophe in forming a plural is to avoid ambiguity. For instance, if you're writing about letter grades, you may need the apostrophe to distinguish A's from the word As.

ifs, ands, or buts


but: 
do's and don'ts

Possessive Nouns
Things as well as people can be possessive.

a master's degree


a month's pay


today's Oregon Daily Emerald

Possessive Pronouns
His, its, hers, theirs, yours, ours, and whose are possessive pronouns; they don't contain apostrophes.

It's isn't a possessive pronoun; it's a contraction of it is. 

The book's end is better than its beginning.


but: 
It's kind of you to ask.

Colon
The colon is often used to introduce a list or series. However, it's redundant to use a colon directly after such verbs as are and include. 

Three types of examinations are offered: oral, take-home, and in-class.


but: 
The course offerings include Spanish, marine biology, and medieval history.

Comma
Use commas to separate all items in a series of three or more ending in and or or. 

The university awards bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees.


The Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures offers courses in Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish as well as in German.

The following example may appear to be an exception, but it isn't because there are only two items in the series: (1) planning, (2) public policy and [public] management. 

Department of Planning, Public Policy and Management

Dashes—Em and En
Dashes aren't hyphens. The em dash is longer than a hyphen and indicates a break in the syntax of a sentence. In typewritten copy this long dash consists of two hyphens with no space on either side.

Of the three grading options—graded only, pass/no pass only, either graded or pass/no pass—the last option is the default.

Diacritical Marks
Words in other languages, and even a few adopted into English, sometimes have special marks above or beneath certain letters that provide help in pronunciation or meaning. Following are five of the most common diacritical marks used in Romance and Germanic languages when they are written in the same Latin alphabet we use in English. All except the cedilla can be above other letters besides the ones in the examples.

When in doubt, use English.

Ditto Marks
Don't use them. Spell out.

Ellipses
Use ellipses sparingly and only when specific words are understood—not as a substitution for 'etc.' or as a design cliché.

Don't use the key stroke 'option + semi-colon' (…) to create ellipses. The results of the key stroke are not ellipses.

Ellipses are spaced dots indicating that something has been omitted from a quotation. Use three spaced dots if less than a sentence has been omitted. Add a period if a sentence or more has been omitted or to end your sentence with the ellipsis. In the following examples, ellipses replace words in the original sentences without distorting their meaning.

original sentence: 
The newspaper reporter, known worldwide for her frontline reporting, has received many awards for her war correspondence.


with ellipsis: 
The newspaper reporter . . . has received many awards for her war correspondence.


original sentences: 
The photojournalist barely escaped a falling timber as he tried to show the forest fire from a fighter's perspective. His injuries left him shaken, though he was elated to capture the dangers of firefighting on film.


with ellipsis: 
The photojournalist barely escaped a falling timber. . . . though he was elated to capture the dangers of firefighting on film.

The prefixes anti, post, pre, non, multi, and re generally don't require a hyphen unless followed by a proper noun. See also DashesóEm and En.

antinuclear

postdoctoral

premajor

nonmajor

multidisciplinary

reconsider


but:
post-Renaissance

non-English

Use a hyphen to distinguish confusing pairs of words.

recreation (but re-creation)

refund (but re-fund)

Use a hyphen after full or well when it's used in a compound modifier immediately before a noun, unless the word itself is modified.

a full-page advertisement

a well-known professor


but: 
a very well known professor

Don't use a hyphen when the modifier is in other positions in the sentence.

She works full time.


Although well known, the landmark is rarely visited.

Use a hyphen when using pro- to coin a word indicating support (e.g., pro-feminist).

After requires a hyphen when used to form a compound adjective but not when it’s part of a compound noun.


after-dinner speech


but: 
afterglow and afternoon

Hyphenate an age when used as an adjective, even if the noun the adjective modifies is only implied rather than stated.

the five-year-old program


The five-year-old [child] attended kindergarten.

Hyphenate the noun co-op when abbreviating cooperative, but don't hyphenate cooperate, coordinate,or coeducational. 

Italics
Italics are used for titles of books, genera and species, long plays, periodicals, movies, newspapers, operas and other long musical compositions, ships, and works of art. Titles of television and radio series are italicized, but titles of individual episodes are placed in quotation marks.

Italics are also used for foreign words that are unfamiliar. Words that were originally borrowed from another language but have been permanently added to the English lexicon (i.e., if they're in an English dictionary) should not be italicized.

Woolf's To the Lighthouse 

Bizet's Carmen 

O'Keeffe's Cow's Skull, Red, White, and Blue 

Shaw's Major Barbara 

Wertmuller's Seven Beauties 

National Public Radio's All Things Considered

samizdat 'underground'

asperge 'asparagus'


but: 
glasnost

hors d'oeuvres (no ligature between o and e)
(If you can't spell it, use 'appetizers.')

Use specific, concrete language rather than italics, capitals, or quotation marks for emphasis.

This committee consists of two, not three, people.


not: 
This committee is composed of two [TWO] people.

Parentheses
Use parentheses sparingly. Don't enclose entire sentences in parentheses.

Parentheses can be used for enumeration within the text as follows:

(1) carbohydrates, (2) fat, (3) protein, (4) vitamins

For enumeration with periods, see also Numbers.

Parentheses sometimes enclose brief explanatory abbreviations.

McKenzie Hall (formerly the Law Center) houses offices for the College of Arts and Sciences.


The writing requirement for a bachelor's degree is College Composition I (WR 121) and either College Composition II or III (WR 122 or 123).

Quotation Marks
Use double quotation marks before and after direct quotations as well as titles of interviews, personal correspondence, short poems and plays, short musical compositions, speeches, individual television or radio programs, and other unpublished writing.

Chapter II is entitled "Branching Out."


The poem is called "If."


"Freedom of the Free Press" was the title of her lecture.

Use single quotation marks for quotations within quotations.

I said, "You must know who shouted, 'Eureka! I've found it!'"

Put a period or comma inside the ending quotation mark.

Professor Ogard will speak on "China in Transition."


Caldwell's lecture, "Death and Life in American Law," is at 7:30 p.m. in 129 McKenzie Hall.

Put an exclamation point, question mark, or semicolon inside the ending quotation mark only if it's part of the quotation.

"Who's on First?" is one of Abbott and Costello's classic comedy routines.

Put an exclamation point, question mark, or semicolon outside the ending quotation mark if it isn't part of the quotation.

Are you going to hear "China in Transition"?

Don't use quotation marks after the word so-called. It's redundant.

The so-called transient [not "transient"] was a college student.

Use quotation marks around unusual, technical, ironic, or slang words or phrases not accompanied by a word calling attention to them. Use this device sparingly.

The "transient" was a college student.

Solidus (Slash)
The solidus is overused and frequently ambiguous. Slash-happy writers use a series of solidus-separated words to be all encompassing when they can't or won't clarify their message. Too often, the relationship between the items joined by a solidus is unclear. Does it mean and, either . . . or, or does it simply link two closely related words? If you can't define what the solidus means, you shouldn't be using it. If you can define it, use words instead of the solidus so that the reader will understand too.

Chicana or Chicano (not Chicana/Chicano or Chicana/o)

faculty or staff member (not faculty/staff)

Use a hyphen instead of a solidus to link two words.

the teacher-student ratio (not the teacher/student ratio)

If space limitations make it necessary to use a solidus, explain clearly what it means.

Courses numbered 4XX/5XX are for seniors and graduate students, respectively. Although undergraduates and graduates share the same classroom, graduate students are required to do more work, are evaluated according to a tougher grading standard, or both.

Use the solidus with a space on either side to separate two lines of poetry quoted in the text.

In Song of the Open Road, Ogden Nash wrote, "I think that I shall never see / A billboard lovely as a tree."

Use the solidus in pass/no pass only and in P/N only (not P/NP).

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