Introduction – Punctuation, Mechanics, Capitalization,

and Spelling
Habits in writing as in life are only useful if they are
broken as soon as they cease to be advantageous.
—W. Somerset Maugham

This chapter is about habit. As Samuel Beckett once noted, “Habit is the ballast
that chains the dog to his vomit.” It is amazing how consistently we repeat the
exact same little errors out of mere habit. However, we can tackle these habits by
identifying them as patterns and writing with an eye for them. As a graduate
student, I once misspelled the word “separate” (using an “e” in the middle) 16
times on an exam. My professor circled the offending letter each time and glibly
noted, “I wish you could spell better.” His chiding cured me, and (knock wood) I
have not misspelled “separate” since. Many students find that they have picked up
the habit of putting commas in automatically before prepositions or even after
conjunctions rather than before. Once such habits are identified, however, they can
be addressed effectively.

No matter how niggling they may seem, details about punctuation, mechanics,
capitalization, and spelling are important to master. Even with the spell checker
and grammar checker eternally activated, we can make plenty of tiny mistakes that
deeply affect sentence meaning. I know of an engineer who has repeatedly reported
inaccurate dollar amounts to clients because of his sloppy proofreading. I have read
government reports by well-published scientists where the colon was misused
more than a dozen times in a single report. Even capitalization rules can be highly
important to meaning: a student in geology, for example, must be aware of whether
or not to capitalize “ice age” (yes when you mean the specific glacial epoch; no
when you mean any of a series of cold periods alternating with periods of relative
warmth). Finally, small mechanical errors (such as abbreviating a term or acronym
improperly) reflect a general sloppiness and disregard for convention.

So work on the little things. Seek to understand punctuation marks as units

affecting grammar and meaning, and accept proper spelling, capitalization, and
mechanics as professional necessities. This chapter will help you to do so without
immersing you into a grammatical swamp.

Hyphens

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A wise writer once said, “If you take hyphens seriously you will surely go mad.” Hyphens
belong to that category of punctuation marks that will hurt your brain if you think about
them too hard, and, like commas, people disagree about their use in certain situations.
Nevertheless, if you learn to use hyphens properly, they help you to write efficiently and
concretely, and you will have to use them regularly because of the nature of technical
writing. Because concepts in science and engineering frequently rely on word blends
and complex word relationships, the best writers in these fields master the use of the
hyphen.

The Hyphen’s Function

Fundamentally, the hyphen is a joiner. It joins:

 two nouns to make one complete word (kilogram-meter);

 an adjective and a noun to make a compound word (accident-prone);
 two words that, when linked, describe a noun (agreed-upon sum, two-dimensional object);
 a prefix with a noun (un-American);
 double numbers (twenty-four);
 numbers and units describing a noun (1000-foot face; a 10-meter difference)
 “self” and “well” words (self-employed, well-known);
 ethnic labels (Irish-American);
 new word blends (cancer-causing, cost-effective);
 prefixes and suffixes to words, in particular when the writer wants to avoid doubling a
vowel or tripling a consonant (anti-inflammatory; shell-like).

The rule of thumb I apply when using the hyphen is that the resulting word must act as
one unit; therefore, the hyphen creates a new word—either a noun or a modifier—that
has a single meaning. Usually, you can tell whether a hyphen is necessary by applying
common sense and mentally excluding one of the words in question, testing how the
words would work together without the hyphen. For example, the phrases “high-
pressure system,” “water-repellent surface,” and “fuel-efficient car” would not make
sense without hyphens, because you would not refer to a “high system,” a “water
surface,” or a “fuel car.” As your ears and eyes become attuned to proper hyphenation
practices, you will recognize that both meaning and convention dictate where hyphens
fit best.

Self-Study

The following websites offer exercises on using the hyphen properly, as well as the
correct answers to the exercise questions:

Hyphenation exercises from the Little, Brown Handbook

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Hyphen practice from the Chicago-Kent College of Law

Examples of Properly Used Hyphens

Some examples of properly used hyphens follow. Note how the hyphenated word acts
as a single unit carrying a meaning that the words being joined would not have
individually.

small-scale study

two-prong plug

strength-to-weight ratio

high-velocity flow

well-known example

frost-free lawn

self-employed worker

one-third majority

coarse-grained wood

decision-making process

blue-green algae

air-ice interface

silver-stained cells

protein-calorie malnutrition

membrane-bound vesicles

phase-contrast microscope

long-term-payment loan

cost-effective program

time-dependant variable

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 radiation-sensitive sample

long-chain fatty acid

When Hyphens Are Not Needed

By convention, hyphens are not used in words ending in -ly, nor when the words are so
commonly used in combination that no ambiguity results. In these examples, no
hyphens are needed:

finely tuned engine blood pressure sea level

real estate census taker atomic energy

civil rights law public utility plant carbon dioxide

Prefixes and Suffixes

Most prefixes do not need to be hyphenated; they are simply added in front of a noun,
with no spaces and no joining punctuation necessary. The following is a list of common
prefixes that do not require hyphenation when added to a noun:

after anti bi bio co

cyber di down hetero homo

infra inter macro micro mini

nano photo poly stereo thermo

Common suffixes also do not require hyphenation, assuming no ambiguities of spelling

or pronunciation arise. Typically, you do not need to hyphenate words ending in the
following suffixes:

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 able less fold like wise

Commonly Used Word Blends

Also, especially in technical fields, some words commonly used in succession become
joined into one. The resulting word’s meaning is readily understood by technical
readers, and no hyphen is necessary. Here are some examples of such word blends,
typically written as single words:

blackbody groundwater airship

downdraft longwall upload

setup runoff blowout

Apostrophes
As you already know, apostrophes are used to form both contractions—two words
collapsed into one—and possessives. Handily, we can virtually ignore the issue of
contractions here, since they are so easily understood and are rarely used in technical
writing. With possessives, the apostrophe is used, typically in combination with an “s,” to
represent that a word literally or conceptually “possesses” what follows it.

a student’s paper the county’s borders

a nation’s decision one hour’s passing

Apostrophes with Words ending in “s”

Although practices vary, for words that already end in “s,” whether they are singular or
plural, we typically indicate possession simply by adding the apostrophe without an
additional “s.”

Illinois’ law Student Affairs’ office

Mars’ atmosphere interviewees’ answers

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Apostrophes with Acronyms and Numbers

In technical writing, acronyms and numbers are frequently pluralized with the addition of
an “s,” but there is typically no need to put an apostrophe in front of the “s.” Therefore,
“SSTs” (sea surface temperatures) is more acceptable than “SST’s” when your intention
is simply to pluralize. Ideally, use the apostrophe before the “s” with an acronym or a
number only to show possession (i.e., “an 1860’s law”; “DEP’s testing”) or when
confusion would otherwise result (“mind your p’s and q’s”).

Possessives without the Apostrophe

Convention, frequency of usage, and—to be honest—the economy of advertising,

sometimes dictate that the apostrophe is dropped. In proper names that end in “s,”
especially of geographic locations and organizations, the apostrophe is often omitted.
And in everyday combinations where possession is automatically understood, the
apostrophe is often dropped.

United States government Hells Canyon

Veterans Highway Harpers Ferry
mens room Johns Hopkins University

Quotation Marks
Despite what you may see practiced—especially in advertising, on television, and even
in business letters—the fact is that the period and comma go inside the quotation marks
all of the time. Confusion arises because the British system is different, and the
American system may automatically look wrong to you, but it is simply one of the
frequently broken rules of written English in America: The period and comma go inside
the quotation marks.

Correct: The people of the pine barrens are often called “pineys.”

Incorrect: The people of the pine barrens are often called “pineys”.

However, the semicolon, colon, dash, question mark, and exclamation point fall outside
of the quotation marks (unless, of course, the quoted material has internal punctuation
of its own).

This measurement is commonly known as “dip angle”; dip angle is the angle
formed between a normal plane and a vertical.

Built only 50 years ago, Shakhtinsk—“minetown”—is already seedy.

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 When she was asked the question “Are rainbows possible in winter?” she
answered by examining whether raindrops freeze at temperatures below 0 °C.
(Quoted material has its own punctuation.)

Semicolons, Colons, and Dashes

Punctuation marks: terribly powerful in the right hands. Punctuation marks are silent
allies, and you can train yourself to exploit them as such. Punctuation marks do not just
indicate sound patterns—they are symbols that clarify grammatical structure and
sentence meaning. And, as I demonstrate in the writing of this paragraph, punctuation
marks showcase your facility with the language. What follows are some basics about
three of the most powerful and most commonly misused punctuation marks.

The Semicolon

The semicolon is often misused in technical writing; in fact, it is often confused with the
colon. Grammatically, the semicolon almost always functions as an equal sign; it says
that the two parts being joined are relatively equal in their length and have the same
grammatical structure. Also, the semicolon helps you to link two things whose
interdependancy you wish to establish. The sentence parts on either side of the
semicolon tend to “depend on each other” for complete meaning. Use the semicolon
when you wish to create or emphasize a generally equal or even interdependent
relationship between two things. Note the interdependent relationship of the two
sentence parts linked by the semicolon in this example:

The sonde presently used is located in the center of the borehole; this location
enables the engineer to reduce microphonics and standoff sensitivity.

Here, we see how the second half of the sentence helps to explain a key detail (the
sonde location) of the first half. The semicolon, along with the repetition of the word
“location,” helps to draw our attention to the explanation.

The semicolon is also handy for linking a series of parallel items that could otherwise be
confused with each other. One savvy student used the semicolon in a job description on
her resume as follows:

As an engineering assistant, I had a variety of duties: participating in pressure

ventilation surveys; drafting, surveying, and data compilation; acting as a
company representative during a roof-bolt pull test.

The Colon

The colon: well-loved but, oh, so misunderstood. The colon is not just used to introduce
a list; it is far more flexible. The colon can be used after the first word of a sentence or

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just before the final word of a sentence. The colon can also be used to introduce a
grammatically independent sentence. Thus, I call it the most powerful of punctuation
marks.

The colon is like a sign on the highway, announcing that something important is coming.
It acts as an arrow pointing forward, telling you to read on for important information. A
common analogy used to explain the colon is that it acts like a flare in the road,
signaling that something meaningful lies ahead.

Use the colon when you wish to provide pithy emphasis.

To address this problem, we must turn to one of the biologist’s most

fundamental tools: the Petri dish.

Use the colon to introduce material that explains, amplifies, or summaries what has
preceded it.

The Petri dish: one of the biologist’s most fundamental tools.

In low carbon steels, banding tends to affect two properties in particular: tensile
ductility and yield strength.

The colon is also commonly used to present a list or series, which comes in handy
when there is a lot of similar material to join:

A compost facility may not be located as follows: within 300 feet of an

exceptional-value wetland; within 100 feet of a perennial stream; within 50 feet
of a property line.

The Dash

The dash—which is typically typed as two hyphens or as one long bar (available on
your word processor’s “symbol” map)—functions almost as a colon does in that it adds
to the preceding material, but with extra emphasis. Like a caesura (a timely pause) in
music, a dash indicates a strong pause, then gives emphasis to material following the
pause. In effect, a dash allows you to redefine what was just written, making it more
explicit. You can also use a dash as it is used in the first sentence of this paragraph: to
frame an interruptive or parenthetical-type comment that you do not want to de-
emphasize.

Jill Emery confirms that Muslim populations have typically been ruled by non-
Muslims—specifically Americans, Russians, Israelis, and the French.

The dissolution took 20 minutes—much longer than anticipated—but

measurements were begun as soon as the process was completed.

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Finally, the dash we typically use is technically called the “em dash,” and it is
significantly longer than the hyphen. There is also an “en dash”—whose length is
between that of the hyphen and the em dash, and its best usage is to indicate inclusive
dates and numbers:

July 6–September 17 pp. 48–56.

Like the em dash, the en dash is typically available on your word processor’s symbol
map, or it may even be inserted automatically by your word processor when you type
inclusive numbers or dates with a hyphen between them. When you type the hyphen,
en dash, and em dash, no spaces should appear on either side of the punctuation mark.

Commas
These little demons compound and trivialize the nightmares of many a professor after
an evening of reading student papers. A sure way to irritate educated readers of your
work is to give them an overabundance of opportunities to address your comma
problems. It is easy but dangerous to take the attitude that Sally once did in
a Peanuts comic strip, asking Charlie Brown to correct her essay by showing her “where
to sprinkle in the little curvy marks.”

You have probably heard the common tips on using commas: “Use one wherever you
would naturally use a pause,” or “Read your work aloud, and whenever you feel yourself
pausing, put in a comma.” These techniques help to a degree, but our ears tend to trick
us and we need other avenues of attack. However, it seems impossible to remember or
apply the 17 or so grammatical explanations of comma usage that you were probably
introduced to way back in 8th grade. (For example: “Use commas to set off independent
clauses joined by the common coordinating conjunctions. . . . Put a comma before the
coordinating conjunction in a series.”) Perhaps the best and most instructive way, then,
for us to approach the comma is to remember its fundamental function: it is a separator.
Knowing this, it is useful to determine what sorts of things generally require separation.
In sum, commas are used to separate complete ideas, descriptive phrases, and
adjacent items, and before and after most transition words.

Comma Rules

Complete ideas need to be separated by a comma because, by definition, they could be

grammatically autonomous, but the writer is choosing to link them. Complete ideas are
potentially whole sentences that the writer chooses to link with a conjunction such as
“and” or “but.”

Digital recordings made it possible to measure the nuclear magnetic signal at

any depth, and this allowed for a precise reading to be taken at every six inches.

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Note how the second half of this sentence contains both a subject (“this”) and a verb
(“allowed”), indicating that a second complete idea is presented, and thus a comma is
required.

Descriptive phrases often need to be separated from the things that they describe in
order to clarify that the descriptive phrases are subordinate (i.e., they relate to the
sentence context, but are less responsible for creating meaning than the sentence’s
subject and verb). Descriptive phrases tend to come at the very beginning of a
sentence, right after the subject of a sentence, or at the very end of a sentence.

Near the end of the eighteenth century, James Hutton introduced a point of view
that radically changed scientists’ thinking about geologic processes.

James Lovelock, who first measured CFCs globally, said in 1973 that CFCs
constituted no conceivable hazard.

All of the major industrialized nations approved, making the possibility a reality.

In each of these cases, note how the material separated by the comma (e.g., “making
the possibility a reality”) is subordinate—i.e., it carries context in the sentence, but the
primary sentence meaning is still derived from the subject and verb. In each example,
the phrase separated by the comma could be deleted from the sentence without
destroying the sentence’s basic meaning.

Adjacent items are words or phrases that have some sort of parallel relationship, yet are
different from each other in meaning. Adjacent items are separated so that the reader
can consider each item individually.

Weathering may extend only a few centimeters beyond the zone in fresh granite,
metamorphic rocks, sandstone, shale, and other rocks.

The river caught fire on July 4, 1968, in Cleveland, Ohio.

This approach increases homogeneity, reduces the heating time, and creates a
more uniform microstructure.

In the first sentence, the commas are important because each item presented is
distinctly different from its adjacent item. In the second example, the dates (July 4,
1968) and places (Cleveland, Ohio) are juxtaposed, and commas are needed because
the juxtaposed items are clearly different from each other. In the third example, the
three phrases, all beginning with different verbs, are parallel, and the commas work with
the verbs to demonstrate that “This approach” has three distinctly different impacts.

Finally, transition words add new viewpoints to your material; commas before and after
transition words help to separate them from the sentence ideas they are describing.
Transition words tend to appear at the beginning of or in the middle of a sentence, and,
by definition, the transition word creates context that links to the preceding sentence.

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Typical transition words that require commas before and after them include however,
thus, therefore, also, and nevertheless.

Therefore, the natural gas industry can only be understood fully through an
analysis of these recent political changes.

The lead precursor was prepared, however, by reacting pure lead acetate with
sodium isopropoxide.

Self-Study

There are plenty of websites devoted to exercises on comma usage for those who wish
to self-study. Here are two I recommend:

Comma quiz from myenglishlessons.net

A 10-question comma quiz from the Pearson Longman Lab Manual Online

Using a Comma Before “And”

It is true that commas are sometimes optional, depending on sentence meaning and the
writer’s taste, and many writers choose not to put a comma before the “and” in a series
(also known as the “serial comma”) involving a parallel list of words. For example, some
would write the sentence “I am industrious, resourceful and loyal,” using no comma
before the “and.” This practice is fine as long as you are consistent in applying it.
However, I, and the grammar handbooks I consult, recommend a comma even in these
circumstances, because—even in the example provided—there is a slight pitch and
meaning change between the terms “resourceful” and “loyal.”

Most importantly, if the “and” is part of a series of three or more phrases (groups of
words) as opposed to single words, you should use a comma before the “and” to keep
the reader from confusing the phrases with each other.

Medical histories taken about each subject included smoking history, frequency
of exercise, current height and weight, and recent weight gain.

By always using a comma before the “and” in any series of three or more, you honor the
distinctions between each of the separated items, and you avoid any potential reader
confusion. The bottom line is this: When you use a comma before the “and” in a series
of three or more items or phrases, you are always correct.

That noted, be aware that some professors and many journals will not favor the use of
the comma before an “and” in a series (for the journals, it is literally cheaper to print
fewer commas).

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Self-Study

Plenty of online debate is devoted to the serial comma issue. Here are some related
thoughts from “Punctuation Man” and the “Grammar Girl”:

Punctuation Man endorsing the serial comma

Grammar Girl weighing in on the serial comma

Comma Overuse

Perhaps the best way to troubleshoot your particular comma problems, especially if they
are serious, is to identify and understand the patterns of your errors. We tend to make
the same mistakes over and over again; in fact, many writers develop the unfortunate
habit of automatically putting commas into slots such as these:

 between the subject and verb of a sentence

 after any number
 before any preposition
 before or after any conjunction

Thus, incorrect sentences such as these appear in papers:

The bushings, must be adjusted weekly, to ensure that the motor is not
damaged.

Many botanists still do not fully appreciate these findings even after 22 years,
following the publication of the discovery paper.

Other manufactured chemicals that also contain bromine are superior for
extinguishing fires in situations where people, and electronics are likely to be
present.

The price of platinum will rise, or fall depending on several distinct factors.

If the commas above look fine to you, then you may be in the habit of using commas
incorrectly, and you will need to attack your specific habits, perhaps even in a routine,
repetitive fashion, in order to break yourself of them. Similarly, it is common for
someone to have to look up the same tricky word dozens of times before committing its
proper spelling to memory. As with spelling, commas (or the absence of commas) must
be repeatedly challenged in your writing. As you perfect your comma usage you are
also recognizing and reevaluating your sentence patterns, and the rewards are
numerous. There is no foolproof or easy way to exorcise all of your comma demons, but
reminding yourself of the comma’s basic function as a separator and justifying the
separation of elements whenever you use the comma is a good beginning. I often

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recommend to students with comma problems that they re-read their work one last time,
just focusing on their comma use, before turning in a paper as a final version. In the
end, you simply must make a habit of reading, writing, and revising with comma
correctness in mind, and remember that commas have much to do with sentence
wording, which is always in the control of the writer.

To demonstrate this last point, Lewis Thomas, a clever essayist as well as a physician
and poet, shows us how to use commas effectively—as well as how to word a long
sentence so that commas are not overused—in this excerpt from “Notes on
Punctuation”:

The commas are the most useful and usable of all the stops. It is highly important to put
them in place as you go along. If you try to come back after doing a paragraph and stick
them in the various spots that tempt you you will discover that they tend to swarm like
minnows into all sorts of crevices whose existence you hadn’t realized and before you
know it the whole long sentence becomes immobilized and lashed up squirming in
commas. Better to use them sparingly, and with affection, precisely when the need for
one arises, nicely, by itself.

The Period
Though a seemingly trivial punctuation mark, the period does present some knotty
challenges, especially in technical writing. We all know to place a period to signal the
termination of a simple sentence that makes a statement. However, here are a few
more specialized rules:

 Do not use a period in combination with other punctuation marks unnecessarily,

especially when a quotation is involved. In such an instance, end the sentence
naturally on whatever punctuation mark is logical (e.g., a question mark).
 Avoid using periods at the ends of abbreviated units of measure, except when the
period might be confused with another word. (Therefore, so that it’s not confused
with the word “in,” use “in.” to abbreviate “inches.”)
 When using a period in conjunction with parentheses, the period comes after the
parentheses are closed if the parenthetical comment itself is part of the larger
sentence (as in the first bulleted sentence above, and this one). The period comes
inside the parentheses only when the parentheses themselves contain a complete
independent sentence. (See the example in the second bulleted sentence above,
as well as this sentence.)
 By convention, if an abbreviated word (such as “etc.”) ends a sentence, let a
single period signal the sentence’s end—two periods in a row would be incorrect.
 In acronyms commonly understood or commonly used in your field (ASTM, EPA,
US, GIS), do not use periods after the capital letters.

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  Do use periods after abbreviations and acronyms that are forms of address,
initials within proper names, earned degrees, and when expressing measures of
time (Dr. Bauer; M.S. degree; Steven S. Wilson, Jr.; 5:00 p.m.; 10 B.C.).

Parentheses
We are used to using parentheses to identify material that acts as an aside (such as this
brief comment) or to add incidental information, but in technical writing the rules for
using parentheses can be more nuanced. Some more specialized functions of
parentheses include:

 To introduce tables or figures within a sentence:

In pulse-jet collectors (Figure 3), bags are supported from a metal cage fastened onto a cell
plate at the top of the collector.

 To represent converted units:

The funnel used for this experiment was 7 in. (17.8 cm) in length.

 When enumerating:
The system has three principal components: (1) a cleaning booth, (2) an air reservoir, and (3)
an air spray manifold.

 To indicate product manufacturer names:

The filtering process involves a 10-mm Dorr-Oliver cyclone (Zefon International).

 To introduce an acronym after it has been written out:

Units will be expressed in cubic feet per minute (cfm).

Finally, it should be noted that punctuation used alongside parentheses needs to take
into account their context. If the parentheses enclose a full sentence beginning with a
capital letter, then the end punctuation for the sentence falls inside the parentheses. For
example:

Typically, suppliers specify air to cloth ratios of 6:1 or higher. (However, ratios of
4:1 should be used for applications involving silica or feldspathic minerals.)

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If the parentheses indicate a citation at the end of a sentence, then the sentence’s end
punctuation comes after the parentheses are closed:

In a study comparing three different building types, respirable dust

concentrations were significantly lower in the open-structure building (Hugh et
al., 2005).

Finally, if the parentheses appear in the midst of a sentence (as in this example), then
any necessary punctuation (such as the comma that appeared just a few words ago) is
delayed until the parentheses are closed.

Abbreviations and Acronyms

Abbreviations (the shortened form of a word or phrase) and acronyms (words formed
from the initial letters of a phrase) are commonly used in technical writing. In some
fields, including chemistry, medicine, computer science, and geographic information
systems, acronyms are used so frequently that the reader can feel lost in an alphabet
soup. However, the proper use of these devices enhances the reading process,
fostering fluid readability and efficient comprehension.

Some style manuals devote entire chapters to the subject of abbreviations and
acronyms, and your college library no doubt contains volumes that you can consult
when needed. Here, I provide just a few principles you can apply in using abbreviations
and acronyms, and in the next section I offer a table of some of the forms most
commonly used by student writers.

Abbreviations

 Typically, abbreviate social titles (Ms., Mr.) and professional titles (Dr., Rev.).
 In resumes and cover letters, avoid abbreviations representing titles of degrees (e.g.,
write out rather than abbreviate “Bachelor of Science”).
 Follow most abbreviations with a period, except those representing units of measure
(“Mar.” for March; “mm” for millimeter). See the table that follows for further guidance.
 Typically, do not abbreviate geographic names and countries in text (i.e., write “Saint
Cloud” rather than “St. Cloud”; write “United States” rather than “U.S.”). However, these
names are usually abbreviated when presented in “tight text” where space can be at a
premium, as in tables and figures.
 Use the ampersand symbol (&) in company names if the companies themselves do so in
their literature, but avoid using the symbol as a narrative substitute for the word “and” in
your text.
 In text, spell out addresses (Third Avenue; the Chrysler Building) but abbreviate city
addresses that are part of street names (Central Street SW).

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  Try to avoid opening a sentence with an abbreviation; instead, write the word out.
 When presenting a references page, follow the conventions of abbreviation employed by
a journal in your field. To preserve space, many journals commonly use abbreviations,
without periods, in their references pages (e.g., “J” for Journal; “Am” for “American”).

Acronyms

 Always write out the first in-text reference to an acronym, followed by the acronym itself
written in capital letters and enclosed by parentheses. Subsequent references to the
acronym can be made just by the capital letters alone. For example: Geographic
Information Systems (GIS) is a rapidly expanding field. GIS technology . . .
 Unless they appear at the end of a sentence, do not follow acronyms with a period.
 Generally, acronyms can be pluralized with the addition of a lowercase “s” (“three URLs”);
acronyms can be made possessive with an apostrophe followed by a lowercase “s” (“the
DOD’s mandate”).
 As subjects, acronyms should be treated as singulars, even when they stand for plurals;
therefore, they require a singular verb (“NIOSH is committed to . . .”).
 Be sure to learn and correctly use acronyms associated with professional organizations or
certifications within your field (e.g., ASME for American Society of Mechanical Engineers;
PE for Professional Engineer).
 With few exceptions, present acronyms in full capital letters (FORTRAN; NIOSH). Some
acronyms, such as “scuba” and “radar,” are so commonly used that they are not
capitalized. Consult the table that follows in the next section to help determine which
commonly used acronyms do not appear in all capital letters.
 When an acronym must be preceded by “a” or “an” in a sentence, discern which word to
use based on sound rather than the acronym’s meaning. If a soft vowel sound opens the
acronym, use “an,” even if the acronym stands for words that open with a hard sound (i.e.,
“a special boat unit,” but “an SBU”). If the acronym opens with a hard sound, use “a” (“a
KC-135 tanker”).

Click here to download a pdf of a table of commonly used abbreviations and

acronyms.

Use this table to check the proper spelling, capitalization, and punctuation of commonly
used abbreviations and acronyms. For a much more detailed listing of abbreviations
and acronyms, you can check in the back pages of many dictionaries, or consult
the Chicago Manual of Style (also available online to subscribers) or the free online
version of the United States Government Printing Office Style Manual.

A or amp ampere

16
a.m. ante meridiem, before noon

Assembler Assembler computer language

atm standard atmosphere

Ave. avenue

B.A. Bachelor of Arts

BASIC BASIC computer language

Blvd. boulevard

BP boiling point

B.S. Bachelor of Science

Btu British thermal unit

C
o
degrees Celsius

cd candela

CDC Centers for Disease Control

CFR Code of Federal Regulations

CIA Central Intelligence Agency

cm centimeter

COBOL COBOL computer language

17
Corp. corporation

D darcy

DEP Department of Environmental Protection

DOD Department of Defense

DOT Department of Transportation

engg. engineering

engr. engineer

e.g. exempli gratia, for example

EPA Environmental Protection Agency

et al. et alii, and others

etc. et cetera, and so forth

F
o
degrees Fahrenheit

FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation

FCC Federal Communications Commission

FDA Food and Drug Administration

fig. figure

FORTRAN FORTRAN computer language

18
ft foot

gal. gallon

ha hectare

h hour

HP horsepower

HTML hypertext markup language

Hz hertz

i.e. id est, that is

in inch

Inc. incorporated

K Kelvin

kg kilogram

kw kilowatt

kWh kilowatt-hour

l or L liter

LAFTA Latin American Free Trade Association

lb pound

19
m meter

mHz megahertz

min. minute

mol mole

M.S. Master of Science

NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration

neg negative

NIH National Institutes of Health

National Institute for Occupational Safety and

NIOSH
Health

NM nautical mile

NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

NSF National Science Foundation

OPEC Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries

OSHA Occupational Safety and Health Administration

p. page

Pascal Pascal computer language

Ph.D. Philosophiae Doctor, Doctor of Philosophy

20
 p.m. post meridiem, after noon

pos positive

pp. pages

pt. pint

qt. quart

radar radio detecting and ranging

RPM revolutions per minute

scuba self-contained underwater breathing apparatus

sec. or s second

sq square

STP standard temperature and pressure

temp temperature

Univ. university

URL uniform resource locator

USGS United States Geological Survey

vol. volume

Expressing Temperatures and Numbers

21
Style manuals, professional societies, and journals specific to your field publish
thorough guidelines about how to handle small matters of mechanics. For
instance, Suggestions to Authors of the Reports of the United States Geological
Survey addresses such issues as whether to use the chemical name or symbol in
writing; the American Meteorological Society’s Authors’ Guide dictates how one should
express time, time zone, day, month, and year in writing. Chase down such sources
within your field for specifics on matters of mechanics.

Two especially noteworthy issues of mechanics that arise regularly in technical writing
are how to handle temperature measurements and numbers. Some guidelines on these
matters follow.

Referring to Temperature Measurements

Degree measures of temperature are normally expressed with the ° symbol rather than
by the written word, with a space after the number but not between the symbol and the
temperature scale:

The sample was heated to 80 °C.

Unlike the abbreviations for Fahrenheit and Celsius, the abbreviation for Kelvin (which
refers to an absolute scale of temperature) is not preceded by the degree symbol (i.e.,
12 K is correct).

Writing about Numbers

The rules for expressing numbers in technical writing are relatively simple and
straightforward:

All important measured quantities—particularly those involving decimal points,

dimensions, degrees, distances, weights, measures, and sums of money—should be
expressed in numeral form (e.g., 1.3 seconds, $25,000, 2 amperes).

Unless they appear as part of a string of larger related numbers, counted numbers of
ten or below should be written out.

If possible, a sentence should not begin with a number, but if it does the number should
be written out.

Treat similar numbers in grammatically connected groups alike.

Following these rules, here are some examples of properly expressed numbers:

The depth to the water at the time of testing was 16.16 feet.

22
 For this treatment, the steel was heated 18 different times.

Two dramatic changes followed: four samples exploded and thirteen lab
technicians resigned.

Capitalization
As a technical writer, who must often refer to such things as geographic locations,
company names, temperature scales, and processes or apparatuses named after
people, you must learn to capitalize consistently and accurately. What follows are ten
fundamental rules for capitalization. Check out the first rule. It gets fumbled in papers all
the time.

Capitalize the names of major portions of your paper and all references to figures and
tables. Note: Some journals and publications do not follow this rule, but most do.

my Introduction Airshaft 3

see Figure 4 Table 1

Appendix A Graph

Capitalize the names of established regions, localities, and political divisions.

Wheeling Township the French Republic

Lancaster County the United Kingdom

the Wheat Belt the Arctic Circle

Capitalize the names of highways, routes, bridges, buildings, monuments, parks, ships,
automobiles, hotels, forts, dams, railroads, and major coal and mineral deposits.

Highway 13 Route 1

Michigan Avenue the White House

23
 Alton Railroad the Statue of Liberty

Herrin No. 6 seam the Queen Elizabeth

Capitalize the proper names of persons, places and their derivatives, and geographic
names (continents, countries, states, cities, oceans, rivers, mountains, lakes, harbors,
and valleys).

Howard Pickering Great Britain

Chicago British

New York Harbor Gulf of Mexico

Rocky Mountains Florida

Aleutian Islands the Aleutian low

Capitalize the names of historic events and documents, government units, political
parties, business and fraternal organizations, clubs and societies, companies, and
institutions.

the Second Amendment the Civil War

Congress Bureau of Mines

Republicans Ministry of Energy

Capitalize titles of rank when they are joined to a person’s name, and the names of
stars and planets. Note: The names earth, sun, and moon are not normally capitalized,
although they may be capitalized when used in connection with other bodies of the solar
system.

Professor Walker President Spanier

24
 Milky Way Venus

Capitalize words named after geographic locations, the names of major historical or
geological time frames, and most words derived from proper names. Note: The only
way to be sure if a word derived from a person’s name should be capitalized is to look it
up in the dictionary. For example, “Bunsen burner” (after Robert Bunsen) is capitalized,
while “diesel engine” (after Rudolph Diesel) is not. Also, referring to specific geologic
time frames, the Chicago Manual of Style says not to capitalize the words “era,”
“period,” and “epoch,” but the American Association of Petroleum Geologists says that
these words should be capitalized. I choose to capitalize them, as those who write in the
geological sciences should by convention.
Coriolis force Fourier coefficients

English tweeds Walker Circulation

Hadley cell Petri dish

Boyle’s law Russell volumeter

Planck’s constant Klinkenberg effect

Middle Jurassic Period Mesozoic Era

the Industrial Revolution the Inquisitio

Capitalize references to temperature scales, whether written out or abbreviated.

10 oF Fahrenheit degrees

22 oC Celsius degrees

Capitalize references to major sections of a country or the world.

the Near East the South

25
Capitalize the names of specific courses, the names of languages, and the names of
semesters.

Anatomy 20 Russian

Spring semester 2009 Fall term, 2006

Common Capitalization Errors

Just as important as knowing when to capitalize is knowing when not to. Below, I set
forth a few instances where capital letters are commonly used when they should not be.
Please review this advice carefully, in that we all have made such capitalization errors.
When in doubt, simply consult a print dictionary.

Do not capitalize the names of the seasons, unless the seasons are personified, as in
poetry (“Spring’s breath”). (It is, of course, highly unlikely that you would personify a
season in a technical paper.)

spring winter

Do not capitalize the words north, south, east, and west when they refer to directions, in
that their meaning becomes generalized rather than site-specific.

We traveled west. The sun rises in the east.

In general, do not capitalize commonly used words that have come to have specialized
meaning, even though their origins are in words that are capitalized.

navy blue india ink

pasteurization biblical

Do not capitalize the names of elements. Note: This is a common capitalization error,
and can often be found in published work. Confusion no doubt arises because the
symbols for elements are capitalized.

tungsten nitrogen

26
 oxygen californium

Do not capitalize words that are used so frequently and informally that they have come
to have highly generalized meaning.

north pole big bang theory

arctic climate midwesterner

Spelling
To understand the limited power of the spell checker, enjoy the following poem, which
has an intriguing literary history:

I have a spelling checker

It came with my PC;
It plainly marks four my revue
Mistakes I cannot sea.
I’ve run this poem threw it,
I’m sure your pleased too no,
Its letter perfect in it’s weigh,
My checker tolled me sew.

Just as so many of us rely on calculators to do all our math for us—even to the point
that we do not trust calculations done by our own hand—far too many of us use spell
checkers as proofreaders, and we ultimately use them to justify our own laziness. I once
received a complaint from an outraged professor that a student had continually
misspelled “miscellaneous” as “mescaline” (a hallucinogenic drug). The student’s spell
checker did not pick up the error, but the professor certainly did, and he told me that he
even speculated privately that the student who wrote the paper did so while on
mescaline.

So proceed with caution when using spell checkers. They are not gods, and they do not
substitute for meticulous proofreading and clear thinking. There is an instructive
moment in a M*A*S*H episode, when Father Mulcahy complains to Colonel Potter
about a typo in a new set of Bibles—one of the commandments reads “thou shalt
commit adultery.” Father sheepishly worries aloud that “These lads are taught to follow
orders.” For want of a single word the intended meaning is lost. Always proofread a
hard copy, with your own two eyes.
27
Six Rules for Spelling

I have a crusty old copy of a book called Instant Spelling Dictionary, now in its third
edition but first published in 1964, that I still use frequently. I adapted the six basic
spelling rules that appear below from that dictionary. Even without memorizing the rules,
you can improve your spelling simply by reviewing them and scanning the examples
and exceptions until the fundamental concepts begin to sink in. When in doubt, always
look up the word. And do not forget that desktop dictionaries work just as well as
electronic ones.

Rule 1. In words ending with a silent “e,” you usually drop the “e” before a suffix that
begins with a vowel.

survive +
= survival
al

divide +
= dividing
ing

fortune +
= fortunate
ate

Common Exceptions:

manageable singeing mileage

advantageous dyeing acreage

peaceable canoeing lineage

Rule 2. In words ending with a silent “e,” you usually retain the “e” before a suffix than
begins with a consonant.

28
 arrang
arrangeme
e+ =
nt
ment

forgive
= forgiveness
+ ness

safe +
= safety
ty

Common Exceptions:

ninth (from nine) argument (from argue)

wisdom (from wise) wholly (from whole)

Rule 3. In words of two or more syllables that are accented on the final syllable and end
in a single consonant preceded by a single vowel, you double the final consonant before
a suffix beginning with a vowel.

refer +
= referring
ing

regret
= regrettable
+ able

However, if the accent is not on the last syllable, the final consonant is not doubled.

29
 benefit + ed = benefited

audit + ed = audited

Rule 4. In words of one syllable ending in a single consonant that is preceded by a

single vowel, you double the final consonant before a suffix that begins with a vowel. (It
sounds more complex than it is; just look at the examples.)

big + est = biggest

hot + er = hotter

bag +
= baggage
age

Rule 5. In words ending in “y” preceded by a consonant, you usually change the “y” to
“i” before any suffix that does not begin with an “i.”

beauty + ful = beautiful

accompany +
= accompaniment
ment

accompany + accompanying (suffix

=
ing begins with i)

If the final “y” is preceded by a vowel, however, the rule does not apply.

30
 journey
obeying essays
s

repayin attorney
buys
g s

Rule 6. Use “i” before “e” except when the two letters follow “c” and have an “e” sound,
or when they have an “a” sound as in “neighbor” and “weigh.”

i before e (e e before i (a
sound) sound)

shield vein

believe weight

grieve veil

mischievous neighbor

Common Exceptions:

weird foreign forfeit

either ancient neither

sovereign siege height

seize surfeit leisure

31
Everyday Words that are Commonly Misspelled
If you do find yourself over-relying on spell checkers or misspelling the same word for
the 17th time this year, it would obviously be to your advantage to improve your
spelling. One shortcut to doing this is to consult the following list of words that are
frequently used and misspelled. Many smart writers even put a mark next to a word
whenever they have to look it up, thereby helping themselves identify those fiendish
words that give them the most trouble. To improve your spelling, you must commit the
words you frequently misspell to memory, and physically looking them up until you do
so is an effective path to spelling perfection.

A C F

abandon calendar fallacy

abandoned camouflage familiar
abundant candidate family
absence career fascinate
academic careful fascism
academically category favorite
accelerator ceiling February
accept challenge fiery
acceptable channel finally
accessible chaos financial
accidentally character financially
accommodate characteristics fission
accompanied chief fluorine
accompanying chiefly foreign
accomplish choose foresee
accumulate chose foreseeable
accuracy chosen forfeit
accustomed clothes forty
achievement clothing forward
acknowledge coarse fourth
acknowledgment column frantically
acquaintance coming friend
acquire commercial fulfill
acquit commission
acre commitment
G
acreage committee
across communism
actually communists generally
address compel genius
admission compelled government
admittance competition grammar
adolescent completely grammatically
adolescence concede grandeur
advantageous conceivable Great Britain
advertisement condemn grievance
aerial condemned guarantee
against conferred guerrilla
aggravate confused guidance
aggressive connoisseur
aisle conscience
a lot (never alot) conscientious

32
 H
allotting conscious
almost consists handicapped
already continuous happily
always controlled harass
amateur controlling heard
among controversial height
amount convenient here
analysis coolly hindrance
analyze criticism hoping
ancestry crowded hopeless
announcement cruelty humorous
annual curiosity hundred
apparatus curriculum hurriedly
apparent hygiene
apparently hypocrisy
D
appearance hypocrite
appreciate
appropriate dealt
appropriately deceive I
approximate decision
approximately deferred ideally
arctic definite ignorant
arguing definitely illogical
argument definition imagine
article descend imitate
artistically description immediately
association desirable immense
athlete desperate impossible
athletic develop incidentally
attendance different independent
attitude dilemma individually
awful disagree ingenious
awkward disappear initially
disappoint initiative
disapprove innocent
B disaster innocuous
disastrous inoculate
balance discern intellectual
bankruptcy discipline intelligence
bargain discussion intelligent
basically dispel insistent
battalion disservice interest
beautiful dissipate interfered
becoming distinct interference
before duly interrupt
beginning during iridescent
believe irrelevant
beneficial irreplaceable
E
benefited
biased
biggest echoes J
boundary efficiency
Britain efficient jewelry
bulletin eighth judgment
bureaucratic eliminate judicial
business ellipse
embarrass

33
 K

eminent knowledge
empty knowledgeable
endeavor
enemy
enthusiastically L
entirely
entrance laboratory
environment later
equipment lenient
equipped liable
especially liaison
essential library
except lightning
excellent likely
excess listening
existence literature
experience loneliness
explanation loose
extremely lose
lying

Terms that are Commonly Misspelled in Technical

Writing
A D H

abrasive data base half-life

absorption deposition halogen
aggregate desiccant hatchable
Aleutian diffraction heat-treat
algae diffusion histogram
algorithm discrete histology
alkali dissymmetry horsepower
alkyl divisible hybridization
analogous Doppler effect hydraulic
angular Doppler radar hysteresis
anomalous drainage
anomaly
I
aperture
E
aquatic
aqueous in situ
aquifer ebullient incandescen
asbestos ebullition infinitesimal
asymmetry eigenfunction inflection
eigenvalue infrared
emission interference
B emissivity isotropic
end point

34
bandwidth equilibrium isotropism
base line equinox
blackbody evaporation
L
brackish eyepiece
buoyancy
buoyant least squares
F logarithm
luminance
C facies change luminescence
Fahrenheit luminescent
capacitance feedback luminosity
Celsius ferromagnetism luminous
cetacean ferrous
chromatography filterable
M
clear-cut flow chart
climatology fluorescence
coaxial fluorescent manganese
combustible Fourier series mean life
condensation Fresnel measurable
conductivity equations metallurgical
configuration metallurgy
corollary midpoint
G monetar
corrosion
crustacean
crustal geyser
crystalline glacial
crystallography gradient

Introduction – Commonly Misused Terms

and Phrases
When I woke up this morning my girlfriend asked me, “Did
you sleep good?” I said, “No, I made a few mistakes.”
—Steven Wright

This chapter is for everyone. We have all made the mistakes

described herein. How many times have you found yourself puzzling
over the distinction between “affect” and “effect,” “it’s” and “its”? It is
not surprising that we maintain such uncertainties, because in any
town in America you can find billboards and road signs and ads and
newspapers with outright usage errors such as these printed boldly for
all to see:

“Man Alright After Crocodile Attack” (“Alright” should be “All

Right”)

“This Line Ten Items or Less” (“Less” should be “Fewer”)

35
 “Auction at This Sight: One Week” (“Sight” should be “Site”)

“Violent Storm Effects Thousands” (“Effects” should be

“Affects”)

Perhaps there is little need here to preach about the value of the
material in this chapter. Quite simply, in formal writing, conventions
have been established to aid us in choosing the best term for the
circumstances, and you must make it your business to learn the rules
regarding the trickiest and most misused terms. You can also dig up
style handbooks with recommendations on using tricky terminology
within your discipline. For instance, Geowriting: A Guide to Writing,
Editing, and Printing in Earth Science, by Robert Bates, gives
advice on using such terms as “areal,” “lithology,” “terrane,” and
“zone”; medical students can turn to The Aspen Guide to Effective
Health Care Correspondence or Writing, Speaking, and
Communication Skills for Health Professionals for advice on
commonly used contractual terms including ”yellow-dog contract” and
“apostolate.” If you do not mind investing about 40 bucks, you could
purchase The Chicago Manual of Style, essentially a bible for book
publishers, which answers almost every conceivable style question.
Finally, recognize that companies and institutions often develop their
own style guides for internal use to address common issues. As an
example, my home institution of Penn State publishes Editorial Style,
which addresses local style issues related to such things as campus
building names and academic titles. Never hesitate to look up a term
for its proper usage if you are uncertain—there is a lot to be said for
being correct.

Absorb / Adsorb
I decided to include these terms because they are used so commonly
in science writing, and because even though the spell checker and
grammar checker do not distinguish between them, the thinking
student obviously must do so. “Absorb,” which describes a general
process, means “to soak in.” A more specialized term, “adsorb”
describes the surface of a solid or liquid accumulating gas, vapor, or
dissolved matter:

This product claims to absorb excess dietary fat.

Once the bacteria adsorb to the aluminosilicate mineral

surface, they secrete organic molecules.

36
 An Introduction to
Punctuation




Print
An Introduction to Punctuation

 Terminal Punctuation
o
o
o
 Punctuation Within Sentences
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
 Spacing and Breaks
o
o
 Typography
o
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37
 o
By

Richard Nordquist

Updated on February 25, 2020

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Punctuation is the set of marks used to regulate texts and clarify

their meanings, mainly by separating or linking words, phrases,
and clauses. The word comes from the Latin
word punctuare meaning "making a point."
Marks of punctuation
include ampersands, apostrophes, asterisks, brackets, bullets, colo
ns, commas, dashes, diacritic marks, ellipsis, exclamation
points, hyphens, paragraph breaks, parentheses, periods, question
marks, quotation marks, semicolons, slashes, spacing, and strike-
throughs.

The use (and misuse) of punctuation affects meaning—sometimes

dramatically—, as seen in this "Dear John" letter, where the change
in punctuation from one to the next drastically alters the meaning.

Dear John:

I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous,
kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless
and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I
have no feelings whatsoever when we're apart. I can be forever
happy—will you let me be yours?

Jane

38
Dear John:

I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous,
kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being
useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men, I yearn.
For you, I have no feelings whatsoever. When we're apart, I can be
forever happy. Will you let me be?

Yours,
Jane

The Basic Rules of Punctuation

Like many of the so-called "laws" of grammar, the rules for using
punctuation would never hold up in court. These rules, in fact, are
conventions that have changed over the centuries. They vary across
national boundaries (American punctuation, followed here, differs
from British practice) and even from one writer to the next.
Understanding the principles behind the common marks of
punctuation should strengthen your understanding of grammar and
help you to use the marks consistently in your own writing. As Paul
Robinson observes in his essay "The Philosophy of Punctuation"
(in Opera, Sex, and Other Vital Matters, 2002), "Punctuation has
the primary responsibility of contributing to the plainness of one's
meaning. It has the secondary responsibility of being as invisible as
possible, of not calling attention to itself."

With these goals in mind, we'll direct you to guidelines for correctly
using the most common marks of punctuation: periods, question
marks, exclamation points, commas, semicolons, colons, dashes,
apostrophes, and quotation marks.

End Punctuation: Periods, Question Marks, and

Exclamation Points
There are only three ways to end a sentence: with a period (.),
a question mark (?), or an exclamation point (!). And because most

39
of us state far more often than we question or exclaim, the period is
by far the most popular end mark of punctuation. The
American period, by the way, is more commonly known as a full
stop in British English. Since around 1600, both terms have been
used to describe the mark (or the long pause) at the end of a
sentence.
Why do periods matter? Consider how these two phrases change
in meaning when a second period is added:
"I'm sorry you can't come This is an expression of regret.
with us."

"I'm sorry. You can't come The speaker is informing the listener that s/he may not
with us." accompany the group.

Until the 20th century, the question mark was more commonly
known as a point of interrogation—a descendant of the mark used
by medieval monks to show voice inflection in church manuscripts.
The exclamation point has been used since the 17th century to
indicate strong emotion, such as surprise, wonder, disbelief, or
pain.
Here are the present-day guidelines for using periods, question
marks, and exclamation points.

Example of multiple types of punctuation from "Peanuts" by

Charles Schulz:

"I know the answer! The answer lies within the heart of all mankind! The answer is
12? I think I'm in the wrong building."

Commas
The most popular mark of punctuation, the comma (,) is also the
least law-abiding. In Greek, the komma was a "piece cut off" from a
line of verse—what in English today we'd call a phrase or a clause.
Since the 16th century, the word comma has referred to the mark
that sets off words, phrases, and clauses.

40
Keep in mind that these four guidelines for using commas
effectively are only guidelines: there are no unbreakable rules for
using commas.

Here are several examples of how comma usage can change the
meaning of sentences.

Commas With Interrupting Phrases

 The Democrats say the Republicans will lose the election.

 The Democrats, say the Republicans, will lose the election.

Commas With Direct Address

 Call me fool if you wish.

 Call me, fool, if you wish.

Commas With Nonrestrictive Clauses

 The three passengers who were seriously injured were taken

to the hospital.
 The three passengers, who were seriously injured, were taken
to the hospital.

Commas With Compound Clauses

 Do not break your bread or roll in your soup.

 Do not break your bread, or roll in your soup.

Serial Commas

 This book is dedicated to my roommates, Oprah Winfrey, and

God.
 This book is dedicated to my roommates, Oprah Winfrey and
God.

Example of comma usage from Doug Larson:

41
"If all the cars in the United States were placed end to end, it would probably be
Labor Day Weekend."

Semicolons, Colons, and Dashes

These three marks of punctuation—the semicolon (;), colon (:),
and dash (—)—can be effective when used sparingly. Like the
comma, the colon originally referred to a section of a poem; later
its meaning was extended to a clause in a sentence and finally to a
mark that set off a clause.

Both the semicolon and the dash became popular in the 17th
century, and since then the dash has threatened to take over the
work of other marks. Poet Emily Dickinson, for instance, relied on
dashes instead of commas. Novelist James Joyce preferred dashes
to quotation marks (which he called "perverted commas"). And
nowadays many writers avoid semicolons (which some consider
being rather stuffy and academic), using dashes in their place.

In fact, each of these marks has a fairly specialized job, and

the guidelines for using semicolons, colons, and dashes aren't
especially tricky.

Here, the use of colons and commas completely changes the

meaning of the sentence.

A woman without her man is nothing. A single woman is worth nothing.

A woman: without her, man is A single man is worth nothing.

nothing.

Example of dash usage from "The Secret Sharer" by Joseph Conrad:

"The why and wherefore of the scorpion—how it had got on board and came to
select his room rather than the pantry (which was a dark place and more what a
scorpion would be partial to), and how on earth it managed to drown itself in the
inkwell of his writing desk—had exercised him infinitely."

42
Colon and semicolon examples by Disraeli and Christopher Morley
respectively:

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."

"Life is a foreign language; all men mispronounce it."

Apostrophes
The apostrophe (') may be the simplest and yet most frequently
misused mark of punctuation in English. It was introduced into
English in the 16th century from Latin and Greek, in which it
served to mark the loss of letters.
The use of the apostrophe to signify possession did not become
common until the 19th century, though even then grammarians
could not always agree on the mark's "correct" use. As editor, Tom
McArthur notes in "The Oxford Companion to the English
Language" (1992), "There was never a golden age in which the
rules for the use of the possessive apostrophe in English were
clear-cut and known, understood, and followed by most educated
people."
Instead of "rules," therefore, we offer six guidelines for using the
apostrophe correctly. In the examples below, the confusion that
results from incorrect apostrophes is clear:
Apostrophes With Contractions: Who is master, man or dog?

 A clever dog knows its master.

 A clever dog knows it's master.

Apostrophes With Possessive Nouns: Whether the butler is rude

or polite, depends on the apostrophe.

 The butler stood by the door and called the guests names.
 The butler stood by the door and called the guests' names.

Quotation Marks

43
Quotation marks (" "), sometimes referred to as quotes or inverted
commas, are punctuation marks used in pairs to set off a quotation
or a piece of dialogue. A relatively recent invention, quotation
marks were not commonly used before the 19th century.
Here are five guidelines for using quotation marks effectively—
which is important, as seen from these examples. In the first, it is
the criminal who is to swing, in the second, the judge:

 "The criminal," says the judge, "should be hanged."

 The criminal says, "The judge should be hanged."

Use of quotation marks from Winston Churchill:

"I am reminded of the professor who, in his declining hours, was asked by his
devoted pupils for his final counsel. He replied, 'Verify your quotations.'"

The History of Punctuation

The beginnings of punctuation lie in classical rhetoric—the art
of oratory. Back in ancient Greece and Rome, when a speech was
prepared in writing, marks were used to indicate where—and for
how long — a speaker should pause. Until the 18th century,
punctuation was primarily related to spoken delivery (elocution),
and the marks were interpreted as pauses that could be counted
out. This declamatory basis for punctuation gradually gave way to
the syntactic approach used today.
These pauses (and eventually the marks themselves) were named
after the sections they divided. The longest section was called
a period, defined by Aristotle as "a portion of a speech that has in
itself a beginning and an end." The shortest pause was
a comma (literally, "that which is cut off"), and midway between the
two was the colon—a "limb," "strophe," or "clause."
Punctuation and Printing
Until the introduction of printing in the late 15th century,
punctuation in English was decidedly unsystematic and at times
virtually absent. Many of Chaucer's manuscripts, for instance, were

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punctuated with nothing more than periods at the end of verse
lines, without regard for syntax or sense.
The favorite mark of England's first printer, William Caxton (1420-
1491), was the forward slash (also known as the solidus, virgule,
oblique, diagonal, and virgula suspensiva)—forerunner of the
modern comma. Some writers of that era also relied on a double
slash (as found today in http://) to signal a longer pause or the start
of a new section of text.
One of the first to codify the rules of punctuation in English was the
playwright Ben Jonson—or rather, Ben:Jonson, who included the
colon (he called it the "pause" or "two pricks") in his signature. In
the final chapter of "The English Grammar" (1640), Jonson briefly
discusses the primary functions of the comma, parenthesis, period,
colon, question mark (the "interrogation"), and exclamation
point (the "admiration").
Talking Points: 17th and 18th Centuries
In keeping with the practice (if not always the precepts) of Ben
Jonson, punctuation in the 17th and 18th centuries was
increasingly determined by the rules of syntax rather than the
breathing patterns of speakers. Nevertheless, this passage from
Lindley Murray's best-selling "English Grammar" (over 20 million
sold) shows that even at the end of the 18th century punctuation
was still treated, in part, as an oratorical aid:

Punctuation is the art of dividing a written composition into sentences, or parts of

sentences, by points or stops, for the purpose of marking the different pauses
which the sense, and an accurate pronunciation require.
The Comma represents the shortest pause; the Semicolon, a pause double that of
the comma; the Colon, double that of the semicolon; and a period, double that of
the colon.
The precise quantity or duration of each pause, cannot be defined; for it varies
with the time of the whole. The same composition may be rehearsed in a quicker or
a slower time; but the proportion between the pauses should be ever invariable.

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Increasing Importance in Writing: 19th Century
By the end of the industrious 19th century, grammarians had come
to de-emphasize the elocutionary role of punctuation, as John Seely
Hart noted in his 1892 "A Manual of Composition and Rhetoric."
"It is sometimes stated in works on Rhetoric and Grammar, that the points are for
the purpose of elocution, and directions are given to pupils to pause a certain time
at each of the stops. It is true that a pause required for elocutionary purposes does
sometimes coincide with a grammatical point, and so the one aids the other. Yet it
should not be forgotten that the first and main ends of the points is to mark
grammatical divisions."

Current Punctuation Trends

In our own time, the declamatory basis for punctuation has pretty
much given way to the syntactic approach. Also, in keeping with a
century-long trend toward shorter sentences, punctuation is now
more lightly applied than it was in the days of Dickens and
Emerson.

Countless style guides spell out the conventions for using the
various marks. Yet when it comes to the finer points
(regarding serial commas, for instance), sometimes even the
experts disagree.
Meanwhile, fashions continue to change. In modern
prose, dashes are in; semicolons are out. Apostrophes are either
sadly neglected or tossed around like confetti, while quotation
marks are seemingly dropped at random on unsuspecting words.

And so it remains true, as G. V. Carey observed decades ago, that

punctuation is governed "two-thirds by rule and one-third by
personal taste."

Sources
 Keith Houston, Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, and
Other Typographical Marks (W. W. Norton, 2013)

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 Malcolm B. Parkes, Pause and Effect: Punctuation in the West (University of
California Press, 1993).

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