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1. Introduction

3.5 Punctuation

Punctuation should be used to make the author's meaning clear, promote ease of reading, and contribute to the author's style. The trend in contemporary writing is to punctuate only when necessary to prevent misreading of text (Chicago 5.1-2).

Writers should consult Chicago for guidance in specific instances, but the following are reminders for special situations:

Typography: For italicized text appearing in a sentence that is otherwise in Roman characters see guidelines in Chicago 5.4-6.

Quotation marks: See Chicago (5.11-13, 5.20, 5.28, 5.86-87, 5.96, 5.104) for guidance on using quotation marks with periods, commas, semi-colons, question marks, and exclamation points. In almost all cases periods and commas are placed inside quotation marks, semi-colons outside, and question marks and exclamation points inside or outside depending on the intent of the punctuation.

Framework elements named in running text should be capitalized, but should not be enclosed in quotation marks. Thus: For further details see Acknowledgments.

Commas in a series (Chicago 5.57-61):

• Separate any list of three or more elements in a series with commas. If a conjunction joins the last two elements in the series, a comma is used before the conjunction:

  We have a choice of copper, silver, or gold.

• When the elements in a series are simple and all joined by conjunctions, no commas should be used:

  It is not known if the letter was written by Hamilton or Burr or someone else.

• When the elements in a series are long and complex, or involve internal punctuation, they should all be separated by semicolons (Chicago 5.94).

Other uses and rules for commas are described in Chicago 5.30-65.

Em dashes (Chicago 5.105-19): Use two hyphens to indicate an em dash in running text:

Because the data had not yet been completely analyzed--the reason for this will be discussed later--the publication of the report was delayed.

Warning: certain word-processing programs have default settings that automatically convert two hyphens to something else. WordPerfect, for example, converts two hyphens to its own format of em dash, which is later lost when the WP document is converted to ASCII for HTML markup. This default setting can be turned off.

Ellipsis points (Chicago 10.48-63):

• When appearing in the middle of a sentence, these should be written as . . . (that is, space dot space dot space dot):

  e.g., When I was four years old . . . I was brought from Boston to New York.

• At the end of a sentence, an ellipsis should be written as . . . . (that is, space dot space dot space dot space dot space):

  e.g., When I was four years old . . . I was brought to New York. My first sight of the Big Apple is forever imprinted on my memory . . . .

  Warning: certain word-processing programs have default settings that automatically convert . . . (three periods) to something else. WordPerfect, for example, converts . . . to its own format of ellipsis points, which is later lost when the WP document is converted to ASCII for HTML markup. This default setting can be turned off.

Hyphens: Correct hyphenation is one of the trickiest and most time-consuming tasks a writer or editor faces. As the language changes, conventions of hyphenation change with it. The earlier trend of stately progression from open compound to hyphenated word to closed compound has shifted toward a more rapid progression from open compound to closed compound, often skipping the hyphenated stage altogether. Writers should consult Chicago (6.32-6.42 and especially table 6.1), and, as Chicago recommends, a good dictionary.

• NDLP house style makes one exception to the guides given in Chicago. In the case of compound proper nouns, such as "French Canadian" or "African American," the compound should be unhyphenated when used as a noun, but if it is used as an adjective before another noun it should be hyphenated, as in "French-Canadian folk songs" or "African-American newspapers."

(Top) September 1999