Punctuation
This is a quick overview. See the Australian Government's Style Manual for more details.
Apostrophes
(') are used in possessives ("the University of Sydney's Faculty of Architecture") and to denote an omission ("the geologists partied to rock 'n' roll music").
As a general rule, University style is to use an apostrophe after a person's name that ends with an 's' or 'z' sound (for example, Jones's or Marx's).
Colons
(:) are used to indicate the start of a list.
Commas
(,) are used to separate clauses in a sentence, and to break up lists of words. They should not be over-used, nor should they be omitted when doing so may change the meaning of a sentence.
Ellipses
( … ) denote an omission or the removal of words. They can also be used to indicate that a list could continue or that a thought has trailed off ... University style is to use a space before and after the ellipse. With the exception of quotation marks, question marks and exclamation marks, no punctuation should follow an ellipsis.
En dashes
(–) are used to set apart parenthetic elements or to show spans.
University style is to use a spaced en dash for parenthetic elements. For example: "The first time Jane saw the Quadrangle – and she had seen many grand buildings in her time – she was impressed."
En dashes are also used in spans of dates (for example 1994–98).
A longer dash, the em dash, is used in more formal publications, although its use is less common now than in the past. University style is to replace with an en dash.
An en dash is different from a hyphen, which links compounds (see below).
Finding the en dash
On a PC an en dash can be inserted by pressing the CTRL key and the minus key on the numeric keypad. On a Mac, an en dash can be inserted by pressing ALT and the hyphen key.
When the autocorrect function is turned on, Microsoft Word automatically substitutes an en dash whenever two hyphens are typed in succession (provided there is a space on either side of the double hyphen).
Exclamation marks
(!) should be used sparingly (after actual exclamations) and only ever singly.
Hyphens
(-) are most frequently used to link compound words. There is no set rule for using hyphens, but the following principles are widely accepted.
- Restrict the use of hyphens as much as possible. The better established the formation, the lesser the need for a hyphen to link its components.
- Compound adjectives are typically hyphenated, for example "fee-paying student" or "full-fee-paying students".
- Adverbs that end -ly are not hyphenated ("newly discovered").
- Where a word is commonly used both with and without a hyphen (for example co(-)ordinate), University style is to omit the hyphen.
- Hyphenate two adjectives or an adjective and a present or past participle when they are paired to form a new adjective (for example a light-red shirt, a good-looking man, a well-respected student).
Semicolons
(;) are used to separate two thoughts in a sentence, or to separate items in a list where commas could cause confusion (for example in a list of items that already includes commas).
Quotation marks
(" ", ' ') are used when referring to a chapter, article, essay or lecture title.
Use double quotation marks for quoted material, with single quotation marks for quotes appearing within quotes, ironic emphasis or colloquial or coined usages. For example:
"The sector will experience a 'cost disease' as wages grow."
In some headings and feature quotes, double quotation marks can look cumbersome – single marks can be used at the discretion of the designer or editor.
When quoting a long piece of text (more than two sentences or 50 words), indent it. These block quotations do not need quotation marks.
Punctuating quotes:
- If the punctuation mark is part of the quote, keep it within the quotation marks. For example: "Are you going to apply for the position?" the chair asked.
- If the punctuation is not part of the quote, place it outside the final quotation mark as in the following example: Telegraphy has been called 'the Victorian internet'; it was the first application of electricity.
- Where a quote is in parentheses or between dashes, place the quote marks inside the parentheses or dashes, as in the following example: His exact words ("We will never surrender") showed his determination.