The Penguin Guide To Punctuation PDF

P E N G U I N REFERENCE
The Penguin Guide to Punctuation
R . L. Trask was b o m in w estern N e w Y o rk State in 1944.

F or som e years he pursued a career in chem istry in the U S A
and in T urkey. In 1970 he cam e to E ngland and sw itched to
linguistics, obtaining his P h.D . from the U niversity o f
L o n d o n in 1983. H e taught linguistics at the U niversity o f
Liverpool from 1979 to 1988, since w h e n he has taught in
the School o f C o g nitiv e and C o m p u tin g Sciences at the U n i
versity o f Sussex. His special interests are historical linguistics,
gram m ar and the Basque language. H e is the au th o r o f a
n u m b e r o f books, including A Dictionary o f Grammatical Terms
in Linguistics, Language Change, Language: The Basics, A Dic
tionary of Phonetics and Phonology, Historical Linguistics, The
History of Basque, The Penguin Dictionary of English Grammar and
Mind the Gaffe. H e is tired o f reading poorly punctuated w ork,
and he hopes this bo ok will help.
R. L. Trask
The Penguin Guide
to Punctuation
©
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements viii
To the Reader ix
C h ap ter i Why Learn to Punctuate? i
C h ap ter 2 The Full Stop, the Question M ark and

the Exclamation Mark 5
2.1 T h e Full Stop 5
2.2 T h e Q u e stio n M ark 8
2.3 T h e E xclam ation M ark 9
2.4 A Final P o in t 11
2.5 Fragm ents 12
C h ap ter 3 The Comma 13

3.1 T h e Listing C o m m a 13
3.2 T h e Jo in in g C o m m a 17
3.3 T h e G apping C o m m a 19
3.4 B racketing C om m as 21
3.5 Sum m ary o f C om m as 33
C h ap ter 4 The Colon and the Semicolon 38

4.1 T h e C o lo n 38
vi The Penguin Guide to Punctuation
4.2 T h e Sem icolon 41

4-3 T h e C o lo n and the S em icolon
C o m p are d 45
C h ap ter 5 The Apostrophe 48

5-1 C ontractions 49
S-2 U nusual Plurals 54
5-3 Possessives 56
C h ap ter 6 The Hyphen and the Dash 59

6.1 T he H yphen 59
6.2 T h e D ash 68
C h ap ter 7 Capital Letters and Abbreviations
7 -i C apital Letters 73
7.2 A bbreviations 85
C h ap ter 8 Quotation Marks 94

8.1 Q u o ta tio n M arks and D irect
Q u otations 94
8.2 Scare Q u o tes 107
8.3 Q u o ta tio n M arks in Titles ]
8.4 T alking A b o u t W o rd s no
C h ap ter 9 Miscellaneous 113

9-1 Italics 113
9.2 Boldface 117
9-3 Small Capitals 118
9-4 Parentheses 119
9-5 Square Brackets 122
Table of Contents vii
9.6 T h e Ellipsis 123

9.7 T h e Slash 124
9.8 N um erals, Fractions and Dates 125
9.9 Diacritics 129
9.10 T h e O th e r M arks o n Y o u r
K eyboard 132
9.11 P riority A m o n g P u n ctu atio n M arks 135
C h ap ter 10 Punctuating Essays and Letters 138

10.1 Titles and Section H eadings 138
10.2 F ootnotes 141
10.3 R eferences to P ublished W o rk 145
10.4 B ibliography 149
10.5 Paragraphing 154
10.6 P unctu atin g Letters 155
Bibliography 157
Other Useful Works on Punctuation 158
Index 159
Acknowledgements
I am in debted to Lisa W ale, M ax W heeler, R ich ard Coates,

M argaret C ro w th e r and an anonym ous reader for th eir valu
able com m ents o n earlier drafts o f this b oo k , and to Lisa W ale
for p roviding m any o f the examples, and to D onald W ilson
for a splendid jo b o f copy-editing. A ny rem aining short
com ings are m y o w n responsibility.
To the Reader
T h e b o o k in y o u r hand is a textb ook, and it is w ritten for

people w h o find p u n ctu a tio n difficult. I f y o u ’re n o t too sure
w h ere com m as o u g h t to go, if y o u ’re puzzled by colons and
semicolons, if hyphens and apostrophes are som ething o f a
m ystery to you, th en this b o o k is for you.
T h e b o o k starts at the begin ning and assumes no k n o w
ledge o f p u n ctu a tio n at all. Each p u n ctu a tio n m ark is in tro
duced in turn; its p ro p e r use is described w ith the aid o f lots
o f examples; w h erev er possible I give y o u som e simple rules
for checking y o u r punctuation.
T h e space d evo ted to each p u n ctu a tio n m ark reflects the
degree o f difficulty that m ost people have w ith it. F or
exam ple, apostrophes and bracketing com m as, w h ich
b etw e en th em probably account for about h alf o f all p u n c tu
ation mistakes, receive a great deal o f discussion, w hile
question m arks are dealt w ith m u ch m o re briefly, since hardly
anybody finds th e m difficult.
A notable feature o f the b o o k is its inclusion o f m any
examples w h ich are badly punctuated. T hese are always
m arked w ith an asterisk (* ) , and the text explains in each
x The Penguin Guide to Punctuation
case w h at is w rong. All o f the m ost frequent p u n ctu a tio n

mistakes are treated in this way.
T h e p u n ctu a tio n described here is the style w h ich is cur
rently the n o rm in Britain and the C o m m o n w ealth . Standard
A m erican usage differs in a few respects; in these cases,
A m erican usage is also described, b u t examples o f specif
ically A m erican pu n ctu atio n are always m arked as follows:
(A). If y ou are w riting expressly for an A m erican audience,
you should follow the A m erican norm s.
T h e b o o k also covers a few topics w h ich are n o t strictly
aspects o f p u n ctuation, such as the p ro p e r use o f capital letters,
o f contractions and abbreviations and o f diacritics. T h e last
chapter goes o n to explain the p ro p e r w ay to handle titles,
footnotes, references and bibliographies, and it also covers
the p u n ctu a tio n o f personal and business letters.
Since m any people these days do m ost o f their w riting at
a keyboard, and especially w ith a w o rd processor, this b o o k
also explains the p ro p e r use o f italics, boldface, small capitals
and the special characters available o n a w o rd processor.
Chapter 1
Why Learn to Punctuate?
W h y should y o u learn to p u nctuate properly? After all, m any

people have m ade successful careers w ith o u t ever learning
the difference b etw e en a colon and a sem icolon. Perhaps
y o u consider p u n ctu a tio n to be an inconsequential bit o f
decoration, n o t w o rth spending y o u r valuable tim e on. O r
perhaps you even regard p u n ctu a tio n as a deeply personal
m atter — a m ode o f self-expression n o t unlike y o u r taste in
clothes o r music.
W ell, p u n ctu a tio n is one aspect o f w ritten English. H o w
do y o u feel about o th er aspects o f w ritten English? W o u ld
you happily w rite pair w h e n you m ean pear, because y ou
thin k the first is a nicer spelling? W o u ld you, in an essay,
w rite Einstein were a right clever lad, ye were, ju st because th a t’s
the w ay people speak w h ere y ou com e from? W o u ld yo u
consider it acceptable to w rite proceed w h e n y ou m ean precede,
o r vice versa, because y o u ’ve never u nderstood the difference
b etw een them ? Probably n o t —at least, I h ope not.
Y et it is quite possible that yo u do things that are every
bit as strange and bew ildering w h e n y o u punctuate y o u r
w riting. Perhaps y o u use com m as in w h at w e shall soon see
2 The Penguin Guide to Punctuation
are surprising places, m erely because y o u thin k y o u m ight

pause there in speech. Perhaps y o u use sem icolons w h ere
y o u should be using colons, because y o u ’ve never quite
understo od the difference b etw e en them . O r perhaps, if
y o u ’re really co m m itted to p u n ctu a tio n as self-expression,
y o u ju st stick in w hatev er p u n ctu a tio n takes y o u r fancy,
because it’s your piece o f w o rk, and so it ou g h t to have your
punctuation.
T h e p roblem w ith p o o r p u n ctu a tio n is that it makes life
difficult for the reader w h o needs to read w h at y o u ’ve w rit
ten. T h at reader sh ouldn’t have to m ake allowances for y o u r
personal tastes in spelling and gram m ar: she expects to see
standard English spellings and standard English gram m atical
forms. A n d the same is true for punctuation: she is m ost
unlikely to k n o w w h at y o u r personal theories o f p u n ctu a tio n
are, and she w o n ’t be interested in them . S he’ll only be
interested in understanding w h at y o u ’ve w ritten, and she’s
going to have trouble understanding it i f it’s badly p u n c
tuated.
W h e n w e speak English, w e have all sorts o f things w e can
use to m ake o u r m eaning clear: stress, intonation, rhythm ,
pauses - even, if all else fails, repeating w hat w e ’ve said.
W h e n w e w rite, how ever, w e can’t use any o f these devices,
and the w o rk that they do in speech m ust be almost entirely
handled by p u nctuation. C onsequently, w ritten English has
developed a conventional system o f p u n ctu atio n w h ich is
consistent and sensible: every p u n ctu a tio n m ark has one or
m ore particular jo b s to do, and every one should be used
Why Learn to Punctuate? 3
always and only to do those jobs. If y o u r reader has to w ade

th ro u g h y o u r strange p u nctuation, she will have trouble fol
low ing y o u r m eaning; at w orst, she m ay be genuinely unable
to understand w hat y o u ’ve w ritten. I f y o u think I’m exag
gerating, consider the follow ing string o f w ords, and try to
decide w hat it’s supposed to mean:
W e had one p ro b lem only Janet k n ew w e faced

bankruptcy
H ave y ou decided? N o w consider this string again w ith dif

fering punctuation:
W e had one problem : only Janet k n ew w e faced

bankruptcy.
W e had one pro b lem only: Janet k n e w w e faced
bankruptcy.
W e had one p ro b lem only, Jan et knew : w e faced
bankruptcy.
W e had one pro b lem only Janet k n ew w e faced:
bankruptcy.
Are you satisfied that all four o f these have com pletely differ
ent meanings? If so, perhaps you have som e inkling o f h o w
badly yo u can confuse y o u r reader by p u nctuating poorly.
W h a t is the reader supposed to m ake o f som e feeble effort
like this?
* W e had one pro b lem only, Janet k n ew w e faced

bankruptcy.
(R em em b er, an asterisk is used to m ark a sentence w h ich is

p o orly punctuated, or w h ich is otherw ise defective.)
B ad p u n ctu a tio n does n o t require an enorm ous effort to
p u t right. If y o u w o rk carefully th ro u g h this b ook, then,
providing y o u thin k carefully abou t w h at y o u ’re w ritin g as
y o u w rite it, y o u will u n doub tedly find that y o u r p u n ctu a tio n
has im p rov ed a great deal. Y o u r readers will thank yo u for it
ever after.
Chapter 2
The Full Stop, the Question Mark and the
Exclamation Mark
2.1 The Full Stop
T h e full stop (.), also called the period, presents few problem s.
It is chiefly used to m ark the end o f a sentence expressing a
statem ent, as in the follow ing examples:
T erry P ratch e tt’s latest b o o k is n o t yet o u t in paperback.

I asked h er w h e th e r she could tell m e the w ay to
B righton.
C hinese, uniquely am o ng the w o rld ’s languages, is
w ritten in a logographic script.
T h e British and the Irish drive on the left; all o th er
Europeans drive o n the right.
N o te h o w the full stops are used in the follow ing article,

extracted from the Guardian:
T h e o p ening o f K en L oach’s film R iff-R a ff in N e w Y o rk

casts do u b t o n W in sto n C h u rch ill’s observation that the
U n ite d States and B ritain w ere tw o countries separated by
a c o m m o n language. In w hat m ust be a first, an entire
British film has b ee n given sub-titles to help Am ericans cut
th ro u g h the thick stew o f Glaswegian, G eordie, L iverpud

lian, W est African and W est Indian accents. W ith the
arrival o f Riff-Raff, English as spoken by m any British
citizens has qualified as a foreign language in the U S .
A dm ittedly, the accents o n the screen w o u ld present a
challenge to m any people raised o n the Q u e e n ’s English.
B ut it is disconcerting to w atch a B ritish film w ith sub
titles, n o t unlike w atching M arlon B rando d ubb ed into
Italian.
T h ere is one c o m m o n error y o u m ust w atch o u t for. H e re is

an exam ple o f it (rem em ber, an asterisk marks a badly p u n c tu
ated sentence):
* N o rw ay has applied for E C m em bership, S w eden is

expected to do the same.
C an y o u see w h a t’s w ro n g w ith this? Yes, there are tw o

com plete statem ents here, b u t the first one has been p u n c tu
ated only w ith a com m a. This is n o t possible, and som ething
needs to be changed. T h e simplest w ay o f fixing the exam ple
is to change the com m a to a full stop:
N o rw ay has applied for E C m em bership. S w eden is

N o w each statem ent has its o w n full stop. This is correct, b u t

y o u m ight consider it clumsy to use tw o short sentences in a
row . If so, y o u can change the bad exam ple in a different
way:
The Full Stop, the Question Mark and the Exclamation Mark 7
N o rw ay has applied for E C m em bership, and S w eden is

This tim e w e have used the co nnecting w o rd and to com bine

the tw o short statem ents into one lo n g er statem ent, and so
n o w w e n eed only one full stop at the end.
H e re are som e furth er examples o f this very co m m o n
error:
* Bangladesh is one o f the w o rld ’s poorest countries, its

annual inco m e is only $80 p er person.
* T h e British are notoriously bad at learning foreign
languages, the D u tc h are famously go o d at it.
* T h e proposal to introduce rock m usic to R ad io 3 has
caused an outcry, angry letters have b een p o u rin g
into the B B C .
* B org w o n his fifth straight W im b led o n title in 1980,
the follow ing year he lost in the final to M cE nroe.
All o f these examples suffer from the same problem : a com m a

has been used to jo in tw o com plete sentences. In each case,
either the com m a should be replaced by a full stop, o r a
suitable con necting w o rd should be added, such as and or
while.
In C h ap ter 4, I ’ll explain an o th er w ay o f punctu atin g these
sentences, by using a sem icolon.
Full stops are also som etim es used in p unctu atin g abbrevi
ations; this is discussed in C h ap ter 7.
Summary of full stops
• Put a full stop at the end of a complete statement.

• Do not connect two statements with a comma.
2.2 The Question Mark
A question mark (?) is placed at the end o f a sentence w h ich is

a direct question. H ere are som e examples:
W h a t is the capital o f Wales?

D oes anyone have a p en I can borrow ?
W h o told y o u that?
In w h ich country did coffee originate?
If the question is a direct quotation, repeating the speaker’s

exact w ords, a question m ark is still used:
‘H ave yo u a p en I can b o rro w ?’ she asked.

‘H o w m any o f y o u have pets at h o m e?’ inquired the
teacher.
B u t a question m ark is not used in an indirect question, in

w h ich the speaker’s exact w ords are n o t repeated:
She asked if I had a p en she could borrow .

T h e teacher asked h o w m any o f us had pets at hom e.
H ere only a full stop is used, since the w ho le sentence is n o w

a statem ent.
T h e question m ark also has one m in o r use: it m ay be

inserted into the m iddle o f som ething, inside parentheses, to
show that som ething is uncertain. H e re are tw o examples:
T h e famous allegorical p o em Piers Plowman is attributed

to W illiam Langland (?I332—?I400).
T h e Lerga inscription fascinatingly contains the personal
nam e Vmme Sahar (?), w h ich looks like perfect Basque.
T h e question marks on the p o e t’s birth and death dates indic

ate that those dates are n o t certain, and the one in the second
exam ple indicates that the reading o f the nam e is possibly
doubtful.
Summary of question marks
• Use a question mark at the end of a direct question.

• Do not use a question mark at the end of an indirect
question.
• Use an internal question mark to show that something is
uncertain.
2.3 The Exclamation Mark
T h e exclamation mark (!), k n o w n inform ally as a bang o r a

shriek, is used at the en d o f a sentence or a short phrase w h ich
expresses very strong feeling. H ere are som e examples:
W h a t a lovely v iew y o u have here!

T h a t’s fantastic!
Jo h n n y , d o n ’t to u ch that!
Help!
G o o d heavens!
Aaarrgh!
Exam ples like these are quite norm al in those kinds o f w riting
that try to represent ordinary speech - for exam ple, in novels.
B u t exclam ation marks are usually o u t o f place in formal
w riting. U sing th em frequently will give y o u r w o rk a b reath
less, almost childish, quality.
A n exclam ation m ark is also usual after an exclam ation
beginning w ith what or how:
W h a t fools people can be!

H o w well Marshall b ow led yesterday!
N o te that such sentences are exclam ations, and n o t state

m ents. C o m pare th em w ith statements:
People can be such fools.

Marshall b ow led very well yesterday.
Y o u can also use an exclam ation m ark to show that a state

m en t is very surprising:
After m onths o f careful w ork, the scientists finally o pened

the tom b. It was empty!
It is also permissible to use an exclam ation m ark to draw

attention to an interruption:
O n the (rare!) occasion w h e n y o u use a Latin

abbreviation, be sure to p unctuate it properly.
O therw ise, y ou should generally avoid using exclam ation

marks in y o u r form al w riting. D o n ’t w rite things like this:
^ D o n o t use exclam ation marks in form al writing!

* In 1848, gold was discovered in California!
D o n ’t use an exclam ation m ark unless y o u ’re certain it’s

necessary —and never use tw o or three o f th em in a row:
* This is a sensational result!!!
This sort o f thing is all right in personal letters, b u t it is

com pletely o u t o f place in formal w riting.
Summary of exclamation marks
• Don't use an exclamation mark unless it's absolutely

necessary.
• Use an exclamation mark after an exclamation, especially
after one beginning with what or how.
2.4 A Final Point
N o te that a full stop, a question m ark o r an exclam ation m ark

is never preceded by a w hite space. T hings like the follow ing
are wrong:
* H o w w ell has D a rw in ’s theory stood up ?
A sentence-final pun ctu atio n m ark is always w ritten next to

the last w o rd o f the sentence.
2.5 Fragments
A fragment is a w o rd or a phrase w h ich stands by itself b u t

w h ich does n o t m ake up a com plete sentence. Fragm ents are
very co m m o n in ordinary speech, in advertisem ents and even
in newspapers. T h ey m ay be used very sparingly in formal
w riting; w h e n used, they should be follow ed by a full stop, a
question m ark o r an exclam ation m ark, as appropriate:
W ill the Star W ars project ever be resum ed? Probably

not.
W e need to encourage investm ent in m anufacturing. B u t
how ?
C an England beat Australia? Absolutely!
T h e judicious use o f fragments can add vividness to y o u r

w riting, and they are quite acceptable in w riting w h ich is
som ew hat inform al. B ut d o n ’t overdo them : if y ou use to o
m any fragments, y o u r w o rk will b ecom e breathless and dis
jo in ted.
Chapter 3
The Comma
T h e comma (,) is very frequently used and very frequently

used w rongly. In fact, the rules for using com m as are really
rather simple, th o u g h com plicated by the fact that the com m a
has four distinct uses. T o begin w ith, forget anything y o u ’ve
ever b een told ab out using a com m a ‘w h erev er y ou w o u ld
pause’, or anything o f the sort; this w ell-m eaning advice is
hopelessly misleading. In this book, the four uses o f the
com m a are called the listing comma, the joining comma, the
gapping comma and bracketing commas. Each use has its o w n
rules, b u t note that a com m a is never preceded by a w hite
space and always follow ed by a w hite space.
3.1 The Listing Comma
T h e listing comma is used as a kind o f substitute for the w o rd

and, o r som etim es for or. It occurs in tw o slightly different
circumstances. First, it is used in a list w h e n three o r m o re
w ords, phrases o r even com plete sentences are jo in e d by the
w o rd and or or; w e m ig h t call this construction an X , Y and
Z list:
T h e T h ree M usketeers w ere Athos, P orthos and Aramis.

H ungarian is spoken in H ungary, in w estern R u m an ia, in
n o rth ern Serbia and in parts o f Austria and Slovakia.
Y o u can fly to B om bay via M oscow , via A thens or via
Cairo.
Lisa speaks French, Juliet speaks Italian and I speak
Spanish.
W e spent o u r evenings chatting in the cafes, w atching the
sun set over the harbour, stuffing ourselves w ith the
local crabs and getting pleasantly sloshed o n retsina.
N o te that in all these examples the com m as could be replaced

by the w o rd and o r or, th o u g h the result w o u ld be rather
clumsy:
T h e T h ree M usketeers w ere A thos and Porthos and

Aramis.
H ungarian is spoken in H un gary and in w estern
R u m an ia and in n o rth ern Serbia and in parts o f Austria
and Slovakia.
Y o u can fly to B om bay via M oscow or via A thens o r via
Cairo.
Lisa speaks F rench and Juliet speaks Italian and I speak
Spanish.
W e spent o u r evenings chatting in the cafes and
w atching the sun set over the h arb o u r and stuffing
ourselves w ith the local crabs and getting pleasantly
sloshed on retsina.
O bserve that y o u can co nnect three o r m ore com plete sen

The Comma 15
tences w ith listing com m as, as in the Lisa/Juliet exam ple

above. N o te the difference here:
Lisa speaks French, Juliet speaks Italian and I speak

Spanish.
* Lisa speaks French, Juliet speaks Italian.
R e m e m b e r, y ou m ust not jo in tw o com plete sentences w ith

a com m a, bu t three o r m ore com plete sentences m ay be
jo in e d w ith listing com m as plus and o r or.
N o te also that it is n o t usual in B ritish usage to p u t a listing
com m a before, the w o rd and o r or itself (though A m erican
usage regularly puts one there). So, in B ritish usage, it is not
usual to w rite
(A) T h e T h re e M usketeers w ere A thos, Porthos, and

Aramis.
This is reasonable, since the listing com m a is a substitute for

the w o rd and, n o t an addition to it. H o w ev er, y ou should
p u t a com m a in this position if doing so w o u ld m ake y o u r
m eaning clearer:
M y favourite opera com posers are Verdi, Puccini,

M ozart, and G ilbert and Sullivan.
H e re the com m a before and shows clearly that G ilbert and

Sullivan w o rk e d together. I f y ou om it the com m a, the result
m ig ht be confusing:
* M y favourite opera com posers are Verdi, Puccini,

M ozart and G ilbert and Sullivan.
H ere, the reader m igh t possibly take M ozart and G ilbert as

the pair w h o w o rk e d together. T h e extra com m a rem oves
the problem .
A listing com m a is also used in a list o f m odifiers w h ich all
m odify the same thing. This tim e there will usually be no and
present at all, b u t again such a com m a could be replaced by
and w ith o u t destroying the sense:
This is a provocative, disturbing boo k.

H e r long, dark, glossy hair fascinated m e.
T ry replacing the com m as by and:
This is a provocative and disturbing book.

H e r long and dark and glossy hair fascinated m e.
T h e sense is unchanged, th o u g h the second exam ple, at least,

is m u ch clum sier w ith o u t the com m as.
O bserve the difference in the n ex t tw o examples:
She gave m e an antique ivory box.

I prefer Australian red w ines to all others.
This tim e there are no com m as. It w o u ld be w ro n g to w rite
* She gave m e an antique, ivory box.

* I prefer Australian, red w ines to all others.
W h y the difference? In these examples, a listing com m a

cannot be used because there is no list: the w o rd and cannot
possibly be inserted:
* She gave m e an antique and ivory box.

The Comma 17
• I prefer Australian and red w ines to all others.
T h e reason for the difference is that the m odifiers this tim e

do n o t m odify the same thing. In the first exam ple, ivory
m odifies box, b u t antique m odifies ivory box, n o t ju st box. In
the second exam ple, Australian m odifies red wines, n o t ju st
wines.
So the rules are clear:
• Use a listing comma in a list wherever you could

conceivably use the word and (or or) instead. Do not use a
listing comma anywhere else.
• Put a listing comma before and or or only if this is necessary
to make your meaning clear.
3.2 The Joining Comma
T h e joining comma is only slightly different from the listing

com m a. It is used to jo in tw o com plete sentences into a single
sentence, and it m ust be follow ed by a suitable connecting
w ord. T h e con n ectin g w ords w h ich can be used in this w ay
are and, or, but, while and yet. H ere are som e examples:
N o rw ay has applied to jo in the E C , and Sw eden is

Y o u m ust h and in y o u r essay by Friday, o r y o u will
receive a m ark o f zero.
B ritain has lo ng b e e n isolated in E urope, b u t n o w she is
beginning to find allies.
Billions o f dollars have b een hurled into the Star W ars

projects, yet w e appear to have n o th in g to show for
this colossal expenditure.
A dro pped goal counts three points in rugby union , w hile
in rugby league it only counts one point.
R e m e m b e r, as I p o in ted ou t in section 2.1, yo u cannot jo in

tw o sentences w ith a com m a unless y o u also use one o f these
connecting w ords. All o f the follow ing examples are therefore
wrong:
* Bangladesh is one o f the w o rld ’s poorest countries, its

annual incom e is only $80 p er person.
* T h e British are notoriously bad at learning foreign
languages, the D u tc h are famously go o d at it.
* T h e proposal to in tro duce rock m usic to R a d io 3 has
caused an outcry, angry letters have b ee n p o u rin g
into the B B C .
* B org w o n his fifth straight W im b led o n title in 1980,
the follow ing year he lost in the final to M cE nroe.
J o in in g tw o com plete sentences w ith a com m a in this w ay is

one o f the co m m onest o f all p u n ctu a tio n errors, b u t one o f
the easiest to avoid if y ou pay a little attention to w hat y o u ’re
w riting. E ith er y o u m ust follow the com m a w ith one o f the
connectin g w ords listed above, o r y o u m ust replace the
com m a w ith a sem icolon, as explained in C h ap ter 4 below .
N o te also that m ost o th er co n nectin g w ords cannot be
preceded by a jo in in g com m a. F or exam ple, the co nnectin g
w ords however, therefore, hence, consequently, nevertheless and thus
The Comma 19
cannot be used after a jo in in g com m a. H e n ce the follow ing

examples are also wrong:
* Saturn was long th o u g h t to be the only ringed planet,

how ever, this is n o w k n o w n n o t to be the case.
* T w o m em bers o f the expedition w ere too ill to
continue, nevertheless the others decided to press on.
* Liverpool are five points b eh in d the leaders, therefore
they m ust w in b o th their rem aining games.
Sentences like these once again require, n o t a com m a, b u t a

sem icolon, as explained in C h ap ter 4.
T h e rule is again easy:
* Use a joining comma to join two complete sentences with

one of the words and, or, but, yet or while. Do not use a
joining comma in any other way.
3.3 The Gapping Comma
T h e gapping com m a is very easy. W e use a gapping com m a

to show that one o r m o re w ords have been left ou t w h e n the
missing w ords w o u ld simply repeat the w ords already used
earlier in the sarfie sentence. H ere is an example:
Som e N orw egians w an ted to base their national language

on the speech o f the capital city; others, on the speech
o f the rural countryside.
T h e gapping co m m a here shows that the w ords wanted to base

their national language, w h ich m ight have b ee n repeated, have

instead been om itted. This sentence is equivalent to a longer
sentence like this:
Som e N orw egians w anted to base their national language

on the speech o f the capital city; others w anted to base
it o n the speech o f the rural countryside.
H e re is an o th er exam ple, w hich contains b o th listing com m as

and gapping commas:
Italy is famous for her com posers and musicians, France,

for h er chefs and philosophers, and Poland, for her
m athem aticians and logicians.
(H ere I have inserted a listing com m a before and for the sake
o f clarity.)
G apping com m as are n o t always strictly necessary: y o u can
leave th em o u t if the sentence is perfectly clear w ith o u t them :
Italy is famous for h er com posers and musicians, France

for h er chefs and philosophers, and Poland for her
m athem aticians and logicians.
Use y o u r ju d g em en t: if a sentence seems clear w ith o u t

gapping com m as, d o n ’t use them ; i f y ou have doubts, p u t
them in.
The Comma 21
3.4 Bracketing Commas
Bracketing commas (also called isolating commas) do a very

different jo b from the o th er three types. T hese are the m ost
frequently used type o f com m a, and they cause m o re p ro b
lems than the o th er types p u t together. T h e rule is this: a pair
o f bracketing com m as is used to m ark o ff a w eak in terru p tio n
o f the sentence - that is, an in terru p tio n w h ich does n o t dis
turb the sm ooth flow o f the sentence. N o te that w o rd
‘p air’: bracketing com m as, in principle at least, always occur
in pairs, th o u g h som etim es one o f th e m is n o t w ritten, as
explained below . L ook carefully at these examples o f bracket
ing commas:
T hese findings, w e w o u ld suggest, cast d o u b t u p o n his

hypothesis.
Schliem ann, o f course, did his digging before m o d ern
archaeology was invented.
P ratchett has, it w o u ld seem, ab andoned R in c e w in d the
w izard to the ravages o f the D iscw orld.
D a rw in ’s Origin o f Species, published in 1859,
revolutionized biological thinking.
T h e Pakistanis, like the Australians before them , have
exposed the shortcom ings o f the E ngland batting
order.
R u p e rt B rooke, w h o was killed in the w ar at the age o f
tw enty-eight, was one o f o u r finest poets.
W e have b een forced to conclude, after careful study o f
the data, that the proposed correlations, in spite o f their

obvious appeal, do n o t stand up.
In each case a w eak in terru p tio n has b ee n set off by a pair o f

bracketing com m as. (T he last exam ple has tw o w eak
interruptions.) N o w notice som ething im portant: in every
one o f these examples, the w eak in terru p tio n set o ff by
bracketing com m as could, in principle, be rem o v ed from the
sentence, and the result w o u ld still be a com plete sentence
that m ade good sense. T ry this w ith som e o f the examples:
These findings cast d o u b t u p o n his hypothesis.

P ratchett has abandoned R in c e w in d the w izard to the
ravages o f the D iscw orld.
T h e Pakistanis have exposed the shortcom ings o f the
E ngland batting order.
W e have b een forced to conclude that the proposed
correlations do n o t stand up.
This is always the case w ith bracketing com m as, and it gives
y o u a simple w ay o f checking y o u r p u nctuatio n. If y o u have
set o ff som e w ords w ith a pair o f bracketing com m as, and
y o u find yo u can’t rem o ve those w ords w ith o u t destroying
the sentence, y o u have d on e som ething w rong. H e re is an
exam ple o f w ro n g use, taken from C arey (1958):
* Y et, outside that door, lay a w ho le n e w w orld.
If y o u try to rem ove the w ords outside that door, the result is
* Yet lay a whole new world, w h ich is n o t a sentence. T h e
The Comma 23
p rob lem here is that outside that door is n o t an in terru p tio n at

all: it’s an essential part o f the sentence. So, the bracketing
com m as sho uldn ’t be there. Just get rid o f them :
Y et outside that d o o r lay a w ho le n e w w orld.
H e re is anoth er example:
* She groped for h er cigarettes, and finding them , hastily

lit one.
This tim e, if y ou try to rem ove the w ords and finding them,
the result is * She groped for her cigarettes hastily lit one, w h ich
is again n o t a sentence. T h e p rob lem is that the in terru p tio n
in this sentence is only the sequence finding them; the w o rd
and is n o t part o f the in terrup tion, b u t an essential part o f the
sentence. So m ov e the first com m a:
She groped for h er cigarettes and, finding them , hastily lit

one.
N o w check that the in terru p tio n has b een correctly m arked

off:
She groped for h er cigarettes and hastily lit one.
This is a g oo d sentence, so y ou have n o w got the bracketing

com m as in the right places.
Since bracketing com m as really do confuse m any people,
le t’s look at som e further examples:
* Stanley was a determ ined, even ruthless figure.

W h a t’s w ro n g here? W ell, that co m m a can’t possibly be

a listing com m a, a jo in in g com m a o r a gapping com m a;
therefore it m ust be in tended as a bracketing com m a. B u t
w h ere is the in terru p tio n it is trying to bracket? It can’t be
the three w ords at the end: * Stanley was a determined is so
m u ch gibberish. In fact, the w eak in terru p tio n here is the
phrase even ruthless, and the bracketing com m as should show
this:
Stanley was a determ ined, even ruthless, figure.
T his is perfect, since n o w the bracketed in terru p tio n can be

safely rem oved:
Stanley was a d eterm ined figure.
Som etim es this very co m m o n type o f m istake will n o t disturb

y o u r reader too m uch, b u t o n occasion it can be utterly
bew ildering:
* T h e T h ird P artitio n o f P oland was the last, and

un d ou btedly the m ost hum iliating act in the sorry
decline o f the o n ce-pow erfu l kingdom .
H e re the sequence before the com m a, The Third Partition o f

Poland was the last, seems to m ake sense by itself, b u t u n fo rtu
nately n o t the sense that the w riter intends. W ith only one
com m a, the reader will surely assume the w riter m eans ‘T h e
T h ird P artition o f P oland was the last [partition o f P o lan d ]’,
will go o n to assume that the w o rd undoubtedly begins an o th er
statem ent, and w ill be left floundering w h e n she abruptly
The Comma 25
com es to a full stop instead o f a verb. T h e essential second

bracketing com m a rem oves the problem :
T h e T h ird P artition o f Poland was the last, and

u n d o ubted ly the m ost hum iliating, act in the sorry
decline o f the o nce-p o w erfu l kingdom .
H e re is another exam ple o f a type w h ich often causes trouble:
T h e people o f C ornw all, w h o d epend u p o n fishing for

their livelihood, are up in arms o ver the n e w E C
quotas.
As always, w e could in principle rem ove the bracketed in ter

ru p tio n to p rod uce a sensible sentence:
T h e people o f C ornw all are up in arms o ver the n ew E C

quotas.
B u t n ote carefully: this sentence is talking about all the people

o f C ornw all, and n o t ju st som e o f them , and hence so was
the original sentence. T h e w eak in terru p tio n in the original
sentence is m erely adding som e extra inform ation about the
people o f C ornw all. N o w consider this different example:
T h e people o f C ornw all w h o depend u p o n fishing for

their livelihood are up in arms over the n ew E C
quotas.
This tim e there are n o bracketing com m as because there is

no interruption: n o w w e are n o t talking about all the people
o f C ornw all, b u t only about some o f them : specifically, about
th e ones w h o d epend u p o n fishing for their livelihood. H e re

the phrase who depend upon fishing for their livelihood is n o t an
in terru p tio n b u t an essential part o f the sentence, and hen ce
it receives no bracketing com m as.
T h e difference illustrated by the last tw o examples is the
difference b etw e en w h at are called restrictive (or defining) relat
ive clauses and non-restrictive (or non-defining) relative clauses. A
restrictive clause is required to identify w hat is being talked
about, and it never receives bracketing com m as. A n o n -
restrictive clause is n o t required for identification, b u t only
adds further inform ation, and it always receives bracketing
com m as. H ere are som e further examples o f the difference.
First, som e non-restrictive clauses:
M argaret T hatcher, w h o hated trains, refused to consider

privatizing the railways.
T h e rings o f Saturn, w h ich can be easily seen w ith a small
telescope, are com posed o f billions o f tiny particles o f
rock.
B ertrand R ussell struck up a surprising friendship w ith
D . H . Law rence, w hose strange ideas seem ed to
fascinate him .
N o a m C hom sky is the originator o f the innateness
hypothesis, according to w h ich w e are b o rn already
k n o w in g w h at h u m an languages are like.
O bserve that, in each case, the non-restrictive clause brack

eted by com m as could be rem oved w ith o u t destroying the
sense. Each o f these clauses m erely adds m ore inform ation
The Comma 27
about M argaret T hatcher, the rings o f Saturn, D .H . Law

rence and the innateness hypothesis, and this extra inform a
tio n is n o t required to let the reader k n o w w h o or w hat is
being talked about.
T h e next few examples illustrate restrictive clauses:
T h e pictures w h ich are being sent back by the H ubble

Space Telescope m ay revolutionize o u r understanding
o f the universe.
T h e R ussian scholar Y uri K norosov has provided an
interpretation o f the M ayan inscriptions w hich is n o w
generally accepted.
Because o f problem s w ith the test, all the people w h o
w ere told they w ere H IV -n e g a tiv e are being recalled.
A nybody w h o still believes that U ri G eller has strange
pow ers should read Jam es R a n d i’s book.
H ere, w ith o u t the restrictive clauses, the reader w o u ld n o t

k n o w w hich pictures, w h ich interpretatio n or w hich people
are being talked about, and that anybody in the last exam ple
w o u ld m ake no sense at all, and so there are no bracketing
commas.
O bserve that a p ro p e r nam e always uniquely identifies the
person o r thing b eing talked about, and hence a proper nam e
never receives a restrictive clause (w ith no commas) in norm al
circumstances:
* I discussed this w ith Jo h an n a N ichols w h o is a specialist

in Caucasian languages.
H ere the clause follow ing the p ro p e r nam e Johanna Nichols

m ust be set o ff by a bracketing com m a. T h e only exception
is the special case in w h ich a p ro p e r nam e is preceded by the
to indicate that w e are talking about som e particular stage in
time:
T h e N ap o leo n w h o retreated from M o sco w was a

sadder and w iser m an than the N a p o le o n w h o had
previously k n o w n only u n b ro k e n trium ph.
Finally, note that the w o rd that can only introduce a restric

tive clause, and so a relative clause w ith that can never take
bracketing commas:
* T h e E uro p ean pow ers, that w ere busily carving up

Africa, paid no attention to the boundaries b etw e en
rival ethnic groups.
If this relative clause is in ten ded to identify the E uropean

pow ers u n d er discussion, th en the com m as should be re
m oved; if, ho w ev er, the sentence is m ean t to be about the
E uropean pow ers generally, the com m as are correct b u t the
that m ust be changed to which.
Som etim es a w eak in terru p tio n com es at the b egin ning o r
at the end o f its sentence. In such a case, one o f the tw o
bracketing com m as w o u ld logically fall at the beginnin g or
the end o f the sentence - b u t w e never w rite a com m a at the
beginning o r at the end o f a sentence. As a result, only one
o f the tw o bracketing com m as is w ritten in this case:
All in all, I th in k w e can say that w e ’ve done well.

The Comma 29
I think w e can say that w e ’ve d on e well, all in all.
W h e n the w eak in terru p tio n all in all conies at the beginning

o f the sentence, it has only a follow ing com m a; w h e n it
com es at the end, it has only a preced ing com m a. C om pare
w h at happens w h e n the in terru p tio n com es in the m iddle:
I think w e can say that, all in all, w e ’ve done well.
N o w the in terruption has tw o bracketing commas. R eg ard

less o f w here the in terru p tio n is placed, it could be rem oved
to give the perfectly go od sentence I think we can say that
we’ve done well.
H ere are som e further examples o f w eak interruptions that
com e at the beginn ing o r at the end.
A t the beginning:
H aving w o rk e d for years in Italy, Susan speaks excellent

Italian.
U nlike m ost nations, B ritain has no w ritten constitution.
A lthough M ercu ry is closer to the sun, V enus has the
higher surface tem perature.
After capturing the Aztec capital, C ortes tu rn ed his
attention to the Pacific.
A nd at the end:
T h e use o f dictionaries is n o t allowed, w h ich strikes m e

as preposterous.
T h e p ro n u n ciatio n o f English is changing rapidly, w e are
told.
T h e R o se Parade is held in Pasadena, a suburb o f Los

Angeles.
O n c e again, the w ords set o ff by a single bracketing com m a

in these examples could be rem oved to leave a good sentence.
C h eck this for yourself.
T h ere are a n u m b e r o f c o m m o n w ords w h ich typically
introduce w eak interruptions containing com plete sentences.
A m o ng the com m onest o f these are although, though, even
though, because, since, after, before, i f when and whenever. W e ak
interruptions in tro d u ced by these w ords are usually rather
long, and therefore they m ost often com e at the beginning
o r at the end o f a sentence. Som e examples:
A lthough Australian w ines are a fairly n ew

ph en o m e n o n , they have already established a
form idable reputation.
After the R o m a n legions w ith d rew from Britain, the
British fo u n d themselves defenceless against Irish and
V iking raids.
If there are any further cuts in funding, o u r library will
be severely affected.
H itler could never have invaded B ritain successfully,
because their excellent rail system w o u ld have
allowed the British to mass defenders quickly at any
beachhead.
C olum bus is usually credited w ith discovering A m erica,
even th o u g h the Vikings had preceded h im by several
centuries.
The Comma 31
T h ere is ju st one case in w h ich y o u m ight find yourself

apparently follow ing all the rules b u t still using bracketing
com m as w rongly. C onsider the follow ing exam ple, and try
to decide if the com m a is properly used:
N o te that in each o f these examples, the m aterial set off

by com m as could be rem o ved w ith o u t destroying the
sentence.
T h e com m a in this exam ple is clearly n o t a listing com m a, a

jo in in g com m a or a gapping com m a. Is it a bracketing
com m a? T ry rem o ving the w ords before the com m a:
T h e m aterial set o ff by com m as could be rem oved

w ith o u t destroying the sentence.
T his appears to be a goo d sentence, and so y ou m ight think

that the original exam ple was correctly punctuated. B ut it is
not. T h e p roblem is that the original sentence was an instruc
tion to notice som ething, and the w ords Note that are th ere
fore an essential part o f the sentence, n o t part o f the
interruption. T h e interru ption , quite clearly, consists only o f
the w ords in each o f these examples. W h e n w e tried to rem ove
the first seven w ords, w e got som ething that was a sentence,
purely by accident, b u t a sentence in w h ich the original
m eaning had b een partly destroyed. T h e original attem pt at
punctu ating was therefore w rong, and it m ust be corrected
by adding the second bracketing com m a around the inter
ruption:
N o te that, in each o f these examples, the m aterial set o ff

by com m as could be rem oved w ith o u t destroying the
sentence.
N o w the in terru p tio n m arked o ff by the bracketing com m as

can be safely rem o ved w ith o u t w recking the sense o f the
sentence:
N o te that the m aterial set o ff by com m as could be

rem oved w ith o u t destroying the sentence.
T herefore, w h e n y o u are checking y o u r bracketing com m as,

m ake sure that the w ords enclosed in com m as really do m ake
up an interru ption , and do n o t include an essential part o f the
sentence.
In m any cases a w eak in terru p tio n does n o t absolutely
require bracketing com m as. T hus either o f the follow ing is
fine:
Shortly before the war, he was living in Paris.

Shortly before the w ar he was living in Paris.
W ith o r w ith o u t the bracketing com m a, this sentence is p e r

fectly clear. Som etim es, how ever, the bracketing com m a is
absolutely essential to avoid m isleading the reader:
* Just before unloading the trucks w ere fired upon.
H ere the reader naturally takes Just before unloading the trucks as
a single phrase, and is left floundering as a result. A bracketing
com m a rem oves the difficulty:
The Comma 33
Just before unloading, the trucks w ere fired upon.
T h e best way to avoid problem s o f this sort is, o f course, to

read w hat y o u ’ve w ritten. R e m e m b e r, it is your jo b to m ake
y o u r m eaning clear to the reader. T h e reader should n o t have
to struggle to m ake sense o f w hat y o u ’ve w ritten.
H ere are the rules for using bracketing commas:
• Use a PAIR of bracketing commas to set off a weak

interruption which could be removed from the sentence
without destroying it.
• If the interruption comes at the beginning or the end of the
sentence, use only one bracketing comma.
• Make sure the words set off are really an interruption.
3.5 Summary of Commas
T h ere are four types o f com m a: the listing comma, the joining
comma, the gapping comma and bracketing commas.
A listing com m a can always be replaced by the w o rd and
o r or:
Vanessa seems to live o n eggs, pasta and aubergines.

Vanessa seems to live o n eggs and pasta and aubergines.
C hoose an article from the Guardian, the Independent or

The Times.
C hoose an article from the Guardian o r the Independent or
The Times.
Stanley was an energetic, d eterm in ed and even ruthless

figure.
Stanley was an energetic and d eterm ined and even
ruthless figure.
A jo in in g com m a m ust be follow ed by on e o f the co nnecting

w ords and, or, but, yet or while:
T h e repo rt was due last w eek, b u t it hasn’t appeared yet.

T h e m otorw ays in France and Spain are toll roads, w hile
those in Britain are free.
A gapping com m a indicates that y o u have decided n o t to

repeat som e w ords w h ich have already occurred in the
sentence:
Ju p iter is the largest planet and P luto, the smallest.
B racketing com m as always com e in pairs, unless one o f th em

w o u ld com e at the beginn ing or the end o f the sentence, and
they always set o ff a w eak in terru p tio n w h ich could in p rin
ciple be rem o ved from the sentence:
M y father, w h o hated cricket, always refused to w atch

m e play.
W e have a slight problem , to p u t it mildly.
If y o u ’re n o t sure about y o u r com m as, y o u can check th em

by using these rules. Ask yourself these questions:
1. C an the com m a be replaced by and or or?

2. Is it follow ed by one o f the connecting w ords and, or,
but, yet o r while?
The Comma 35
3. D oes it represent the absence o f repetition?

4. D oes it form one o f a pair o f com m as setting off an
in terru p tio n w h ich could be rem o v ed from the
sentence?
I f the answ er to all these questions is ‘n o ’, yo u have done

som ething w rong. T ry these questions on the follow ing
example:
T h e publication o f The Hobbit in 1937, m arked the

beginning o f T o lk ie n ’s career as a fantasy w riter.
C an that com m a be replaced by and o r or? N o — the result

w o u ld m ake no sense. Is it follow ed by a suitable connecting
w ord? N o —obviously not. H ave som e repeated w ords been
left out? N o —certainly not. Is it one o f a pair? N o t obviously,
b u t m aybe the in terru p tio n com es at the beginning o r the
end. C an the w ords before the com m a be safely rem oved?
N o — w h a t’s left is n o t a sentence. C an the w ords after the
com m a be rem oved? N o — the result w o u ld still n o t be a
sentence.
W e get the answ er ‘n o ’ in every case, and therefore that
com m a sho u ld n ’t be there. G et rid o f it:
T h e publication o f The Hobbit in 1937 m arked the

beginnin g o f T o lk ie n ’s career as a fantasy writer.
T ry an o th er exam ple:
Josie originally w a n te d to be a teacher, b u t after

finishing university, she decided to becom e a lawyer
instead.
L et’s check the first com m a. C an it be replaced by and o r or?

C ertainly not. Is it follow ed by a suitable connecting w ord?
Yes, it’s follow ed by but. So the first com m a looks okay at
the m o m ent. N o w the second com m a. C an it be replaced?
N o . Is it follow ed by a co nnecting w ord? N o . D oes it stand
for a repetition? N o . Is it one o f a pair? Possibly — b u t can
w e rem ove the w ords set off by the pair o f commas? L et’s
try:
Josie originally w an ted to be a teacher she decided to

becom e a law yer instead.
This is clearly w rong. Is there an in terru p tio n at the en d o f

the sentence?
Josie originally w an ted to be a teacher, b u t after finishing

university.
This is even worse. (It does m ake sense o f a sort, b u t the

w ro n g sense.) T h e r e ’s som ething w ro n g w ith that second
com m a. T ry getting rid o f it:
Josie originally w a n te d to be a teacher, b u t after finishing

university she decided to b ecom e a law yer instead.
This makes perfect sense, and it obeys all the rules. T h e

com m a after teacher is a jo in in g com m a, b u t that second
com m a was a mistake.
In fact, th e re ’s an o th er w ay o f fixing this sentence. T h e
w ords after finishing university actually m ake up a w eak in ter
ruption. So you can, if y o u prefer, p u t a pair o f bracketing
com m as around these words:
The Comma 37
Josie originally w an ted to be a teacher, but, after finishing

university, she decided to b eco m e a law yer instead.
C h eck that this n e w version is also correct by rem oving the

w ords set off by the pair o f bracketing commas:
Josie originally w an ted to be a teacher, b u t she decided to

becom e a law yer instead.
This is a g ood sentence, so the version w ith three com m as is

also correct. R e m e m b e r, y o u d o n ’t have to set off a w eak
in terru p tio n w ith bracketing com m as, as long as the m eaning
is clear w ith o u t them , but, if y ou do use bracketing com m as,
m ake sure yo u use b o th o f them .
In sum, then:
• Use a listing comma in a list where and or or would be

possible instead.
• Use a joining comma before and, or, but, yet or while
followed by a complete sentence.
• Use a gapping comma to show that words have been omitted
instead of repeated.
• Use a pair of bracketing commas to set off a weak
interruption.
Finally, the use o f com m as in w riting num bers is explained

in section 9.8.
Chapter 4
The Colon and the Semicolon
4.1 The Colon
T h e colon (:) seems to bew ilder m any people, th o u g h it’s

really rather easy to use correctly, since it has only one m ajor
use. B u t first please no te the following: the colon is never
preceded by a w hite space; it is always follow ed by a single
w hite space in norm al use, and it is never, never, never
follow ed by a hyp h en or a dash —in spite o f w hat yo u m ig ht
have been taught in school. O n e o f the co m m on est o f all
pun ctu atio n mistakes is follow ing a colon w ith a com pletely
pointless hyphen.
T h e colon is used to indicate that w h at follows it is an
explanation or elaboration o f w hat precedes it. T h at is, having
in troduced som e topic in m ore general terms, y o u can use a
colon and go on to explain that same topic in m o re specific
terms. Schematically:
M o re general: m o re specific.
A colon is nearly always preceded by a com plete sentence;

w h at follows the colon m ay o r m ay n o t be a com plete
The Colon and the Semicolon 39
sentence, and it m ay be a m ere list o r even a single w ord . A

colon is n o t norm ally follow ed by a capital letter in British
usage, th o u g h A m erican usage often prefers to use a capital.
H e re are som e examples:
Africa is facing a terrifying problem : perpetual drought.

[Explains w h at the p roblem is.]
T h e situation is clear: if yo u have u n p ro tec ted sex w ith a
stranger, yo u risk A ID S .
[Explains w h at the clear situation is.]
She was sure o f one thing: she was n o t going to be a
housewife.
[Identifies the o ne thin g she was sure of.]
M ae W est had on e golden rule for handling m en: ‘Tell
the pretty ones th e y ’re smart and tell the smart ones
th ey ’re p re tty .’
[Explicates the golden rule.]
Several friends have provided m e w ith inspiration: T im ,
Ian and, above all, Larry.
[Identifies the friends in question.]
W e fo und the place easily: y o u r directions w ere perfect.
[Explains w h y w e fo und it easily.]
I propose the creation o f a n ew post: School Executive
Officer.
[Identifies the post in question.]
V ery occasionally, the colon construction is tu rn ed rou n d ,

w ith the specifics co m in g first and the general sum m ary after
wards:
Saussure, Sapir, B loom field, C hom sky: all these have

revolutionized linguistics in on e w ay o r another.
Like all inverted constructions, this on e should be used

sparingly.
W h ile y o u ’re studying these examples, notice again that
the colon is n ever preceded by a w h ite space and n ever
follow ed by anything except a single w h ite space.
Y o u should n ot use a colon, o r any o th er m ark, at the end
o f a heading w h ich introduces a n e w section o f a docum ent:
lo o k at the chapter headings and section headings in this
b o ok. It is, how ever, usual to use a colon after a w ord, phrase
o r sentence in th e m iddle o f a tex t w h ich introduces som e
follow ing m aterial w h ich is set o ff in the m iddle o f the page.
T h ere are three consecutive examples o f this ju st above, in
the second, th ird and fo urth paragraphs o f this section.
T h e colon has a few m in o r uses. First, w h e n y o u cite the
nam e o f a b o o k w h ich has b o th a title and a subtitle, y o u
should separate the tw o w ith a colon:
I re co m m en d C h in n e ry ’s b o o k O ak Furniture: The British

Tradition.
Y o u should do this even th o u g h no colon m ay appear o n the

cover o r the title page o f the b o o k itself.
Second, the colon is used in citing passages from the Bible:
T h e story o f M en a h em is fo und in II Kings 15:14—22.
T hird, the colon m ay be used in w riting ratios:

A m o n g students o f French, w o m e n o u tn u m b e r m en by
m ore than 4:1.
In form al w riting, ho w ev er, it is usually preferable to w rite

o u t ratios in words:
A m o n g students o f French, w o m e n o u tn u m b e r m en by
m ore than four to one.
F ourth, in A m erican usage, a colon is used to separate the

hours from the m inutes in giving a tim e o f day: 2:10, 11:30
(A). British English uses a full stop for this purpose: 2.10,
11.30.
O bserve that, exceptionally, the colon is not follow ed by
a w h ite space in these last three situations.
Finally, see C h ap ter 10 for the use o f the colon in formal
letters and in citing references to published w ork.
4.2 The Semicolon
T h e semicolon (;) has only one m ajor use. It is used to jo in

tw o com plete sentences into a single w ritten sentence w h e n
all o f the follow ing conditions are m et:
1. T h e tw o sentences are felt to be to o closely related to

be separated by a full stop;
2. T h ere is no co n n ectin g w o rd w h ich w o u ld require a
com m a, such as and o r but;
3. T h e special conditions requiring a colon are absent.
H e re is a famous example:
It was the best o f times; it was the w orst o f times.
A sem icolon can always, in principle, be replaced either by a

full stop (yielding tw o separate sentences) o r by the w o rd and
(possibly p reced ed by a jo in in g com m a). T hus D ickens m ight
have w ritten:
It was the best o f times. It was the w orst o f times, or

It was the best o f times, and it was the w orst o f times.
T h e use o f the sem icolon suggests that the w riter sees the
tw o smaller sentences as being m o re closely related than
the average tw o consecutive sentences; preferring the sem i
colon to and often gives a m o re vivid sense o f the relation
b etw e en the tw o. B u t observe carefully: the sem icolon m ust
be b o th preceded by a com plete sentence and follow ed by a
com plete sentence. D o not use the sem icolon otherw ise:
* I d o n ’t like him ; n o t at all.

* In 19 9 1 the m usic w o rld was shaken by a tragic event;
the death o f Freddy M ercury.
* W e ’ve had streams o f books o n chaos theory; n o few er
than tw elve since 1988.
* A fter a long and b itter struggle; D errida was aw arded
an h o n o rary degree by C am bridge U niversity.
T hese are all w rong, since the sem icolon does n o t separate
com plete sentences. (T he first and last o f these should have
only a bracketing com m a, w hile the second and th ird m eet
the requirem ents for a colon and should have one.) H ere are
som e further examples o f correct use:
T olk ien published The Hobbit in 1937; the first volu m e o f

The Lord o f the Rings follow ed in 1954.
T h e C ab ernet S auvignon grape predom inates in the
B ordeaux region; P in o t N o ir holds sway in B urgundy;
Syrah is largely confined to the R h o n e valley.
W o m e n ’s conversation is cooperative; m e n ’s is
com petitive.
If a suitable connectin g w o rd is used, th en a jo in in g co m m a

is required, rather than a sem icolon:
W o m e n ’s conversation is cooperative, w hile m e n ’s is

com petitive.
A sem icolon w o u ld be impossible in the last exam ple, since

the sequence after the com m a is n o t a com plete sentence.
N o te , how ever, that certain connectin g w ords do require a
preceding sem icolon. C h ie f am ong these are however, therefore,
hence, thus, consequently, nevertheless and meanwhile:
Saturn was long th o u g h t to be the only ringed planet;

how ever, this is n o w k n o w n n o t to be the case.
T h e tw o w arring sides have refused to w ith d raw from the
airport; consequently aid flights have had to be
suspended.
O bserve that in these examples the sequence after the

sem icolon does constitute a com plete sentence. A nd n o te
particularly that th e w o rd however m ust be separated by a

sem icolon (or a full stop) from a preceding com plete sen
tence; this is a very c o m m o n mistake.
T h ere is one special circum stance in w h ich a sem icolon
m ay be used to separate sequences w h ich are n o t com plete
sentences. This occurs w h e n a sentence has becom e so long
and so full o f com m as that the reader can hardly be expected
to follow it w ith o u t som e special m arking. In this case, w e
som etim es find sem icolons used instead o f com m as to m ark
the m ost im p o rtan t breaks in the sentence: such sem icolons
are effectively b eing used to m ark places w h ere the reader can
pause to catch h er breath. C onsider the follow ing example:
In Somalia, w h e re the civil w ar still rages, w estern aid

w orkers, in spite o f frantic efforts, are unable to
operate, and the people, starving, terrified and
desperate, are flooding into neig h b o u rin g Ethiopia.
T his sentence is perfectly punctu ated, b u t the n u m b e r o f

com m as is som ew hat alarming. In such a case, the com m a
m arking the m ajo r break in the sentence m ay be replaced by
a sem icolon:

operate; and the people, starving, terrified and
desperate, are flooding into neigh b o u rin g Ethiopia.
Such use o f the sem icolon as a kin d o f ‘su p er-co m m a’ is n o t

very appealing, and y o u should do y o u r best to avoid it. If
you find one o f y o u r sentences b ec o m in g dangerously long

and full o f com m as, it is usually b etter to start over and rew rite
it, perhaps as tw o separate sentences:

operate. M ean w h ile the people, starving, terrified and
desperate, are flooding into neig h b o u rin g Ethiopia.
In any case, d o n ’t get into the habit o f using a sem icolon (or
anything else) m erely to m ark a breathin g space. Y o u r reader
will be perfectly capable o f doing his o w n breathing, p ro v id
ing y o u r sentence is well punctuated; p u n ctu atio n is an aid
to understanding, n o t to respiration.
4.3 The Colon and the Semicolon Compared
Since the use o f the colon and the sem icolon, although simple
in principle, presents so m any difficulties to uncertain p u n c
tuators, it will be helpful to contrast th em here. C onsider first
the follow ing tw o sentences:
Lisa is upset. Gus is having a nervous breakdow n.
T h e use o f tw o separate sentences suggests that there is no

particular c o n n e ctio n b etw e en these tw o facts: they ju st
happen to be true at the same tim e. N o particular inference
can be draw n, except perhaps that things are generally bad.
N o w see w h at happens w h e n a sem icolon is used:
Lisa is upset; Gus is having a nervous breakdow n.
T h e sem icolon n o w suggests that the tw o statem ents are

related in som e way. T h e likeliest inference is that the cause
o f Lisa’s annoyance and the cause o f G us’s nervous break
d o w n are the same. Perhaps, for exam ple, b o th are being
disturbed by building noise n ex t door. (R em em b er, a sem i
colon connects tw o sentences w h ich are related.) N o w try it
w ith a colon:
Lisa is upset: Gus is having a nervous breakdow n.
This tim e the colon shows explicitly that G us’s nervous

b reak d o w n is the reason for Lisa’s distress: Lisa is upset
because Gus is having a nervous break dow n. (R em em b er, a
colon introduces an explanation o r elaboration o f w h at has
com e before.)
C onsider an o th er example:
I have the answer. M ik e ’s solution doesn’t w ork.
H ere w e have tw o ind ep en d en t statements: m y answ er and

M ik e ’s solution m ay possibly have b ee n directed at the same
problem , b u t n o th in g implies this, and equally they m ay have
b een directed at tw o entirely distinct problem s. N o w , w ith a
sem icolon:
I have the answer; M ik e ’s solution do esn’t w ork.
T h e sem icolon shows that the tw o statem ents are related, and
strongly implies that M ike and I w ere w ork in g o n the same
problem . Finally, w ith a colon:
I have the answer: M ik e ’s solution d o esn’t w ork.
This tim e the use o f the colon indicates that the failure o f
M ik e ’s solution is exactly the answ er w h ich I have obtained:
that is, w hat I have discovered is that M ik e ’s solution doesn’t
w ork.
If y ou understand these examples, y o u should be w ell on
y o u r way to using colons and sem icolons correctly.
Summary of colons and semicolons
• Use a colon to separate a general statement from following

specifics.
• Use a semicolon to connect two complete sentences not
joined by and, or, but, yet or while.
Chapter 5
The Apostrophe
T h e apostrophe (') is the m ost troublesom e pun ctu atio n m ark

in English, and perhaps also the least useful. N o o th er p u n c tu
ation m ark causes so m u ch bew ilderm ent, or is so often
misused. O n the one hand, shops offer * p iz z a ’s, * video’s,
* greeting’s cards and * ladie’s clothing; o n the other, they offer
* childrens shoes and * artists supplies. T h e confusion abou t
apostrophes is so great, in com parison w ith the small am o u n t
o f useful w o rk they perform , that m any distinguished w riters
and linguists have argued that the best w ay o f elim inating the
confusion w o u ld be to get rid o f this troublesom e squiggle
altogether and n ev er use it at all.
T h ey are probably right, b u t unfortunately the apostrophe
has n o t b een abolished yet, and it is a blunt fact that the
incorrect use o f apostrophes will m ake y o u r w riting look
illiterate m ore quickly than almost any o th er kind o f mistake.
I’m afraid, therefore, that, if y o u find apostrophes difficult,
yo u will ju st have to grit y o u r teeth and get d o w n to w ork.
The Apostrophe 49
5.1 Contractions
T h e apostrophe is used in w riting contractions - that is, short

ened forms o f w ords from w h ich one o r m o re letters have
been om itted. In standard English, this generally happens only
w ith a small n u m b er o f conventional item s, m ostly involving
verbs. H ere are som e o f the com m o nest examples, w ith th eir
un co ntracted equivalents:
it’s it is or it has
w e ’ll w e will or w e shall
th ey ’ve they have
can’t can n o t
h e ’d he w o u ld or he had
aren ’t are n o t
she’d ’ve she w o u ld have
w o n ’t will n o t
N o te in each case that the apostrophe appears precisely in the

position o f the o m itte d letters: w e w rite can’t, n o t * ca’nt, and
aren’t, n o t * are’nt. N o te also that the irregular contraction
won’t takes its apostrophe betw een the n and the t, ju st like
all o th er contractions involving not. A n d no te also that
she’d ’ve has tw o apostrophes, because m aterial has been
om itted from tw o positions.
It is n o t w ro n g to use such contractions in form al w riting,
b u t y o u should use th em sparingly, since they ten d to m ake
y o u r w ritin g appear less than fully formal. Since I’m trying
to m ake this b o o k seem chatty rather th an intim idating, I’ve

b een using a few contractions here and there, th o u g h n o t as
m any as I m ight have used. B ut I advise y o u not to use
the m ore colloquial contractions like she’d ’ve in y o u r form al
w riting: these things, w hile perfectly norm al in speech, are a
little too inform al for careful w riting.
Such contractions represent the m ost useful jo b the ap o
strophe does for us, since, w ith o u t it, w e w o u ld have no w ay
o f expressing in w ritin g the difference b etw e en she’ll and
shell, he'll and hell, can't and cant, I ’ll and ill, we’re and were,
she’d and shed, we'll and well, and perhaps a few others.
A few w ords w h ich w ere contractions long ago are still
conventionally w ritten w ith apostrophes, even th o u g h the
longer forms have m o re o r less drop p ed o u t o f use. T h ere are
so few o f these that y ou can easily learn th em all. H ere are
the co m m o nest ones, w ith th eir original longer forms:
o ’clock o f the clock

H allo w e’en H allo w even
fo ’c’s’le forecastle
c a t-o ’-nine-tails cat-of-nine-tails
n e ’er-d o -w ell n ev er-d o -w ell
w ill-o ’-th e-w isp w ill-o f-th e-w isp
Som e generations ago there w ere rath er m o re contractions in

regular use in English; these o th er contractions are n o w
archaic, and y o u w o u ld n ’t norm ally use any o f th em except
in direct quotations from older w ritten w ork. H ere are a few
o f them , w ith their lon ger forms:
The Apostrophe 51
it is
it was
o er over
e en even
T h ere are o th er contractions w h ich are often heard in speech.

H e re are a few:
’Fraid so. ’N o th e r drink?

I s’pose so. ’S n o t funny.
It is, o f course, never appropriate to use such colloquial forms

in form al w riting, except w h e n y o u are explicitly w riting
about colloquial English. If y ou do have occasion to cite or
use these things, y ou should use apostrophes in the norm al
w ay to m ark the elided material.
In con tem po rary usage, there are a few unusual phrases in
w h ich the w o rd and is w ritten as V , w ith tw o apostrophes
(not quo tation marks); the com m on est o f these is rock ’n ’ roll,
w h ich is always so w ritten , even in form al w riting. O n e o r
tw o m ore o f these are perhaps acceptable in formal w riting,
such as pick V m ix and possibly surf V turf (this last is a cute
label for a particular type o f food). B u t d o n ’t overdo it: w rite
fish and chips, even th o u g h y o u m ay see fish V chips o n
takeaw ay shop signs or even o n restaurant m enus.
C ontractions m ust be carefully distinguished from clipped
forms. A clipped fo rm is a full w o rd w h ich happens to be
derived by cho p p in g a piece o ff a lo ng er w ord, usually one
w ith the same m eaning. C lipped forms are very co m m o n in
English; here are a few, w ith th eir related longer forms:
gym gym nasium

ad advertisem ent
pro professional
deli delicatessen
hippo hippopotam us
bra brassiere
tec detective
flu influenza
phone telep ho ne
copter helicopter
cello violoncello
gator alligator
quake earthquake
Such clipped forms are n ot regarded as contractions, and they

should n o t be w ritten w ith apostrophes. W ritin g things like
hippo\ bra’, ’cello and Jphone will, n o t to m ince w ords, m ake
y o u lo ok like an affected old fu dd y-d ud dy w h o d oesn’t quite
approve o f anything th a t’s happened since 1912. O f course,
som e o f these clipped forms are still rath er colloquial, and in
form al w ritin g y o u w o u ld norm ally prefer to w rite detective
and alligator, rather than tec and gator. O thers, how ever, are
perfectly norm al in form al w riting: even the m ost dignified
m usic critic w o u ld call O fra H a rn o y ’s instru m ent a cello; he
w o u ld no m o re use violoncello than he w o u ld apply the w o rd
omnibus to a L o n d o n double-decker.
Important note: C ontractions m ust also be carefully distin
guished from abbreviations. A bbreviations are things like M r
The Apostrophe 53
for Mister, lb. for pound(s), bc for before Christ and e.g. for for
example. T h eir use is explained in section 7.2.
Finally, there are a few circum stances in w h ich apostrophes
are used to represent the om ission o f som e m aterial in cases
w h ich are n o t exactly contractions. First, certain surnames o f
non-E nglish origin are w ritten w ith apostrophes: O'Leary
(Irish), d ’Abbadie (French), D ’Angelo (Italian), M ’Tavish (Scots
Gaelic). T hese are n o t really contractions because there is no
alternative w ay o f w ritin g them .
Second, apostrophes are som etim es used in representing
w ords in no n-stand ard forms o f English: thus the Scots p o et
R o b e rt B urns w rites gV for give and a* for all. Y o u are hardly
likely to need this device except w h e n y o u are qu o tin g from
such w ork.
T hird , a year is occasionally w ritten in an abbreviated form
w ith an apostrophe: Pio Baroja was a distinctive member o f the
generation o f ’g8. This is only norm al in certain set expressions;
in m y exam ple, the phrase generation o f ’98 is an accepted label
for a certain group o f Spanish w riters, and it w o u ld n o t be
norm al to w rite * generation o f 1898. E xcept for such co n v e n
tional phrases, how ever, y ou should always w rite o u t years in
full w h e n y o u are w ritin g formally: do n ot w rite som ething
like * the ’39— 45 war, b u t w rite instead the 1939—45 war.
5.2 Unusual Plurals
As a general rule, w e n ever use an apostrophe in w riting

plural forms. (A plural form is one that denotes m o re than
on e o f som ething.) H en ce the things that those shops are
selling are p izza s, videos, fine wines, cream teas and mountain
bikes. It is absolutely w ro n g to w rite * p iz z a ’s, * video’s * fine
wine’s, * cream tea’s and * mountain bike’s if y o u m erely w ant
to talk abo ut m o re th an on e pizza or video or w hatever. T h e
same goes even w h e n you w ant to pluralize a p ro p e r nam e:
S he’s trying to keep up w ith the Joneses.

T h ere are four Steves and three Julies in m y class.
Several o f the E leanor Crosses are still standing today.
D o n o t w rite things like * Jones’s, * Steve’s, * Julie’s o r

* Eleanor Cross’s if y o u are m erely talking about m o re than
on e person o r thing w ith that nam e.
In British usage, w e do n o t use an apostrophe in pluralizing
dates:
This research was carried o u t in the 1970s.
A m erican usage, h ow ev er, does p u t an apostrophe here:
(A) This research was carried o u t in the 1970’s.
Y o u should n o t adopt this practice unless yo u are specifically

w riting for an A m erican audience.
In w ritin g the plurals o f num bers, usage varies. B o th o f the
follow ing m ay be encountered:
The Apostrophe 55
If y o u ’re sending m ail to the C o n tin e n t, it’s advisable to

use continental is and 7s in the address.
If y o u ’re sending m ail to the C o n tin e n t, it’s advisable to
use continental i ’s and 7’s in th e address.
H ere, the first form is adm ittedly a little hard on the eye, and
the apostrophes m ay m ake y o u r sentence clearer. In m ost
cases, though, y o u can avoid the p ro b lem entirely simply by
w riting o u t the numerals:
If y o u ’re sending mail to the C o n tin e n t, it’s advisable to

use continental ones and sevens in the address.
A n apostrophe is indispensable, ho w ever, in the rare case in

w h ich y o u n eed to pluralize a letter o f the alphabet or som e
oth er unusual form w h ich w o u ld b ecom e unrecognizable
w ith a plural ending stuck on it:
M in d y o u r p ’s and q s.
H o w m any s’s are there in Mississippi ?
It is very bad style to spatter e.g.’s and i.e.’s th ro u g h y o u r
w riting.
W ith o u t the apostrophes, these w o u ld be unreadable. So,

w h e n you have to pluralize an orthographically unusual form ,
use an apostrophe if it seems to be essential for clarity, b u t
d o n ’t use one if the w ritten form is perfectly clear w ith o u t
it. (N ote that I have italicized these o d d forms; this is a very
g oo d practice if y o u can p rod uce italics. See C h ap ter 9.)
5.3 Possessives
A n apostrophe is used in a possessive form , like Esther’s fam ily

o r Janet’s cigarettes, and this is the use o f the apostrophe w h ich
causes m ost o f the trouble. T h e basic rule is simple enough:
a possessive form is spelled w ith ’s at the end. H ence:
Lisa’s essay E ng land’s navy

m y b ro th e r’s girlfriend W ittg en stein ’s last b o o k
ch ild ren ’s shoes w o m e n ’s clothing
the aircraft’s black b o x som eb o d y ’s um brella
a w e e k ’s w o rk m y m o n e y ’s w o rth
This rule applies in m ost cases even w ith a nam e ending in 5:
T h o m as’s jo b the bus’s arrival

Jam es’s fiancee Steve D avis’s victory
T h ere are three types o f exception. First, a plural n o u n w h ich

already ends in 5 takes only a follow ing apostrophe:
the girls’ excitem ent m y parents’ w ed ding

b o th players’ injuries the K lingons’ attack
the ladies’ ro o m tw o w eek s’ w o rk
This is reasonable. W e d o n ’t p ro n o u n c e these w ords w ith

tw o esses, and so w e d o n ’t w rite tw o esses: n o b o d y says * the
girls’s excitement. B u t n o te that plurals that d o n ’t end in 5 take
the ordinary form: see the cases o f children and women above.
Second, a nam e ending in 5 takes only an apostrophe if th e
The Apostrophe 57
possessive form is n o t p ro n o u n c e d w ith an extra 5. H ence:
Socrates’ philosophy Saint Saens’ music

Ulysses’ com panions A ristophanes’ plays
Same reason: w e d o n ’t say * Ulysses’s companions, and so w e

d o n ’t w rite the extra 5.
T h e final class o f exceptions is pronouns. N o te the fol
low ing:
H e lost his b o o k W h ic h seats are ours?

T h e bull low ered W h ose are these spectacles?
its head.
N o te in particular the spelling o f possessive its. This w o rd

never takes an apostrophe:
* T h e bull low ered it’s head
This is w ro n g , w ro n g , w ro n g —b u t it is one o f the co m m o n

est o f all p u n ctu a tio n errors. I have even m et teachers o f
English w h o get this w rong. T h e conventional spelling its is
no d o u b t totally illogical, b u t it’s n o n e the less conventional,
and spelling the possessive as it’s will cause m any readers to
tu rn up their noses at you. T h e mistake is very conspicuous,
b u t fortunately it’s also easy to fix - th e re ’s only one w o rd -
so learn the standard spelling. (T here is an English w o rd
spelled it’s, o f course, and indeed I’ve ju st used it in the
preceding sentence, b u t this is n o t a possessive: it’s the c o n
tracted form o f it is o r o f it has. A nd there is n o English w o rd
spelled * its’ - this is anoth er co m m o n error for its.)
T h e same goes for possessive whose: this cannot be spelled

as * who's, th o u g h again there is a w o rd who's, a contraction
o f who is or o f who has, as in Who's your friend? or Who's got a
corkscrew?
N o te , how ever, that the indefinite p ro n o u n one forms an
ordinary possessive one's, as in One must choose one's words
carefully.
T h ere is a further p o in t about w ritin g possessives: w h e n
y o u add an apostrophe-5 o r an apostrophe alone to form a
possessive, the thin g that com es before the apostrophe must
be a real English w o rd, and it m ust also be the right English
w ord. Thus, for exam ple, som ething like * ladie's shoes is
impossible, because there is no such w o rd as * ladie. M o re
over, a departm ent in a shoeshop could n o t be called * lady's
shoes, because w h at the shop is selling is shoes for ladies, and
n o t * shoes for lady, w h ich is meaningless. T h e correct form
is ladies' shoes. (C om pare that lady's shoes, w h ich is fine.)
Finally, w hile w e ’re discussing clothing departm ents,
observe that there is at least one irritating exception: th o u g h
w e w rite men's clothing, as usual, w e w rite menswear as a single
w ord, w ith no apostrophe. By historical accident, this has
com e to be regarded as a single w o rd in English. B u t ju st this
one: w e do n o t w rite * womenswear o r * childrenswear. Sorry.
Chapter 6
The Hyphen and the Dash
6.1 The Hyphen
T h e hyphen (-) is the small bar fo u n d o n every keyboard. It

has several related uses; in every case, it is used to show that
w h at it is attached to does n o t m ake up a com plete w o rd by
itself. T h e h y p hen m ust nev er be used w ith w hite spaces at
b o th ends, th o u g h in som e uses it m ay have a w h ite space at
one end.
M ost obviously, a h y p hen is used to indicate that a long
w o rd has b een b ro k e n o ff at the end o f a line:
W e w ere dism ayed at having to listen to such inconse

quential remarks.
Y o u should avoid such w o rd splitting w h e n ev er possible. If

it is unavoidable, try to split the w o rd into tw o roughly equal
parts, and m ake sure y o u split it at an obvious boundary. D o
n o t w rite things like:
* incons- * inconseque- * in consequent-

equential ntial ial
T h e first tw o o f these are n o t b ro k en at syllable boundaries,

w hile the th ird is b ro k en into tw o very unequal pieces. If
yo u are in d o u b t as to w here a w o rd can be split, consult a
dictionary. M any good dictionaries m ark syllable boundaries
to show y ou w h ere w ords can be hyphenated. Som e p u b
lishers even bring o u t hy ph enation dictionaries containing no
o th er inform ation. Best o f all, m any w o rd processors will
perform hyp hen ation autom atically, and y o u w o n ’t have to
w o rry about it. In any case, no te that a hy p h en in such a case
m ust be w ritten at the end o f its line, and n o t at the beginning
o f the follow ing line.
T h e hyphen is also used in w ritin g co m p o u n d w ords
w h ich, w ith o u t the hyphen, w o u ld be am biguous, hard to
read o r overly long. H ere, m o re than anyw here else in the
w h ole field o f pu nctuatio n, there is ro o m for individual taste
and ju d g em en t; nevertheless, certain principles m ay be
identified. T hese are:
1. A bove all, strive for clarity;

2. D o n ’t use a h y p hen unless it’s necessary;
3. W h e re possible, follow established usage.
O n this last point, consult a good dictionary; Collins o r L ong

m an is recom m end ed, since the conservative C ham bers and
O xfo rd dictionaries frequently show hyphens w h ich are no
longer in norm al use.
Should you w rite land owners, land-owners o r landowners? All

are possible, and y o u should follow y o u r ju d g em en t, and
The Hyphen and the Dash 61
British usage generally favours rather m o re hyphens here than

does A m erican usage; nevertheless, I prefer the third, since it
seems unam biguous and easy to read, since it avoids the use
o f a hyp hen and since this form is confirm ed by Longm an
and Collins as the usual one (while C ham bers, predictably,
insists on the hyp hen ated form).
W h a t about electro-magnetic versus electromagnetic? Collins
and Longm an confirm that only the second is in use am ong
those w h o use the term regularly, b u t O x fo rd clings stub
b ornly to the antiquated and pointless hyphen.
O n the o th er hand, things like * pressurecooker, * word-
processor and * emeraldgreen are im possibly hard on the eye;
reference to a go o d dictionary will confirm that the estab
lished forms o f the first tw o are pressure cooker and word pro
cessor, w hile the last is emerald green o r emerald-green, depending
on h o w it is used (see below ).
T h e h yp hen is regularly used in w ritin g so-called ‘d o ub le-
barrelled’ names: Jose-Maria Olazabal, Jean-Paul Gaultier,
Claude Levi-Strauss, Philip Johnson-Laird. H o w ev er, som e indi
viduals w ith such nam es prefer to om it the hyphen: Jean Paul
Sartre, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Y o u should always respect the
usage o f the o w n e r o f the nam e.
N o w here is som ething im portant: it is usually essential to
hyphenate co m p o u n d m odifiers. C om pare the following:
She kissed h im go o d night.

She gave h im a g o o d -n ig h t kiss.
T h e hy p h en in the second exam ple is necessary to show

that good-night is a single co m p o u n d m odifier. W ith o u t the

hyphen, the reader m ight easily be misled:
* She gave h im a go od night kiss.
H e re the reader m ig ht be m om entarily flu m m o xed into

think ing that she had given h im som e kind o f ‘night kiss’,
w h atever that means. H ere are som e further examples:
H e r dress is light green.

S he’s w earing a light-green dress.
This b o o k to k en is w o rth ten pounds.

This is a te n -p o u n d b o o k token.
She always tu rn ed up for the parties at the end o f term .

She always tu rn ed up for the e n d -o f-term parties.
This essay is well th o u g h t out.

This is a w e ll-th o u g h t-o u t essay.
H e r son is ten years old.

She has a ten -y ear-o ld son.
U se hyphens liberally in such co m p o u n d modifiers; they are

often vital to com prehension: a light-green dress is n o t neces
sarily a light green dress; our first-class discussion is quite different
from ourfirst class discussion; a rusty-nail cutter is hardly the same
as a rusty nail-cutter; a woman-hating religion is utterly different
from a woman hating religion; and a nude-review producer is m ost
unlikely to be a nude review producer^. Y o u can m islead y o u r
reader disastrously by o m itting these crucial hyphens: She
always turned up fo r the end o f term parties does n o t appear to

m ean the same as the hyp hen ated exam ple above (example
adapted from C arey 1958: 82). So m ake a habit o f h y p h en
ating y o u r co m p o u n d m odifiers:
a long-standing friend not * a lo n g standing friend

w ell-defined rules not * w ell defined rules
a co p p er-p ro d u cin g not * a copp er p ro d u cin g
region region
a lo w -scorin g m atch not * a lo w scoring m atch
little-expected new s not * little expected new s
a green -ey ed beauty not * a green eyed beauty
a ro u g h -an d -read y not * a ro u g h and ready
approach approach
a salt-and-pepper not * a salt and p ep per
m oustache m oustache
a far-ranging not * a far ranging
investigation investigation
h er Sw iss-G erm an not * h er Swiss G erm an
ancestry ancestry
h er n e w -fo u n d not * h er n ew fo un d freedom
freedom
the h a n g -’e m -a n d - not * the hang ’em and flog
flo g -’em brigade ’em brigade
T h e correct use o r n o n -u se o f a h y p hen in a m odifier can be

o f vital im portance in m aking y o u r m eanin g clear. C onsider
the nex t tw o examples:
T h e earliest k n o w n h o m in id was Homo habilis.

T h e earliest-know n h o m in id was Homo habilis.
T hese do n o t m ean the same thing at all. T h e first m eans

that, o f all the hom inids w e k n o w about, H . habilis was the
earliest one to exist (but n o t necessarily the first one w e k n ew
about). T h e second m eans that, o f all the hom inids, H . Habilis
was the first o ne w e k n ew about (but n o t necessarily the
first on e to exist). Effectively, the first sentence includes the
structure [earliest] [known hominid], w hile the second includes
the structure [earliest-known] [hominid]. Again, these tw o sen
tences w o u ld be p ro n o u n c ed differently, b u t the p ro n u n c i
ation difference is lost in w riting; hen ce accurate p u n ctu a tio n
is essential if y o u are n o t going to mislead y o u r reader utterly.
P u n ctu atio n is n o t a m atter for personal taste and caprice, n o t
if y ou w ant y o u r readers to understand w h at y o u ’ve w ritten.
(As it happens, th e first statem ent is true, b u t the second one
is false.)
A c o m p o u n d m odifier m ay also require a h y p h en w h e n it
appears after the verb. H ere is a splendid exam ple from C arey
(1958): Her face turned an ugly brick-red appears to m ean som e
thing very different from Her face turned an ugly brick red.
O ld-fashioned usage, especially in B ritain, favours excess
ive h yphenation, p ro d u cin g such form s as to-day, co-operate,
ski-ing, semi-colon and even full-stop; such hyphens are pointless
and ugly and should be avoided. M u c h b etter are today,
cooperate, skiing, semicolon and fu ll stop: d o n ’t use a h y p h en
unless it’s do ing som e real w ork.
Prefixes present special problem s. She}s repainting the lounge
seems unobjectionable, b u t She’s reliving her childhood is poss

ibly hard to read and should perhaps be rew ritten as She’s
re-living her childhood. A n d She re-covered the sofa [= ‘She p u t a
n ew cover o n the sofa’] is absolutely essential to avoid c o n
fusion w ith the entirely different She recovered the sofa [= ‘She
got the sofa back’]. T h e chem ical term m eanin g ‘n o t io n ized ’
is routinely w ritten by chemists as unionized, but, in som e
contexts, y ou m ig h t prefer to w rite un-ionized to avoid poss
ible confusion w ith th e unrelated w o rd unionized ‘organized
into u n io n s’. U se y o u r ju d g em en t: p u t a h y p h en in if y o u
can see a p ro b lem w ith o u t it, b u t otherw ise leave it out. H ere
are a few examples o f g oo d usage:
m iniskirt but m ini-aircraft

no n v io len t but no n-nego tiab le
prejudge but p re -e m p t
antisocial but anti-aircraft
T h e h y p h en is w ritten only w h e n the w o rd w o u ld be hard

to read w ith o u t it: * nonnegotiable, * preempt. As always, c o n
sult a g oo d dictionary if y o u ’re n o t sure.
O bserve, by the w ay, that a prefix m ust not be w ritten as
th o u g h it w ere a separate w ord. T h us all the follow ing are
wrong:
* post w ar p erio d * n o n co m m u nist countries

* m ini co m p u ter * anti vivisectionists
T h ere are three cases in w h ich a h y ph en is absolutely required

after a prefix. First, if a capital letter o r a num eral follows:
n o n -E C countries u n-A m erican activities

p re -N e w to n ia n physics an ti-F ren ch feeling
po st-N ap o leo n ic E u ro p e pre-1500 English
literature
Second, if the prefix is added to a w o rd w h ich already c o n

tains a hyphen:
n o n -b rib e -tak in g his p re -g lo b e-tro ttin g

politicians days
no n-stress-tim ed an u n -re-e le cted
languages politician
Y o u r reader cannot be expected to take in at a glance som e

indigestible glob like * his preglobe-trotting days o r * an unre
elected politician.
T hird , if the prefix is added to a co m p o u n d w o rd con tain
ing a w hite space. In this case, the w h ite space itself m ust be
replaced by a h y p h en to p reven t th e prefixed w o rd from
b eco m in g unreadable:
seal killing but anti-seal-killing

cam paigners
tw en tieth century but p re -tw e n tie th -c e n tu ry music
cold w ar but o u r p o st-co ld -w ar w o rld
Again, y o u r readers will n o t th ank y o u for w ritin g som ething

like * antiseal-killing campaigners o r * our postcold-war world (or,
still w orse, * our postcold war world, a piece o f gibberish I
recently en c o u n tere d in a m ajor new spaper). W h o are these
cam paigners w h o kill antiseals, w h atever those m ig h t be, and
w h at is a war world and w h at is special abo ut a postcold one?

In any case, do n o t go overboard w ith large and com plex
m odifiers. T h e cum bersom e anti-seal-killing campaigners can
easily be replaced by campaigners against seal killing, w h ich is
m u ch easier to read.
Finally, the h yp h en has o ne rather special use: it is used in
w ritin g pieces o f w ords. H e re are som e examples:
T h e prefix re- som etim es requires a hyphen.

T h e suffix -wise, as in ‘m on eyw ise’ and ‘healthw ise’, has
becom e enorm ously popular in recent years.
T h e Latin w o rd rex ‘k in g ’ has a stem reg-.
O n ly w h e n you are w ritin g abo ut language are y o u likely to

n eed this use o f the hyphen. If y o u do use it, m ake sure y ou
p u t the h y ph en at the correct end o f th e p iec e-o f-a-w o rd
y o u are citing —that is, the end at w h ich the piece has to be
co n nected to som ething else to m ake a w ord. A nd n ote that,
w h e n y o u ’re w ritin g a suffix, the h y p h en m ust go on the
same line as the suffix itself: y o u should n o t allow the h y ph en
to stand at the en d o f its line, w ith the suffix on the n ext line.
W o rd processors w o n ’t do this autom atically, and y ou will
n eed to consult y o u r m anual to find o u t h o w to type a hard
hyphen, w h ich will always stay w h ere it belongs.
T h ere is, how ever, one very special case in w hich y ou
m igh t w ant to w rite a piece o f a w o rd in any kind o f text.
C o nsid er the follow ing example:
P re-w ar and p o st-w ar B erlin could hardly be m o re

different.
T h ere is an o th er w ay o f w ritin g this:
P re- and p ost-w ar B erlin could hardly be m o re different.
This style is permissible, b u t observe that the n o w isolated

prefix pre- requires a hyphen, since it is only a piece o f a
w ord.
T h e same thing happens w h e n y o u w ant to w rite a piece
o f a w o rd w h ich is n o t norm ally hyphenated, in o rd er to
avoid repetition:
N atalie is studying sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics.
This can also be w ritten as follows:
N atalie is studying socio- and psycholinguistics.
T h e use o f the h y p hen in w ritin g num erals and fractions is

covered in C h ap ter 9.
6.2 The Dash
T h e dash (-) is the lon g horizontal bar, noticeably lon ger than
a hyphen. F ew keyboards have a dash, b u t a w o rd processor
can usually p ro d u ce one in one w ay or another. I f y o u r
keyboard can’t p ro d u ce a dash, y o u will have to resort to a
h y p hen as a stand-in. In British usage, w e use only a single
h y p hen to represent a dash - like this. A m erican usage, in
contrast, uses tw o consecutive hyphens — like this (A). H e re
I m ust confess that I strongly prefer th e A m erican style, since
the double h y p h en is far m o re p ro m in e n t than a single one

and avoids any possibility o f am biguity. I f y o u are w riting for
publication, y o u will probably have to use the single hyphen;
in o th er contexts, y o u should consider using the m o re vivid
double hyphen. In any case, y o u will be very unlucky if y o u r
w o rd processor can ’t p rod uce a p ro p e r dash and save yo u
from w orrying ab ou t this.
T h e dash has only one m ajor use: a pair o f dashes separates
a strong in terru p tio n from the rest o f the sentence. (A strong
in terru p tio n is o ne w h ich violently disrupts the flow o f the
sentence.) Again, n o te that w o rd ‘pair’: in principle, at least,
dashes com e in pairs, th o u g h som etim es o ne o f th em is n o t
w ritten. (R em e m b e r that the same thing is true o f bracketing
com m as, w h ich set o ff w eak interruptions.) H ere are som e
examples:
A n honest politician —if such a creature exists - w o u ld

never agree to such a plan.
T h e destruction o f G uernica —and there is n o d o u b t that
the destruction was deliberate —horrified the w drld.
W h e n the E uropeans settled in Tasm ania, they inflicted
genocide —there is no o th er w o rd for it - u p o n the
indigenous pop ulatio n, w h o w ere w ip ed o u t in thirty
years.
I f the strong in terru p tio n com es at the end o f the sentence,

th en o f course only on e dash is used:
T h e Serbs w an t peace - or so they say.

In 1453 Sultan M e h m e d finally to o k C onstantinople -
and the B yzantine E m pire disappeared from the m ap

for ever.
T h ere was no o th er w ay —o r was there?
In the case in w h ich the original sentence is never resum ed

after the in terru ptio n, only one dash is used:
Jo h n , do y ou suppose yo u could —oh, never m ind; I’ll

do it.
This sort o f b ro k e n sentence is only fo u n d in representations

o f conversation, such as y ou m igh t find in a novel; it is nev er
appropriate in form al w riting.
Finally, in the rare case in w h ich a sentence is b ro k e n o ff
abruptly w ith o u t being com pleted, a single dash is also used:
G eneral S edgw ick’s last w ords to his w o rried staff w ere

‘D o n ’t w orry, boys; they co u ld n ’t h it an elephant at
this dist—’.
N o te that, in this case, the dash is w ritten solid nex t to

the unfinished p iece-o f-a-w o rd w h ich precedes it. (If the
sentence m erely tails o ff into silence, w e use, n o t a dash, b u t
an ellipsis; see section 9.6.)
W h e n a dash falls b etw e en the en d o f one line and the
beginning o f the next, y o u should try to ensure that the dash
is placed at the end o f the first line and n o t at the beg in ning
o f the second, if y o u can. M ost w ords processors will n o t do
this autom atically, how ever, and it will require som e fiddling.
T h e dash is also used in representing ranges o f num bers,
and occasionally also o th er ranges. A representation o f the
form X —Y means ‘from X to Y o r ‘b etw e en X and Y . H ere

are som e examples:
Steel contains o. 1—1.7% carbon.

T hese fossils are 30—35 m illion years old.
T h e L on d o n —B rig hton vintage car rally takes place on
Sunday.
T h e declaration o f the R o m e —B erlin axis led to th e use
o f the label ‘Axis p o w ers’ for G erm any and Italy.
D o n o t w rite things like this:
* Steel contains from o. 1 -1 .7 % carbon.

* Steel contains b etw e en o. 1 —1.7% carbon.
T hese are terrible, since the sense o f ‘fro m ’ o r ‘b e tw e e n ’ is

already included in the p un ctu ation . If y o u prefer to use
w ords, th en w rite th e w ords o u t in full, w ith no dashes:
Steel contains from 0.1 to 1.7% carbon.

Steel contains b etw e en 0.1 and 1.7% carbon.
A nd, o f course, do n o t tangle up these tw o constructions:
* Steel contains b etw e en 0.1 to 1.7% carbon.
A co nstruction o f the form * between X to Y is always w rong.

Similarly, do n o t w rite things like this:
* She was living in R o m e from 1977—83.
Instead, w rite the dates o u t in full:
She was living in R o m e from 1977 to 1983.

T h a t’s all there is to k n o w ab ou t the dash. U se the dash

carefully: overuse o f dashes will give y o u r w riting a breathless
and disjointed appearance. A nd d o n ’t use a dash for any
purpose o th er than setting o ff a strong in terru p tio n or m ark
ing a range: the dash is nev er used in place o f a hyphen , after
a colon o r after a heading. It is n o t used to in trod uce a direct
quotation, except som etim es in novels, b u t this is n o t a usage
y ou should im itate.
T h ere is one last point, very trivial. In a certain style o f
w riting w h ich is n o w felt to be antique and genteel, an
extra-long dash is occasionally used to represent the om ission
o f several letters from a w o rd o r a nam e. T h e exceedingly
genteel V ictorian novelists often w ro te d— n in place o f damn,
and even Go to the d— // instead o f Go to the devil! Such usages
strike us as com ical no w , and few writers today w o u ld hesitate
to w rite o u t such m ild oaths in full (but com pare the related
use o f asterisks in section 9.10 for the coarser words). Som e
Victorians, n o t w an tin g to set th eir fictional narratives in any
identifiable location, also w ro te things like A t the time, I was
living at B — in the county o f S — . This quaint affectation is
n o w dead.
Chapter 7
Capital Letters and Abbreviations
7.1 Capital Letters
Capital letters are n o t really an aspect o f pu nctu ation , b u t it

is co nv en ien t to deal w ith th em here. T h e rules for using
th em are m ostly very simple.
(a) T h e first w o rd o f a sentence, o r o f a fragm ent, begins

w ith a capital letter:
T h e b um bling w izard R in c e w in d is P ratch e tt’s m ost

popular character.
W ill anyone n o w alive live to see a colony o n the m oon?
P robably not.
Distressingly few pupils can locate Iraq o r Japan on a m ap
o f the w orld.
(b) T h e nam es o f the days o f the w eek, and o f the m o nths

o f the year, are w ritten w ith a capital letter:
N e x t Sunday France will hold a general election.

M ozart was b o rn o n 27 January 1756.
Football practice takes place o n W ednesdays and Fridays.
H o w ev er, the nam es o f seasons are n o t w ritten w ith a capital:
Like cricket, baseball is played in the sum m er.
D o n o t w rite * . . . in the Summer.
(c) T h e nam es o f languages are always w ritten w ith a capital

letter. Be careful abo ut this; it’s a very co m m o n mistake.
Ju liet speaks English, French, Italian and P ortuguese.

I need to w o rk on m y Spanish irregular verbs.
A m on g the m ajor languages o f India are H indi, Gujarati
and Tam il.
T hese days, few students study Latin and G reek.
N o te, how ever, that names o f disciplines and school subjects

are n o t capitalized unless they hap pen to be the nam es o f
languages:
I’m doing A levels in history, geography and English.

N e w to n m ade im p o rtan t contributions to physics and
m athem atics.
She is studying F rench literature.
(d) W ords that express a con n ectio n w ith a particular place

m ust be capitalized w h e n they have their literal m eanings.
So, for exam ple, French m ust be capitalized w h e n it m eans
‘having to do w ith F rance’:
T h e result o f th e French election is still in doubt.

T h e A m erican and R ussian negotiators are close to
agreem ent.
Capital Letters and Abbreviations 75
T h ere are no m ountains in the D u tc h landscape.

She has a dry M an cun ian sense o f h u m o u r.
(T he w o rd Mancunian m eans ‘from M an ch ester’.)

H ow ev er, it is n o t necessary to capitalize these w ords w h e n
they occur as parts o f fixed phrases and d o n ’t express any
direct con nectio n w ith th e relevant places:
Please buy som e danish pastries.

In w arm w eather, w e keep o u r french w indow s open.
I prefer russian dressing o n m y salad.
W h y the difference? W ell, a danish pastry is m erely a particu

lar sort o f pastry; it d oesn ’t have to com e from D enm ark.
Likewise, french w indow s are m erely a particular kind o f
w in d o w , and russian dressing is ju st a particular varietyof salad
dressing. E ven in these cases, you can capitalize these w ords
if y o u w ant to, as lon g as y ou are consistent about it. B u t
n otice h o w con v en ien t it can be to m ake the difference:
In w arm w eather, w e keep o u r french w indow s open.

A fter nightfall, F rench w indow s are always shuttered.
In the first exam ple, french windows ju st refers to a kind o f

w in do w ; in the second, French windows refers specifically to
w indow s in France.
(e) In the same vein, w ords that identify nationalities o r eth

nic groups m ust be capitalized:
T h e Basques and the Catalans spent decades struggling for

autonom y.
T h e Serbs and the C roats have b eco m e bitter enem ies.

N o rw a y ’s m ost popular singer is a Sami from Lapland.
(An aside: som e ethnic labels w h ich w ere form erly w idely
used are n o w regarded by m any people as offensive and have
been replaced by o th er labels. T hus, careful w riters use Black,
o r Afro-Caribbean, n o t Negro, in B ritain (but African-American,
n o t Black, in the U S A ); native American, n o t Indian o r red
Indian; native Australian, n o t Aborigine (though Aboriginal is
still ju st about acceptable, b u t probably n o t for long). Y o u
are advised to follow suit.)
(f) Form erly, th e w ords black and white, w h e n applied to

h um an beings, w ere never capitalized. N ow adays, how ever,
m any people prefer to capitalize th em because they regard
these w ords as ethnic labels com parable to Chinese o r Indian:
T h e R o d n e y K ing case infuriated m any Black A m ericans.
Y o u m ay capitalize these w ords o r n o t, as y ou prefer, b u t be

consistent.
(g) P ro p er nam es are always capitalized. A p ro p er nam e is a

nam e o r a title th at refers to an individual person, an in d i
vidual place, an individual institution or an individual event.
H ere are som e examples:
T h e study o f language was revolutionized by N o a m

C hom sky.
T h e G olden G ate B ridge tow ers above San Francisco
Bay.
T h ere will be a debate b etw e en Professor Lacey and

D o c to r Davis.
T h e Q u e e n will address the H ou se o f C o m m o n s today.
M any people m istakenly believe that M exico is in S outh
Am erica.
M y friend Julie is training for the W in te r Olym pics.
N e x t w eek P resident C lin to n will be m eetin g C hancellor
Kohl.
O bserve the difference b etw e en the n ex t tw o examples:
W e have asked for a m eetin g w ith the President.

I w o u ld like to be the president o f a big com pany.
In the first, the title the President is capitalized because it is a

title referring to a specific person; in th e second, there is no
capital, because th e w o rd president does n o t refer to anyone in
particular. (C om pare We have asked for a meeting with President
Wilson and * I would like to be President Wilson o f a big company.)
T h e same difference is m ade w ith som e o th er words: w e
w rite the Government and Parliament w h e n w e are referring to
a particular g o v ern m en t or a particular parliam ent, b u t w e
w rite government and parliament w h e n w e are using the w ords
generically. A nd n o te also the follow ing example:
T h e patro n saint o f carpenters is Saint Joseph.
H ere Saint Joseph is a nam e, b u t patron saint is n o t and gets no

capital.
T h ere is a slight pro b lem w ith the nam es o f hazily defined
geographical regions. W e usually w rite the Middle East and
Southeast A sia, because these regions are n o w regarded as

having a distinctive identity, b u t w e w rite central Europe and
southeast London, because these regions are n o t th o u g h t o f as
having the same kind o f identity. N o te , too, the difference
betw een South Africa (the nam e o f a particular country) and
southern Africa (a vaguely defined region). All I can suggest
here is that y o u read a goo d new spaper and keep y o u r eyes
open.
O bserve that certain surnames o f foreign origin contain
little w ords that are often n o t capitalized, such as de, du, da;
von and van. T hus w e w rite Leonardo da Vinci, Ludwig van
Beethoven, General von Moltke and Simone de Beauvoir. O n the
o th er hand, w e w rite Daphne D u Maurier and Dick Van Dyke,
because those are the forms preferred by the ow ners o f the
names. W h e n in doubt, check the spelling in a g ood reference
book.
A few people eccentrically prefer to w rite their nam es w ith
no capital letters at all, such as the p o et e. e. cummings and the
singer k. d. lang. T hese strange usages should be respected.
(h) T h e names o f distinctive historical periods are capitalized:
L o ndo n was a prosperous city d urin g the M iddle Ages.

B ritain was the first cou ntry to profit from the Industrial
R ev o lu tio n .
T h e Greeks w ere already in G reece d uring the B ronze
Age.
(i) T h e nam es o f festivals and holy days are capitalized:
W e have lo ng breaks at Christm as and Easter.

D u rin g R am adan, o ne m ay n o t eat before sundow n.

T h e feast o f P u rim is an occasion for m errym aking.
O u r church observes the Sabbath very strictly.
T h e children greatly enjoy H allo w e’en.
(j) M any religious term s are capitalized, including the names

o f religions and o f their followers, the nam es or titles o f divine
beings, the titles o f certain im p ortant figures, the names o f
im po rtan t events and the nam es o f sacred books:
A n atheist is a person w h o does n o t believe in God.

T h e principal religions o f Japan are S hinto and
B uddhism .
T h e Indian cricket team includes H indus, M uslims, Sikhs
and Parsees.
T h e L ord is m y shepherd.
T h e P ro p h et was b o rn in M ecca.
T h e Last S upper to o k place on the nigh t before the
C rucifixion.
T h e O ld T estam ent begins w ith Genesis.
N o te , h ow ever, that the w o rd god is n o t capitalized w h e n it

refers to a pagan deity:
P oseidon was the G reek god o f the sea.
(k) In the title or nam e o f a book , a play, a poem , a film, a

m agazine, a new spaper o r a piece o f m usic, a capital letter is
used for the first w o rd and for every significant w o rd (that is,
a little w o rd like the, of, and o r in is n o t capitalized unless it is
the first w ord):
I was terrified by The Silence o f the Lambs.

The Round Tower was w ritten by C ath erin e C ookson.
B ach’s m ost famous organ piece is th e Toccata and Fugue
in D Minor.
I d o n ’t usually like C her, b u t I do enjoy ‘T h e Shoop
Shoop Song’.
Important note: T h e policy ju st described is the on e m ost

w idely used in the English-speaking w orld. T h ere is, h o w
ever, a second policy, preferred by m any people. In this
second policy, w e capitalize only the first w o rd o f a title and
any w ords w h ich intrinsically require capitals for in d ep en d en t
reasons. U sing the second policy, m y examples w o u ld loo k
Ike this:
I was terrified by The silence of the lambs.

The round tower was w ritten by C atherin e C ookson.
B ach ’s m ost famous organ piece is the Toccata and fugue in
D minor.
I d o n ’t usually like C her, b u t I do enjoy ‘T h e shoop
shoop song’.
Y ou m ay use w h ich ev er policy y o u prefer, so long as y o u are

consistent about it. Y o u m ay find, how ever, that y o u r tu to r
or y o u r editor insists u p o n one o r the other. T h e second
policy is particularly co m m o n (though n o t universal) in aca
dem ic circles, and is usual am on g librarians; elsew here, the
first policy is alm ost always preferred.
(I) T h e first w o rd o f a direct quo tation , repeating som eone

else’s exact w ords, is always capitalized if the quotatio n is a

com plete sentence:
T hom as E dison famously observed, ‘G enius is one

p er cent inspiration and n in ety -n in e per cent
perspiration.’
B u t there is no capital letter if the q u o tatio n is n o t a com plete

sentence:
T h e M inister described the latest u n em p lo y m en t figures

as ‘disappointing’.
(m) T h e brand nam es o f m anufacturers and their products

are capitalized:
M axine has b o u g h t a secon d-h and F ord Escort.

A lm ost everybody ow ns a Sony W alkm an.
Note: T h ere is a pro b lem w ith bran d nam es w h ich have

b eco m e so successful that they are used in ordinary speech as
generic labels for classes o f products. T h e m anufacturers o f
Kleenex and Sellotape are exasperated to find people using
kleenex and sellotape as ordinary w ords for facial tissues or
sticky tape o f any kind, and som e such m anufacturers m ay
actually take legal action against this practice. If you are w rit
ing for publication, y o u n eed to be careful about this, and it
is best to capitalize such w ords if y o u use them . H ow ever,
w h e n brand nam es are co nv erted in to verbs, no capital letter
is used: w e w rite She was hoovering the carpet and I need to xerox
this report, even th o u g h the m anufacturers o f Hoover vacuum
cleaners and Xerox p hotocopiers d o n ’t m u c h like this practice,

either.
(n) R o m a n num erals are usually capitalized:
It is no easy task to m ultiply L IX by X X I V using ro m an

numerals.
K ing Alfonso X II I handed over p o w e r to G eneral P rim o
de R ivera.
T h e only co m m o n exception is that small rom an num erals

are used to n u m b er the pages o f the fron t m atter in books;
lo o k at almost any bo ok.
(o) T h e p ro n o u n I is always capitalized:
She th o u g h t I’d b o rro w ed h er keys, b u t I h a d n ’t.
It is possible to w rite an entire w o rd o r phrase in capital letters

in order to em phasize it:
T h ere is A B S O L U T E L Y N O E V I D E N C E to support
this conjecture.
O n the w hole, th o ugh , it is preferable to express emphasis, n o t

w ith capital letters, b u t w ith italics, as explained in C h ap ter 9.
It is n o t necessary to capitalize a w o rd m erely because
there is only one th in g it can possibly refer to:
T h e equator runs th ro u g h the m iddle o f Brazil.

Adm iral Peary was the first person to fly over the n o rth
pole.
T h e universe is th o u g h t to be abo ut 15 billion years old.
H e re the w ords equator, north pole and universe need no capi

tals, because they aren ’t strictly p ro p e r names. Som e people
choose to capitalize th em anyway; this is n o t w rong, b u t it’s
n o t recom m end ed.
T h e use o f capital letters in w ritin g certain abbreviations
and related types o f w ords, including the abbreviated names
o f organizations and com panies, is explained in the next sec
tion; the use o f capital letters in letter-w ritin g and in the
headings o f essays is explained in C h ap ter 10.
T h ere is one o th e r rather rare use o f capital letters w hich
is w o rth explaining if only to p rev en t y o u from doing it by
m istake w h e n y o u d o n ’t m ean to. This is to po ke fun at
som ething. H ere is an exam ple:
T h e F rench R e v o lu tio n was a G o o d T h in g at first, b u t

N a p o le o n ’s rise to p o w e r was a B ad T hing.
H e re the w riter is m aking fun o f the co m m o n tendency to

see historical events in sim ple-m inded term s as either g oo d
o r bad. A n o th er exam ple:
M any people claim that rock m usic is Serious Art,

deserving o f Serious C ritical A tten tio n.
T h e w riter is clearly bein g sarcastic: all those unusual capital

letters dem onstrate that he considers rock music to be w o rth
less trash.
This stylistic device is only appropriate in w riting w h ich is
in ten d ed to be h u m o ro u s, or at least light-hearted; it is quite
o u t o f place in form al w riting.
T h e use o f unnecessary capital letters w h e n y o u ’re trying

to be serious can quickly m ake y o u r prose loo k idiotic, rath er
like those con tent-free books that fill th e shelves o f the N e w
Age section in bookshops:
Y o u r Eidetic Soul is linked by its Crystal C o rd to the

Seventh C ircle o f the Astral Plane, from w h ere the
Im m anen t Essence is transm itted to y o u r Eidetic
Aura . . .
Y o u get the idea. D o n ’t use a capital letter unless y o u ’re sure

y o u k n o w w h y it’s there.
Summary of capital letters
Capitalize
• the first word of a sentence or fragment
• the name of a day or a month
• the name of a language
• a word expressing a connection with a place
• the name of a nationality or an ethnic group
• a proper name
• the name of a historical period
• the name of a holiday
• a significant religious term
• the first word, and each significant word, of a title
• the first word of a direct quotation which is a sentence
• a brand name
• a roman numeral
• the pronoun I
7.2 Abbreviations
A n abbreviation is a short w ay o f w ritin g a w o rd o r a phrase

that could also be w ritten o u t in full. So, for exam ple, y o u
m ig ht w rite D r Kinsey instead o f Doctor Kinsey. H ere D r is an
abbreviation for the w o rd Doctor. Likewise, the phrase for
example can som etim es be abbreviated to e.g.
A bbreviations m ust be clearly distinguished from contrac
tions, w h ich w ere discussed in section 5.1. T h e key difference
is that an abbreviation does n o t normally have a distinctive
p ro n u n ciatio n o f its ow n . So, for exam ple, the abbreviation
D r is p ro n o u n c e d ju st like Doctor, the abbreviation oz. is
p ro n o u n c e d ju st like ounce(s) and the abbreviation e.g. is p ro
n o u n ce d ju st like^br example. (T rue, there are a few people
w h o actually say ‘e e -jee’ for the last one, b u t this practice is
decidedly unusual.) A contraction, in contrast, does have its
o w n distinctive pron un ciation : for exam ple, the contraction
can't is p ro n o u n c e d differently from cannot, and the contrac
tio n she’s is p ro n o u n c e d differently from she is o r she has.
A bbreviations are very rarely used in formal w riting.
A lm ost the only ones w h ich are frequently used are the
abbreviations for certain co m m o n titles, w h e n these are used
w ith so m eo n e’s nam e: M r Willis, D r Livingstone, Mrs Thatcher,
M s Harmon, St Joan. (N o te that the tw o items Mrs and M s are
conventionally treated as abbreviations, even th o u g h they can
be w ritten in n o o th e r way.) W h e n w ritin g about a F rench
o r Spanish person, y o u m ay use the abbreviations for the
F rench and Spanish equivalents o f the English titles:

M . Mitterrand, Sr. Gonzalez. (These are the usual F rench and
Spanish abbreviations for Monsieur and Senor, equivalent to
English Mister.) O bserve that each o f these abbreviations
begins w ith a capital letter.
O th e r titles are som etim es abbreviated in the same way:
Prof. Chomsky, Sgt. Yorke, Mgr. Lindemann. H o w ev er, it is
usually m u ch b etter to w rite these titles o u t in full w h e n y o u
are using th em in a sentence: Professor Chomsky, Sergeant
Yorke, Monsignor Lindemann. T h e abbreviated forms are best
confined to places like footnotes and captions o f pictures.
N o te carefully the use o f full stops in these abbreviations.
British usage favours om itting the full stop in abbreviations
w h ich include the first and last letters o f a single w ord, such
as Mr, Mrs, Ms, D r and St; A m erican usage prefers (A) Mr.,
Mrs., Ms., Dr. and St., w ith full stops. M o st o th er abbreviated
titles, how ever, require a full stop, as show n above.
A p erson ’s initials are a kind o f abbreviation, and these are
usually follow ed by full stops: John D. Rockefeller, C. Aubrey
Smith, O. J. Simpson. Increasingly, how ever, there is a
tendency to w rite such initials w ith o u t full stops: John D
Rockefeller, C Aubrey Smith, O J Simpson. A n d note the rare
special case illustrated by Harry S Truman: the S in this nam e
never takes a full stop, because it’s n o t an abbreviation for
anything; President T ru m a n ’s parents actually gave h im the
m iddle nam e S.
T w o o th er co m m o n abbreviations are a.m. (‘before n o o n ’)
and p.m . (‘after n o o n ’): 10.00 a.m., six p.m . T hese are always
acceptable. N o te that these are n o t capitalized in British usage

(though A m erican usage prefers (A) 1 0 :0 0 a m and six p m ,
w ith small capitals and no full stops).

Also usual are the abbreviations bc and ad, usually w ritten
in small capitals, for m arking dates as before o r after the birth
o f Christ:
A ccording to tradition, R o m e was fou n d ed in 753 bc.
T h e em p ero r Vespasian died in ad 79. o r

T h e em peror Vespasian died in 79 ad.
It is traditional, and reco m m en ded , to w rite ad before the

date, b u t nowadays it is often w ritten after.
N o n-C h ristians w h o do n o t use the C hristian calendar
m ay prefer to use bce (‘before the c o m m o n era’) and ce (‘o f
the co m m o n era’) instead. This is always acceptable:
A ccording to tradition, R o m e was fo un d ed in 753 bce.
T h e em p ero r Vespasian died in 79 ce.
All four o f these abbreviations are co m m o n ly w ritten in small

capitals, and y ou should follow this practice if y ou can; if y o u
can’t p rod uce small capitals, use full-sized capitals instead.
N o te also that, w h e n an abbreviation com es at the end o f
a sentence, only on e full stop is w ritten. Y o u should nev er
w rite tw o full stops in a row .
M any large and w e ll-k n o w n organizations and com panies
have very lo ng nam es w h ich are co m m on ly abbreviated to a
set o f initials w ritten in capital letters, usually w ith no full
stops. H ere are a few familiar examples:
BBC British B roadcasting C o rp o ra tio n

IC I Im perial C hem ical Industries
FBI Federal B ureau o f Investigation
RSPCA R o y al Society for the P rev en tio n o f
C ruelty to Animals
NATO N o rth Atlantic T reaty O rganization
M IT M assachusetts Institute o f T echn olog y
TUC Trades U n io n C ongress
T hese and som e others are so famous that y o u can safely use
the abbreviated forms w ith o u t explanation. B u t d o n ’t overdo
it —n o t every reader will recognize IR O as the International
R efu g ee O rganization, o r IQ OF as the Ind ep en d en t O rd e r
o f O d d Fellows (an A m erican social and charitable organiza
tion). A nd, if y o u ’re w riting for a n on -B ritish readership,
y o u ’d b etter n o t use the abbreviated forms o f specifically
British institutions, such as the T U C , w ith o u t explaining
them . If y ou are in doubt, explain the abbreviation the first
tim e y ou use it. (N o te that a few o f these w ere form erly
w ritten w ith full stops, such as R .S .P .C .A ., b u t this tiresom e
and unnecessary practice is n o w obsolete.)
A few o th er abbreviations are so w ell k n o w n that y o u can
use th em safely in y o u r w riting. Every reader will understand
w h at y o u m ean by G C S E examinations (G C S E = General
Certificate o f Secondary Education), or by D D T (dichloro diphenyl-
trichloroethane), o r by I Q (intelligence quotient), or by F M radio
(F M = frequency modulation). Indeed, in som e o f these cases,
the abbreviated form o f the nam e is far m o re familiar than
the full nam e.
O therw ise, how ever, y o u should try to avoid the use o f

abbreviations in y o u r form al w riting. T h e frequent use
o f unnecessary abbreviations will m ake y o u r text irritating
and hard to read. So, y o u should w rite four ounces (not 4 o z .),
So miles per hour (not 80 mph), the Church o f England (not the
C o f E ), the seventeenth century (not C17 o r the 17th cent.) and
the second volume (not the 2nd vol.). It is far m o re im po rtant to
m ake y o u r w riting easy to read than to save a few seconds in
w ritin g it.
T h ere is one exception to this policy. In scientific w riting,
the names o f units are always abbreviated and always w ritten
w ith o u t full stops o r a plural 5. If y o u are doing scientific
w riting, then, y o u should con fo rm by w ritin g 5 kg (not
5 kilogrammes, and certainly n o t * 5 kg. o r * 5 kgs.), 800 H z
(not 800 Hertz) and 17.3 cm3 (not 17.3 cubic centimetres).
T h ere are a n u m b e r o f Latin abbreviations w h ich are
som etim es used in English texts. H e re are the co m m onest
ones w ith their English equivalents:
e.g. for exam ple

i.e. in o th e r w ords
viz. nam ely
sc. w h ich means
c. approxim ately
cf. com pare
V. consult
etc. and so forth
et al. and o th e r people
T h e rule about using these Latin abbreviations is very simple:

d o n ’t use th em . T h e ir use is only appropriate in special cir
cum stances in w h ich brevity is at a p rem ium , such as in
footnotes. It is very p o o r style to spatter y o u r page w ith these
things, and it could be disastrous to use th em w ith o u t being
quite sure w h at they m ean. If y o u do use one, m ake sure y o u
p u n ctuate it correctly. H e re is an exam ple. T h e re co m
m en d ed form is this:
Several British universities w ere fo u n d ed in the V ictorian

era; for exam ple, the U niversity o f M anchester was
established in 1851.
T h e follow ing version is n o t w rong, b u t it is p o o r style:
Several British universities w ere fo un ded in the V ictorian

era; e.g., the U niversity o f M anchester was established
in 1851.
B u t this n ext version is disastrously w rong , because the p u n c

tuation has been om itted:
* Several British universities w ere fou nded in the

V ictorian era e.g. the U niversity o f M anchester was
established in 1851.
U sing a Latin abbreviation does n o t relieve you o f the obliga

tio n o f p u nctuating y o u r sentence. Again, if y ou avoid Latin
abbreviations, y ou w o n ’t get into this sort o f trouble.
T h e abbreviation c. ‘approxim ately’ is properly used only
in citing a date w h ich is n o t k n o w n exactly, and th en usually
only if the date is given in parentheses:
Capital Letters and Abbreviations 9t
T h e famous Basque cem etery o f A rgineta in Elorrio

(c. ad 883) shows tom bs w ith sun-discs b u t no crosses.
R o g e r B acon (c. 1214—94) was k n o w n as ‘the A dm irable
D o c to r’.
H ere the use o f c. shows that the date o f the cem etery and
the date o f B aco n ’s birth are n o t k n o w n exactly. If neith er
b irth date n o r death date is k n o w n for sure, th en each is
preceded by c.
O utside o f parentheses, y ou should usually avoid the use
o f c. and prefer an English w o rd like about o r approximately:
T h e city o f Bilbao was fo un ded in ab ou t 1210.
D o n o t w rite \ . . in c. i 2 io \
T h e abbreviation etc. calls for special com m en t. It should
n ev e r be used in careful w riting: it is vague and sloppy and,
w h e n applied to people, rather offensive. D o n o t w rite som e
th in g like this:
* C entral Africa was explored by Livingstone, Stanley,

Brazza, etc.
Instead, rew rite the sentence in a m o re explicit way:
C entral Africa was explored by Livingstone, Stanley and

Brazza, am o ng others, o r
C entral Africa was explored by several Europeans,
including Livingstone, Stanley and Brazza.
If y o u do find y ou rself using etc., for heav en ’s sake spell it and

pu nctuate it correctly. This is an abbreviation for the Latin
phrase et cetera ‘and o th er things’, and it is p ro n o u n c ed E T

S E T R A , and n o t * E K S E T R A . D o n o t w rite ghastly
things like * ect. o r * e.t.c. Such m onstrosities m ake y o u r
w ritin g lo ok hopelessly illiterate. Again, if y o u avoid Latin
abbreviations, y o u w o n ’t fall into such traps.
Finally, for th e tw o further (and highly objectionable) Latin
abbreviations ibid. and op. cit. see section 10.3.
O bserve that it is usual to w rite m ost Latin abbreviations
in italics, b u t this is n o t strictly essential, and m any people
d o n ’t b other.
T h ere has recently b een a fashion in som e circles for w rit
ing Latin abbreviations w ith o u t full stops, and you m ay com e
across things like ie and eg in y o u r reading. I consider this a
ghastly practice, and I urge y o u strongly n o t to im itate it.
(N ote, h ow ever, that et al. has only one full stop, since et
‘an d ’ is a com plete w o rd in Latin.)
O n e final point: very m any people w h o should k n o w
b etter use the Latin abbreviation cf., w h ich properly means
‘co m pare’, m erely to refer to published w ork. It is n o w very
co m m o n to see som ething like this:
* T h e Australian language D yirbal has a rem arkable

gender system; cf. D ix o n (1972).
This is quite w ro n g , since the w riter is n o t inviting the reader

to compare D ix o n ’s w o rk w ith anything, b u t only to consult
that w o rk for m o re inform ation. H e n ce the correct form is
this:
T h e Australian language D yirbal has a rem arkable gender

system; see D ix o n (1972).
This w idespread b lu nd er is a signal rem in d er o f the danger o f

using Latin abbreviations w h e n y o u d o n ’t k n o w w h at they
m ean. Far too m any w riters fall into this trap, and w rite i.e.
w h e n they m ean e.g., o r som ething equally awful. If y ou must
use a Latin abbreviation, m ake sure y o u ’re using the right
one. In m ost circum stances, tho ug h, y o u are best advised to
avoid these abbreviations: almost every one o f th em has a
simple English equivalent w h ich should usually be preferred.
Summary of abbreviations
• Do not use an abbreviation that can easily be avoided.

• In an abbreviation, use full stops and capital letters in the
conventional way.
• Do not forget to punctuate the rest of the sentence normally.
Chapter 8
Quotation Marks
8.1 Quotation Marks and Direct Quotations
T h e use o f quotation marks, also called inverted commas, is very

slightly com plicated by th e fact that th ere are tw o types: single
quotes (") and double quotes As a general rule, British
usage prefers single quotes for ordinary use, b u t double quotes
are also very com m o n; A m erican usage insists u p o n double
quotes. Usage in the rest o f the w o rld varies: double quotes
are preferred in C anada and Australia, and perhaps also in
N e w Zealand, w hile single quotes are perhaps m o re usual in
South Africa. As w e shall see below , the use o f double quotes
in fact offers several advantages, and this is the usage I rec
o m m en d here. Y o u m ay find, ho w ev er, if you are w ritin g
for publication, that y o u r editor o r publisher insists up o n
single quotes. If y o u are using a w o rd processor, th ou gh , y o u
m ay find that y o u r p rin ter produces single quotes w h ich are
all b u t invisible, in w h ich case double quotes will m ake life
easier for y o u r readers.
T h e ch ief use o f quo tation marks is quite easy to u n d e r
stand: a p air o f qu otatio n marks encloses a d irect q u o ta tio n
Quotation Marks 95
— that is, a repetitio n o f so m eo n e’s exact w ords. H ere are

som e examples:
P resident K enn edy famously exclaim ed, ‘Ich bin ein

B erliner!’
M ad on na is fond o f declaring, ‘I ’m n o t asham ed o f
anything. ’
‘T h e only em p e ro r,’ writes W allace Stevens, ‘is the
em p ero r o f ice cream .’
L ook closely at these examples. N o te first that w hat is en

closed in quotes m ust be the exact w ords o f the person being
quoted. A nything w h ich is n o t part o f those exact w ords
m ust be placed outside the quotes, even if, as in the last
exam ple, this m eans using tw o sets o f quotes because the
qu otatio n has been interrupted. (T he com m as in the last
exam ple set o ff a w eak interrup tion , as usual; their presence
has n o th in g to do w ith the quotation.) A nd no te som ething
else w hich is very strange: the first com m a in the last exam ple
com es inside the quotes, even th o u g h it is n o t part o f the
quotation. This makes no sense, and it contradicts the usual
principles o f p u n ctu atio n , b u t for som e reason this illogical
style has b eco m e alm ost universal in English. I d o n ’t like it,
and I w o u ld very m u ch prefer to p u t that com m a outside the
quotes, w h ere it belongs, as follows:
‘T h e only em p e ro r’, w rites W allace Stevens, ‘is the

B ut, if y o u do this, yo u will find m ost o f the w o rld lined up

against you. See b elo w for m ore o n this topic.
O therw ise, how ever, you should n o t p u t quotes aro un d
anything o th er than a w o rd -fo r-w o rd quotation. C o n
sequently, the follow ing exam ple is w ron g:
* T hom as E dison declared that ‘G enius was one p er cent

inspiration and n in ety -n in e p er cent perspiration.’
H e re the passage inside the quotes transparently does n o t

reproduce E dison ’s exact words. T h ere are three ways o f
fixing this. First, drop the quotes:
T hom as E dison declared that genius was one p er cent

inspiration and n in ety -n in e per cent perspiration.
Second, rew rite the sentence so that y o u can use E dison’s

exact words:
A ccording to T hom as Edison, ‘G enius is on e p er cent

T hird, m ove the quotes so that they enclose only E diso n’s
exact words:
T hom as Edison declared that genius was ‘on e per cent

inspiration and n in ety -n in e p er cent perspiration’.
All three o f these are perfect, since only E dison’s exact w ords
are enclosed in quotes.
N o w notice som eth in g else w h ich is very im portant: a
quo tation is set o ff by q uo tation m arks an d n o th in g else. A
Quotation Marks 97
sentence containing a q u o tation is p u n ctu a te d exactly like

any o th er sentence apart from the addition o f the quotation
marks. Y o u should n o t insert additional p u n ctu atio n marks
in to the sentence m erely to w arn the reader that a q uo tation
is com ing up: th a t’s w hat the qu otatio n m arks are for. H ere
are som e co m m o n mistakes:
* President N ix o n declared: ‘I am n o t a cro o k .’

* President N ix o n declared :- ‘I am n o t a cro o k .’
T h e colon in the first is com pletely pointless, w hile the start

ling arsenal o f p u n ctu a tio n in the second is grotesque.
(R em em b er, a colon can never be follow ed by a h y ph en o r
a dash.) H ere is the style I recom m end:
President N ix o n declared ‘I am n o t a c ro o k .’
A dding m ore dots and squiggles to this perfectly clear sen

tence w o u ld do absolutely n o th in g to im prove it. N o
pu n ctu atio n m ark should be used if it is n o t necessary.
Nevertheless, very m any people prefer to p u t a com m a
before an o pen in g quo te, as follows:
President N ix o n declared, ‘I am n o t a c ro o k .’
I consider such com m as to be unnecessary, since they do no

w o rk at all, b u t m ost publishers insist u p o n them . If yo u are
w riting for publication, then, y o u will probably find yourself
obliged to use them .
O n the o th er hand, th e presence o f q uo tatio n marks does
n o t rem ove the necessity o f using o th er pu n ctu atio n w h ich
is required for in dep en d en t reasons. L ook again at these

examples:
A ccording to T hom as Edison, ‘G enius is one per cent

inspiration and nin ety -n in e p er cent perspiration.’
‘T h e only em p e ro r,’ writes W allace Stevens, ‘is the
T h e com m as here are bracketing com m as, used as usual to

set o ff w eak interruptions; th eir presence has n o th in g to do
w ith the presence o f a quotation, w h ich is itself properly
m arked o ff by the q u otation marks.
H ere is an other example:
M ae W est had o ne golden rule for handling m en: ‘Tell

the pretty ones th ey ’re smart, and tell the smart ones
th ey ’re p re tty .’
T h e colon here is n o t b eing used m erely because a q uotatio n

follows. Instead, it is doing w h at colons always do: it is in tro
ducing an explanation o f w hat com es before the colon. It is
m erely a coincidence that w hat follows the colon happens to
be a quotation.
This last exam ple illustrates an o th er p o in t about q u o ta
tions: the q u otatio n inside the qu ote m arks begins w ith a
capital letter if it is a com plete sentence, b u t n o t otherw ise.
L ook once m ore at tw o versions o f the E dison sentence:
A ccording to T hom as Edison, ‘G enius is one p er cent

Quotation Marks 99
T hom as Edison declared that genius was ‘o ne p er cent

inspiration and n in ety -n in e p er cent perspiration’.
T h e first quo tation is a com plete sentence and therefore gets

an initial capital letter; the second is n o t a com plete sentence
and hence receives no capital.
T h ere is one situation in w h ich the use o f single quotes
instead o f double quotes can be rather a nuisance. This is
w h e n the quotatio n contains an apostrophe, especially near
the end:
Professor C avendish concludes that ‘T h e T u rk s’ influence

on the Balkans has been m ore end urin g than the
G reeks’ ever w as.’
Since an apostrophe is usually indistinguishable from a closing

qu ote m ark, the reader m ay be m om entarily misled into
th in kin g that she has com e to the end o f the qu otatio n w h e n
she has not. This is one reason w h y I personally prefer to use
double quotes:
Professor C avendish concludes that “ T h e T u rk s’

influence o n the Balkans has b een m o re enduring than
the G reeks’ ever w as.”
W ith double quotes, the prob lem goes away.

T hings can get a little com plicated w h e n y o u cite a q uo ta
tio n that has an o th er q uo tatio n inside it. In this rare circum
stance, the rule is to set o ff the internal qu otation w ith the
other type o f q u o tatio n marks. So, if y o u ’re using double
quotes:
T h e Shadow E m p lo ym ent Secretary declared,

“ D escribing the u nem p lo y m en t figures as
‘disappointing’ is an insult to the British p eo p le.”
A n d if y o u ’re using single quotes:
T h e S hadow E m ploy m ent Secretary declared,

‘D escribing the un em p lo y m en t figures as
“ disappointing” is an insult to the British p eo p le .’
Naturally, y o u ’ll be asking w hat y o u should do if you have a

qu otatio n inside a q uo tation inside a quotation. M y answer:
y ou should rew rite the sentence. O therw ise, you will simply
lose y o u r reader in a labyrinth o f q u o tatio n marks.
If you have a long quotation w h ich you w ant to display
in d en ted in the m iddle o f the page, y o u do n o t need to place
quotes arou nd it, th o u g h you should m ake sure that y o u
identify it explicitly as a q uo tatio n in y o u r m ain text. H e re
is an exam ple cited from G. V. C arey ’s famous b o o k o n
pun ctuatio n, M ind the Stop (Carey 1958):
I should define pu n ctu atio n as bein g governed tw o-th ird s

by rule and o n e -th ird by personal taste. I shall endeavour
n o t to stress the form er to the exclusion o f the latter, b u t I
will n o t knuckle u n d er to those w h o apparently claim for
them selves com plete freedom to do w hat they please in
the m atter.
It w o u ld n o t be w ro n g to enclose this passage in quotes, b u t

there is no need, since I have clearly identified it as a q u o ta
Quotation Marks 101
tion, w h ich is exactly w h at q u otatio n m arks norm ally do. N o

pu n ctu atio n should be used if it’s n o t do in g any w ork.
Occasionally y o u m ay find it necessary to in terru p t a q u o
tation y ou are citing in order to clarify som ething. T o do this
y o u enclose y o u r remarks in square brackets (never p aren th
eses). Suppose I w an t to cite a famous passage from the eigh-
teen th -cen tu ry F rench w riter Alexis de Tocqueville:
T hese tw o nations [America and Russia] seem set to sway

the destinies o f half the globe.
T h e passage from w h ich this sentence is taken had earlier

m ade it clear w hich tw o nations the au th o r was talking about.
M y quotation, how ev er, does n o t m ake this clear, and so I
have inserted the necessary inform ation enclosed in square
brackets.
Som e authors, w h e n doing this, have a habit o f inserting
their o w n initials w ith in the square brackets, preceded by a
dash. Thus, m y exam ple m ight have lo o k ed like this:
These tw o nations [America and R ussia —R L T ] seem set

to sway the destinies o f half the globe.
This is n o t w ro ng , b u t it is hardly ever necessary, since the

square brackets already m ake it clear w h a t’s going on.
T h ere is one special in terru p tio n w hose use y ou should be
familiar w ith. This happens w h e n the passage y ou are qu o tin g
contains a mistake o f som e kind, and y o u w ant to m ake it
clear to y o u r reader that the mistake is contained in the
original passage, and has n o t been in tro d u ced by you. T o do
this, y o u use the Latin w o rd sic, wThich means ‘th us’, again
enclosed in square brackets and im m ediately follow ing the
mistake. T h e m istake can be o f any kind: a spelling m istake,
a gram m atical error, the use o f the w ro n g w ord , o r even a
statem ent w h ich is obviously w ro n g o r silly. H ere are som e
examples, all o f w h ich are m eant to be direct quotations:
W e have n o t recieved [sic] y o u r letter.

T h e n u m b er o f students are [sic] larger than usual.
T h e All Blacks w o n the m atch w ith a fortuitous [sic] try
in the final m inute.
T h e last dinosaurs died about 60,000 years ago [sic] .
(T he w o rd received is misspelled; the form are has b een used

w here is is required; the w o rd fortuitous, w h ich means ‘acci
dental’, has b een used w h ere fortunate was intended; the last
statem ent is grotesquely false.) N o te that the w o rd sic is co m
m only italicized, if italics are available. A nd no te also that sic
is not used m erely to em phasize part o f a quotation: it is used
only to draw attentio n to an error.
If y ou do w an t to em phasize part o f a quotation, yo u do so
by placing that part in italics, b u t yo u m ust show that y o u are
doing this. H ere is a sentence cited from Steven P in k e r’s
b o o k The Language Instinct:
M any prescriptive rules o f gram m ar are just plain dumb

and should be deleted from the usage handbooks
[emphasis added ].
Quotation Marks 103
H e re m y co m m en t in square brackets shows that the italics

w ere n o t present in the original b u t that I have added th em
in order to draw atten tion to this part o f th e quotation. In
C h ap ter 9 w e shall consider the use o f italics further.
I f yo u w ant to qu ote parts o f a passage w hile leaving o u t
som e intervening bits, y o u do this by inserting an ellipsis (...)
(also called a suspension or omission marks) to represent a
missing section o f a quotation. If, as a result, you n eed to
provide one or tw o extra w ords to link up the pieces o f the
quotation, y o u p u t those extra w ords inside square brackets
to show that they are n o t part o f the qu otation. If yo u need
to change a small letter to a capital, y o u p u t that capital inside
square brackets. H ere is an exam ple, cited from m y o w n
bo o k Language: The Basics (Trask 1995):
Chelsea was b o rn nearly deaf, b u t . . . she was disastrously

misdiagnosed as m entally retarded w h e n she failed to learn
to speak . . . [S]he was raised by a loving family . . . [but]
only w h e n she was th irty -o n e did a disbelieving do cto r . . .
prescribe for h er a hearing aid. Able to hear speech at last,
she began learning English.
Naturally, w h e n yo u use an ellipsis, be careful n o t to m isrep

resent the sense o f the original passage.
Finally, there rem ains the pro blem o f w h e th e r to p u t o th er
pu n ctu atio n m arks inside o r outside the quotation marks.
T h ere are at least tw o schools o f th o u g h t on this, w h ich I
shall call the logical view and the conventional view. A m erican
usage adheres closely to the conventional view; British usage
prefers the logical view , but, as w e shall see, w ith one curious
exception.
T h e logical view holds that the only p u n ctu atio n m arks
w h ich should be placed inside the q uo tatio n marks are those
that form part o f the quotation, w hile all others should be
placed outside. T h e conventional view , in contrast, insists o n
placing m ost o th er p u n ctu atio n m arks inside a closing q uote,
regardless o f w h e th e r they form part o f the quotation. H ere
are three sentences p u nctu ated according to the logical view;
the second is taken from P ullum (1984), o f w h ich m ore
below :
‘T h e only th ing w e have to fear’, said Franklin

R oosevelt, ‘is fear itself.’
B olinger never said ‘A ccent is predictable’; he said
‘A ccent is predictable - if y o u ’re a m in d -re ad er.’
T h e P rim e M inister con d em n ed w h at he called
‘sim ple-m inded solutions’.
A nd here they are pu n ctu ated according to the conventional

view:
‘T h e only thing w e have to fear,’ said Franklin

R oosevelt, ‘is fear itself.’
B olinger n ever said, ‘A ccent is predictable;’ he said,
‘A ccent is predictable - if y o u ’re a m in d -re ad er.’
T h e P rim e M inister cond em n ed w h at he called
‘sim ple-m inded solutions.’
N o te the placing o f the com m a after fear in the first exam ple,
Quotation Marks 105
o f the sem icolon after predictable in th e second, and o f the

final full stop in the third. T hese are n o t part o f th eir q uota
tions, and so th e logical view places th e m outside the quote
marks, w hile the conventional view places th em inside, on
the theory that a closing q uo te should always follow ano ther
pu n ctu atio n m ark.
W h ic h view should w e prefer? I certainly prefer the logical
view , and, in a perfect w orld, I w o u ld simply advise y ou to
stick to this view . H o w ev er, it is a fact that A m erican usage
clings grim ly to the conventional view , and y o u will find it
very difficult to persuade an A m erican publisher to refrain
from changing y o u r logical punctuatio n. British usage, in
contrast, generally prefers the logical view , b u t w ith one
inconsistent and bizarre exception: British publishers n o rm
ally insist on p u ttin g a com m a inside closing quotes, even
w h e n it logically belongs outside. H e n ce a British publisher
will usually insist o n th e conventional style w ith m y R o o s e
velt exam ple above, b u t on the logical style w ith the o th er
tw o. This is m ysterious, b u t it’s a fact o f life.
T h e linguist G eo ffP u llu m , a fervent advocate o f the logical
view , once got so angry at copy-editors w h o insisted o n
reshuffling his carefully placed p u n ctu atio n that he w ro te an
article called ‘P u n ctu atio n and h u m an freedo m ’ (Pullum
1984). H ere is one o f his examples, first w ith logical p u n c tu
ation, as it w o u ld usually be printed in Britain:
Shakespeare’s play Richard I I I contains the line ‘N o w is

the w in ter o f o u r discontent’.
This is true. N o w try it w ith conventional p unctu ation , as

preferred in the U S A :
Shakespeare’s play Richard I I I contains the line ‘N o w is

the w in ter o f o u r d iscontent.’ (A)
This is strictly false, since the line in question is only the first
o f tw o lines m aking up a com plete sentence, and h ence
does n o t end in a full stop, as apparently suggested by the
conventional punctuation:
N o w is the w in ter o f o u r discontent

M ade glorious sum m er by this sun o f Y ork.
T h e same p o in t arises in the G eneral Sedgw ick exam ple cited

in C h ap ter 6:
G eneral S edgw ick’s last w ords to his w o rried staff w ere

‘D o n ’t w orry, boys; they co u ld n ’t h it an elephant at
this dist—’.
H ere, p u ttin g the full stop inside the closing quotes, as

required by the conventionalists, w o u ld p roduce an idiotic
result, since the w h o le p o in t o f the quotation is that the
lam ented general d id n ’t live long en o u g h to finish it.
Y o u m ay follow y o u r o w n preference in this m atter, so
long as yo u are consistent. If y o u o pt for logical pu nctuatio n,
y ou will have the satisfaction o f k n o w in g that y ou are o n the
side o f the angels, b u t y ou should also expect som e grim
opposition from the o th er side.
Quotation Marks 107
8.2 Scare Quotes
T h e use o f quotation m arks can be ex tend ed to cases w hich

are n o t exactly direct quotations. H e re is an example:
Linguists som etim es em ploy a tech niq ue they call

‘inverted reco n stru ctio n ’.
T h e phrase in q uo te m arks is n o t a q u o tatio n from anyone in

particular, b u t m erely a term w h ich is used by som e people
— in this case, linguists. W h a t the w riter is doing here is
distancing h im self from the term in quotes. T h at is, h e ’s saying,
‘L ook, th at’s w h at they call it. I’m n o t responsible for this
te rm .’ In this case, there is n o suggestion that the w riter
disapproves o f the phrase in quotes, b u t very often there is a
suggestion o f disapproval:
T h e Institute for Personal K now ledge is n o w offering a

course in ‘self-awareness exercises’.
O n c e again, the w rite r’s quotes m ean ‘this is their term , n o t

m in e ’, b u t this tim e th ere is definitely a h in t o f a sneer: the
w riter is im plying that, although the Institute m ay call their
course ‘self-awareness exercises’, w hat th e y ’re really offering
to do is to take y o u r m o n ey in exchange for a lot o f h o t air.
Q u o tatio n m arks used in this w ay are inform ally called
scare quotes. Scare quotes are q uo tatio n m arks placed arou nd
a w o rd o r phrase from w h ich you, the w riter, w ish to distance
yourself because y o u consider that w o rd o r phrase to be odd
or inappropriate for som e reason. Possibly y o u regard it as

too colloquial for formal w riting; possibly y o u th in k it’s
unfam iliar or m ysterious; possibly y o u consider it to be
inaccurate o r misleading; possibly y o u believe it’s ju st plain
w rong. Q u ite often scare quotes are used to express iro ny or
sarcasm:
T h e Serbs are closing in on the ‘safe h av e n ’ o f G orazde.
T h e p o in t here is that the to w n has b een officially declared

a safe haven by the U N , w hereas in fact, as the quo te
marks m ake clear, it is anything b u t safe. H e re ’s an o th er ex
ample:
Sharon m ade dozens o f ‘adult films’ before getting h er

H o lly w o o d break.
T h e phrase ‘adult films’ is the industry’s conventional label

for p ornographic films, and here the w riter is show ing that
she recognizes this phrase as n o th in g m o re than a dishonest
euphem ism .
It is im p o rtan t to realize this distancing effect o f scare
quotes. Q u o ta tio n m arks are not properly used m erely in
order to draw attention to words, and all those pubs w h ich
declare We Sell ‘Traditional Pub Food’ are unw ittingly sug
gesting to a literate reader that they are in fact serving up
m icrow aved sludge.
Som e w riters perhaps take the use o f scare quotes a little
to o far:
I have ju st b een ‘ripped o ff’ by m y insurance com pany.

Quotation Marks 109
H e re the w riter is doing som ething rath er odd: she is using

the phrase ‘ripped o ff’, b u t at the same tim e she is show ing
h er distaste for this phrase by w rapping it in quotes. Perhaps
she regards it as too slangy, o r as too A m erican. U sing scare
quotes like this is the orthographic equivalent o f h olding the
phrase at arm ’s length w ith o ne h an d and pin ching y o u r nose
w ith the other.
I can’t really approve o f scare quotes used in this way. If
y ou th in k a w o rd is appropriate, th en use it, w ith o u t any
quotes; if y o u th in k it’s n o t appropriate, th en d o n ’t use it,
unless you specifically w ant to be ironic. Sim ultaneously
using a w o rd and show ing that y o u d o n ’t approve o f it will
only m ake y o u sound like an antiquated fuddy-duddy.
8.3 Quotation Marks in Titles
A couple o f generations ago, it was the custom to enclose all

titles in qu otation marks: titles o f books, titles o f poem s, titles
o f films, titles o f new spapers, and so on. This usage, h ow ever,
has n o w largely disappeared, and the m o d ern custom is to
w rite m ost titles in italics, as explained in C h ap ter 9. B u t in
academ ic circles, at least, it is still usual to enclose the titles o f
articles in journals and magazines in quotes, as well as the
titles o f chapters in books - hence m y reference above to
G eo ff P u llu m ’s article ‘P u n ctu atio n and hu m an freedo m ’. In
B ritish usage, ho w ev er, w e always use single quotes for this
purpose, th o u g h A m erican usage usually prefers double
quotes here too.
It is still n o t exactly w ro n g to refer to a new spaper as ‘T h e

G uardian’, or to a b o o k as ‘U ncle T o m ’s C ab in ’, b u t it is
certainly old-fashioned now , and m y advice is to use italics
rather than q u otation marks, except perhaps w h e n y ou are
w riting by hand.
8.4 Talking About Words
T h ere is one very special use o f qu otatio n marks w h ich it is

useful to k n o w about: w e use q u otation marks w h e n w e are
talking about w ords. In this special use, all varieties o f English
norm ally use only single quotes, and n o t double quotes
(though som e Am ericans use double quotes even here). (This
is an other advantage o f using double quotes for ordinary
purposes, since this special use can th en be readily distin
guished.) C o nsid er the follow ing examples:
M en are physically stronger than w o m en .

‘M e n ’ is an irregular plural.
In the first exam ple, w e are using the w o rd ‘m e n ’ in the

ordinary way, to refer to male h u m an beings. In the second,
how ever, w e are doing som ething very different: w e are n o t
talking about any h u m an beings at all, b u t instead w e are
talking about the word ‘m e n ’. Placing quotes around the w o rd
w e are talking ab ou t makes this clear. O f course, y o u are
only likely to n eed this device w h e n y o u are w riting about
language, b u t th en y o u should certainly use it. If y o u th in k
Quotation Marks 111
I ’m being unnecessarily finicky, take a lo o k at a sample o f the

sort o f thing I frequently find m yself trying to read w h e n
m arking m y students’ essays:
* A typical y o u n g speaker in R e a d in g has done, n o t did,

and usually also does for do and dos for does.
I ’m sure y o u ’ll agree this is a w hole lot easier to read w ith

som e suitable q u otatio n marks:
A typical y o u n g speaker in R e ad in g has ‘d o n e ’, n o t ‘d id ’,

and usually also ‘does’ for ‘d o ’ and ‘dos’ for ‘does’.
Failure to m ake this useful orthographic distinction can, in

rare cases, lead to absurdity:
T h e w o rd processor cam e into use aro u n d 1910.

T h e w o rd ‘processor’ cam e into use arou nd 1910.
If w h at you m ean is the second, w riting the first will create

m om entary havoc in y o u r reader’s m ind. (T he second state
m en t is true; the first is w ro n g by ab ou t seventy years.) H ere
w e have a particularly clear exam ple o f the w ay in w h ich
g oo d p u n ctu atio n w orks: in speech, the phrases the word pro
cessor and the word ‘processor’ sound quite different, because
they are stressed differently; in w riting, the stress difference is
lost, and p u n ctu atio n m ust step in to do the jo b .
P rinted books usually use italics for citing w ords, rather
than qu otatio n marks. I f y o u are using a keyboard w hich can
pro du ce italics, y o u can use italics in this way, and indeed
this practice is preferable to the use o f quotes. See C hap ter 9
for m o re o n this. In one circum stance, th ou gh , italics are n o t

possible: w h e n w e are providing b rie f translations (or glosses,
as they are called) for foreign w ords. H e re ’s an example:
T h e English w o rd ‘th e rm o m e te r’ is derived from the

G reek w ords thermos ‘h ea t’ and metron ‘m easure’.
This exam ple shows the standard w ay o f m en tio n in g foreign

words: the foreign w o rd is p u t into italics, and an English
translation, if provided, follows in single quotes, w ith no
other punctuation. O bserve that n eith er a com m a n o r any
thing else separates the foreign w o rd from the gloss.
Y o u can even do this w ith English words:
T h e w ords stationary ‘n o t m o v in g ’ and stationery ‘w riting

m aterials’ should be carefully distinguished.
In this case, it is clearly necessary to use italics for citing

English words, reserving the single quotes for the glosses.
Summary of quotation marks
• Put quotation marks (single or double) around the exact

words of a direct quotation.
• Inside a quotation, use a suspension to mark omitted
material and square brackets to mark inserted material.
• Use quotation marks to distance yourself from a word or
phrase or to show that you are using it ironically.
• Place quotation marks around a word or phrase which you
are talking about.
Chapter 9
Miscellaneous
9.1 Italics
M ost w o rd processors can p ro du ce italics, w h ich are slanted

letters — like these. If y o u can’t prod u ce italics, the co n v en
tional substitute is to use un derlining - like this. Italics have
several uses.
M ost com m only, italics are used for emphasis o r contrast
—that is, to draw atten tion to som e particular part o f a text.
H ere are som e examples:
T h e Battle o f N e w O rleans was fo ug ht in January 1815,

tw o weeks after the peace treaty had b een signed.
A ccording to the linguist Steven P inker, ‘M any
prescriptive rules o f gram m ar are ju st plain dumb and
should be deleted from the usage h an db oo ks’ [emphasis
added].
Standard English usage requires ‘/^sensitive’ rather than
‘insensitive’.
Lem m ings have, n o t tw o, b u t three kinds o f sex
chrom osom e.
T h e first tw o examples illustrate emphasis and the last tw o

illustrate contrast. This is the standard w ay o f representing
emphasis o r contrast; y o u should n o t try to use q uo tatio n
m arks o r o th er p u n ctu atio n marks for this purpose.
A n o th er use o f italics, as explained in C h ap ter 8, is to
cite titles o f com plete works: books, films, journals, musical
com positions, and so on:
W e saw a perform ance o f the Messiah o n Saturday.

C h o m sk y ’s b o o k Syntactic Structures revolutionized
linguistics.
Spielberg w o n his Oscars for Schindler’s List.
A n exception: the nam es o f holy books are usually not w ritten

in italics. Thus, w e w rite about the (Holy) Bible and the
(Holy) K oran, w ith n o italics. D o n ’t ask m e w hy.
N o te, how ever, that w e do n o t use italics w h e n citing a
nam e w h ich is only a conventional description:
D v o ra k ’s n in th sym phony is com m o nly k n o w n as the

N ew World sym phony.
H ere the label ‘D v o ra k ’s n in th sy m ph ony ’ is n o t strictly a

title, and hence is n o t italicized.
A third use o f italics is to cite foreign w ords w h e n talking
about them . Examples:
T h e French w o rd pathetique is usually best translated as

‘m o v in g ’, n o t as ‘p ath etic’.
T h e G erm an w o rd Gemutlichkeit is n o t easy to translate
into English.
Miscellaneous 115
T h e Sicilian tradition o f omerta has lo ng p ro tected the

Mafia.
A t Basque festivals, a favourite en tertain m en t is the
sokamuturra, in w h ich people ru n in front o f a bull
w h ich is restricted by ropes co ntrolled by handlers.
R elated to this is the use o f italics w h e n using foreign w ords

and phrases w h ich are n o t regarded as com pletely assimilated
into English:
Psychologists are interested in the p h e n o m e n o n o f deja

vu.
This analysis is n o t in accord w ith the Sprachgefiihl o f
native speakers.
If y ou are n o t sure w h ich foreign w ords and phrases are

usually w ritten in italics, consult a g oo d dictionary.
As explained in C h ap ter 8, it is also quite co m m o n to use
italics w h e n citing English w ords that are bein g talked about,
as an alternative to single quotes:
T h e origin o f the w o rd boy is u n k n o w n .

N o te the spelling difference b etw e en premier (an adjective
m eaning ‘first’ o r ‘m ost im p o rtan t’) and premiere (a
n o u n m eaning ‘first p erform an ce’).
Finally, italics are used in certain disciplines for various

specific purposes. H e re are tw o o f th e c o m m o n er ones. In
biology, genus and species names o f living creatures are ital
icized:
T h e earliest k n o w n m em b er o f the genus Homo is H .

habilis.
T h e cedar w axw ing (Bombycilla cedrorum) is a familiar
A m erican bird.
N o te that a genus nam e always has a capital letter, w hile a

species nam e nev er does.
Second, names o f legal cases are italicized:
T h e famous case o f Brown v. Board o f Education was a

landm ark in A m erican legal history.
In this case, n o te that the abbreviation v., w h ich stands for

versus (‘against’) stands in rom an type, n o t in italics. N o te also
that the A m erican abbreviation is vs.:
(A) T h e famous case o f Brown vs. Board o f Education was a

landm ark in A m erican legal history.
Special note: I f y o u have a sentence containing a phrase w h ich

w o u ld norm ally go into italics, and if for som e reason the
entire sentence needs to be italicized, th en the phrase that
w o u ld norm ally be in italics goes into ordinary ro m an type
instead. So, if for som e reason m y last exam ple sentence needs
to be italicized, the result looks like this:
The famous case o f B ro w n v. B oard o f E ducation was a

landmark in American legal history.
Miscellaneous 117
9.2 Boldface
Boldface letters are the extra-black ones - like these. M ost

w o rd processors can prod u ce these. T h ey have only a few
general uses.
First, they are used for chapter titles and section headings,
exactly as is done in this book.
Second, they are used for the captions to illustrations, tables
and graphs.
T hird , they are som etim es used to provide very strong
emphasis, as an alternative to italics. In this b o o k I have used
th em in this w ay very frequently —probably too frequently:
A colon is never follow ed by a hyp h en o r a dash.
Finally, boldface is often used to introdu ce im po rtant n ew

terms. Again, I have b een doing this regularly in this book:
the nam e o f each n ew p un ctu atio n m ark is introd uced in
boldface.
T h e jud icio us use o f boldface can provide variety and m ake
a page m ore attractive to the eye, b u t it is never essential. If
y ou can’t p ro du ce boldface, use ordinary rom an type for
chapter and section headings and captions, and italics for
emphasis and im p o rtan t terms. If you do use boldface, d o n ’t
overdo it.
9.3 Small Capitals
Small capitals are ju st w hat they soun d like: t h e y l o o k l ik e
t h is . T h ey have only one co m m o n use: certain abbreviations

are co m m o nly w ritten in small capitals. In particular, the
abbreviations bc and ad are usually so w ritten:
A lexander the G reat died in 323 bc.
C harlem agne was cro w n ed in R o m e on Christm as D ay,

ad 800.
R ecall to o that A m erican usage prefers to w rite the tim e o f

day w ith small capitals:
(A) T h e earthquake struck at 6:40 am .
In British usage, this w o u ld appear as follows:
T h e earthquake struck at 6.40 a.m.
A few publishers have recently adopted the practice o f p u ttin g

all abbreviations in small capitals, b u t this is n o t som ething
y ou should im itate.
M any w o rd processors can p ro du ce small capitals; if yo u
can’t pro du ce th em , use full capitals instead:
A lexander the G reat died in 323 B C .
V ery occasionally, small capitals are used for emphasis, b u t it

is usually preferable to use italics for this, or even boldface.
Miscellaneous 119
9.4 Parentheses
Parentheses (()), also called round brackets, always occur in

pairs. T h ey have one m ajor use and on e o r tw o m in o r uses.
M ost com m only, a pair o f parentheses is used to set o ff a
strong or w eak in terru p tio n , rath er like a pair o f dashes o r a
pair o f bracketing com m as. In the case o f a strong in terru p
tion, very often it is possible to use either dashes or par
entheses:
T h e destruction o f G uernica —and there is no do u b t that

the destruction was deliberate —horrified the w orld.
T h e destruction o f G uernica (and there is no d ou b t that
the destruction was deliberate) horrified the w orld.
As a rule, how ever, w e prefer parentheses, rather than dashes

o r bracketing com m as, w h e n th e in terru p tio n is best regarded
as a kind o f ‘aside’ from the w riter to the reader:
O n the (rare!) occasion w h e n y o u use a Latin

abbreviation, be sure to p u n ctu ate it correctly.
T h e battle o f Ju tlan d (as y ou m ay recall from y o u r school
days) p u t an en d to G erm an y’s naval threat.
T h e Basque language is n o t (as the old legend has it)
exceedingly difficult to learn.
W e also use parentheses to set o ff an in terrup tion w h ich

m erely provides additional inform ation or a b rief explanation
o f an unfam iliar term :
T h e n u m b er o f living languages (currently about 6000, by

m ost estimates) is decreasing rapidly.
T h e bodegas (wine cellars) o f the R io ja are an essential
stop on any visit to n o rth ern Spain.
T h e royal portraits o f V elazquez (or Velasquez) are justly
renow ned.
T h e G erm an philosopher G ottlo b Frege (1848 —1925) laid
the foundations o f form al logic and o f semantics.
In the last tw o examples, the phrases in parentheses m erely

provide an alternative spelling o f the p ain ter’s nam e and the
birth and death dates o f th e philosopher. In all these examples,
neith er dashes n o r bracketing com m as w o u ld be possible,
except that y o u m ight conceivably use dashes in the first.
N o te also the w ay I in tro du ce each n e w p u n ctu atio n m ark
in this book.
It is possible to p u t an entire sentence into parentheses, or
even a series o f sentences, if they constitute an in terru p tio n
o f an appropriate type:
It appears that 33% o f girls aged 1 6 -1 8 sm oke regularly,

bu t that only 28% o f boys in this age bracket do so.
(These figures are prov id ed by a recent new spaper
survey.)
N o te that a sentence in parentheses is capitalized and p u n c tu

ated in the norm al fashion.
D o n o t overdo parentheses to the p o in t o f stuffing one
entire sentence inside another:
Miscellaneous 121
* T h e first-ever international cricket m atch (very few

cricket fans are aw are o f this) was played b etw een
C anada and the U n ite d States in 1844.
T his sort o f thing is very co m m o n in the w ritin g o f those w h o

n eith er plan their sentences ahead n o r polish th eir w ritin g
afterward. If yo u find y o u have do n e this, rew rite the sen
tence in som e less o vercro w d ed way:
V ery few cricket fans are aw are that the first-ever

international cricket m atch was played betw een C anada
and the U n ite d States in 1844. o r
T h e first-ever international cricket m atch was played
betw een C anada and the U n ite d States in 1844. V ery
few cricket fans are aw are o f this.
Parentheses m ay also be used to represent options:
T h e referees w h o decide w h e th e r an abstract should be

accepted will n o t k n o w the name(s) o f the author(s).
T h e (french) h o rn is an unusually difficult instrum ent to
play.
T h e p o in t o f the last exam ple is that th e nam es french horn and

horn d enote the same instrum ent.
Finally, parentheses are used to enclose num erals or letters
in an en u m eratio n includ ed in the b od y o f a text:
A b o o k proposal p repared for a potential publisher should

include at least (1) a description o f the content, (2) an
identification o f the in ten d ed readership, (3) an
explanation o f w h y the b o o k will be necessary or

valuable and (4) a com parison w ith any co m p eting
books already in print.
O bserve that, in contrast to w h at happens w ith dashes and

bracketing com m as, w e always w rite b o th parentheses:
H e was sm itten by a coup defoudre (as the F rench n o n e

too rom antically p u t it).
Occasionally y ou m ay find yourself placing one set o f par

entheses inside another. Som etim es this is unavoidable, b u t
yo u should avoid it w h e n ev er possible, since it makes y o u r
sentence hard to follow.
9.5 Square Brackets
T h ere is only o ne co m m o n use for square brackets ([]). As

was explained in C h ap ter 8, square brackets are used to set
off an in terru p tio n w ith in a direct quotation; refer to that
chapter for details.
V ery occasionally square brackets are used for citing refer
ences; see C h ap ter 10.
Specialist fields like m athem atics and linguistics use square
brackets for certain purposes o f th eir ow n, b u t these are
b eyo nd the scope o f this book.
Miscellaneous 123
9.6 The Ellipsis
T h e ellipsis (...), also called the suspension or omission marks,

has ju st tw o uses.
First, as was explained in C h ap ter 8, the ellipsis is used to
show that som e m aterial has b een o m itte d from the m iddle
o f a direct quotation; see that chapter for details.
Second, the ellipsis is used to show that a sentence has
b een left unfinished. U nlik e the dash, w h ich is used to show
that an utterance has been b ro k e n o ff abruptly (recall the
unfortu nate G eneral Sedgwick!), the suspension shows that
the w riter o r speaker has simply ‘tailed o ff’ into silence,
deliberately leaving som ething unsaid:
C olon el Garcia leered at the prisoner: ‘W e w ant those

nam es n ow . If w e d o n ’t get th em
San Francisco gets a m ajor earthquake about every sixty
years. It has b een nin ety years since the last one . . .
T his second usage is m o re typical o f journalistic prose than

o f form al w riting; excepting only w h e n y ou are citing a direct
q uo tation w h ich seems to require it, y o u should generally
avoid the ellipsis in form al w riting.
9.7 The Slash
T h e slash (/), also called the oblique, the virgule, the stroke,
the solidus or the shilling mark, has several uses, all o f th em
rather m inor.
First, it is used to separate alternatives:
Applicants m ust possess a go od university degree in

French a n d /o r have w o rk e d for tw o years in a
F rench-speaking country.
Each candidate m ust b ring h is /h e r identity card.
If y o u r w o rk is badly pu nctuated, y o u r reader m ay
quickly decide that s /h e has b etter things to do.
This usage is rather hard on the eye, and it is usually preferable

to w rite the alternatives o u t in full:
Each candidate m ust bring his o r h er identity card.
This style is particularly frequent in jo b advertisem ents:
T h e U niversity o f Saffron W ald en wishes to appoint a

lec tu rer/sen io r lecturer in m edia studies.
Second, the slash m ay be used to represent a perio d o f tim e:
T h e 1994/95 football season was m arred by frequent

scandals.
This office is o pen T uesday/S aturday each w eek.
T hird, the slash is used, especially in scientific w riting, to

represent the w o rd per in units:
Miscellaneous 125
T h e density o f iro n is 7.87 g /c m 3.

Light travels at 300,000 km /sec.
F ourth, the slash is used in w riting fractions, as in 3A or 3/4;

in this use, it is often called the scratch. (See the next section
for usage.)
Fifth, the slash is used in w riting certain abbreviations.
Virtually the only one o f these y ou will find outside o f
specialist contexts is d o for ‘care o f ’ in addresses:
W rite to m e at Sylvia Keller, c /o A ndrea M ason, 37 T h e

Oaks, P lum tree, East Sussex bn 17 4GH.
Finally, slashes are used to separate lines o f p oetry w h e n a

p o em is w ritten solid, instead o f being set o u t line by line:
W h e n you are old and grey and full o f sleep/A nd n od ding

by the fire, take d o w n this b o o k /A n d slowly read o f the
soft lo o k /Y o u r eyes had once, and o f their shadows deep.
(W . B. Yeats)
9.8 Numerals, Fractions and Dates
T h e co m p o u n d num erals from tw e n ty -o n e to ninety -n in e

are w ritten w ith hyphens:
France is divided into ninety-six departm ents.

M ozart was only thirty-five years old w h e n he died.
N o additional hyphens are used in w riting larger num bers:

A leap year has three h u n d re d and sixty-six days.

T h e m ax im u m possible score w ith three darts is one
h u n d re d and eighty.
In formal w riting, the num erals from one to tw en ty are

almost always w ritten out:
T h e A m erican flag has th irteen stripes.

W e have four candidates for president.
D o not write:
* T h e A m erican flag has 13 stripes.

* W e have 4 candidates for president.
Larger num bers, how ever, m ay be w ritten w ith digits, if y o u

prefer:
T h e b o m b killed 37 people and injured over 200 others.

W ritin g was inv ented less than 6000 years ago.
It is, how ever, always acceptable to w rite o u t num bers up to

nin ety-nine, and in fact som e publishers will insist u p o n this;
if y o u are w ritin g for publication, y o u should check:
T h e bo m b killed thirty-seven people and injured over

200 others.
W h e n w ritin g a fo ur-digit num eral in digits (other than a

date), A m erican w riters never use a com m a, b u t British
writers usually do. H en ce Am ericans w rite 2000 years and 3700
people, w hile B ritons often w rite 2,000 years and 3,700 people.
Miscellaneous 127
I consider such com m as com pletely pointless, and I d o n ’t use

th em myself, b u t others m ay insist that y o u do so. A five-digit
o r larger num eral always takes on e o r m o re commas: 53,000
refugees, 170,000 cases o f A I D S , 2,760,453 patents.
Naturally, w e m ake an exception for addresses and o th er
special cases, in w h ich num erals are always w ritten w ith
digits:
I lived for years at 4 H o w itt R o a d in Belsize Park.
O bserve that it is bad style to start a sentence w ith a num eral:

either the n u m b er should be w ritten out, o r the sentence
should be rew ritten:
* 650 M P s sit in Parliam ent.

Six h u n d re d and fifty M P s sit in Parliam ent.
T h ere are 650 M P s in Parliam ent.
Fractions are always w ritten w ith hyphens:
Alm ost th ree-fourth s o f the earth’s surface is water.

M o re than o n e -h a lf o f babies b o rn are male.
B u t no te the follow ing case:
O n e half o f m e w ants to take the jo b w hile the oth er half

doesn’t.
H e re the phrase one half is n o t really a fraction at all.

In form al w riting, a fraction is always w ritten out. Y o u
should not w rite things like the following:
* Alm ost % o f the earth ’s surface is w ater.
In w riting a date, it is increasingly co m m o n today to use no

commas:
It was on 18 April 1775 that Paul R e v e re m ade his

famous ride.
O n D ecem b er 7 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl H arbor.
She died o n the last day o f N o v e m b e r 1843.
A n older style, still acceptable, puts com m as aro un d the year:
It was o n 18 April, 1775, that Paul R e v e re m ade his

famous ride.
O n D ecem b er 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl
H arbor.
She died o n the last day o f N o v e m b e r, 1843.
Y o u m ay use eith er fashion, so lo ng as you are consistent.
Important note: In British usage, a date is w ritten day-

m onth -y ear, w hile A m erican usage prefers m on th -d ay-y ear.
H ence, B ritons w rite 23 March, w hile Am ericans w rite March
23. This is a potentially serious pro b lem w h e n w e use the
abbreviated style o f w ritin g dates often fo und in letters and
business docum ents: to a B riton, 5/7/84 means 5 July 1984,
w hile to an A m erican it means M ay 7 1984. If y ou are w rit
ing som ething that m ight be read o n the o th er side o f the
Atlantic, therefore, it is best to w rite o u t a date in full, to
avoid any m isunderstanding.
Miscellaneous 129
9.9 Diacritics
Diacritics, often loosely called ‘accents’, are the various little

dots and squiggles w h ich , in m any languages, are w ritten
above, b elo w o r o n top o f certain letters o f the alphabet to
indicate som ething ab ou t th eir p ro nu nciatio n. Thus, French
has w ords like ete ‘su m m er’, aout ‘A u gu st’, ga ‘th at’ and pere
‘father’; G erm an has Worter ‘w o rd s’ and tschiiss ‘g o o d -b y e’;
Spanish has mahana ‘to m o rro w ’ and angel ‘angel’; N o rw eg ian
has brod ‘bread’ and fra ‘fro m ’; Polish has Iza ‘tear’, zle ‘badly’
and pi§c ‘five’; T urkish has ku§ ‘b ird ’ a n d goz ‘eye’; W elsh has
ty ‘ho u se’ and sio ‘hiss’, and so on. W h e n y o u are citing a
w ord, a nam e o r a passage from a foreign language w hich
uses diacritics, y o u should m ake every effort to reproduce
those diacritics faithfully. Fortunately, m ost w o rd processors
can prod uce at least the co m m o n er diacritics.
Y o u are m ost likely to need to do this w h e n citing names
o f persons or places o r titles o f literary and musical works.
T h e French politician is Francois Mitterrand, the Spanish golfer
is Jose-Maria Olazabal, the Polish linguist is Jerzy Kurylowicz,
the T urkish national h ero is Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the to w n
in the form er Yugoslavia is Gorazde, W a g n e r’s opera is the
Gotterdammerung and the French film is Z azie dans le Metro.
So far as y o u can p ro d u ce them , therefore, these are the forms
yo u should use even w h e n w riting in English. B ut d o n ’t
overdo it. If an accepted English form exists, use that: w rite
Munich, n o t Miinchen, Montreal, n o t Montreal, The Magic Flute,
n o t Die Zauberfote.
In English, diacritics are n o t norm ally used, b u t they occu r

in three situations. First, m any foreign w ords and phrases
have been b o rro w ed into English, and som e o f these are n o t
y et regarded as fully anglicized. Such forms should be w ritten
w ith their original diacritics, and they should also be w ritten
in italics, if possible, to show their foreign status:
Lloyd G eorge was the T o ries’ bete noire.

She was an artist manquee.
T h e Worter und Sachen approach is favoured by som e
etymologists.
M any oth er such item s have b eco m e so com pletely anglicized

that they are n o w usually treated as ordinary English w ords.
H ence, m ost people n o w w rite cafe, rather than cafe, naive,
rather than naive, and cortege, rather than cortege, and such
w ords are n o t norm ally italicized in any case. If yo u are in
do u b t about these, yo u should, as always, consult a g oo d
dictionary.
Second, one particular diacritic, the diaeresis ("), is very
occasionally w ritten in English to show that a vow el is to be
p ro n o u n c ed separately. A familiar exam ple o f this is the nam e
Zoe, b u t o th er cases exist. A few people w rite cooperate, rather
than cooperate, and aerate, rather than aerate, b u t the spellings
w ith the diaeresis are n o w decidedly old-fashioned and n o t
recom m ended. Usage varies w ith the surnam e Bronte: all the
m em bers o f this famous family spelled th eir nam e w ith the
diaeresis, w h ich should therefore perhaps be retained by the
usual rule o f respecting the preferences o f the o w n e r o f a
Miscellaneous 131
nam e, b u t m any people nevertheless n o w w rite Bronte.

T h ird, a grave accent (') is occasionally w ritten over the
letter e in the ending -ed to show that it is p ro n o u n c ed as a
separate syllable. T hu s w e w rite a learned scholar or an aged
man to show that learned and aged are each p ro n o u n c ed here
as tw o syllables. C o m p are I learned French at school and He has
aged rapidly, in w h ich learned and aged are p ro n o u n c e d as single
syllables.
For convenience, here are the nam es o f the co m m o n er
diacritics:
a the acute accent

a the grave accent
a the circumflex accent
a the macron
a the breve
c the hachek, or wedge, or caron
u the diaeresis, o r trema, or umlaut
n the tilde
9 the cedilla
a the ring, o r bolle
9 the ogonek, or hook
0 the slash, o r solidus, or virgule
9.10 The Other Marks on Your Keyboard
Y o u r keyboard contains a n u m b er o f o th er characters, m ost

o f w h ich are n o t properly p u n ctu a tio n m arks at all, and very
few o f w h ich are norm ally used in form al w riting, except in
certain specialist disciplines. H ere are the ones w h ich are
fo un d m ost com m only, or w h ich can be pro d u ced w ith a
w o rd processor; such special symbols are often inform ally
called dingbats:
% the per cent sign

$ the dollar sign
£ the pound sign
e the cent sign
# the hash mark (in co m p u ter parlance, the ‘p o u n d
sign’)
* the asterisk (in the U S , inform ally called a ‘b u g ’)
• the bullet
@ the at sign
& the ampersand, or and sign
11 the paragraph mark, or blind, or pilcrow
§ the section mark
II the parallel mark
the caret
the swung dash (informally called the ‘tw id d le’ or
‘tilde’)
_ the underbar
< the less-than sign
Miscellaneous 133
> the greater-than sign

<> angle brackets
{} braces (also called curly brackets)
«» guillemets (French q u o tatio n marks)
»« reversed guillemets (G erm an q uo tatio n marks)
+ the plus sign
the plus-or-minus sign
= the equal sign
\ the backslash
1 the pipe
the centre(d) dot
Y o u will un d o u b ted ly be familiar w ith the use o f the p er cent

sign, the dollar sign and the p o u n d sign:
O v e r 40% o f Australia is desert.

T h e U S A b o u g h t Alaska for only $3 m illion.
This w o rd processor costs ^ 1 8 0 0 .
N o te that w e w rite -£42.50, and not * ^ 4 2 .5 op, and similarly

for o th er currencies.
M ost co m p u ter keyboards lack the p o u n d sign, b u t it can
usually be p ro d u ced in one w ay o r another. If you absolutely
can’t p ro d u ce a p o u n d sign, it has b eco m e conventional in
com p u tin g circles to use the hash m ark instead (hence its
oth er name):
This w o rd processor costs #1800.
In A m erican English, the hash m ark is used inform ally to

represent the w o rd ‘n u m b e r’ before a num eral, as in look for
# 27 (A). This is n o t usual in British English, and it is o u t o f

place in formal w riting.
T h e asterisk is occasionally used to m ark footnotes; see
C h ap ter 10. It also has one o th er rather curious use: it is
som etim es used to replace a letter in w ritin g a w o rd w h ich is
felt to be too coarse to be w ritten o u t in full, as in f * * k . This
is a usage m ostly fou nd in new spapers and magazines, in
w h ich w riters are often careful to avoid offending th eir very
broad readership. In m ost o th er types o f w riting, such w ords
are norm ally w ritten o u t in full if they are used at all. (C o m
pare the som ew hat similar use o f the dash in section 6.2.)
A bullet m ay be used to m ark each item in an en u m eratio n
if n um b erin g o f the item s is n o t th o u g h t to be necessary; lo ok
at the sum m aries at the ends o f m ost o f the earlier sections o f
this book.
T h e at sign is chiefly confined to business docum ents, in
w h ich it stands for ‘at a price o f . . . each ’:
200 show er units @ ^ 4 2 .5 0
It is also used in electronic mail addresses to separate a user

nam e from the rest o f the address, as in m y e-m ail address:
larry t@ cogs.susx .ac.uk
T h e am persand represents the w o rd ‘an d ’ in the nam es o f

certain com panies and legal firms, as in the nam e Barton &
Maxwell, Solicitors. E xcept w h e n citing such a nam e, y o u
should never use an am persand in place o f ‘an d ’ in form al
w riting, n o r should y o u use a plus sign for this purpose. T h e
w o rd ‘an d ’ is always w ritten out.
Miscellaneous 135
T h e paragraph m ark and the section m ark are occasionally

used to represent the w ords ‘paragraph’ and ‘section’ w h e n
referring to som e part o f a w ork: in 2, in § 3.1. T h ey
are only appropriate w h e n brevity is im portant, such as in
footnotes; in y o u r text, y ou should w rite these w ords out: in
paragraph two, in section 3.1.
T h e rem aining symbols in m y list have various particular
uses in specialist disciplines, and som etim es in dictionaries,
b u t they have no functio n in ordinary w riting.
9.11 Priority Among Punctuation Marks
As I h op e y ou have gathered by n ow , p u n ctu atio n marks are,

in m ost cases, in d ep e n d en t o f one another. Each m ark is
inserted to do a particular jo b , and using one m ark n either
allows you to drop an o th er one w h ich is in dependently
required n o r perm its y o u to insert one or tw o extra marks
w h ich are n o t needed. T h ere are, h ow ever, a few exceptions.
First o f all, w e nev er w rite tw o full stops at the end o f a
sentence. O bserve the follow ing examples:
Officially, the clocks will go back at 2.00 a.m.

Leo D u ro c h e r n ev er in fact m ade that famous rem ark
‘N ice guys finish last.’
T h e abbreviation and the direct qu otatio n already end in full

stops, so no second full stop is w ritten. Similarly, if a sentence
w o u ld logically en d in tw o question marks, only the first is
w ritten:
W h o w ro te the sonnet that begins ‘H o w do I love thee?’
If a sentence-final q u otatio n ends in a question m ark o r an

exclam ation m ark, n o full stop follows:
Pontius Pilate famously asked, ‘W h a t is tru th ?’
H o w ev er, a question m ark is w ritten after a full stop if this is

logically required:
D oes the flight arrive at 7.00 a.m. o r 7.00 p.m .?
Y o u already k n o w that the second o f tw o bracketing com m as

or dashes is n o t w ritten at the end o f a sentence. This is
because the com m a or dash that w o u ld logically appear th ere
is ‘o u tran k e d ’ by th e full stop o r o th er m ark that appears at
the end o f the sentence:
T h e Spaniards and the Canadians are close to w ar over

fishing rights, it w o u ld appear.
W e com m on ly assume that there are only tw o sexes —
b u t could w e be w rong?
In the same way, a com m a that should logically appear is

suppressed if a colon o r a sem icolon is present at the same
position:
T h e planet V enus is a hellhole, as the R ussian probes

have revealed; no h u m an could survive for a m o m e n t
on its surface.
O n ly tw o groups are excluded from the F rench Foreign
Legion, according to the rules: w o m e n and
Frenchm en.
Miscellaneous 137
In these examples the second b racketing com m as that w o u ld

logically appear after the w ords revealed and rules are sup
pressed by the follow ing colon and sem icolon. H e re is a
useful rule o f thum b: a com m a is never preced ed or follow ed
by any o th er p u n ctu a tio n m ark at all, except possibly by a
qu otatio n m ark o r by a full stop w h ich forms part o f an
abbreviation.
Chapter 10
Punctuating Essays and Letters
T h ere are a few special points to be considered in w riting

essays, reports and articles, and in w ritin g letters. W e will
consider these points in this chapter. T h ere is in practice a
go o d deal o f variation in these m atters, and the usages I
re co m m en d here are those w h ich are c o m m o n and generally
acceptable. Y o u m ay find, h ow ever, that y o u r teacher, y o u r
university tu tor, y o u r business firm or y o u r publisher insists
u p o n som e different usages from those I describe here. I f so,
you should, o f course, conform to those requirem ents. N o te
that printed books and popular m agazines som etim es depart
from the norm al usages in o rd er to m ake their pages lo ok
attractive or eye-catching; y ou should leave such decisions to
designers and layout editors, and n o t try to im itate th em
yourself.
10.1 Titles and Section Headings
T h e title o f a com plete w o rk is usually centred near the top

o f the first page; if possible, it should be prin ted eith er in
large letters o r in boldface, or even in b oth. It should n o t be
Punctuating Essays and Letters 139
italicized o r placed in qu o tatio n marks, and it should n o t have

a full stop at th e end. A ny p u n ctu a tio n o r italics w h ich are
required for in d ep e n d en t reasons should be used norm ally;
this includes a question m ark at th e en d if the title is a
question. If th ere is a subtitle, a colon should be placed at the
end o f the title proper; unless the title and the subtitle are
b o th very short, it is best to use tw o lines.
T h ere are tw o possible styles for capitalization: y o u m ay
capitalize every significant w o rd , o r y o u m ay capitalize only
those w ords w h ich intrinsically require capitals, as explained
in C h ap ter 7. (T he first w o rd should be capitalized in any
case.) H ere are som e examples; I have used the second style
o f capitalization:
The origin o f M ozart’s Requiem
The im position o f English in Wales
Classroom discipline in B irm ingham schools:

a case study
Football hooligans: w hy do they do it?
T he parasites o f the quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides)
‘T hou unnecessary letter’:

the history o f the letter Z in English
T h e qu otatio n m arks in the last exam ple are used because the
first phrase is a q u o tatio n from Shakespeare.
In a w o rk w h ich is very short (no m o re than five o r six
pages), it is rarely necessary to divide the w o rk into sections.
L onger w orks, how ever, are usually best divided into sections
w h ich are at least nam ed and possibly also nu m bered;
num bers are reco m m en d ed if there are m ore th an tw o o r
th ree sections. Section headings are usually placed in boldface
b u t in ordinary-sized type; they are n o t centred b u t placed at
the left-hand m argin. A section heading m ay be placed o n a
separate line (w ith a follow ing blank line), o r it m ay be placed
at the beginn ing o f a paragraph; only in the second case
should there be a full stop at the end. H ere is an exam ple
illustrated in each o f the tw o styles:
3. The dictatorship o f Prim o de Rivera
In 1923, K ing Alfonso X II I h an ded o ver p o w e r to G eneral

P rim o de R iv era, w h o im m ediately abrogated the C o n
stitution, dissolved the C ortes and installed a brutal rig ht-
w in g dictatorship . . . or
3. The dictatorship o f Prim o de Rivera. In 1923, K ing

Alfonso X II I hand ed over p o w e r to G eneral P rim o de
R ivera, w h o im m ediately abrogated the C on stitu tio n ,
dissolved the C ortes and installed a brutal rig h t-w in g
dictatorship . . .
E ith er style is acceptable. N o te that the first paragraph after a

title or a section heading is n o t indented; all follow ing para
graphs should be indented.
If the w o rk is very long, or if it consists o f a n u m b e r o f
points and subpoints (as is often the case w ith bureaucratic
and business docum ents), th en the sections m ay be further
divided into subsections. In this case, y ou should certainly
n u m b er all the sections and subsections, in the follow ing

m an n er (these passages are taken from J o h n W ells’s b o o k
Accents o f English) (Wells 1982):
6. North Am erican English
6.1. General Am erican
6.1.1. Introduction
In N o rth A m erica it is along the A tlantic coast that w e find

the sharpest regional and social differences in speech . . .
6.1.2. T h e thought-lot m e r g e r
A w e ll-k n o w n diagnostic for distinguishing the n o rth ern

speech area o f the U n ite d States from the m idland and
southern areas is the p ro n u n ciatio n o f the w o rd on . . .
10.2 Footnotes
A footnote is a piece o f text w hich, for som e reason, cannot

be accom m odated w ith in the m ain b od y o f the d o cu m e n t
and w h ich is therefore placed elsew here. It is usual, and
preferable, to place footnotes at the b o tto m o f the page on
w h ich they are referred to, b u t this usually requires a great
deal o f fiddling about, unless y o u are lucky en o ug h to have a
w o rd processor w h ich arranges footnotes autom atically. It is
easier for the w riter to p u t all the footnotes at the end o f the
d ocum en t, b u t o f course this makes life harder for the reader,
w h o is obliged to do a lot o f fum bling ab ou t in order to find
the footnotes. Exception: If y o u are preparing a w o rk for

publication, th en y o u m ust p u t all the footnotes o n separate
pages at the end o f y o u r docu m ent; such notes are called
endnotes. B ut d o n ’t use endnotes in a d o cu m e n t w h ich will
pass directly from y o u r hands to th e reader.
T h ere are tw o m ain rules in the use o f footnotes. First:
D o not use a fo o tn o te if y o u can possibly avoid it.
T h e overuse o f footnotes will m ake y o u r w o rk laborious to

read: a reader w h o finds herself constantly directed away from
y o u r text to consult footnotes will lose the thread o f y o u r
w riting and possibly lose h er place altogether. T h e use o f
avoidable footnotes is self-indulgent and sloppy, and it is
co ntem ptuo us o f th e reader. A cadem ic w riters in particular
are often guilty o f this kind o f objectionable behaviour. Far
too often I have w earily chased up a fo otno te only to find
som ething like this at the end o f the trail:
7This term is used in the sense o f Halliday (1968). or

23As is com m o nly assumed, or even
51 (1878—1941).
(T he last exam ple provides n o th in g b u t the b irth and death

dates o f som eone m en tio n ed in th e text.) Such trivial asides
could easily be incorpo rated into the m ain text inside
parentheses, and th a t’s w h ere they should be, if th ey ’re going
to be present at all.
B ut think w h e th e r such inform ation needs to be present at
all. If the term being fo o tn o ted in the first o f these examples
is so obscure, w h y n o t m erely explain it? W h a t is y o u r reader

supposed to do if she do esn’t recognize it — p u t y o u r b o o k
d ow n , go o ff to the library and find Halliday (1968), and read
that b o o k from cover to cover? Y o u should m ake every effort
to m ake y o u r w o rk a pleasure to read. R e ad in g it should n o t
be an epic struggle o n the part o f y o u r hapless reader.
If you decide that a foo tn ote is unavoidable, th en the
standard p roced ure is to flag it in th e text w ith a superscript
num eral at the p o in t at w h ich it is relevant:
Let us consider the case o f Algerian im m igrants in

Marseille, for w h o m a substantial n u m b e r o f case
studies6 are n o w available.
A t the b o tto m o f the page (one hopes), the reader will find
y o u r footnote:
6I am ind ebted to Sylvette Vaucluse for kindly providing

m e w ith unpublished data from h er o w n research, and to
Sylvette Vaucluse and Jacqueline Labeguerie for illum inat
ing discussions o f these case studies. T h ey are n o t to be
held responsible for the use I m ake o f the w o rk here.
If y o u can’t p rod uce superscript num erals, th en the alternative

is to place the fo o tn o te num eral inside o f parentheses or,
preferably, square brackets:
Let us consider the case o f Algerian im m igrants in

M arseille, for w h o m a substantial n u m b er o f case
studies[6] are n o w available.
T h e second rule about footnotes is also a prohibition:
D o not use a fo otno te m erely to intro d u ce a reference to

w o rk w h ich y o u are citing.
T h e p ro p er w ay to cite such references is explained in the

nex t section.
If y o u r footnotes are very few in n u m b e r (and o ne hopes
that they are), it is permissible to use symbols rather than
num erals to flag them . T h e sym bol m ost com m on ly used for
this purpose is the asterisk (*):
Let us consider th e case o f Algerian im m igrants in

Marseille, for w h o m a substantial n u m b e r o f case
studies* are n o w available.
I do n o t re co m m en d this, for tw o reasons. First, if y o u h appen

to be w riting in a specialist field in w h ich the asterisk is used
for o th er purposes (as it is in m athem atics and linguistics),
th en y o u r reader m ay n o t im m ediately recognize w h at the
asterisk is doing. Second, if you w an t to p u t m ore than one
foo tn ote on a page, y o u have a p roblem . P rinted books som e
times tro t o u t a startling array o f fu rther doodahs to m ark
additional footnotes, such as the dagger, o r obelisk, o r obelus
(t) and the double dagger, or diesis (t). U sing these squiggles
will at least force y o u to p u t y o u r footnotes at the b o tto m o f
the page, b u t it is far b etter to use num erals.
A foo tno te should be as b rie f as possible, and here alone it
is preferable to m ake liberal use o f readily identifiable abbrevi
ations, including those Latin abbreviations to w h ich I
objected so strongly in C h ap ter 7.
F ootnotes at the b o tto m o f the page m ust be set o ff in

som e w ay from the m ain text. T h e co m m o n w ay o f doing
this is to p u t the footnotes in a smaller typeface. If y o u can’t
do this, a horizontal line is permissible.
If a foo tn ote is to o lo ng to fit at the b o tto m o f its page, it
m ay be co n tinu ed at the b o tto m o f the n ex t page. W h e n this
starts to happen to you, thou gh , y o u m ay w ell begin to
w o n d e r w h e th e r that fo otno te is really essential after all.
D o n ’t use footnotes if yo u can avoid them .
10.3 References to Published Work
Especially in academ ic w riting, it is frequently necessary to

refer in y o u r text to o th er w o rk o f w h ich y o u have m ade use
o r to w h ich y o u w an t to direct the reader’s attention. T h ere
are several different systems for do ing this, and they are n o t
all equally good.
By far the best system is the Harvard system, also called the
author-date system, and this is the o ne I recom m end. In the
H arvard system, y o u provide a reference in the form o f the
a u th o r’s surnam e and the year o f publication; this is en o u g h *
to direct the reader to the list o f full references in y o u r
bibliography. Like any b rie f in terrup tion , the date is enclosed
in parentheses, and th e surnam e goes th ere too, unless it is a
structural part o f the sentence. M ultiple references are separ
ated by com m as. W h e re necessary, a few w ords o f explan
ation m ay also be placed inside the parentheses. H ere are
som e examples:
A recent study (Barrutia 1992) has unco v ered further

evidence for this analysis.
Several earlier investigators (W ale 1967, Ciaram elli 1972,
M o tt 1974) rep orted ju st such a correlation.
T hese figures are cited from C urtis (1987), the m ost
com prehensive treatm ent to date.
R o b erts has developed this approach in a series o f
publications (1981, 1984, 1989).
This topic has b ee n explored m ost th o ro ugh ly by Lum ley
(1984, 1985, 1987, 1988).
V ery m any investigators (for exam ple, Scacchi 1980) have
argued for the first view.
If y o u r w o rk includes references to tw o people w ith the same

surnam e, use initials to distinguish them . F or exam ple, if y o u
have b o th J o h n A nderson and Stephen A nderson in y o u r
bibliography:
This approach is explored by J. A nderson (1995).
If y ou need to cite tw o or m ore w orks by the same au th o r

published in the same year, use the letters a, b, c, and so on,
to distinguish them :
T h e significance o f these observations is denied by several

w orkers, including G oo dlet (1990b), Shiels (1992) and
W h ite (1993a).
I f y o u need to do this, then, o f course, be sure y o u use the

letters consistently right th ro u g h o u t y o u r references and y o u r
bibliography. Finally, if y o u w ant to refer the reader to som e
specific pages o f the w o rk y o u are citing, p u t the page

num bers after the date, w ith a colon intervening:
F or a description o f this m etho d, see R o g ers (1978:

371-2).
M any people do n o t p u t a w h ite space after the colon in this

usage, b u t I prefer to do so. Som e people use a com m a instead
o f a colon, b u t th e colon is m u ch easier o n the eye and avoids
any possibility o f am biguity, so I re co m m en d that you use a
colon.
V ery occasionally y o u m ay n eed to cite som ething w h ich
som ebody else has told y o u personally, either in conversation
o r in a personal letter. Y o u do it like this:
This inform ation has b een p rovided by Jane Guest

(personal com m unication).
In academ ic circles it is permissible to abbreviate (personal

communication) to (p.c.).
A second w idely used system is the number system, w h ich
is particularly popular in som e scientific circles. H ere a refer
ence takes the form m erely o f a n u m b e r enclosed in square
brackets:
A recent study [17] has uncov ered furth er evidence for

this analysis.
Several earlier investigators [5, 11, 23] repo rted just such a
correlation.
This saves space, b u t it has several drawbacks: it gives the

reader no clue as to w hat w o rk is b eing cited, it obliges y o u

to n u m b er all the items in y o u r bibliography, it m akes the
citing o f page num bers slightly aw kw ard and it forces y o u to
cite an au th o r’s nam e w h e n that nam e is part o f y o u r sentence
b u t to leave the nam e o u t otherw ise. I d o n ’t like this system,
and I d o n ’t re co m m en d it, b u t y o u m ay at times find yo urself
obliged to use it.
T h ere are several o th er ways o f citing references, b u t th ey
are all highly objectionable and should nev er be used. A few
w riters p u t com plete references into the bod y o f the text,
w h ich is b o th distracting to the reader and absurdly inef
ficient, especially w h e n the same w o rk is cited several times.
V ery m any writers have the bad habit o f p u ttin g references
into footnotes and flagging th em ju st like ordinary footnotes;
n o t only does this practice clutter the page w ith pointless
footnotes, b u t it wastes the reader’s tim e by constantly send
ing h er o ff to consult ‘fo otno tes’ w h ich are n o th in g b u t refer
ences. D o not use footnotes for references.
W orst o f all is the dreadful h o tch p o tch used by m any
scholars in arts subjects, in w h ich references are presented
som etim es in footnotes and som etim es in the text and are
almost always incom plete and full o f cryptic abbreviations
w h ich the reader has no hop e o f deciphering. If y o u spatter
y o u r w o rk w ith unexplained exotica like D C E L C , R E W
1317, Schuch. Prim., Urquijo B S P IV , 137 ff., and so on, th en
no dou b t the o th er eighteen specialists in y o u r field will
follow you, all right, b u t the rest o f y o u r readers will be
helpless. D o not provide incom plete references, and do not
use unexplained abbreviations. If y o u find that the use o f

som e abbreviation is unavoidable, th en explain it clearly,
either the first tim e y o u use it, or, b e tte r still, in a list o f
abbreviations at the beginning o f y o u r w ork.
T h e perpetrators o f such inexcusable obscurity have the
fu rther outrageous habit o f citing references w ith the Latin
abbreviations ibid. and op. cit. W h a t do these mean? W ell,
ibid. means ‘This is an o th er reference to th e last th in g I cited;
it’s back there som ew here, m aybe only a page o r tw o , if
y o u ’re lu cky .’ A nd op. cit. means ‘T his is an o th er reference
to the w o rk by this au th o r w h ich I cited som e tim e ago, and,
if y o u w an t to k n o w w hat it is, y o u can leaf back th ro u g h
tw enty-five o r fifty pages to find it, y o u m iserable peasant.’
(Technically, they m ean ‘in the same place’ and ‘in the w o rk
cited ’, b u t m y explanations are far m o re honest.) D o n ’t use
these ghastly things. A w riter w h o uses th em is expressing
u tter co n tem p t for the reader, and should be turned over to
the Im perial C hinese T o rtu re r for corrective treatm ent.
U se the H arvard system. It’s vastly superior to everything
else.
10.4 Bibliography
In any piece o f w ritten w o rk in w h ich y o u have cited

references to published works, it is necessary to provide a
bibliography, o r list o f references, at the en d o f y o u r w ork.
Y o u should pro vid e only one such list. F or som e reason,
m any people have acquired the curious b elief that they should
give two lists: o ne list o f all the references in the ord er they
occur, and a second alphabetical list, o r som ething similar.
This silly practice is a pointless waste o f tim e and paper: there
should be only on e list o f references, and the references in
y o u r text should direct the reader straight to that list, as
explained in section 10.3 above.
T h e precise form o f y o u r bibliography m ay vary slightly,
depending on w h at system y o u have used for citing references
in y o u r d ocu m ent. H ere I shall assume that y o u have used
the H arvard system, as reco m m en ded .
T h e bibliography is p u t into alphabetical order according
to the surnames o f the authors and editors y o u are citing. If
y ou cite tw o authors w ith the same surnam e, p u t th em in
alphabetical order by their first nam es o r initials. If y o u cite
several different w orks by the same author, p u t th em in date
order, earliest to latest. If yo u have tw o or m o re w orks w ith
the same au th o r and the same date, use the a, b, c system
described in the last section. W h e n y o u cite m ultiple w orks
by the same author, that au th o r’s nam e n eed be w ritten o u t
only once; for succeeding w orks, y o u can use an ex tra-lon g
dash instead o f repeating the nam e. A b o o k w ith no au th o r
or ed ito r is listed alphabetically by its title.
T h ere are ju st three types o f w o rk w h ich are very co m
m only cited in bibliographies: books, articles in books, and
articles in journals. F or each type, the form o f the reference
is slightly different, but, above all, the reference m ust be
com plete.
F or a boo k, y o u m ust give the name(s) o f the author(s) o r

editor(s), the date, the title, the place o f publication and the
nam e o f the publisher. F or an article in a b o ok , y o u m ust
give the name(s) o f the author(s), the title o f the article and
the first and last pages, as w ell as full inform ation on the b o o k
itself, as ju st described. F or an article in a jo u rn al, y o u m ust
give the name(s) o f the author(s), the date, the title o f the
article, the nam e o f the jo u rn al, the v olum e n u m b er and the
first and last pages. N am es o f authors should be given ju st as
they appear in th eir publications.
If y o u are citing tw o or m o re articles from a single b oo k,
y o u can p u t that b o o k into y o u r list as usual, and cross-refer
each article to that bo o k , as show n below .
T h ere are several slightly different systems for arranging
and p un ctu atin g references in a bibliography, almost all o f
th em acceptable. T h e y differ chiefly in w h e th e r they use
full stops o r com m as to separate parts o f the reference, in
w h e th e r th ey p u t q uo tation m arks arou nd the titles o f
articles, and in w h e re they place the date. I re co m m en d full
stops rather than com m as, single q u o tatio n marks arou nd
titles o f articles, and the placing o f the date im m ediately after
the a u th o r’s nam e, and that is the system used in m y examples
below . Standard sources like The M L A Style Guide often
reco m m en d slightly different systems, and y o u r tu to r or
publisher m ay insist u p o n one o f these; in that case, y o u
should fall into line, b u t m ake sure y o u r references are co m
plete.
H ere is a sample bibliography; no te that each item is
presented w ith w hat is called a ‘hanging in d e n t’ (every line

in d en ted except the first):
A nderson, H enrietta. 1986. A Study o f Shoes. N e w Y ork:

C avalier Press.
— 1989a. American Footwear: A Cultural History. Boston: Insti
tu te for A m erican C ultural Studies.
— 1989b. The Rise and Rise of the Stiletto Heel. N e w Y ork:
Cavalier Press.
C an n o n , Felix (ed.). 1964. European Footwear: A Collection of
Readings. O xford: J o h n C o m p to n & Sons.
Ginsberg, Sylvie and Kate B ru to n (eds). 1977. I f the Shoe Fits:
Essays on the History o f Footwear. San D iego: M alibu Press.
Halliwell, C. N . 1990. ‘T h e Irish b ro g u e ’. In C. L. Jam es and
P. T. C aldw ell (eds). British and Irish Footwear 1720-1880.
D ublin: Irish A cadem y o f Arts. Pp. 173—203.
Institute for A m erican C ultural Studies. 1978. A Sourcebook on
American Costume. Boston: Institute for A m erican C ultural
Studies.
Jensen, Carla. 1964. ‘T h e W ellington b o o t’. In C a n n o n
(1964), p p . 3 5 8 - 7 1 .
Kaplan, Irene. 1983. ‘T h e evolution o f the stiletto h ee l’.
American Journal o f Costume 17: 3 8 -5 1 .
— 1990a. R e v ie w o f A nderson (1989b). American Journal of
Costume 24: 1 1 8 -1 2 1 .
— 1990b. ‘T h e platform shoe and its influence’. Boots and
Shoes 23: 1 5 4 -1 7 8 .
M axw ell, C atherine. 1982. ‘T h e ski boot: practical foo tw ear
o r fashion accessory?’ Boots and Shoes 15: 1 -3 7 .
M axw ell, C ath erine and H en rietta A nderson. 1981. ‘T h e

great A m erican sneaker’. Boots and Shoes 14: 77—92.
M axw ell, G eorge. 1964. ‘Italian R enaissance fo o tw ear’. In
C an n o n (1964), pp. 105 -1 38 .
Shoes and Boots: A Compendium. 1950. L ondon: British
M useum .
N o te carefully h o w these references are given. If y o u need

to cite som e o th er k in d o f w ork, such as a new spaper article,
a sound recording, a film, a video, a radio or television
broadcast or a C D - R O M , y ou should consult a co m p re
hensive source such as The M L A Style Manual. H o w ever,
so long as y o u r reference is com plete, y o u can’t go to o far
w rong.
O n e further p oint. If y ou have to en ter a title in y o u r
alphabetical list, ignore the w ords the, a and an at the b egin
ning. So, a b o o k entitled A History o f Footwear w o u ld be listed
un d er H , n o t u n d er A, and the new spaper called The N ew
York Times w o u ld be listed u n d er N , n o t T.
If y o u are using the n u m b er system for citing references,
then, o f course, each item in y o u r bibliography m ust be
preceded by its n um b er. Y o u should still, how ever, p u t those
items in alphabetical order. M any people w h o use the n u m b er
system simply list th e item s in the o rd er in w h ich they occur
in the text. This allows the reader to find a particular refer
ence, all right, b u t she can no longer glance at y o u r bibli
ography to see if particular authors or w orks are present. All
readers will find this unhelpful, at best, and a university tu to r
is likely to be very annoyed.
10.5 Paragraphing
It is b ey o n d the scope o f this b o o k to treat paragraphing in

detail. H e re I co n te n t m yself w ith a few b rie f remarks.
Every piece o f w ritten w o rk should be b ro k e n up in to a
series o f reasonably small paragraphs, and each n ew paragraph
should represent som e kind o f break, h o w e v er small, in the
co ntin uity o f the text. Som e people have trouble w ith this,
and ten d to p rod u ce enorm ous paragraphs ru n n in g to a w h o le
page or m ore. This is very tiring for the reader and should be
avoided. If y o u have this kind o f problem , try studying the
paragraphs in any longish section o f this book; this m ay help
y o u to get a grasp o f w h ere it is appropriate to start a n ew
paragraph.
As rem arked above, the first paragraph after a title o r a
section heading is n o t in d en ted (again, lo o k at the paragraphs
in this book). Every succeeding paragraph should be
indented; the tab key o n any keyboard will do this for you.
F or certain kinds o f w riting, such as technical reports and
business letters, there is an o th er form at w h ich is som etim es
preferred. In this second form at, every paragraph is separated
from the nex t by a blank line, and no paragraphs are indented.
T his form at uses m o re paper, and it is n o t norm al in o th er
types o f w riting.
10.6 Punctuating Letters
Letters require very little pu nctu atio n , apart from w hatever is

n eed ed for in d ep en d en t reasons. T h e address o n the envelope
looks like this:
Jo an na B arker
54 C edar G rove
B rig hton B N 1 7Z R
T h ere is no p u n ctu a tio n at all here. N o te especially that the

n u m b er 54 is n o t follow ed by a com m a. In Britain, it was
form erly co m m o n practice to p u t a co m m a in this position,
b u t such com m as are pointless and are n o lo ng er usual.
T h e same goes for the tw o addresses in the letter itself:
y o u r o w n address (the return address), usually placed in the top
rig h t-h an d corner, and the recip ien t’s address (the internal
address), usually placed at the left-han d m argin, b elo w the
retu rn address:
168 T re n t A venue
N ew ark N G 6 7TJ
17 M arch 1995
Jo ann a B arker
54 C ed ar G rove
B rig hton B N 1 7Z R
N o te the position o f th e date, and n o te that the date requires

no punctuation .
In British English, the greeting is always follow ed by a

com m a:
D ear Esther, or D ear M r Jackson,
In A m erican usage, only a personal letter takes a com m a here,

w hile a business letter takes a colon:
D ear Esther, but (A) D ear M r. Jackson:
If y o u are w ritin g to a firm or an institution, and yo u have

n o nam e, y o u m ay use the greeting Dear Sir/Madam.
T h e closing always takes a com m a:
Y ours lovingly, or Y ours faithfully,
N o te that only the first w o rd o f the closing is capitalized. In

British usage, it is traditional to close w ith Yours sincerely w h e n
w riting to a nam ed person b u t Yours faithfully w h e n using the
Dear Sir/M adam greeting, b u t this distinction is anything b u t
crucial. A m erican usage prefers Yours sincerely or Sincerely yours
(A) for all business letters. T hings like Yours exasperatedly are
only appropriate, if at all, in letters to newspapers.
In a personal letter, o f course, y o u can use any closing y ou
like: Yours lovingly, Looking forward to seeing you, It’s not much
fu n without you, o r w hatever.
Bibliography
A chtert, W alter S. and Josep h Gibaldi. 1985. The M L A Style

M anual N e w Y ork: T h e M o d ern Language Association o f
Am erica.
Carey, G. V. 1958. M ind the Stop: A Brief Guide to Punctuation,
2nd edn. L ondon: P enguin.
Pullum , Geoffrey K. 1984. ‘P u n ctu atio n and hu m an free
d o m ’. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 2: 419—25.
R e p rin te d in G eoffrey K. Pullum , 1991, The Great Eskimo
Vocabulary Hoax and Other Irreverent Essays on the Study
o f Language, C hicago: U niversity o f C hicago Press, pp.
6 7 -7 5 .
Trask, R . L. 1995. Language: The Basics. London: R o u tled g e.
W ells, J. C . 1982. Accents of English, 3 vols. C am bridge: C am
bridge U niversity Press.
Other Useful Works on Punctuation
G ow ers, Sir Ernest. 1962. The Complete Plain Words. H a r-

m o ndsw orth: Penguin. C h ap ter 10: ‘P u n ctu atio n ’.
Jarvie, G o rdon. 1992. Chambers Punctuation Guide. E d in
burgh: C ham bers.
Index
A, explanation o f x asterisk 134

abbreviations 52-3, 85-93 explanation o f use in this book
a d and b c 87, 118 ix—x
a.m . and p .m . 86-7, 118 for footnotes 144
b c e and c e 87 at sign 134
in footnotes 144 author-date system see Harvard
in references 148-9 system
initials 86
Latin 89-93, J44> J49 Bible passages 40
names o f organizations 87-8 bibliography 149-53
scientific 89 boldface 117, 118, 140
slash in 125 bracketing commas 21—33, 97~8,
small capitals in 118 1 3 6 -7
titles 85-6 brackets see square brackets
accents see diacritics brand names 81-2
grave 131 bullet 134
alternatives 124
American usage x, 15, 39, 41, 54, capital letters 73—84
68, 87, 103, 105-6, 116, at the beginning o f a sentence
118, 128, 133-4, 156 73
ampersand 134 for emphasis 82
apostrophe 48—58 in abbreviations 87—8
in contractions 49-53 in brand names 81-2
in non-standard forms 53 in day and m onth names
in plurals 54—5 73 -4
in possessives 56—8 in direct quotations 80-81,
in surnames 53 98 -9
in years 53 in essays 139
asides 119 in festivals and holy days 78-9
capital letters —cont. connecting words 7, 17—19, 43—4

in genus and species names contractions 49-53
116 contrast 113—14
in headings 139 conventional versus logical view
in historical periods 78 o f punctuation 103—6
in language names 74
in letters 15 5-6 dagger 144
in nationality words 75 —6 dash 68-72, 136
in poking fun 83—4 for omitted letters 72
in proper names 76-8 in broken-off sentences 70
in religious terms 79 in ranges 70-71
in roman numerals 82 with strong interruptions
in the pronoun I 82 69-70, 119
in titles 79-80, 139 dates 53, 71, 120, 128
in words pertaining to places day and m onth names 73—4
74-5 diacritics 129-31
small 118 diaeresis 130—31
summary o f 84 diesis see double dagger
captions 117 dingbats 132-5
cf- 92-3 dollar sign 133
clipped forms 51—2 double dagger 144
colon 38-41, 98, 136-7
compared with semicolon ellipsis 103, 123
4 5 -7 emphasis 82, 108, 113-14, 117,
in greetings 156 118
in references 146—7 in quotations 102-3
comma 13—37 endnotes 142
before quotations 97 enumerations 121—2
bracketing 21-33, 97~8, essays, punctuating 138-54
13 6 -7 etc. 91-2
gapping 19-20 ethnic labels 75-6
in closings 156 exclamation mark 9—11
in greetings 156
in numerals 126—7 festivals and holy days 78—9
joining 17-19, 43 footnotes 141—5
listing 13—17 foreign words 114—15, 130
misuse o f 6—7 glossing 112
summary o f 33—7 fractions 125, 127-8
with weak interruptions 21—33 fragments 12
com pound modifiers 61—4 full stop 5—8, 135
compound words 60—61 in titles 140
Index 161
gapping comma 19—20 legal cases 116

genus and species names 115—16 letters, punctuating 155-6
glossing foreign words 112 listing comma 13—17
grave accent 131 logical versus conventional view
o f punctuation 103—6
hanging indent 151-2
Harvard system for references nationality words 75—6
145-7 non-standard forms 53
hash mark 133—4 num ber system for references
headings 40, 117 147-8
in essays 138-41 numerals 54—5, 125—7, l 33~ 4
historical periods 78 ranges o f 70-71
holy days and festivals 78-9 roman 82
hyphen 59-68 superscript 143
in com pound modifiers 61—4
in compound words 60—61 obelisk, obelus see dagger
in dividing words 59—60 oblique see slash
in double-barrelled names 61 omission marks see ellipsis
in numerals 125—6 options 121
in pieces o f words 67—8
in prefixes 64-7 paragraph mark 135
paragraphing 154
indenting 140 parentheses 9, 119-22, 142
interruptions 119—20 in references 145-7
strong 69—70, 119 per cent sign 133
weak 21-33, 119 period see full stop
inverted commas see quotation pieces o f words 67-8, 70
marks places, words pertaining to 74—5
inverted constructions 39—40 plurals 54—5
isolating commas see bracketing poetry 125
commas poking fun with capitals 83—4
italics 55, 92, 102, n o , m - 1 2 , possessives 56-8
113-16 pound sign 133-4
its 57 prefixes 64—7
priority among punctuation
joining comma 17—19, 43 marks 135—7
proper names 76—8, 129
keyboard characters 132—5
question mark 8-9, 135-6
language names 74 quotation marks 94—112
Latin abbreviations 89—93, 144, 149 in direct quotations 94-106
quotation marks —cont. sequences o f punctuation marks

in talking about words 87, 95-6, 103-6, 135-7
1 1 0 —1 2 shilling mark see slash
in titles 109-12 sic 101-2
placement o f 103—6 slash 124-5
scare quotes 107—9 small capitals 118
single versus double 94, 99, solidus see slash
99-100, 109, n o square brackets 101—2, 122
summary o f 112 in references 147—8
with glosses 112 to mark footnotes 143
quotations 80-81, 94-106 stroke see slash
emphasis in 102—3 subtitles 40
errors in 101—2 superscripts 143
interruptions in 101—2, 122 surnames 53, 61, 78
omissions in 103, 123 suspension see ellipsis
ranges 70—71, 124 time o f day 41

ratios 40-41 titles 40, 79-80, 109-12, 114,
references to published w ork 117, 129
144, 145-9 in essays 138-41
list o f see bibliography
relative clauses 25—8 underlining 113
religious terms 79 unfinished sentences 70, 123
roman numerals 82 unusual plurals 54—5
round brackets see parentheses
virgule see slash
scare quotes 107—9
scientific usage 89, 124-5 white spaces n - 1 2 , 38, 40, 41,
scratch see slash 59
section mark 135 whose 58
sections and subsections words
I39-4I foreign 112, 114-15
semicolon 41—5, 136—7 talking about 110-12, 115
as super-comma 44—5
compared w ith colon 45—7 years 53

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P E N G U I N REFERENCE

The Penguin Guide to Punctuation

R . L. Trask was b o m in w estern N e w Y o rk State in 1944.

First published 1997

C opyright © R . L. Trask, 1997

T h e moral right o f the a u th o r has been asserted

E xcept in the U n ited States o f Am erica, this boo k is sold subject

C h ap ter i Why Learn to Punctuate? i

C h ap ter 2 The Full Stop, the Question M ark and

C h ap ter 3 The Comma 13

C h ap ter 4 The Colon and the Semicolon 38

4.2 T h e Sem icolon 41

C h ap ter 5 The Apostrophe 48

C h ap ter 6 The Hyphen and the Dash 59

C h ap ter 7 Capital Letters and Abbreviations

C h ap ter 8 Quotation Marks 94

C h ap ter 9 Miscellaneous 113

9.6 T h e Ellipsis 123

C h ap ter 10 Punctuating Essays and Letters 138

I am in debted to Lisa W ale, M ax W heeler, R ich ard Coates,

T h e b o o k in y o u r hand is a textb ook, and it is w ritten for

case w h at is w rong. All o f the m ost frequent p u n ctu a tio n

W h y should y o u learn to p u nctuate properly? After all, m any

are surprising places, m erely because y o u thin k y o u m ight

always and only to do those jobs. If y o u r reader has to w ade

W e had one p ro b lem only Janet k n ew w e faced

H ave y ou decided? N o w consider this string again w ith dif­

W e had one problem : only Janet k n ew w e faced

* W e had one pro b lem only, Janet k n ew w e faced

(R em em b er, an asterisk is used to m ark a sentence w h ich is

2.1 The Full Stop

T erry P ratch e tt’s latest b o o k is n o t yet o u t in paperback.

N o te h o w the full stops are used in the follow ing article,

T h e o p ening o f K en L oach’s film R iff-R a ff in N e w Y o rk

th ro u g h the thick stew o f Glaswegian, G eordie, L iverpud­

T h ere is one c o m m o n error y o u m ust w atch o u t for. H e re is

* N o rw ay has applied for E C m em bership, S w eden is

C an y o u see w h a t’s w ro n g w ith this? Yes, there are tw o

N o rw ay has applied for E C m em bership. S w eden is

N o w each statem ent has its o w n full stop. This is correct, b u t

N o rw ay has applied for E C m em bership, and S w eden is

This tim e w e have used the co nnecting w o rd and to com bine

* Bangladesh is one o f the w o rld ’s poorest countries, its

All o f these examples suffer from the same problem : a com m a

Summary of full stops

• Put a full stop at the end of a complete statement.

2.2 The Question Mark

A question mark (?) is placed at the end o f a sentence w h ich is

W h a t is the capital o f Wales?

If the question is a direct quotation, repeating the speaker’s

‘H ave yo u a p en I can b o rro w ?’ she asked.

B u t a question m ark is not used in an indirect question, in

She asked if I had a p en she could borrow .

H ere only a full stop is used, since the w ho le sentence is n o w

T h e question m ark also has one m in o r use: it m ay be

T h e famous allegorical p o em Piers Plowman is attributed

T h e question marks on the p o e t’s birth and death dates indic­

Summary of question marks

• Use a question mark at the end of a direct question.

2.3 The Exclamation Mark

T h e exclamation mark (!), k n o w n inform ally as a bang o r a

W h a t a lovely v iew y o u have here!

W h a t fools people can be!

H ave y ou decided? N o w consider this string again w ith dif

th ro u g h the thick stew o f Glaswegian, G eordie, L iverpud

T h e question marks on the p o e t’s birth and death dates indic

N o te that such sentences are exclam ations, and n o t state

Y o u can also use an exclam ation m ark to show that a state

O bserve that y o u can co nnect three o r m ore com plete sen