Punctuation hints



   punctuation:

*=The Slash=

=or Virgule=

*

* A slash or slant or solidus or virgule [ / ] (take your pick of names) is used to indicate a choice between the words it separates.



**Using the pass/fail option backfired on her; she could've gotten an A.

**The slash can be translated as or and should not be used where the word or could not be used in its place. To avoid gender problems with pronouns, some writers use he/she, his/her, and him/her. Many authorities despise that construction and urge writers either to pluralize when possible and appropriate (to they, their, them) or to use he or she, etc. instead. Notice there is no space between the slash and the letters on either side of it.

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**There is, however, a space when the slash is used to indicate a line-break in quoted poetry: "The woods are lovely, dark, and deep / but I have promises to keep." (This way of quoting poetry is limited to four or five lines of verse, within the normal flow of text.)

**When using slashes in a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for a World Wide Web address (http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/), be especially sure not to include spaces and not to confuse the slash with its backward cousin, \, used as a path separator in Windows (for example, c:\program files\Adobe).

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**{| bgcolor="#FFFFFF" border="4" cellpadding="6" class="shadow" style="border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-width: 6px; border-right-width: 6px; border-bottom-width: 6px; border-left-width: 6px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-top-color: rgb(141, 180, 227); border-right-color: rgb(16, 77, 132); border-bottom-color: rgb(16, 77, 132); border-left-color: rgb(141, 180, 227); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0px; " width="388"

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***<span class="table" style="font-family: sans-serif, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 19px; ">WebCT Users:

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<p class="MsoNormal">***<span class="table" style="font-family: sans-serif, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 19px; ">If you discover an apostrophe "problem icon" —— embedded in your text, that could mean that you have a problem with a contraction (see below) or apossessive form.

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<p class="MsoNormal">=The Apostrophe=

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<p class="MsoNormal">{| bgcolor="#FFFDD9" border="4" cellpadding="6" class="shadow" style="border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-width: 6px; border-right-width: 6px; border-bottom-width: 6px; border-left-width: 6px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-top-color: rgb(141, 180, 227); border-right-color: rgb(16, 77, 132); border-bottom-color: rgb(16, 77, 132); border-left-color: rgb(141, 180, 227); " width="388"

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<p class="MsoNormal">***<span class="table" style="font-family: sans-serif, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0px; line-height: 19px; ">If your computer is equipped with PowerPoint, click on the PowerPoint icon to the right for a brief PowerPoint presentation on the uses of the apostrophe.

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<p class="MsoNormal">***<span class="table" style="font-family: sans-serif, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0px; line-height: 19px; ">Click HERE for help with Powerpoint.

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<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-style: normal;"> We use an apostrophe [ ’] to create possessive forms, contractions, and some plurals (see below). The apostrophe shows where a letter or letters have been left out of a contracted verb:

<p class="MsoNormal">{| bgcolor="white" border="2" cellpadding="4" class="shadow" style="border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-width: 6px; border-right-width: 6px; border-bottom-width: 6px; border-left-width: 6px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-top-color: rgb(141, 180, 227); border-right-color: rgb(16, 77, 132); border-bottom-color: rgb(16, 77, 132); border-left-color: rgb(141, 180, 227); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 0px; "

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<p class="MsoNormal">***I am = I'm

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<p class="MsoNormal">***you are = you're

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<p class="MsoNormal">***she is = she's

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<p class="MsoNormal">***it is = it's

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<p class="MsoNormal">***do not = don't

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<p class="MsoNormal">***she would = she'd

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<p class="MsoNormal">***he would have = he would've

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<p class="MsoNormal">***let us = let's

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<p class="MsoNormal">***who is = who's

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<p class="MsoNormal">***she will = she'll

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<p class="MsoNormal">***they had = they'd

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<p class="MsoNormal">**<p style="font-style: normal;">Whether or not contractions are appropriate in academic prose is a matter of personal taste and debate. See the section on Tone for a discussion of contractions. Also, ask your instructor before using contractions in a paper that will be graded.

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<p class="MsoNormal">**<p style="font-style: normal;">This Guide has an entire section devoted to a description of possessives. You can click HERE to go to that section (and accompanying quizzes) or read this summary.

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<p class="MsoNormal">**<p style="font-style: normal;">In possessives, the placement of the apostrophe depends on whether the noun that shows possession is singular or plural. Generally, if the noun is singular, the apostrophe goes before the s. The witch's broom. If the noun is plural, the apostrophe goes after the s: The witches' brooms. However, if the word is pluralized without an s, the apostrophe comes before the s: He entered the men's room with an armload of children's clothing. If you create a possessive with a phrase like of the witches, you will use no apostrophe: the brooms of the witches.

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<p class="MsoNormal">=The Bracket=

<p class="MsoNormal">***Use brackets [ [ ] ] in the following situations:

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<p class="MsoNormal">***You can use them to include explanatory words or phrases within quoted language:

<p class="MsoNormal">***Lew Perkins, the Director of Athletic Programs, said that Pumita Espinoza, the new soccer coach [at Notre Dame Academy] is going to be a real winner.

<p class="MsoNormal">***If you are quoting material and you've had to change the capitalization of a word or change a pronoun to make the material fit into your sentence, enclose that changed letter or word(s) within brackets:

<p class="MsoNormal">***Espinoza charged her former employer with "falsification of [her] coaching record."

<p class="MsoNormal">***See the description of the ellipsis for information on using brackets to set off an ellipsis that you have used to indicate omitted language in a quotation.

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<p class="MsoNormal">***Also within quotations, you could enclose [sic] within brackets (we italicize but never underline the word sic and we do not italicize the brackets themselves) to show that misspelled words or inappropriately used words are not your own typos or blunders but are part of an accurately rendered quotation:

<p class="MsoNormal">***Reporters found three mispelings [sic] in the report.

<p class="MsoNormal">***(It is bad manners, however, to use this device to show that another writer is a lousy speller or otherwise unlettered. Also, use it only when it is important to maintain the original spelling for some reason. If you can edit (remove) the error without violating some scholarly or ethical principle, do so.) Note, also, that the word sic means "thus" or "that's how it was" and is not an abbreviation; thus, no period.

<p class="MsoNormal">***If you have italicized or underlined words within quoted language that was not italicized or underlined in the original, you can note that change in brackets included within the sentence or paragraph:

<p class="MsoNormal">***It was the atmosphere of the gym that thrilled Jacobs, not the eight championship banners hanging from the beams [italics added].

<p class="MsoNormal">***("Italics mine" or "emphasis added" would be other acceptable phrases.)

<p class="MsoNormal">***You can use brackets to include parenthetical material inside parenthetical material:

<p class="MsoNormal">***Chernwell was poet laureate of Bermuda (a largely honorary position [unpaid]) for ten years.

<p class="MsoNormal">***Be kind to your reader, however, and use this device sparingly.

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<p class="MsoNormal">***=The Exclamation=

<p class="MsoNormal">=Mark=

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<p class="MsoNormal">***<p style="text-indent: 32px; font-style: normal;">Use an '''exclamation point [ ! ] at the end of an emphatic declaration, interjection''', or command.

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<p class="MsoNormal">***"No!" he yelled. "Do it now!"<p style="text-indent: 32px; font-style: normal;">An exclamation mark may be used to close questions that are meant to convey extreme emotion, as in

<p class="MsoNormal">What on earth are you doing! Stop!<p style="text-indent: 32px; font-style: normal;">An exclamation mark can be inserted within parentheses to emphasize a word within a sentence.

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<p class="MsoNormal">We have some really(!) low-priced rugs on sale this week.

<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-style: normal;">Note that there is no space between the last letter of the word so emphasized and the parentheses. This device should be used rarely, if ever, in formal text.

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<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="text-indent: 32px; font-style: normal;">An exclamation mark will often accompany mimetically produced sounds, as in

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<p class="MsoNormal">"All night long, the dogs

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<p class="MsoNormal">woof! in my neighbor's yard" and "The bear went Grr!, and I went left."<p style="text-indent: 32px; font-style: normal;">If an exclamation mark is part of an italicized or underlined title, make sure that the exclamation mark is also italicized or underlined:

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<p class="MsoNormal">My favorite book is

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<p class="MsoNormal">Oh, the Places You'll Go!<p style="text-indent: 32px; font-style: normal;">(Do not add a period after such a sentence that ends with the title's exclamation mark. The exclamation mark will also suffice to end the sentence.) If the exclamation mark is not part of a sentence-ending title, don't italicize the exclamation mark:

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<p class="MsoNormal">I've asked you

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<p class="MsoNormal"> not to sing la Marseillaise!<p style="text-indent: 32px; font-style: normal;">In academic prose, an exclamation point is used rarely, if at all, and in newspaper writing the exclamation point is virtually nonexistent.

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<p class="MsoNormal">=Quotation Marks=

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<p class="MsoNormal">****<p style="font-style: normal;"> Use quotation marks [ “”] to set off material that represents quoted or spoken language. Quotation marks also set off the titles of things that do not normally stand by themselves: short stories, poems, and articles. Usually, a quotation is set off from the rest of the sentence by a comma; however, the typography of quoted material can become quite complicated. Here is one simple rule to remember:

<p class="MsoNormal">'''In the United States, periods and commas go inside quotation marks regardless of logic. Click HERE for an explanation (sort of).'''<p style="text-indent: 0px; font-style: normal;">In the United Kingdom, Canada, and islands under the influence of British education, punctuation around quotation marks is more apt to follow logic. In American style, then, you would write: My favorite poem is Robert Frost's "Design." But in England you would write: My favorite poem is Robert Frost's "Design". The placement of marks other than periods and commas follows the logic that quotation marks should accompany (be right next to) the text being quoted or set apart as a title. Thus, you would write (on either side of the Atlantic):

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<p class="MsoNormal">*****What do you think of Robert Frost's "Design"? and

<p class="MsoNormal">*****I love "Design"; however, my favorite poem was written by Emily Dickinson.

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<p class="MsoNormal">*****Further, punctuation around quoted speech or phrases depends on how it fits into the rest of your text. If a quoted word or phrase fits into the flow of your sentence without a break or pause, then a comma may not be necessary:

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<p class="MsoNormal">*****The phrase "lovely, dark and deep" begins to suggest ominous overtones.

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<p class="MsoNormal">*****Following a form of to say, however, you'll almost always need a comma:

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<p class="MsoNormal">*****My father always said, "Be careful what you wish for."

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<p class="MsoNormal">*****If the quoted speech follows an independent clause yet could be part of the same sentence, use a colon to set off the quoted language:

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<p class="MsoNormal">*****My mother's favorite quote was from Shakespeare: "This above all, to thine own self be true."

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<p class="MsoNormal">*****When an attribution of speech comes in the middle of quoted language, set it apart as you would any parenthetical element:

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<p class="MsoNormal">*****"I don't care," she said, "what you think about it."

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<p class="MsoNormal">*****Be careful, though, to begin a new sentence after the attribution if sense calls for it:

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<p class="MsoNormal">*****"I don't care," she said. "What do you think?"

<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-style: normal;">Convention normally insists that a new paragraph begins with each change of speaker:

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<p class="MsoNormal">****"I don't care what you think anymore," she said, jauntily tossing back her hair and looking askance at Edward.

<p class="MsoNormal">****"What do you mean?" he replied.

<p class="MsoNormal">****"What do you mean, 'What do I mean?'" Alberta sniffed. She was becoming impatient and wished that she were elsewhere.

<p class="MsoNormal">****"You know darn well what I mean!" Edward huffed.

<p class="MsoNormal">****"Have it your way," Alberta added, "if that's how you feel."

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<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-style: normal;">In proofreading and editing your writing, remember that quotation marks always travel in pairs! Well, almost always. When quoted dialogue carries from one paragraph to another (and to another and another), the closing quotation mark does not appear until the quoted language finally ends (although there is a beginning quotation mark at the start of each new quoted paragraph to remind the reader that this is quoted language). Also, in parenthetical documentation (see the Guide to Writing Research Papers), the period comes after the parenthetical citation which comes after the quotation mark" (Darling 553).

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<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-style: normal;">In reporting "silent speech"—noting that language is "said," but internally and not spoken out loud—writers are on their own. Writers can put quotation marks around it or not:

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<p class="MsoNormal">****Oh, what a beautiful morning, Curly said to himself.

<p class="MsoNormal">****"Oh, what a beautiful morning!" Curly said to himself.

<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-style: normal;">Some writers will set such unspoken language in italics or indent it in order to set it off from other "regular" language. That's probably not a good idea if there is a lot of it because the indents can be confusing and italics can become tiresome to read after a while. The decision will probably depend on the amount of silent speech within the text. Probably the best way to handle silent speech is to find an author whom you like who does a lot of this—Graham Swift in his novel Last Orders, for instance—and copy that author's style. Consistency, of course, is very important.

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<p class="MsoNormal">| valign="top"|<span class="table" style="font-family: sans-serif, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 19px; ">Some interesting things can happen with verb tenses when we report action in indirect or reported speech ("The president said that he was going to Egypt tomorrow"). For help with this issue, we would refer to you Professor Mary Nell Sorensen's Web site at the University of Washington.

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<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-style: normal;">Be careful not to use quotation marks in an attempt to emphasize a word (the kind of thing you see in grocery store windows—Big "Sale" Today!). Underline or italicize that word instead. (The quotation marks will suggest to some people that you are using that word in a special orpeculiar way and that you really mean something else—or that your sale is entirely bogus.)

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<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-style: normal;">The American Medical Association Manual of Style (9th ed, 1998) calls misused quotation marks like this Apologetic Quotation Marksand says:

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<p class="MsoNormal">Quotation marks used around words to give special effect or to indicate irony are usually unnecessary. When irony or special effect is intended, skillful preparation can take the place of using these quotes. Resort to apologetic quotation marks or quotation marks used to express irony only after such attempts have failed, keeping in mind that the best writing does not rely on apologetic quotation marks. (p 220)

<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-style: normal;">Refer to Capital's Guide for Writing Research Papers and, especially, the English faculty's Suggestions for Writing Papers for Literature Courses for further help in handling quotations.

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<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-family: times, times new roman, serif; text-align: left; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 20px; text-indent: 32px;">We do not enclose indirect quotations in quotation marks. An indirect quotation reports what someone says but not in the exact, original language. Indirect quotations are not heard in the same way that quoted language is heard.

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<p class="MsoNormal">****The President said that NAFTA would eventually be a boon to small businesses in both countries.

<p class="MsoNormal">****Professor Villa told her students the textbooks were not yet in the bookstore.

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<p class="MsoNormal">==    Double Punctuation with Quotations==

<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-style: normal;">Occasionally — very occasionally, we hope — we come across a sentence that seems to demand one kind of punctuation mark within quotation marks and another kind of punctuation mark outside the quotation marks. A kind of pecking order of punctuation marks takes over: other marks are stronger than a period and an exclamation mark is usually stronger than a question mark. If a statement ends in a quoted question, allow the question mark within the quotation marks suffice to end the sentence.

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<p class="MsoNormal">****Malcolm X had the courage to ask the younger generation of American blacks, "What did we do, who preceded you?"

<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="text-indent: 0px; font-style: normal;">On the other hand, if a question ends with a quoted statement that is not a question, the question mark will go outside the closing quotation mark.

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<p class="MsoNormal">****Who said, "Fame means when your computer modem is broken, the repair guy comes out to your house a little faster"?

<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="text-indent: 0px; font-style: normal;">If a question ends with a quotation containing an exclamation mark, the exclamation mark will supersede the question and suffice to end the sentence.

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<p class="MsoNormal">****Wasn't it Malcolm X who declared, "Why, that's the most hypocritical government since the world began!"

<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="text-indent: 0px; font-style: normal;">A single question mark will suffice to end a quoted question within a question:

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<p class="MsoNormal">****"Didn't he ask, 'What did we do, who preceded you?'" queried Johnson.

<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-family: sans-serif, Arial, Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 139); font-size: 9pt; line-height: 13px; text-indent: 0px; font-style: normal;">Authority for this section: New York Public Library Writer's Guide to Style and Usage HarperCollins: New York. 1994. 277. Cited with permission, examples our own.

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<p class="MsoNormal">==Single Quotation Marks==

<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-style: normal;">In the United States, we use single quotation marks [ ‘’] to enclose quoted material (or the titles of poems, stories, articles) within other quoted material:

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<p class="MsoNormal">****"'Design' is my favorite poem," he said.

<p class="MsoNormal">****"Did she ask, 'What's going on?'"

<p class="MsoNormal">****Ralph Ellison recalls the Golden Age of Jazz this way: "It was itself a texture of fragments, repetitive, nervous, not fully formed; its melodic lines underground, secret and taunting; its riffs jeering—'Salt peanuts! Salt peanuts!'"

<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-style: normal;">British practice, again, is quite different. In fact, single-quote marks and double-quote marks are apt to be reversed in usage. Instructors in the U.S. should probably take this into account when reading papers submitted by students who have gone to school in other parts of the globe.

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<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-style: normal;">In newspapers, single quotation marks are used in headlines where double quotation marks would otherwise appear.

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<p class="MsoNormal">****Congress Cries 'Shame!'

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<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-style: normal;">In some fields, key terms may be set apart with single-quote marks. In such cases, periods and commas go outside the single-quote marks:

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<p class="MsoNormal">****Sartre's treatment of 'being', as opposed to his treatment of 'non-being', has been thoroughly described in Kaufmann's book.

<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-style: normal;">When the term is case-sensitive, capitalization remains unchanged despite placement in the sentence.

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<p class="MsoNormal">****'tx_send' determines whether the signal will be output through TX Output Port.

<p class="MsoNormal">****If the constant REG_RESET is set, then resets will be registered.

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<p class="MsoNormal">=Parentheses=

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<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="text-indent: 32px; font-style: normal;"> Use parentheses [ ] to include material that you want to de-emphasize or that wouldn't normally fit into the flow of your text but you want to include nonetheless. If the material within parentheses appears within a sentence, do not use a capital letter or period to punctuate that material, even if the material is itself a complete sentence. (A question mark or exclamation mark, however, might be appropriate and necessary.) If the material within your parentheses is written as a separate sentence (not included within another sentence), punctuate it as if it were a separate sentence.

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<p class="MsoNormal">***Thirty-five years after his death, Robert Frost (we remember him at Kennedy's inauguration) remains America's favorite poet.

<p class="MsoNormal">***Thirty-five years after his death, Robert Frost (do you remember him?) remains America's favorite poet.

<p class="MsoNormal">***Thirty-five years after his death, Robert Frost remains America's favorite poet. (We remember him at Kennedy's inauguration.)

<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="text-indent: 32px; font-style: normal;">If the material is important enough, use some other means of including it within your text—even if it means writing another sentence. Note that parentheses tend to de-emphasize text whereas dashes tend to make material seem even more important.

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<p class="MsoNormal">=    The Bracket=

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<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-style: normal;">Use brackets [ [ ] ] in the following situations:

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<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-style: normal;">You can use them to include explanatory words or phrases within quoted language:

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<p class="MsoNormal">Lew Perkins, the Director of Athletic Programs, said that Pumita Espinoza, the new soccer coach [at Notre Dame Academy] is going to be a real winner.

<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-style: normal;">If you are quoting material and you've had to change the capitalization of a word or change a pronoun to make the material fit into your sentence, enclose that changed letter or word(s) within brackets:

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<p class="MsoNormal">Espinoza charged her former employer with "falsification of [her] coaching record."

<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-style: normal;">See the description of the ellipsis for information on using brackets to set off an ellipsis that you have used to indicate omitted language in a quotation.

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<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-style: normal;">Also within quotations, you could enclose [sic] within brackets (we italicize but never underline the word sic and we do not italicize the brackets themselves) to show that misspelled words or inappropriately used words are not your own typos or blunders but are part of an accurately rendered quotation:

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<p class="MsoNormal">Reporters found three mispelings [

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<p class="MsoNormal">sic] in the report.<p style="text-indent: 0px; font-style: normal;">(It is bad manners, however, to use this device to show that another writer is a lousy speller or otherwise unlettered. Also, use it only when it is important to maintain the original spelling for some reason. If you can edit (remove) the error without violating some scholarly or ethical principle, do so.) Note, also, that the word sic means "thus" or "that's how it was" and is not an abbreviation; thus, no period.

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<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-style: normal;">If you have italicized or underlined words within quoted language that was not italicized or underlined in the original, you can note that change in brackets included within the sentence or paragraph:

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<p class="MsoNormal">It was the

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<p class="MsoNormal">atmosphere of the gym that thrilled Jacobs, not the eight championship banners hanging from the beams [italics added].<p style="text-indent: 0px; font-style: normal;">("Italics mine" or "emphasis added" would be other acceptable phrases.)

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<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-style: normal;">You can use brackets to include parenthetical material inside parenthetical material:

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<p class="MsoNormal">Chernwell was poet laureate of Bermuda (a largely honorary position [unpaid]) for ten years.

<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="text-indent: 0px; font-style: normal;">Be kind to your reader, however, and use this device sparingly.

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<p class="MsoNormal">=    The Period=

<p class="MsoNormal">**<p style="font-family: times, times new roman, serif; text-align: left; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 20px; text-indent: 32px;"> Use a '''period [. ]''' at the end of a sentence that makes a statement. There is no space between the last letter and the period. Use one space between the period and the first letter of the next sentence. This goes against the grain for people using the typography instilled by generations of old-fashioned typewriter users, but modern word-processors nicely accommodate the spacing after a period, and double-spacing after a period can only serve to discombobulate the good intentions of one's software.

<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-style: normal;">See Quotation Marks and Parentheses for special placement considerations with those marks.

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<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-style: normal;">Use a period at the end of a command.

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<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-style: normal;">Use a period at the end of an indirect question.

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<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-style: normal;">Use a period with abbreviations:

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<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-style: normal;">Notice that when the period ending the abbreviation comes at the end of a sentence, it will also suffice to end the sentence. On the other hand, when an abbreviation ends a question or exclamation, it is appropriate to add a question mark or exclamation mark after the abbreviation-ending period:

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<p class="MsoNormal"><p style="font-style: normal;">Occasionally, a statement will end with a question. When that happens, it is appropriate to end the sentence with a question mark.

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<p class="MsoNormal">***Hand in the poster essays no later than noon on Friday.

<p class="MsoNormal">***In case of tremors, leave the building immediately.

<p class="MsoNormal">***The teacher asked why Maria had left out the easy exercises.

<p class="MsoNormal">***My father used to wonder why Egbert's ears were so big.

<p class="MsoNormal">***We can get to Boston quicker, can't we, if we take the interstate?

<p class="MsoNormal">***His question was, can we end this statement with a question mark?

<p class="MsoNormal">***She ended her remarks with a resounding why not?

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