Punctuation Cheat Sheet, Part I

Periods, Quotation Marks, and Brackets

Welcome to an extra-specially pedantic Shelf Life, which is the easiest kind to write.

I’m not going to explain the basics of how to use a period: Everyone knows these appear at the end of a sentence. You put them between sentences. That’s the main thing. In British English it’s called a “full stop.” I think it’s charming how they use “full stop” idiomatically the same way Americans use “period” to emphasize that there will be no further discussion on something (for example, “I refuse to do it, full stop.”)

There is some debate—and it seems generational—as to whether one space or two should be used after a period. The correct answer is one, as mandated by every style manual. 

The double space after a period is a convention popularized when the typewriter was introduced. Typesetting—as opposed to typewriting—has many different kinds of spaces. There’s the regular space, the hair space (also called the thin space), the en space, the em space, the non-breaking space, and so on. Conventional typesetters used these different spaces for different purposes and in different places to perfect kerning and word spacing, avoid character crashes, and prevent the introduction of widows and orphans when typesetting. As a rule, the space between sentences was ever so slightly longer than the space used between words.

Typewriters only have one space. You can type it as many times as you want but it’s a fixed-width key. Typists used two spaces after a period to mimic the conventional typesetting style of having a wider space between sentences and within. Using two spaces on a typewriter causes a much larger gap between sentences than you will ever see in a book or professionally produced publication.

Today, modern word processors adjust spacing automatically to make your text look nice and there is no reason to add a second space after a period. This convention is obsolete for everyone but vintage typewriter users (looking at you, Tom Hanks).

But what about when you have multiple periods? Are you using ellipses correctly? An ellipsis is a series of periods used to indicate, in writing, that something has been omitted. For instance if I quote the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr, but omit some words from the middle of the quotation, I will place an ellipsis there to indicate I have removed some text:

I have a dream that my four little children . . . will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

Word processors have an ellipsis character. If you type three periods, your word processor will likely convert that into a single character that represents the three-dot ellipsis, like this “…” instead of three separate periods. In typesetting, most style manuals I have used recommend three separate periods surrounded by spaces, as I used in the above quote. In other words, space period space period space period space. I have developed many a macro in my career to find all the ellipsis characters in a manuscript and automatically replace them with spaced periods.

The text I omitted from the above MLKJ quote was from within a single sentence. The omitted words were “The text removed was “will one day live in a nation where they.” The three-dot ellipsis indicates that something has been removed from within a sentence.

There is also a four-dot ellipsis, which consists of one period closed up to the end of the sentence. . . . And then a three-dot ellipsis. The four-dot ellipsis indicates that something has been omitted and a new sentence has started. I may have omitted the end of the sentence and skipped to the beginning of a new one. I may have come to the end of a sentence, omitted a full sentence, and then began with the next full sentence. I may have skipped three sentences. The four-dot ellipsis does not tell you how much has been omitted, only that whatever was omitted was not contained within a single sentence.

This is why you capitalize the next word after a four-dot ellipsis (new sentence beginning) but not the word after a three-dot ellipsis (not a new sentence beginning), unless that word happens to be a proper noun.

Here is an example of another MLKJ quote using a four-dot ellipsis to indicate an omission:

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. . . . Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

I have omitted a complete sentence from the above (“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”).

In American English, punctuation marks like periods and commas are placed inside of quotation marks, as I have done above. In British English, they are placed outside of quotation marks. 

American: “Let’s go to the store,” she said.
British: “Let’s go to the store”, she said.

There is a common misconception with American English (I can’t speak for British English on this) that punctuation marks should be placed outside of quotation marks if the punctuation mark is not part of the original quotation. For instance, let’s say I’m writing an essay about famous MLKJ speeches and I want to quote a small portion. I might write:

Dr. King repeats the phrase “I have a dream,” using a rhetorical device called repetition.

In the original speech, as I have seen it transcribed, nowhere is there a comma immediately after dream. However, it’s correct in American English under all the style manuals I know to include the comma inside the quotation marks although it is not a part of the (transcribed) speech. I do not need to (and should not) move the comma outside the quotation marks to indicate that the comma was not part of the original.

Single quotation marks, in American English, are used for quotes within quotes. Double quotes are always used for a quotation unless you need more quotation marks inside a block of text that already has quotation marks. For instance:

“Look here,” said Jane. “I found a note. It says, ‘gone fishing.’ It must be from Bob.”

Single quotes should not be used as scare quotes to emphasize text or to hint that a word is being used as a term. Italics should be used for that purpose, but if you must use quotation marks it should still be double quotation marks.

Very Wrong: This is known as ‘adenocarcinoma.’
Sorta Wrong: This is known as “adenocarcinoma.”
Wrongest (Unless British): This is known as ‘adenocarcinoma’.
Right: This is known as adenocarcinoma.

Most modern-day word processors use what are called smart quotes, sometimes also called curly quotes. These are the quotation marks and apostrophes that curve toward the text they surround, “like this.” There are distinct open and closing quotes. They’re not the same character twice.

Sometimes when copying and pasting from somewhere else, quotation marks will come in as straight quotes, "like this." I copied that over from a text editor that does not use smart quotes, so when I pasted the text my word processor did not know which way to turn the quotation marks. No one really cares but straight quotes and apostrophes should be replaced by smart quotes and apostrophes, unless you need the prime or double prime mark: That is, ʹ and ʺ. You can see these characters are angled but they do not have a reverse angled version. The prime and double prime are distinct characters and should not be confused with the apostrophe, double quote, acute accent, or international fast-fashion retailer.

The prime and double prime marks are mostly used in math but they are the correct punctuation marks to use with inches and feet expressed as numerals. The single and double quotes should not be used for this.

Wrong: I am 5’5” tall.
Right: I am 5ʹ5ʺ tall.

I realize that is a very fine distinction and no one cares. 

The last punctuation marks I’ll tackle today are the brackets: Specifically (parentheses) and [square brackets].

Parentheses (the round ones), are used to enclose additional information in a sentence that could be omitted but that the author has left in. They are used the same way as a pair of em dashes—like this—to set off material of this nature.

Square brackets [these ones] are typically used in the exact opposite way as an ellipsis: That is, to note that something has been added to an original quotation. For instance, if you are quoting something that has an obvious spelling error in it and you want to reproduce the spelling error in the original but make sure readers know the spelling error is part of the original (and not an error in your transcription), you could insert sic in brackets therein:

It is alwayts [sic] thus with tyrants.

You can also use brackets to indicate something in a quote has been changed. For instance, if I am quoting someone who referred to themself as “I” but I want to change the “I” to another pronoun to grammatically fit my sentence. For instance, of John Lennon:

“You may say [he’s] a dreamer,” but in fact John Lennon was exceptionally practical.

I don’t know who John Lennon is, don’t ask me whether or how he was practical. It’s just an example.

If you need to use brackets within brackets (nesting), you should begin with parentheses outermost and use square brackets next, then alternating parens and squares.

I have been known to say (others [Mike for example] have definitely heard this) I’m too wordy.

Your keyboard also contains {curly braces} and <angle brackets> but you will not need these in most writing. If you’re writing math or computer code, you may. Otherwise, avoid the curly brace and angle bracket and just use the parentheses and square bracket. Those are the only ones you need. Just because your keyboard has a key doesn’t mean you need to use it. I mean, when’s the last time you used the asterisk key on your numpad? That’s right, never.

I’m going to do a few more of my favorite punctuation marks next Tuesday, including commas, semicolons, colons, and the dashes. So fun. I’m sure you can’t wait.

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