The document provides guidance on using various punctuation marks correctly in business writing, including semicolons, colons, quotation marks, apostrophes, hyphens, dashes, parentheses, brackets, ellipses, and asterisks. It addresses how to use these punctuation marks to separate clauses and items in lists, introduce quotations, form possessives and plurals, and set off nonessential or parenthetical information. The document consists of several pages that each focus on the proper use of one or two specific punctuation marks.

1. Business English at Work
© 2003 Glencoe/McGraw-Hill

2. Other Punctuation
Use semicolons and colons correctly.
Objectives
Use quotation marks and apostrophes correctly.
Differentiate between the uses of hyphens and
dashes.
Use parentheses and italics (or underlines)
correctly.
continued
Business English at Work PP 17-1a

3. Other Punctuation
continued
Identify uses for ellipses, brackets, and
asterisks. Objectives
Place adjacent marks of punctuation in correct
order.
Use capital letters with other punctuation marks
correctly.
Business English at Work PP 17-1b

4. Other Punctuation
Independent Clauses
Use a semicolon to separate two closely
related independent clauses that are not joined
by a coordinating conjunction (and, or, nor,
but).
Seek constructive criticism of your oral
presentations; maintain a good attitude about
negative comments.
Business English at Work PP 17-2

5. Other Punctuation
Conjunctive Adverbs
Use a semicolon to separate independent clauses joined
by a conjunctive adverb such as however, nevertheless,
therefore, moreover, and furthermore.
Place the semicolon before the conjunctive adverb. A
comma usually follows a conjunctive adverb of two or
more syllables.
We use word processing software to design our
newsletter; consequently, we no longer use the services
of a graphics artist.
Business English at Work PP 17-3

6. Other Punctuation
Enumerations and Explanations
Use a semicolon before such introductory
expressions as for example (e.g.), that is (i.e.), or
namely when they introduce enumerations,
explanations, or examples that are not essential to
the sentence.
Place a comma after the expressions.
We are changing our Internet sales campaign; for
example, we are sending e-mail messages to our
customers.
Business English at Work PP 17-4

7. Other Punctuation
Series
Use a semicolon to separate items in a series if
any of the items already contain commas.
The telephone techniques seminars are in Cleveland,
Ohio; Pensacola, Florida; Springfield, Illinois; and Little
Rock, Arkansas.
We plan on offering PowerPoint workshops on Monday,
May 15; Wednesday, May 17; and Wednesday, May 24.
Business English at Work PP 17-5

8. Other Punctuation
Introduction to Lists
Use a colon to introduce lists after expressions such
as the following, as follows, these, and thus.
Capitalize the word following the colon when items
begin on separate lines in a list.
Your choice of copying method depends on the following factors:
1. Number of copies
2. Budget
3. Deadline
4. Print quality
Business English at Work PP 17-6a

9. Other Punctuation
continued
Introduction to Lists
Capitalize the word after the colon when two or more
complete sentences follow the colon.
Before you send an e-mail, ask these questions: Does my
subject line describe the message? Have I limited myself
to one idea?
Do not capitalize the word after the colon when the
material (other than an enumerated list) cannot stand
alone or when the material explains the first clause.
The parts of a letter are as follows: inside address, body,
and complimentary close.
Business English at Work PP 17-6b

10. Other Punctuation
Incomplete Introductory Clauses
Do not use a colon after an incomplete introductory
clause that introduces a list.
The customer service representatives are Humberto Juarez,
Sean Kaisi, and Jesse Englert.
Use a colon if the items in the list appear on separate
lines.
The customer service representatives are:
Humberto Juarez
Sean Kaisi
Jesse Englert
Business English at Work PP 17-7

11. Other Punctuation
Illustrations and Explanations
Use a colon before expressions such as
namely, for example, or that is when these
expressions introduce explanations that are
essential to the meaning of the sentence.
Several technology seminars will be offered next
week: for example, smart phones, hand-held and
palm PCs, and wireless LANs.
Business English at Work PP 17-8

12. Other Punctuation
Sentence Interruptions
Do not use a colon before a list if another
sentence separates the introductory clause and
list.
The following letter openings attract readers’ attention.
Please let me know if you would like additional information
about each opening.
Use “you.”
Start with a question.
Offer words of praise.
Business English at Work PP 17-9

13. Other Punctuation
Time
Use a colon between the hour and minutes
expressed in figures.
Our staff meeting begins at 9:15 a.m.
Business English at Work PP 17-10

14. Other Punctuation
Salutations
Use a colon after the salutation in a business letter
with mixed punctuation (a colon after the salutation
and a comma after the complimentary close.)
Dear Ms. Emerson:
Do not use a colon with open punctuation (no
punctuation after the salutation or complimentary
close).
Dear Ms. Emerson
Business English at Work PP 17-11

15. Other Punctuation
Direct Quotations
Use quotation marks around a direct quotation. A
direct quotation includes the exact words spoken or
written by someone.
Place periods and commas inside the closing
quotation mark.
Heather Estrada said, “Read your e-mail only when you
have the time to respond.”
“Give recipients the main idea in the first paragraph of an
e-mail message,” she said.
Business English at Work PP 17-12

16. Other Punctuation
Indirect Quotations
Do not use quotation marks in an indirect
quotation. The words whether or that often
introduce an indirect quotation.
Heather Estrada said that you should read your e-
mail only when you have the time to respond.
Business English at Work PP 17-13

17. Other Punctuation
Separated Quotations
Use two sets of quotation marks when a
quotation is separated by intervening
expressions such as he said.
Do not capitalize the first word of the second
part of the quoted material.
“Unlike library-based research,” she said, “the
information found at Internet sites may have
grammar and punctuation errors.”
Business English at Work PP 17-14

18. Other Punctuation
Parts of Published Works
Use quotation marks around the names of
articles in newspapers and magazines.
An article entitled “E-mail Etiquette” was in our
latest newsletter.
Use quotation marks around the titles of
chapters in books.
The title of Chapter 17 is “Business
Communication.”
Business English at Work PP 17-15

19. Other Punctuation
Technical or Unusual Expressions
Use quotation marks around technical or
unusual expressions.
We found a “bazillion” grammar errors on that Web
page.
The “downtime” for the intranet exceeded two
hours.
Business English at Work PP 17-16

20. Other Punctuation
Special Effect Words
Use quotation marks around slang words or
special effect words and phrases.
We offer “freebies” for ordering from our Web
page.
Jane needs “hand holding” whenever she learns
new software.
Business English at Work PP 17-17

21. Other Punctuation
Instructions
Use quotation marks to highlight instructions
introduced by the words signed, entitled,
marked, labeled, and headed.
Capitalize the first letter of the word or phrase.
I immediately opened the envelope marked
“Confidential.”
Use the red file folder labeled “Urgent.”
Business English at Work PP 17-18

22. Other Punctuation
Quotation Marks With
Other Marks of Punctuation
Place a question mark or exclamation point inside
the closing quotation mark when the question
mark or exclamation point applies only to the
quoted material.
The manager asked, “Did you respond to Craig’s e-mail
message?”
“Cool!” exclaimed Kristie when she found out that she did not
have to work on Saturday.
Business English at Work PP 17-19a

23. Other Punctuation
continued
Quotation Marks With
Other Marks of Punctuation
Place a question mark or exclamation point
outside the closing quotation mark when the
exclamation point or question mark applies to the
entire sentence.
Are you positive that she said, “Overnight packages
must leave by 3 p.m., not 4 p.m.”?
Business English at Work PP 17-19b

24. Other Punctuation
continued
Quotation Marks With
Other Marks of Punctuation
Place semicolons and colons after the closing
quotation mark.
Alexia explained, “E-mail is not available today
because of network maintenance”; however, many of
us still tried to send e-mail messages.
Business English at Work PP 17-19c

25. Other Punctuation
Contractions
Use an apostrophe to show the omission of a
letter or letters in a contraction.
Business English at Work PP 17-20

26. Other Punctuation
Possessives
Use an apostrophe and s (’s) to form the
possessive of a singular noun.
Jean’s report manager’s e-mail
Use an apostrophe and s (’s) to form the
possessive of an irregular plural noun.
women’s speeches children’s perceptions
Use an apostrophe to form the possessive of a
regular plural noun that ends in s.
employees’ hours proofreaders’ marks
Business English at Work PP 17-21

27. Other Punctuation
Plurals
Do not use an apostrophe to form the plurals of
words from other parts of speech used as
nouns unless the word would be easily
misread.
The pros and cons of sending e-mail depend upon the
circumstances.
His use of numerous so’s during his speech was
distracting.
Business English at Work PP 17-22

28. Other Punctuation
Lowercase Letters and Abbreviations
Add an apostrophe and s (’s) to form the plurals of
lowercase letters and abbreviations with letters. The
apostrophe is used so that the resulting plurals are
not confused with other words.
Crossing t’s and dotting i’s three letter a’s
Business English at Work PP 17-23

29. Other Punctuation
Numbers
Add an s to form the plurals of numbers
expressed in figures.
Do not add an apostrophe and s (’s).
in the 1950s
size 12s
several 7s
Form 1040s
Business English at Work PP 17-24

30. Other Punctuation
Capital Letters and Abbreviations
Use an apostrophe and s (’s) to form the plurals of the
capital letters A, I, M, and U to avoid misunderstandings
in meaning.
A’s U’s
Do not add an apostrophe and s (’s) to form the plurals
of other capital letters.
four Ns two Js
Do not add an apostrophe with abbreviations that end
with capital letters.
CPAs HMOs PCs M.A.s
Business English at Work PP 17-25

31. Other Punctuation
Quotations Within Quoted Material
Use apostrophes (single quotation marks)
around a quotation within a quotation.
Place the period inside the closing apostrophe.
My supervisor explained, “The newsletter design
should have sufficient ‘white space.’”
Business English at Work PP 17-26

32. Other Punctuation
Compound Numbers
Use a hyphen with compound numbers from
twenty-one through ninety-nine.
Twenty-five applicants applied for the technical
writing position.
Three hundred thirty-five orders arrived after the
long holiday weekend.
Business English at Work PP 17-27

33. Other Punctuation
Fractions
Use a hyphen to separate the numerator (top
number in a fraction) from the denominator
(bottom number) of a fraction written in words.
Two-thirds of the report
One-quarter of the employees
Business English at Work PP 17-28

34. Other Punctuation
Compound Adjectives
Use a hyphen in a compound adjective (two or
more words) that precedes a noun. In most
situations, do not hyphenate a compound
adjective that follows the noun modified.
We hired a well-known expert on business
communication to lead the seminar next week.
The expert on business communication is well
known.
Business English at Work PP 17-29

35. Other Punctuation
Number and Nouns
Use a hyphen in an adjective consisting of a
number and a noun that precedes the noun
modified.
one-hour presentation
six-year study
15-year phase
Business English at Work PP 17-30

36. Other Punctuation
Suspending Hyphens
When two or more hyphenated adjectives have a
common element and this element is shown only
with the last term, use a suspending hyphen after
each of the incomplete adjectives to show a
relationship with the last term.
knowledge- and service-oriented positions
short- and long-term analysis
three- or four-minute wait
Business English at Work PP 17-31

37. Other Punctuation
Compound Nouns
Do not hyphenate well-known compound nouns
acting as adjectives. If the compound noun does
not appear as one word or as a hyphenated word
in a dictionary, assume the word is written as two
words.
high school graduate
real estate agent
public relations expert
Business English at Work PP 17-32

38. Other Punctuation
Adverbs
Do not place a hyphen after an adverb ending
in ly that is combined with a present or past
participle.
a quickly written report
a richly deserved award
a perfectly delivered speech
a carefully documented Web page
Business English at Work PP 17-33

39. Other Punctuation
Self Prefixes
Use a hyphen after the word self when it acts
as a prefix.
self-assured
self-taught
self-centered
self-reliant
self-disciplined
Business English at Work PP 17-34

40. Other Punctuation
Range of Numbers of Letters
Use a hyphen to indicate a range of numbers
of letters. The hyphen takes the place of the
word to.
12-15 minutes
April 23-35
Letters J-L
Business English at Work PP 17-35

41. Other Punctuation
One Person With Two Functions
Use a hyphen to indicate dual functions
performed by one person.
manager-consultant
secretary-treasurer
owner-operator
director-actor
Business English at Work PP 17-36

42. Other Punctuation
Change of Thought/Parenthetical
Comment
Use a dash to indicate a break or a change of
thought in a sentence.
Using e-mail—we have our own internal system—saves us
communication time.
Use a dash to set off a parenthetical comment or
an afterthought from the rest of the sentence.
If he insists on a meeting—and I hope that he will not—please
let me know.
Business English at Work PP 17-37

43. Other Punctuation
Repetitions and Reminders/Summary
Words
Use a dash to set off repetitious statements or to
emphasize a reminder.
The next meeting—Friday, January 6, at 9 a.m.—is
mandatory for all employees.
Use a dash before the words these, they, any, all, and
each when these words are used as subjects to
summarize a preceding list.
E-mail, memos, letters, and reports—these are the most
frequently used methods of written communication.
Business English at Work PP 17-38

44. Other Punctuation
Nonessential Material
Use parentheses to set off nonessential material that is not
intended to be part of the main statement.
Do not capitalize the first word of material within the
parentheses if the material is a short complete sentence.
These new computers (we ordered them two months ago) are for those
employees who design Web pages.
Capitalize the first word of material within the parentheses
if the sentence is lengthy.
These new computers are for those employees who design Web
pages. (The computers are a Pentium class with 64 Megs of RAM with
Windows NT.)
Business English at Work PP 17-39

45. Other Punctuation
Lists
Use parentheses around numbers or letters
that identify a list of items in the text copy.
These strategies help combat information overload: (1)
avoid chasing Web links, (2) learn efficient ways to
search online, and (3) restrict your computer time.
Business English at Work PP 17-40

46. Other Punctuation
Outlines
Use parentheses for sections of an outline.
I. PRESENTING WITH POWERPOINT
A. Create a Presentation
1. Select a background layout
a. Add a logo
(1) Change the Slide Master
(a) Insert graphics
(b) Insert text
(2) Change the default format
Business English at Work PP 17-41

47. Other Punctuation
Nonessential References and
Directions/Explanations
Use parentheses to enclose a nonessential
reference or set of directions.
This article discusses the research on voice mail (Figures 2,
3, and 4).
Use parentheses to enclose explanatory words or
phrases.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) updates U.S.
copyright law for the digital age.
Business English at Work PP 17-42

48. Other Punctuation
Numbers in Formal Documents
Use parentheses around figures that follow
amounts written in words in legal or formal
business documents.
According to our lease agreement, the price of the
digital copy machine is five thousand five hundred
dollars ($5,500).
Business English at Work PP 17-43

49. Other Punctuation
Definitions and Word Emphasis
Use italics to identify words that are being
defined or highlighted.
His speech contained so many you knows that I
became distracted from his message.
The term return on assets describes the
comparison of net income with assets.
Business English at Work PP 17-44

50. Other Punctuation
Published Materials
Use italics to identify complete published works
such as titles of books, newspapers,
magazines, and pamphlets.
Use italics for titles of movies, plays, television
and radio series, paintings, and sculptures.
The Business Communication Quarterly provides reviews of
business communication literature.
I found the definition of that computer term in The
Washington Post.
Business English at Work PP 17-45

51. Other Punctuation
Omissions
Use ellipsis marks to indicate omissions in
quoted material.
Use three spaced periods to designate
omissions at the beginning or in the middle of a
sentence.
Use four spaced periods (or other ending
punctuation) at the end of a sentence.
Do not use more or fewer periods.
Business English at Work PP 17-46a

52. Other Punctuation
continued
Omissions
Examples
Elizabeth claims, “The telephone is . . . the most
important means of communication.”
Elizabeth claims, “The telephone is definitely
increasing in use and is still the most important
means of communication . . . . In our workshop, we
will learn valuable techniques for improving our
telephone techniques.”
Business English at Work PP 17-46a

53. Other Punctuation
Displays
Use ellipsis marks to highlight specific points.
Advertising displays often include ellipsis marks
to identify points that the advertisers wish to
emphasize.
Consider these exciting color printer projects:
. . . Business cards
. . . Gift tags
. . . Custom folders
Business English at Work PP 17-47

54. Other Punctuation
Errors
Insert the word sic in brackets immediately after a
misspelled word, grammatical error, or factual error
made by the person quoted. Sic means “so” or “thus”
and points out that the error was not made by the
present writer but was present in the original version.
We were amused when we read, “This report has been
thoroughly proofread and contains no mispelings [sic].”
She wrote in her e-mail, “I discovered an excellent grammer
[sic] book.”
Business English at Work PP 17-48

55. Other Punctuation
Parenthetical Expressions
Within Parentheses
Use brackets to enclose a parenthetical expression
within a statement that is already within
parentheses.
Place the shorter parenthetical expression in
brackets, and place the longer parenthetical
statement in parentheses.
(Read Chapter 13 [writing tips] before attending the
workshop.)
Business English at Work PP 17-49

56. Other Punctuation
The Asterisk
The main purpose of the asterisk (*) is to refer the
reader to another location for more detailed
explanation or reference.
Use an asterisk to indicate that a footnote or explanation
appears in a table or at the bottom of the page.
Place an asterisk after a comma, semicolon, colon, or
period.
Over 90 percent of the executives surveyed spend more
than an hour a day on the telephone.*
Business English at Work PP 17-50

57. End of
Business English at Work
© 2003 Glencoe/McGraw-Hill