Macmillan
punctuation guide
Macmillan Cancer Support, registered charity in England and Wales (261017), Scotland (SC039907) and
the Isle of Man (604). © Macmillan Cancer Support July 2009
Contents
Full stops .................................................................................................................... 3
Exclamation marks ..................................................................................................... 4
Question marks…....................................................................................................... 5
Commas ..................................................................................................................... 5
Apostrophes ............................................................................................................... 8
Colons ...................................................................................................................... 11
Semicolons............................................................................................................... 12
En dashes ................................................................................................................ 13
Hyphens ................................................................................................................... 14
Italics ........................................................................................................................ 15
Quotation marks ....................................................................................................... 15
Brackets ................................................................................................................... 16
Ellipses ..................................................................................................................... 17
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Full stops
.
The full stop is an underused punctuation mark. Writing tends to be stronger and
clearer if sentences are short. Often colons, semicolons and even commas can be
replaced by full stops.
Put a full stop at the end of a complete statement. Do not connect complete
statements with a comma:
Write:
Gary has joined Take That again. Robbie is expected to do the same.
Don’t write:
Gary has joined Take That again, Robbie is expected to do the same.
Note: use one single space only between a full stop and the next capital letter.
Full stops and abbreviations
Try to avoid using abbreviations as they can be confusing for the reader. If you do
use them, don’t punctuate them with full stops.
Correct
Incorrect
eg
e.g. and eg.
ie
i.e. and ie.
etc
e.t.c. and etc.
PS
P.S. and PS.
okay
o.k. and O.K.
Mr
Mr.
Mrs
Mrs.
Ms
Ms.
Dr
Dr.
St
St.
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Exclamation marks
!
The exclamation mark is used to express very strong feeling. It shouts, flashes like
neon and refuses to be ignored.
Only use an exclamation mark when you’re absolutely sure you require a big effect.
And never use more than one of them in a row. F Scott Fitzgerald said that an
excessive use of exclamation marks is like laughing at your own jokes.
Traditionally the exclamation mark is used:
1)
after an exclamation beginning with what or how:
What big eyes you have!
2)
in involuntary ejaculations:
Ouch! My toe!
3)
for drama:
That’s not a dog, that’s a werewolf!
4)
to show that a statement is very surprising:
After hours of hard graft, Indiana Jones finally broke into the tomb. It
was empty!
The general rule is: don’t use exclamation marks.
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Question marks
?
What would we do without the question mark? You use a question mark at the end of
a direct question. You also use a question mark to punctuate a rhetorical question.
A rhetorical question is a question posed for persuasive effect without the
expectation of a reply. Here are some examples:
Why not take part in our London to Paris Cycling Challenge?
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
How did that idiot ever get elected?
If a question is a direct quotation, repeating the speaker’s exact words, you use a
question mark:
‘Have you seen the remote control?’ he asked.
But when the question is indirect, the sentence manages without a question mark:
He asked if I had seen the remote control.
Some direct questions disguise themselves. ‘Will you please stop doing that?’
may sound like an order but is, in fact, a question.
Commas
,
The comma has lots of jobs on its CV. Let’s count them.
1) Commas for lists
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Commas divide items in lists. For example:
Corin seems to live on chips, hot dogs, pies and burgers.
The rule here is that the comma is correct if it can be replaced by the word ‘and’ or
‘or’.
Remember, you can put a comma before the word ‘and’. Sometimes this helps
prevent confusion, especially when there are other ‘ands’ in the vicinity:
I went to Boots, Somerfield, and Marks & Spencer.
In a list of adjectives (or describing words), you use a comma where the word ‘and’
would be appropriate:
It was a gorgeous, pink shell suit.
(The shell suit was gorgeous and pink.)
But do not use a comma for descriptions such as this:
It was an endangered white rhino.
This is because the adjectives are not intended as a list. The rhino isn’t endangered
and white.
2) Commas for joining
Commas show where the reader should pause in a sentence. They are used when
two complete sentences are joined together, using such words as ‘and’, ‘or’, ‘but’,
‘while’ and ‘yet’. For example:
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Mark explained how to use commas, yet Lara still didn’t seem to
understand.
Note: words that must not be used to join two sentences together with a comma are
‘however’ and ‘nevertheless’, as in, ‘It was Simon Cowell’s birthday on Saturday,
nevertheless, he had no post whatsoever’ or ‘Mark drank the bar dry yesterday,
however, he woke up feeling great.’ Instead, you use a full stop or a semicolon:
It was Simon Cowell’s birthday on Saturday. Nevertheless, he had no
post whatsoever.
Mark drank the bar dry yesterday; however, he woke up feeling great.
3) Commas filling gaps
You can use a comma to imply that words are missing. For example:
Robbie has dark hair; Gary, fair.
(Robbie has dark hair; Gary has fair hair.)
4) Commas before direct speech
More often than not, we use a comma before a quotation. For example:
The Queen said, ‘Off with his head.’
However, if the quotation explains what comes before it, you can use a colon rather
than a comma. For example:
The Queen said something shocking: ‘Off with his head.’
5) Commas that come in pairs
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Use a pair of commas to mark both ends of a piece of additional information. You
should be able to remove the bit between the commas, leaving the sentence still
grammatical. For example:
Victoria Beckham, who never did any harm to anyone, is often criticised
by the press.
Be careful about using pairs of commas when referring to job titles. If you’re talking
about a post that only one person holds, use commas to separate the job from the
name:
The designer of Mac News, Alex Davies, is a man of real vision.
But if you’re talking about a job that more than one person holds, do not use
commas:
The designer Dan Smith is all style and no substance.
Apostrophes
’
Apostrophes are often misplaced, or used when they are not necessary.
The apostrophe has a number of uses.
1) It shows possession:
The fundraiser’s wig (the wig belonging to the fundraiser)
This seems simple. But hold your horses. When the possessor is plural and does not
end in an S, the apostrophe also comes before the S:
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The children’s nurse (more than one child)
The women’s support group (more than one woman)
But when the possessor is a regular plural, the apostrophe comes after the S:
The fundraisers’ wigs (more than one fundraiser)
If a proper name ends in S, for example, Jones, and you are describing an act of
possession, then it should be followed by an apostrophe and S. We use ‘the
Jones’s family dog’ rather than ‘the Jones’ family dog’. However, in some instances
be guided by pronunciation and use the plural apostrophe where it helps. For
example: Waters’ rather than Waters’s; Hedges’ rather than Hedges’s.
2) It indicates a missing letter:
It’s a miracle. (It is a miracle.)
Don’t stop me now, I’m having such a good time. (Do not stop me now, I
am having such a good time.)
The rule is: the word ‘it’s’ (with an apostrophe) stands for ‘it is’ or ‘it has’. For
example:
It’s Paul McCartney on the radio.
It’s been a hard day’s night.
If the word does not stand for ‘it is’ or ‘it has’ then what you require is ‘its’.
3) It indicates time or quantity:
In one hour’s time
Five metres’ worth
4) It indicates the omission of figures in dates:
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The summer of ’69
5) One’s
One’s requires an apostrophe. For example:
Virginia Woolf wrote A Room of One’s Own.
When not to use an apostrophe
You don’t need apostrophes for what grammar geeks call possessive pronouns:
mine
ours
yours
yours
his
theirs
hers
theirs
its
theirs
For example: The cat sat on its mat (not it’s mat).
You don’t need an apostrophe to indicate a simple plural. For example: There are
four GPs (not GP’s) at the local health centre.
We don’t use apostrophes to indicate the plurals of letters or words. For example:
Write:
How many Ls are there in Vauxhall?
There are lots of ‘ands’ at the beginnings of sentences these days.
Don’t write:
How many L’s are there in Vauxhall?
There are lots of ‘and’s’ at the beginnings of sentences these days.
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Colons
:
The colon seems to confuse many people. But it’s pretty easy to use correctly, since
it has only a few main uses.
You use a colon before a list of items. For example:
I bought three things today: a skirt, a lipstick and a bottle of perfume.
Use a colon before a list of bullet points. For example:
The possible side effects of the drug are:

vomiting

itchy skin

hair loss.
The colon is also used to indicate that what follows it is an explanation or elaboration
of what comes before it. In other words, having introduced some topic in more
general terms, you can use a colon and go on to explain the topic in more specific
terms. Here are some examples:
The UK is facing a major problem: a credit crunch. (Explains what the
problem is)
We found the place easily: your directions were perfect. (Explains why we
found the place easily)
I propose we create a new post: Macmillan punctuation guru. (Identifies
what the post is)
A colon is nearly always preceded by a complete sentence. What follows the colon
may or may not be a complete sentence.
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You can use a colon between numbers in a ratio (as in 3:1). But when you are
writing for Macmillan, it’s usually preferable to write out ratios in the following way, as
in: In our Cancer Voices network, women outnumber men by more than 3 to 1.
In America, they use a colon when giving the time (as in 11:30). But British English
uses a full stop for this purpose (as in 11.30).
Use a space after a colon. Never use a space before a colon.
And never follow a colon with a dash (:–) despite what you might have been taught in
school.
Semicolons
;
You can use the semicolon to join two full sentences into a single sentence. The
main place you’d put a semicolon is between two related sentences where there is
no connecting word such as ‘and’ or ‘but’, and where a comma would be
ungrammatical. For example:
I loved Marathon bars; they are now called Snickers, of course.
When I used to work with her she could hardly spell her own name; now
she’s a copywriter.
It was the sound of the police; it came from over there!
In principle, you can always replace a semicolon with a full stop. For example: It was
the sound of the police. It came from over there!
You can also use semicolons like commas to separate items in a list, particularly
when the items in the list are long or complicated (so using commas would be
confusing). Remember to use a semicolon in front of the ‘and’ before the final item.
For example:
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You’ll need to bring three things to Glastonbury: a coat that’s both
waterproof and warm; a big container for drinking water; and a pair of
wellies.
En dashes
–
An en dash is so called because it’s the same width as a letter N. It is noticeably
longer than a hyphen.
You can use a pair of en dashes to separate a strong interruption from the rest of a
sentence. By strong interruption, we mean one that violently disrupts the flow of the
sentence. For example:
The person with cancer – who had never met the nurse before – told her the
whole story.
If the strong interruption comes at the end of the sentence, then you only use one en
dash:
Paris Hilton doesn’t like attention – or so she says.
You use an en dash to separate ranges of numbers, eg 10–12 weeks. The en dash
stands for ‘to’, so you can write ‘treatment lasts from 3–5 weeks’ or ‘treatment
lasts from 3 to 5 weeks’. Do not write ‘your treatment will take between 10–12
weeks’; instead write ‘your treatment will take between 10 and 12 weeks’, or even
better ‘treatment will take 10–12 weeks’.
You can also use an en dash to separate times and months, eg ‘the centre is open
from 9am–5pm’ or ‘the event runs from April–December’, although spelling out
‘to’ is preferable.
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Note: the shortcut for an en dash on a PC is ‘Ctrl + dash on the top right of your
keyboard’s number pad’.
Hyphens
-
A hyphen shows that what it is attached to doesn’t make up a complete word by
itself. Most obviously, you use a hyphen to indicate that a word is unfinished and
continues on to the next line:
Sara and Mohammed were dismayed that the mayor was giving a boring speech.
Your computer should create these breaks automatically for you.
You also use hyphens for:

spelling out numbers: thirty-two, sixty-nine, etc

fractions: one-fifth, three-quarters, etc

most words that begin with prefixes such as ex, anti or non, eg ex-patient,
anti-cancer, and non-invasive. But watch out for exceptions such as
antidepressant.

avoiding ambiguity, by showing that words are connected. For example, a
‘little-used car’ is very different from a ‘little used-car’, and a ‘high-school
girl’ is very different from a ‘high school-girl’.
We use hyphens for short-term and long-term.
We also use hyphens (but no comma) for all-singing all-dancing.
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Top tip: don’t use hyphens obsessively. Avoid: kick-off, top-up, round-up, etc.
Italics
Use italics for titles of publications, books, newspapers, albums and films. For
example: I have just ordered The directory of self help and support from
Macmillan.
You can also use italics to emphasise certain words. For example: ‘The Battle of
New Orleans was fought in January 1815, two weeks after the peace treaty had
been signed’. This is the standard way of adding emphasis; you should not try to
use quotation marks or other punctuation marks for this purpose.
Note: people with sight problems can find italics hard to read, so only use them when
it’s essential.
Quotation marks
‘’
Use single quotation marks for speech.
Use double quotation marks for a quote within a quote. For example:
‘People often ask me, “How do I get a Macmillan nurse?” and I explain it
to them.’
If you are quoting a whole sentence, the full stop (or question or exclamation mark)
at the end of the sentence goes inside the quotation marks (as above). But if the
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quote is only a fragment of the whole sentence, the full stop (or question or
exclamation mark) goes outside of the quotation marks. For example:
Pete said that his wedding was ‘one of the best days of his life’.
When a quote comes before the end of a sentence, conclude it with a comma inside
the quotation marks:
‘You must be joking, Pete,’ said Mary.
Referring to words
Another instance we use quotation marks is when we’re talking about words. This is
so the words we are referring are not lost in the sentence they appear in.
Write:
I’ve heard of the word ‘lymph’. But I’m not sure what the term ‘lymphoma’
means.
Don’t write:
I’ve heard of the word lymph. But I’m not sure what the term lymphoma means.
Top tip – try to avoid using quotation marks to distance yourself from a word or
phrase because you consider it to be odd or just plain wrong.
Brackets
() []
Use round brackets (( )) to add information, clarify, explain or illustrate. For example:
The favelas (shantytowns) in Brazil are like nothing you’ve ever seen
before.
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You can also place brackets around an aside to the reader. For example:
Boudicca (as you may recall from your school days) was a warrior
queen.
If a whole sentence is in brackets, the full stop (or question or exclamation mark)
goes inside the brackets:
Breast cancer affects over 40,000 women in the UK every year. Women
over 50 are most at risk. (These figures are from a 2009 newspaper
survey.)
If brackets are included as part of a sentence, the full stop (or question or
exclamation mark) goes outside the brackets:
Fewer women are dying from breast cancer (currently about 12,000 per
year).
Square brackets ([ ]) are quite another thing. They are an editor’s way of clarifying
the meaning of a direct quote without actually changing any of the words:
Jude Law said, ‘I have read it [Hamlet] at least six times.’
Ellipses
…
The ellipsis has just two uses.
Firstly, you use the ellipsis to show that some words are missing from the middle of a
direct quote:
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‘As a Cancer Voice, I have used my experience to help others … It has
given me a new lease of life.’
Secondly, you use the ellipsis to indicate that a sentence has been left unfinished.
The three dots show that the writer or speaker has tailed off into silence, deliberately
leaving something unsaid:
The mafia boss towered over the delivery boy: ‘We want that parcel now.
And if we don’t get it …’
Remember to leave a space before the three dots.
Note: the ellipsis is turning up increasingly in emails as shorthand for ‘more to come
… I haven’t finished yet … let’s just wait and see …’ Avoid using the ellipsis in this
way when you write for Macmillan.
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