Skip to main content
  • Contact us
  • Resources
  • About
Logo image Logo image
  • Strategy and planning
  • Structure and writing
  • Visuals and data
  • Style and editing
  • Subject areas
  • Contact us
  • Resources
  • About
  • Strategy and planning
  • Structure and writing
  • Visuals and data
  • Style and editing
  • Subject areas
Search
  • Style and editing
  • Home
  • Style and editing
  • Punctuation

Punctuation

Skip to main content
  • Strategy and planning
    • Understanding your users
      • User profiles and personas
      • Australian audience demographics
      • Types of users
      • User research and testing
    • Planning content
      • Aims and messaging
      • Sustainable content
      • Formats
      • Plan for the future
      • Information design
      • Behavioural insights
    • Content strategy
      • User needs
      • Business needs
      • Content vision and principles
      • Content audit and analysis
      • Information architecture
      • Governance and workflow
      • Implementation
      • Evaluation and maintenance
    • Accessibility
      • Why make content accessible
      • Accessibility guidelines and considerations
      • Text accessibility
      • Image accessibility
      • Alternative (alt) text
      • Table accessibility
        • Table structure
        • Blank and merged cells
        • Text alternatives
        • Learn more about table accessibility
      • Graph accessibility
        • Colour and contrast
        • Alt text and data tables
        • Learn more about graph accessibility
      • Video accessibility
      • Word file accessibility
      • PDF accessibility
      • Easy Read and other formats
  • Structure and writing
    • Navigation
      • Headings
      • Styles and templates
      • Structure options
      • Navigation for online content
      • Content extension devices
    • Clear writing
      • Tips and tricks for writing
      • Choosing voice and style
      • Writing clear paragraphs
      • Using parallel structure
      • Cutting long sentences
      • Using first, second and third person voice
      • Balancing active and passive voice
      • Using abstract nouns and avoiding indirect constructions
      • Avoiding strings of premodifiers
      • Avoiding jargon and complex words
    • Inclusive and respectful language
      • Gender, sexual orientation and gender identity
      • Multicultural users
      • Disability and specific needs
      • Australia's First Nations peoples
    • Presenting information accurately
      • Writing about evidence
      • Writing about risk
      • Writing about data and statistics
    • Readability
      • Structure and wording for readability
      • Readability metrics and reading skills
      • Readability targets for different users
    • Types of publications and content
      • Web content
      • Books and reports
        • Parts and order of a publication
        • Components of a printed page
      • Journal articles
      • Guidelines and manuals
      • Theses
      • Presentations
      • Academic posters
      • Grant applications
      • News articles and press releases
  • Visuals and data
    • Planning visual displays
    • Conventions for visual displays
    • Tables
      • Conventions for tables
      • Functional design for tables
    • Graphs
      • Choosing the right graph for your data
      • Types of graphs and plots
        • Bar graphs
        • Stacked bar graphs
        • Line graphs
        • Stacked area graphs
        • Box plots
        • Dot plots
        • Scatter plots
        • Strip plots
      • Interactive and dynamic data visualisation
      • Conventions for graphs
      • Functional design for graphs
      • What to avoid in graphs
      • Preparing graphs for publishing
    • Maps
      • Types of maps
      • Conventions for maps
      • Functional design for maps
      • Sourcing maps
    • Diagrams
      • Types of diagrams
      • Conventions for diagrams
      • Functional design for diagrams
    • Infographics
      • Types of infographics
      • Conventions for infographics
      • Functional design for infographics
    • Illustrations
      • Types of illustrations
      • Conventions for illustrations
      • Working with an illustrator
    • Photographs
      • Conventions for photographs
      • Functional design for photographs
      • Image research
      • Working with a photographer
      • Taking your own photographs
      • Preparing photographs for publishing
    • Audiovisual
      • Story elements
      • Visual elements
      • Audio elements
      • Postproduction
      • Working with audiovisual experts
  • Style and editing
    • Stages of editing
    • Grammar
      • Words
      • Phrases
      • Clauses and sentences
      • Common grammar questions
    • Punctuation
      • Full stops, commas, semicolons and colons
      • Apostrophes
      • Hyphens
        • Hyphens in prefixes
        • Hyphens in suffixes
        • Hanging hyphens
        • Hyphenation for line breaks
      • Dashes, slashes and ellipses
      • Question marks and exclamation marks
      • Brackets
      • Quotation marks
      • Symbols and special characters
    • Spelling conventions
      • Simple word endings
      • Complex word endings
      • Common 2-letter combinations
      • Accented characters
      • Australian, American and British spelling
    • Compound words
      • Compound nouns and verbs
      • Compound modifiers
      • Exceptions to the modifier rule
      • Special cases of compound words
    • Capital letters
      • Capitalisation styles
      • Common nouns
      • Proper nouns
      • Qualifications and job titles
      • Organisations and institutions
      • Political parties
      • Geographical features, places and buildings
      • Conventions, treaties, protocols, codes and projects
      • School and tertiary courses
      • Brand names and trademarks
      • Events and special days
      • Legislation
    • Bold, underlining and italics
    • Lists
      • List structure
      • Bullet lists
      • Numbered lists
      • Lists in running sentences
    • Shortened forms
      • Acronyms and initialisms
      • Abbreviations and contractions
      • Lists of shortened forms
    • Numbers and units
      • Numbers
      • Units of measurement
      • Numbers used with units
        • Relative quantities
        • Currency
        • Number ranges
        • Rates and dimensions
    • Date and time systems
    • Cross-references
    • Presenting titles
    • References
      • Citing other work
      • Citing First Nations Traditional Knowledges
      • Referencing systems
      • Biotext referencing style
        • Author-date in-text citations
        • Numbered in-text citations
        • Presenting author names
    • Formatting a reference list
      • Books
      • Meeting papers and proceedings
      • Journal, magazine and newspaper articles
      • Media releases
      • Online material
      • Reports
      • Programs, strategies, standards and codes
      • Theses
      • TV, radio and multimedia
    • Terms to watch out for
  • Subject areas
    • Biology
      • Names of organisms
        • Formal taxonomic names
        • Common names
        • Animal names
        • Bacteria names
        • Plant, algae and fungi names
        • Virus names
      • Biological structure and function
      • Disease names
    • Cellular and molecular biology
      • Biochemistry
      • Genes and gene products
      • Chromosomes
      • Inheritance
      • Recombinant DNA technology
      • Cell biology
      • Immunology
      • Pharmacokinetics and toxicokinetics
    • Chemistry
      • Chemistry terminology
      • Chemical structure
      • Chemical compounds
      • Chemical reactions and concentration
      • Analytical methods and reagents
    • Computing
      • Computing terms
      • Computing units
      • Instructions for programs, websites and apps
      • Code
      • Computing style resources
    • Earth and the universe
      • Astronomy
      • Atmosphere and air quality
      • Biodiversity
      • Climate change
      • Geology
      • Heritage
      • History of Earth
      • Marine and coastal environments
      • Meteorology
      • Water
    • Geography
      • General principles for place names
      • Country names
      • Geographical and political regions
      • Australian place names
      • Australian regions
      • Describing locations
      • Ethnic groups
    • Government and law
      • Government and legal writing styles
      • Readability and accessibility for government and law
      • Government and legal content resources
    • Health and medicine
      • Human blood types
      • Human diseases and conditions
      • Medicine names
      • Clinical trials and studies
      • Health professionals
    • Mathematics and statistics
      • Mathematics writing style
      • Challenges in mathematics writing
      • Symbols in mathematics
      • Displaying equations in text
      • Statistics
      • Using LaTeX
      • Mathematics writing resources
    • Physics
      • Particles
      • Energy
      • Wavelengths
      • Thermodynamics

This section covers the basic principles of punctuation:

  • Full stops, commas, semicolons and colons
  • Apostrophes
  • Hyphens
  • Dashes, slashes and ellipses
  • Question marks and exclamation marks
  • Brackets
  • Quotation marks
  • Symbols and special characters.

Download our quick guide for easy reference: The little marks really matter: punctuation [PDF 63 KB].

Logo image Logo image
  • (Opens in a new tab/window)
  • (Opens in a new tab/window)
  • Strategy and planning
  • Structure and writing
  • Visuals and data
  • Style and editing
  • Subject areas
  • Resources
  • About
  • Contact us

Biotext acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live across Australia. We pay our respect to Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

©2024 Biotext Pty Ltd