U. of Calgary Press Information for Authors

Information for Authors

3.8. Punctuation

Ellipses and Ellipsis Points: Any omission of text from within a quoted passage must be indicated by ellipsis points. In general, one does not use ellipsis points to mark omissions from the beginning or end of a quoted passage. This is the case regardless of whether the quotation is run in with or set apart from the text proper. However, in a block quotation, if either

the first sentence is incomplete, or
a quoted paragraph (other than the first) begins with a sentence that does not open the original paragraph, the omission should be indicated by ellipsis points.

The three-point ellipsis normally has one space on each side. When four ellipsis points are used, the first point is considered to be the period ending the preceding sentence: this is the case regardless of whether the word preceding the ellipsis is actually the last word of a sentence. Thus, when four points are used, there is never a space preceding the first point.

Hyphens and Dashes: While those who are used to writing on a typewriter may never have had to confront the problem, it is important in typography to distinguish a number of different hyphens and dashes:

- hyphen
– en-dash (approximately the width of the letter 'n')
— em-dash (approximately the width of the letter 'm').

In preparing your manuscript, it is best to avoid end-of-line hyphens. Line endings will change once your manuscript is typeset. Because the copyeditor sometimes has to guess whether you intend a permanent hyphen, your temporary end-of-line hyphens may be retained mistakenly.

The en-dash is preferred between pairs of numbers (e.g., "pp. 4549" and "199195") and should be used between page numbers in the Index to your book. It often is used to imply "and" or "to," as in "FrenchEnglish dictionary," or "TorontoMontreal railway," or where two parallel concepts are conjoined, e.g., "the subjectiveobjective dimension."

Em-dashes are useful but should be used sparingly. The primary function of this dash is to indicate a break in the train of thought. This objective may often be accomplished through the use of other devices, e.g., commas before and after the phrase, or parentheses surrounding it. The clear advantage of using parentheses in such circumstances is that they always come in pairs; this makes it easier for the reader to piece together the parts of the main sentence.

Quotation Marks: For quotations appearing within the text, double quotation marks are used. In quotations set off from the text in a block, no quotation marks are used. Where double quotation marks have been used, single quotation marks enclose quotations within quotations.

Periods and commas always precede closing quotation marks.
Colons and semicolons always follow.
Question marks precede closing quotation marks only when they belong to the quoted matter.

While few typewriters have proper opening and closing (single or double) quotation marks, many word processors now possess these characters. Please use these characters, if you have them.

Semicolons: Semicolons are used to mark a more important break in sentence flow than that marked by a comma. They should be used between the two parts of a compound sentence when they are not connected by a conjunction. The following words are considered to be adverbs, not conjunctions, and are preceded by a semicolon when used between clauses of a compound sentence: accordingly, besides, hence, however, indeed, then, therefore, thus.

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