Punctuation Matters

Punctuation Matters gives straight answers to the queries raised most frequently by practitioners in computing, engineering, medicine and science as they grapple with day-to-day tasks in writing and editing. The advice it offers is based on John Kirkman's long experience of providing courses on writing and editing in academic centres, large companies, research organisations and government departments in the UK, Europe and in USA. Sample material discussed in the book comes from real documents from computing, engineering and scientific contexts, giving the guidelines an immediately recognisable, 'true to life' relevance. The advice is down-to-earth and up-to-date. It is clearly set out in three parts: - part one states a policy for clear and reliable punctuation - part two gives a series of alphabetically arranged guidelines, to be 'dipped into' for guidance on how to use the main punctuation marks in English - part three contains appendices on paragraphing, word-division and how conventions of punctuation differ in the UK and the USA. Punctuation Matters is the essential guide for everyone who has to write in scientific, technical and medical contexts, with clear explanations on punctuation, what it does and how to use it.

John Kirkman is a communications specialist who runs his own consultancy specialising in technical and scientific writing.

Part 1: Policy 1. Difficulties Caused by Lack of Punctuation 2. The Jobs Done by Punctuation Marks 3. The Relation of Punctuation to Intonation and Stress 4. Is 'Open' or 'Light' Punctuation Enough? 5. How Punctuation Helps Reading 6. Reducing Uncertainty by Punctuating Carefully 7. Absence of Punctuation May Damage Your Credibility 8. Redundancy as Helpful Reinforcement 9. The Lazy Writer's Evasion of Responsibility Part 2: Guidelines 1. Apostrophe 2. Capital Letters 3. Colon 4. Comma 5. Dash (em rule and en rule) 6. Ellipsis Points 7. Exclamation Mark 8. Full Stop 9. Hyphen 10. Inverted Commas (or Quotation Marks) 11. Parentheses (or Brackets) 12. Question Mark 13. Semi-Colon 14. Slash 15. Underlining 16. Variations in Printing: Bold Type and Italic Type Part 3: Appendices Appendix 1: Paragraphing Appendix 2: Word-Division Appendix 3: Differences in punctuation in American English and British English