A wide range of written work comes across our desks at Academic Consulting – journal articles, reports, theses and even books! One common issue they all (usually) have is punctuation errors. Below are five common errors, with tips on how you can find and fix them relatively easily. The following are considered best practice but, as always, check your particular style guide if in doubt.
Have a look through the list below and check your latest draft – how many errors did you find and fix?
#1: En dashes
Number, date or time ranges should be separated by an en dash and not a hyphen (an en dash is slightly longer than a hyphen and is the width of the letter “n”). For example:
✓The 2019–2020 academic year was productive for research outputs.
✗The 2019-2020 academic year was productive for research outputs.
✓This material is present in Chapters 4–6.
✗This material is present in Chapters 4-6.
To create an en dash in Windows, hold down the Ctrl key and the minus key on the numeric keypad; on Mac OS, hold down the Option key and press the minus key on the numeric keypad.
To find hyphens that should be en dashes, use the Find function (Ctrl + F on Windows; CMD + F on Mac OS) and search for ^#-.
^#- stands for any digit (0–9) and a hyphen. You may also want to search for ^# – (where there is a space between any digit and the hyphen).
Note: If you introduce a span or range with words such as from or between, do not use an en dash. For example, “She was head of department from 1999 to 2020”.
#2: Semi colons
Use a semi colon when you have a list of items that contain internal commas (that is, when the items themselves have commas). For example:
✓Invitations to participate in the research were sent to Adel, a postgraduate student; Nigel, an experienced researcher; and Barbara, a postgraduate supervisor.
✗Invitations to participate in the research were sent to Adel, a postgraduate student, Nigel, an experienced researcher, and Barbara, a postgraduate supervisor.
It’s tricky to locate possible errors using the Find function. However, if you search for a colon (see Tip 4), you may be able to locate internal lists reasonably easily. Colons aren’t used often in formal writing, so you shouldn’t come across too many false positives.
#3: Compound words ending in ly
Compound words formed by an adverb ending in ly plus an adjective or participle are not hyphenated either before or after a noun. This is because ambiguity is nearly impossible. For example:
✓highly successful surgeon
✗highly-successful surgeon
✗weirdly-skewed data
To find these redundant hyphens, use the Find function and search for ly-. Note that there are a few exceptions to this – phrasal adjectives such as “a not-so-tightly-worded essay” can keep their hyphens, but these aren’t common in academic writing.
#4: Colons
Use a colon when introducing a list of items, but not when the list of items is incorporated into the flow of the sentence. For example:
✓Each research participant was placed into one of three control groups: placebo current, dose-comparison concurrent, or no treatment.
✗Each research participant was placed into one of three control groups placebo current, dose-comparison concurrent, or no treatment.
✓Each research participant was allocated to a placebo current, dose-comparison concurrent, or no treatment group.
✗Each research participant was allocated to a: placebo current, dose-comparison concurrent, or no treatment group.
#5: Square brackets
If you have participant quotes in your writing, use square brackets to indicate text that has been added (or corrected) for readability. For example:
✓They [the company executives] said that profits were at an all-time high and I just couldn’t wrap my head around that…
✗They (the company executives) said that profits were at an all-time high and I just couldn’t wrap my head around that…
✓I’ve been working at kura [State schools where teaching is in te reo Māori and based on Māori culture and values] for about six years and I love it.
✗I’ve been working at kura (State schools where teaching is in te reo Māori and based on Māori culture and values) for about six years and I love it.
To correct this error, use the Find function and search for an open bracket (. This may result in many instances; if so, limit the search to the style you used for your participant quotes. You can limit your search to text that has a particular style applied to it by choosing More >> in the Find and Replace box and then choosing Format > Style and selecting the appropriate style.
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