Full stop inside or outside quotation marks Australia

Apostrophes are used in contractions to replace omitted letters in a word, such as ‘don’t’, ‘couldn’t’ and in truncated words, such as ‘cont’d’ for ‘continued’.

Apostrophes also indicate ownership. Use an apostrophe followed by ‘s’ for:

• common nouns, for example, ‘the government’s agenda’, ‘tomorrow’s exam’.
• proper nouns, for example, ‘Adam’s book’.
• nouns that end in ‘s’, for example, ‘Mr Holmes’s house’, ‘the business’s policy’.
• collective nouns, for example, the ‘children’s toys’.

For plural nouns, the apostrophe appears after the ‘s’, for example, the students’ work. There are no apostrophes in:

• the plural form of acronyms, as seen in ‘ NGO s’, ‘ OP s’ and ‘ URL s’.
• in decades, such as ‘the 1970s’.
• in adjectival phrases, such as ‘girls school’.
• in expressions of time that denote more than one day, week or month, and so on, such as in ‘six months time’, or ‘four days work’ (note that if the reference is singular, an apostrophe is needed, such as with ‘a month’s holiday’).

Note. While ‘bachelor’s degree’ and ‘master’s degree’, when used in a generic sense, typically require an apostrophe, we use the Australian Qualifications Framework ( AQF ) titles ‘bachelor degree’ and ‘masters degree’.

Colons and semicolons

A colon is commonly used to introduce a series or list. If a colon introduces a complete sentence, more than one sentence, a formal statement, quotation, or speech in a dialogue, capitalise the first word of the sentence. For example:

The question is: How can you put a price on education?

If the colon introduces a sentence fragment or list, don’t capitalise the first letter. For example:

We know the number one cause of stress for students: exams.

Use a semicolon to join clauses when a conjunction is omitted, or when the connection is close. The clause after a semicolon should be able to form a complete sentence on its own. For example:

At the time, these study areas were revolutionary; today, they’re more important than ever.

Semicolons can also separate items in long lists. This is particularly useful when the items in the list contain multiple words and punctuation. For example:

Griffith offers 10 study areas: business and government; criminology and law; education; engineering and information technology; environment, planning and architecture; health; humanities and languages; music; science and aviation; and visual and creative arts.

The word ‘however’ is often preceded by a semicolon. For example:

On-time applications to QTAC are due 30 September; however, you can apply after this date providing you pay a late fee.

Commas

Commas can be used:

• to introduce information, such as ‘for example,’ or ‘since 1975,’
• to enclose extra information, such as ‘the meeting, which was held on a Tuesday, was successful’ (the sentence would make sense without the extra information: ‘the meeting was successful’)
• in numbers with four digits or more, such as '1,500', '10,000' and '250,000'
• to separate items in lists, for example, ‘the degree offers four majors: accounting, financial planning, finance and economics’.

Be careful not to use a comma when a full stop is needed. This is known as a comma splice or run-on sentence. For example:

I had an early class this morning, I didn’t have time for breakfast.

The comma could either be a full stop or semicolon, as the clauses either side of it could form complete sentences. It could also be replaced with a coordinating conjunction, such as ‘so’ or ‘and’, for example:

I had an early class this morning, so I didn’t have time for breakfast.

The Griffith style is not to use commas in addressing or closing letters or emails. For example:

Dear John

Thank you for your interest in the Bachelor of Science. Please find attached a profile of the degree.

Kind regards
Griffith University

The Oxford comma

An Oxford comma, also known as a serial comma, is a comma after the penultimate item in a list, typically before ‘and’ or ‘or’. For example:

The degree offers four majors: accounting, financial planning, finance, and economics.

The Griffith style is to not use the Oxford comma, except for in instances where it eliminates confusion. For example:

Griffith’s Arts, Education and Law group offers five study areas: criminology and law, education, humanities and languages, music, and visual and creative arts.

In this instance, the Oxford comma indicates that ‘music’ and ‘visual and creative arts’ are different study areas.

The Oxford comma can also make it clear how many people you are referring to. For example, the sentence ‘I’d like to invite my parents, Oprah and Tom Cruise’ reads like the writer is referring to only two people: their parents (who are Oprah and Tom Cruise). An additional comma makes it clear that they are referring to four people: ‘I’d like to thank my parents, Oprah, and Tom Cruise’.

Quotation marks

Use single quotation marks in most cases. Double quotation marks are used for quotes within quotes. If several consecutive paragraphs are quoted and there are no intervening carrier expressions, quote marks are used at the beginning of each paragraph, but at the end of the last one only.

If punctuation is part of the quotation, it should sit within the quotation marks. For example:

‘When does the exam period start?’ she asked.

‘It starts next week,’ he replied.

If the punctuation is not part of the quotation, it sits outside the quotation marks. For example:

Critics described the performance as ‘an extraordinary achievement’, ‘in a class of its own’ and ‘spectacular, must-see event’.

Sometimes quotation marks are used in the initial instance that a term is introduced, but not in subsequent instances. For example:

The concept of a ‘virtual community’ has been the subject of extensive debate between scholars.

Quotation marks should never be used for emphasis as they can suggest that the writer is being sarcastic. For example, ‘“fresh” fruit’ or ‘“free” parking’ can be interpreted to mean that the fruit is not quite fresh or the parking is not actually free.

Note. Media releases use double quotation marks.

Hyphens and dashes

Hyphens (-) and dashes, including the em dash (—) and the en dash (–), have different uses and different meanings.

Hyphens

In Australian English, hyphenated words are used less frequently than in American or British. Hyphens are used to clarify meaning and avoid confusion. The key rule with hyphens is to maintain consistency throughout a document and to ensure that hyphens are used when the meaning of a sentence would otherwise be ambiguous.

Hyphens are used:

• with double-up vowels to make it easier for the reader to understand the intended meaning, for example, ‘re-energise’ is kinder to the reader than ‘reenergise’; however, when a word is well known, the hyphen is often not included, such as with ‘coordinate’
• when without a hyphen the word would be ambiguous as it would be the same as an existing word, for instance, ‘re-sign’ (sign again), has a different meaning to ‘resign’ (quit)
• with numbers and fractions, such as twenty-nine and two-thirds
• with compass points, such as north-east
• with prefixes such as ‘non-’, ‘former-’, ‘ex-’ or ‘neo-’
• when a suffix applies to two or more items in a list, for example: ‘on- and off-campus’; however, where possible it is preferable to write the sentence in full, such as ‘part-time and full-time staff’
• to create new words and phrases, such as ‘the airline-issued socks are one-size-fits-all’

Hyphens can be used to create adjectives that appear before a subject, for example:

He is a well-regarded actor.

The hyphen is not necessary if the adjectival phrase appears after the subject, for example:

The actor is well regarded.

This applies to ages and timeframes, such as in the following examples:

• ‘The 19-year-old man’, or ‘the man is 19 years old’
• ‘An 18th-century poet’, or ‘a poet from the 18th century’
• ‘It was a three-week vacation’, or ‘the vacation was for three weeks’

Hyphens are not needed with adverbs ending in ‘-ly’ because the meaning is not usually ambiguous, such as in the case of ‘fully funded’, ‘internationally recognised’ and ‘recently renovated’.

Hyphens can be used to break words up at the end of lines. This formatting pattern is not used at Griffith as hyphens are only need in justified text, and the Griffith standard is for non-justified, left-aligned text.

Note. At Griffith, ‘Vice Chancellor’ is not hyphenated.

Em dashes [ — ]

Em dashes are used in sentences to:

• denote abrupt change, for example, ‘funding is a major issue—but that is not the topic of this paper’
• precede an amplification or explanation, for example, ‘develop skills in high demand—leadership, teamwork and communication’
• separate parenthetic elements, for example, ‘Griffith has five campuses—Gold Coast, Logan, Mt Gravatt, Nathan and South Bank—with each having a distinctive quality’

Note. Em dashes should be unspaced.

• Option + shift + minus = em dash
• Option + minus = en dash

• Ctrl + minus [on the number pad] = en dash
• Ctrl + alt + minus [on the number pad] = em dash

• – OR – = en dash
• — OR — = em dash

Alternatively, in Word you can type two hyphens (with a space either side) for an en dash, or type two hyphens without a space either side for an em dash.

En dashes [ – ]

En dashes are used as a linking device. They are used to show spans of:

• figures, for example, ‘pages 42–59’
• time, for example, ‘March–July’, ‘9 am – 2 pm’
• distance, for example,’ Brisbane – Gold Coast corridor’

They are also commonly used to show associations between words that retain their separate identities, for example, ‘Asia–Pacific region’, ‘Commonwealth–state agreement’ and ‘United States – Canada trade negotiations’.

En dashes are also used as a minus sign: 2 – 3 = –1

When a prefix such as ‘non-‘, ‘pre-‘ or ‘anti-‘ is attached to one word, a hyphen is used, for example, ‘anti-intellectual’. But if the prefix applies to more than one word, use an en dash, for example, ‘anti–harm minimisation’.

Don’t use an en dash as a substitute for and with the words ‘between’ or ‘from’. For example, write:

• ‘the period between 2013 and 2016’, rather than ‘the period between 2013–2016’
• ‘the period from 2013 to 2016’, rather than ‘the period from 2013–2016’.

Use a space before and after the en rule, to help distinguish it from an em rule.

Note. The en dash is unspaced if there is only one word either side, for example ‘Asia–Pacific’. If there is more than one word, the en rule is spaced, for example, ‘United States – Australia agreement’.

Exclamation marks

In general, avoid exclamation marks. They are rarely necessary and overuse can be distracting and can make the author appear overly excitable and silly. The occasional exclamation mark can be used, but this depends on the medium.

Question marks

Advertising copy has some creative licence in the use of question marks, as seen in this example from an MBA ad:

Climb the corporate ladder? Or build your own?

Technically, this is not a question, but it’s phrased as one, as the ‘do you want to’ preceding ‘climb’ is implied.

Generally, this style is avoided in other material, such as the on Griffith website and in publications such as the study guides.

Spacing

Only one space is needed after full stops, commas, colons and semicolons.

Em dashes should be unspaced, while en dashes only require a space when they are connecting more than one word on either side, for example, Queensland Government – Griffith University agreement.