Gail Palmer School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology Punctuation

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 2 Acknowledgement  The Mayfield Handbook of Technical & Scientific Writing by Leslie C. Perelman, James Paradis, and Edward Barrett is the source for much of the information contained in the following slides.

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 3 End Punctuation Marks  Periods  Question marks  Exclamation points

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 4 Internal Punctuation Marks  Colons  Semicolons  Commas  Apostrophes  Ellipsis points  Hyphens  Dashes  Parentheses  Brackets  Quotation marks

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 5 Periods at the End of Sentences  A period is used to indicate the end of a declarative or imperative sentence:  Networks can interconnect with other networks and contain subnetworks.  Expand the bandwidth of the system to accommodate more channels.

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 6 Periods in a List  A period is used after numbers or letters in an enumerated list. Quantum theory has three main types of interaction: 1. Strong 2. Weak 3. Electrical

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 7 Periods in a List (2)  Each item in an enumerated list must end with a period if one or more items in the list is a complete sentence: Research has produced the following findings: 1. Low-calorie diets extend the life span of rodents up to 30%. 2. Reduced caloric intake – the only method that has been shown to slow aging in rodents.

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 8 Periods in a List (3)  In a vertical list that completes a sentence, the final period is omitted unless the items are separated by commas or semicolons: The status line contains the current Window number File name Display nodes The mouse lets you move around the spreadsheet, highlight menu items, and page through help screens.

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 9 Periods as Decimals  Periods stand for decimal points within numbers:   4.01 

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 10 Periods with Abbreviations  Periods are used after certain words, especially those that themselves spell words:  Dr. Russell Callen  Q.E.D.  If an abbreviation ending in a period comes at the end of a sentence, an additional period is not attached to the sentence:  The system shut down at 2:05 p.m.  Does the system shut down at 2:05 p.m.?

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 11 Periods with Other Punctuation Marks  A period is always placed inside quotation marks:  In Physics and Reality, Einstein wrote, “The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.”  A period is placed after the final parenthesis or bracket at the end of a sentence (unless the parentheses or brackets enclose a complete new sentence):  One such by-product is the super-oxide radical (O2.-).  [The dot in the formula represents the unpaired electron.]

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 12 Question Marks  A question mark is used to end an interrogative sentence:  Are the wavelength filters shown in Figure 7?  Has the circuit been debugged?  A question mark is also used to change a declarative or imperative sentence into a question:  Their scores on the test were improved? [declarative changed to interrogative]  Begin the oral presentations next week? [imperative changed to interrogative]

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 13 Question Marks (2)  When a directive or a command is phrased as a question, a question mark is optional:  Will you please ask your advisor to attend your oral presentation?  Will you please ask your advisor to attend your oral presentation.

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 14 Question Marks (3)  A question mark is used to indicate uncertainty about data:  The first synthesis was accomplished by Claude Poux (1810?-1897).  A question mark must not be used at the end of an indirect question:  Terence asked whether increasing the bandwidth of the network’s backbone would significantly increase performance.

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 15 Exclamation Points  In technical and scientific writing, exclamation points are used only to end warning or caution statements or as specialized scientific notation:  WARNING! Place the power supply latch in the locked position before plugging in the device! Failure to lock the power supply may result in severe injury!  CAUTION! Do not continue if there are any files on the disk you wish to keep! The format procedure will destroy all files stored on the disk.

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 16 Exclamation Points (2)  The exclamation point is used as a factorial symbol in mathematical notation:  n! 5! [represents 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1]  The exclamation point is used as a phonetic symbol in linguistic representations:  Some interesting counter examples appear on !Kung syntax.

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 17 Colons  Colons are used to introduce lists:  The market for photovoltaic power systems includes the following items: intrusion alarms, flood monitors, calculators, and telephone call boxes.  The market for photovoltaic power systems includes the following items: Intrusion alarms Flood monitors Calculators Telephone call boxes

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 18 Colons (2)  Colons are used to introduce quotations:  The specifications read: “Capacitive pressure sensors employ a parallel-plate capacitor and a silicon diaphragm.”  Colons are used to express ratios:  The ratio of drag torque to bearing friction torque cannot exceed 3:1.  Colons are used to separate units of time:  The main thruster engines ignited at 10:17 a.m.

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 19 Colons (3)  Colons are used to separate elements in a bibliographical citation:  V. Paxson, “End-to-end internet packet dynamics,” IEEE Transactions on Networking, 7:3, pp ,  Colons are used to set off and emphasize explanations and appositional elements:  Linear circuit theory is based on three elements: a resistor, a capacitor, and an inductor.  While thinking about this problem, we were reminded of our access-control system with similar demands that is used successfully on a daily basis: passports.

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 20 Semicolons  Semicolons are used to join two independent clauses or separate parts of a sentence that have commas in them:  The students have three written assignments during the semester; the proposal, which is ten pages, is the longest of these assignments.  Semicolons are used to separate sentence elements that contain commas:  Punctuation, including periods, commas, semicolons, and colons; mechanics; the parts of speech; and technical writing style are covered in ECE 8020.

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 21 Commas  Commas are used with the following grammatical elements:  Introductory elements  Coordinating conjunctions joining independent clauses  Serial elements  Coordinate modifiers  Nonrestrictive modifiers  Parenthetical elements  Elliptical constructions  Numerical constructions

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 22 Commas (2)  A comma is placed after a transitional word or phrase that begins a sentence:  Moreover, in integrated optics, surface-relief gratings are used with slab wave guides to provide filtering of the optical wave.  Thus, focusing light is another important issue of gratings.

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 23 Commas (3)  A comma is placed after an introductory dependent clause:  Although Wittenben proposed one of the early transmit- diversity techniques, Tarokh later introduced space- time coding.  A comma is normally used after an introductory prepositional or verbal phrase:  If the receiver has multiple antennae, receiver diversity is also achieved.  Achieving the goal, the engineer felt rewarded for all the effort the research had demanded.

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 24 Commas (4)  A comma must not be placed after an introductory participial or gerund phrase if the phrase forms part of the subject or verb of the sentence:  Describing how these multi-scale operations affect a binary image is a difficult task.

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 25 Commas (5)  A comma is placed before a coordinating conjunction that joins two independent clauses:  The Wiener filter was primarily confined to scalar signals in noise with stationary statistics, and the Kalman filter was a dramatic improvement over its minimum squared-error predecessor.

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 26 Commas (6)  A comma is used to separate the items in a series:  Lingering eye contact, expressive facial expressions, comfortable body movements, and appropriate hand gestures enhance an oral presentation.  A comma is used between coordinate modifiers (If and can be inserted between two modifiers that describe the same word, the modifiers are coordinate.):  The Kalman filter incorporates an accurate, thorough, and dependable description of the system noises.

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 27 Commas (7)  A nonrestrictive modifier is usually introduced by which and contains information that is not essential to establishing the meaning of what it modifies. Commas are used to set off nonrestrictive modifiers:  The Kalman filter, which produces an estimate of the desired variables, was introduced in 1960.

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 28 Commas (8)  Commas are used to set off the parenthetic elements:  Technical writing, of course, is an essential skill for successful electrical engineers.  Commas are used in elliptical constructions to indicate the omission of a word or words that are readily understood from the context:  In the United States, ninety-two scanners exist; in Europe, eighty-five; and in all of Africa, six. [ The commas indicate the omission of the words scanners exist.]

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 29 Commas (9)  Anglo-American usage dictates that there be internal commas before groups of three digits from the right:  Is 714,529 the correct number of students?  Use a comma to separate numbers in a sentence:  In 2001, 75 students entered the contest.  Use commas to separate items in an address:  The Van Leer building is located at 777 Atlantic Drive, Atlanta, Georgia

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 30 Commas (10)  Use a comma to set off the year in dates expressed in the month-day-year sequence:  The proposal is due April 7,  Omit commas when only the month and the year are stated or in the day-month-year sequence:  The proposal is due April  The proposal is due 7 April 2001.

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 31 Commas (11)  Use commas to separate certain elements or sub-elements of a bibliographic group in a reference list:  E. Lee and D. Messerschmitt, Digital Communications, Second Edition, Norwell, MA: Kluwer, 1994.

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 32 Apostrophes  Use an apostrophe to form the possessive case of nouns:  Student’s (singular possessive noun) paper  Class’s (singular possessive noun ending in -s) paper  Students’ (plural possessive noun ending in -s) papers  Classes’ (plural possessive noun ending in –es) papers  Men’s and women’s (plural possessive nouns not ending in -s) papers  Anyone’s (indefinite possessive pronoun) paper

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 33 Apostrophes (2)  Use the preposition of to form the possessive of inanimate nouns:  Composition of the circuit  Position of the filter  Use an apostrophe to form standard contractions:  It + is = It’s  We + shall (will) = We’ll

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 34 Apostrophes (3)  Optionally, use an apostrophe to form the plurals of acronyms and numbers. Be consistent! Always use an apostrophe to form the plurals of lower-case letters:  GTA’s or GTAs  47’s or 47s  a’s, b’s, x’s

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 35 Ellipsis Points  Use ellipsis points to indicate omitted portions of a quotation:  An interesting comparison between the pattern spectrum and frequency spectrum is drawn, and this comparison provides useful insights into the concept of a spectrum of patterns.  An interesting comparison between the pattern spectrum and frequency spectrum…provides useful insights into the concept of a spectrum of patterns.

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 36 Ellipsis Points (2)  Retain the original punctuation mark if the omitted portion of text immediately precedes or follows another punctuation mark:  This abstraction is helpful in generating a pattern spectrum for images and signals. Thus, the signal is replaced by a 2D image X….  This abstraction is helpful in generating a pattern spectrum…. Thus, the signal is replaced by a 2D image X….

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 37 Hyphens  Use hyphens to link certain prefixes, suffixes, letters, and numbers with nouns:  Use a hyphen to connect the following prefixes to a noun: All-half- self- ex- quasi-hex-  Use a hyphen when adding a prefix to a noun forms a homograph (a word with two meanings):  multiplymulti-ply recoverre-cover  unionizeun-ionize

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 38 Hyphens (2)  Omit (usually) the hyphen after most prefixes, especially prefixes that are not words themselves:  Aeroafter anteanti bibiocode geo isomacromicro midminimultinon overphotopolypostprepropseudo resemisubsupertransun  Use a hyphen to connect letters or numbers used as prefixes to a noun:  The T-cell  A 2-bit adder

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 39 Hyphens (3)  Use a hyphen to connect any prefix to a capitalized noun:  non-Gaussian noise  non-Boolean equation  Use a hyphen before the following suffixes (but not before most other suffixes):  - designate  -elect  -type

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 40 Hyphens (4)  Use a hyphen to link compound nouns, especially when the lack of a hyphen would change the meaning of the term:  light-year  light year  Use a hyphen to connect compound modifiers to promote clarity and prevent ambiguity:  laser-alignment process = laser alignment  wire-grid level adjustment = wire grid-level adjustment

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 41 Hyphens (5)  Use a hyphen to link spelled-out numbers:  Forty-one parts  Three-fourths of the items  Use hyphens to stand for to or through between letters and numbers:  pages 41-57

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 42 Hyphens (6)  Use hyphens when all unit modifiers in a series end with the same term:  The first-order, second-order, and third-order equations have all been solved.  The first-, second-, and third-order equations have all been solved.

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 43 Hyphens (7)  Use the following guidelines in using hyphens to split words at the end of a line:  Divide a word between syllables  Divide a word between the compound parts of compound words  Divide a word after a prefix or before a suffix  Divide a word after any two-letter syllable, but do not divide a word before a final two-letter ending  Do not divide a word in which the part beginning the next line will appear to be a separate word

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 44 Dashes  Use dashes – sparingly – to indicate abrupt shifts in thought and to set off or emphasize appositional or parenthetical elements or interjections. In most cases, use commas or parentheses instead.

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 45 Parentheses  Use parentheses (or commas) to enclose qualifying detail that is of secondary importance within sentences. (Parentheses can also be used to enclose one or more entire sentences that add relevant, but not essential, detail to the main discussion.)

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 46 Brackets  Use brackets to set off an explanatory reference, your own comments, or corrections within material you are quoting.  According to Demetrius, “This integration technique [a monolithically integrated photodectector and VCSEL] reduced the packaging cost by reducing a two-chip system to a one-chip system.”  Use brackets to set off parenthetical material that is within material already in parentheses.  (This integration technique [according to Demetrius] reduced the packaging cost…to a one-chip system.)

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 47 Quotation Marks  Use quotation marks to enclose the names of articles in a journal, short reports, chapters in a book, and other brief documents cited in your document.  Use quotation marks to indicate direct quotations or excerpts from other documents. (Do not use quotation marks around a quotation that is in block form and is indented to set it off from the main text.)  In Physics and Reality, Einstein wrote, “The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.”

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 48 Quotation Marks (2)  Avoid using quotation marks for emphasis.  Use single quotation marks for a quotation within a primary quotation (if the primary quotation is set off with double quotation marks).  Vinita said, “Einstein wrote, ‘The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking,’ in his book, Physics and Reality.”  Use double quotation marks for an internal quotation within a primary quotation in block form.

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 49 Quotation Marks (3)  Place periods and commas inside quotation marks.  Gail said, “You will need to follow this form when you list your references.”  “When you list your references,” Gail said, “you will need to follow this form.”

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 50 Quotation Marks (4)  Place semicolons and colons outside quotation marks.  Francis Scott Keys wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner”: the national anthem of the United States.  Francis Scott Keys wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner”; this song is the national anthem of the United States.

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 51 Quotation Marks (5)  Question marks and exclamations marks go inside the quotation marks if they are part of the material quoted and outside the quotation marks if they are not part of the quoted material.  Gail said, “Be careful with your debugged circuits!”  What did Gail mean when, after four students dropped their circuits, she said, “Be careful with your debugged circuits”?

Professional Communication Skills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 52