Punctuation

   MT Reference Style Guide  >  Medical Transcription Grammar, Usage and Style  >  Punctuation

• 1 Periods
  • 1.1 Spaces after periods
  • 1.2 Periods at the end of a numbered list
  • 1.3 Abbreviated personal and courtesy titles
• 2 Question Mark
• 3 Exclamation Point
• 4 Parentheses, Braces and Brackets
• 5 Forward slash (Virgule)
• 6 Hyphens
  • 6.1 Hyphenating compound modifiers
  • 6.2 Hyphenating word division
  • 6.3 Hyphenating adverbs ending in -ly
  • 6.4 Hyphenating prefixes
  • 6.5 Hyphenating suffixes
  • 6.6 Hyphenating disease entities used as modifiers
  • 6.7 Hyphenating proper adjectives
  • 6.8 Hyphenating Latin expressions
  • 6.9 Hyphenating letter or number modifiers
  • 6.10 Hyphenating compound official titles
  • 6.11 Hyphenating special combinations
  • 6.12 Hyphenating temporary compounds
  • 6.13 Commonly hyphenated phrases
  • 6.14 Hyphenating noun combinations
  • 6.15 Hyphenating compounds starting with a number
  • 6.16 Hyphenating compound possessive nouns
  • 6.17 Hyphenating prefixes preceding a proper noun
  • 6.18 Suspensive hyphens
  • 6.19 Hyphenating compound numbers
  • 6.20 Hyphenating number ranges
  • 6.21 Hyphenating letter-number-symbol combinations
  • 6.22 Hyphenating eponymic names
  • 6.23 Hyphenating complementary adjectives
  • 6.24 Hyphenating proper and common noun combination
• 7 The Comma
  • 7.1 Using a comma to separate two or more adjectives
  • 7.2 Commas in a simple series
  • 7.3 Commas and independent clauses
  • 7.4 Commas and introductory dependent clauses
  • 7.5 Commas and introductory elements
  • 7.6 Using commas with dates
  • 7.7 Commas and titles
  • 7.8 Commas and Geographic Names and Addresses
  • 7.9 Commas in units of measure
  • 7.10 Commas in drug dosages and instructions
  • 7.11 Commas in laboratory values
  • 7.12 Commas in dialogue
  • 7.13 Commas to indicate omitted words
  • 7.14 Commas in nonessential expressions
  • 7.15 Commas and interrupting elements
  • 7.16 Commas used with appositive expressions
  • 7.17 Commas to set off afterthoughts
  • 7.18 Commas and transitional expressions
  • 7.19 Genetics and chromosome punctuation
• 8 Colons and Semicolons
  • 8.1 Using a colon between independent clauses
  • 8.2 Using a colon before lists and enumerations
  • 8.3 Using colons in expressions of time
  • 8.4 Using colons to express a ratio
  • 8.5 Using colons to set off titles and other elements
  • 8.6 Using colons in references
  • 8.7 Capitalizing after a colon
  • 8.8 Using a semicolon between independent clauses
  • 8.9 Using semicolons with transitional expressions
  • 8.10 Using a semicolon in a complex series
• 9 Quotation Marks

Punctuation marks are the visual means for making the meaning of a sentence clearly understood in the absence of visual cues. They indicate the proper relationship between words, phrases and clauses.

Major punctuation marks:

The colon

Other punctuation marks: