Editing for Effective Use of Punctuation

• Be sure that any material enclosed in parentheses or set off with dashes requires special treatment—and that the parentheses or dashes don’t make the sentence difficult to follow. Use parentheses to de-emphasize material they enclose and dashes to add emphasis. (44a and c)
• Use brackets to enclose parenthetical elements in material that is already within parentheses and to enclose words or comments inserted into a quotation. (44b)
• Use colons to introduce explanations, series, lists, and some quotations. Do not put a colon between a verb and its object or complement, between a preposition and its object, or after expressions like such as. (44d)
• Use slashes to mark line divisions in poetry quoted within your own text. (44e)
• Use ellipses (three equally spaced dots) to indicate omissions from quoted passages. (44f)