Campus

Punctuation

As with other aspects of the language, certain punctuation conventions can vary between British and American English. This section will focus on the most common differences between the two varieties. For a more detailed discussion of English punctuation in general, see the Practical Guide to English Usage: Comparing and Contrasting English and Catalan or the Interuniversity Style Guide for Writing Institutional Texts in English.

Serial commas

The serial, or Oxford, comma is used to set off the final item in a list of three or more items. It is placed after the penultimate item and before the coordinating conjunction (usually and or or). Examples:

The event is free for students, alumni, faculty, and staff.

Notwithstanding the reference to Oxford, the serial comma is more frequently used in American than British English, where it is generally included only when necessary to prevent confusion. For instance, in the famous example I would like to thank my parents, Ayn Rand and God, the lack of a serial comma could potentially lead readers to think that the phrase my parents was being used in apposition to Ayn Rand and God.

Another example might be in a list in which each item consists of multiple words, such as Protection of human rights, impact of AI, and corporate social responsibility in the cross-border sphere. Although not strictly necessary, the serial comma here adds clarity by making it immediately apparent that the word impact refers only to AI and that corporate social responsibility is a separate item in the list. In doing so, it ensures a smoother reading experience by eliminating any ambiguity that might cause a reader to step back from the text to parse the exact meaning.

In general, it is UOC policy to follow British English usage in this regard and to use the Oxford comma only when required for clarity, as in the examples provided.

Full stops (periods)

In British English, full stops are used for truncations, but not for contractions. They are likewise omitted from initialisms. In contrast, American English generally uses full stops for both contractions and initialisms. Compare:

BritishAmerican
DrDr.
MrMr.
UKU.K.
EUE.U.

Hyphenation

British English often hyphenates compound nouns and adjectives that are written as a single unit in American English. For example:

BritishAmerican
break-upbreakup
mouth-wateringmouthwatering
north-eastnortheast


Likewise, British English often uses a hyphen where American English does not to separate prefixes from the words to which they are attached, particularly in cases where the final letter of the prefix and the first letter of the root word are the same or when omission of the hyphen could lead to mispronunciation. Compare:

BritishAmerican
co-workercoworker
pre-eminentpreeminent
re-enterreenter


Hyphens are generally used in both varieties of English to separate a prefix from a capitalized noun. Examples:

mid-Atlantic

 

post-Renaissance

 

sub-Saharan


Likewise, both varieties often use hyphens to distinguish between words with distinct meanings that would otherwise be homographs, such as recreation (activity done for enjoyment) and re-creation (something created anew) or unionized (organized in a labour union) and un-ionized (not ionized).

Notwithstanding the above, in practice both varieties often accept both hyphenated and unhyphenated spellings of a single word. It is thus above all important to be consistent within each text. In other words, do not use pre-eminent on first mention and preeminent a few pages later.

As a general rule, for common words with both accepted hyphenated and non-hyphenated variants, the UOC recommends deferring to the Oxford Dictionary; hence, coordinate, email and online but e-learning and pre-empt.

Quotation marks and placement of end punctuation

American English generally uses double quotation marks, or inverted commas, to indicate direct quotations and single quotation marks for nested quotations within them. It also generally places full stops and commas inside the closing quotation mark, although placement of other forms of punctuation (e.g. dashes, question marks, exclamation points) depends on whether they pertain to the quote itself. Example:

"The virtual companionship," Arroyo added, "was wonderful, and in many cases it has turned into real and lasting friendships."

 

According to Mr. Esteban, the conference represents "a critical review of the adaptation of healthcare technology to the environment."

 

"How many times have you heard him cry 'Impossible!' only to watch him go on to get the job done?" he asked.

British English usage varies. Many influential British sources, such as Oxford University Press (OUP), essentially do the opposite of their American counterparts, using single quotation marks to indicate direct quotations and double quotation marks to set off any further quotations within them. Under this system, end punctuation is placed according to what is known as 'logical punctuation', i.e. punctuation is only placed before the closing quotation mark when it forms part of the sentence being quoted. Example:

'The virtual companionship', Arroyo added, 'was wonderful, and in many cases it has turned into real and lasting friendships.'

 


According to Mr Esteban, the conference represents 'a critical review of the adaptation of healthcare technology to the environment'.


'How many times have you heard him cry "Impossible!" only to watch him go on to get the job done?' he asked.

Other reputable British English sources, such as The Economist, following a blend of American and British conventions, use double quotation marks for direction quotations and single quotation marks for nested ones, but following the same logical punctuation system followed by OUP and others. Example:

"The virtual companionship", Arroyo added, "was wonderful, and in many cases it has turned into real and lasting friendships."

 

According to Mr Esteban, the conference represents "a critical review of the adaptation of healthcare technology to the environment".


"How many times have you heard him cry 'Impossible!' only to watch him go on to get the job done?" he asked.

The UOC recommends following The Economist's guidelines for quotations in its texts. In short, use single quotation marks only for quotations inside quotations and place all punctuation outside unless it forms an integral part of the quoted text. For more information and examples, see the Interuniversity Style Guide for Writing Institutional Texts in English.

The UOC also recommends using single quotation marks to set off terms being used ironically or as slang or being introduced for the first time, as in the aforementioned sentence:

Under this system, punctuation is placed according to what is known as 'logical punctuation', i.e. punctuation is only placed before the closing quotation mark when it forms part of the sentence being quoted.