Punctuation

General Guidelines

Check the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook for general punctuation questions.

Reference this section for our exceptions to the AP Stylebook and for clarification of some confusing punctuation issues.

Specifics

Apostrophes

Possessives

Use an apostrophe to make a word possessive.

If the word is singular, add 's.

  • Yes: Toro is the College's mascot.

If the word is singular and already ends in an s, add ‘s.

  • Yes: Toro is not Western Hills's mascot.

If the word is plural and does not end in an s, add 's.

  • Yes: Toro does not want to interrupt the children's activities.

If the word is plural and ends in an s, just add an apostrophe.

  • Yes: Toro is all our campuses' mascot.

Academic Degrees

See also:

Use an apostrophe: bachelor's degree & master's degree.

  • Yes: Charlie will complete his bachelor's degree this coming spring.
  • Yes: Will a master's degree help me advance in computer science fields?

Do not use an apostrophe: associate degree

  • Yes: Did you earn an associate degree last year? 
  • No: George's associate's degree transferred easily to the engineering program at Texas A&M.

Grades

Use an apostrophe and an s when you form the plural of a letter grade.

  • Yes: My brother earned A's in both of his engineering courses.
  • No: I didn't earn As in my engineering courses.

Colons

See also:

Use a colon for times that include hours & minutes.

  • Yes: 9:15 a.m.

Do not use zeros or colons for times that are on the hour.

  • Yes: 9 a.m.
  • No: 9:00 a.m.

Use a colon at the end of a phrase or sentence to introduce a bullet or numbered list. 

Yes:

Topics include:

  • Business communication
  • Workplace English
  • Workplace Spanish
  • English as a Second Language (ESL)

Capitalize the first word after a colon in a sentence only if it is a proper noun or starts a complete sentence. Otherwise, do not capitalize the first word after a colon in a sentence.

  • Yes: Mary has a goal: She wants to start a new career in the real estate industry.
  • Yes: Mary must balance 3 things: her full-time job, her finances, and her children.
  • No: Mary must balance 3 things: Her full-time job, her finances, and her children.

Do not use a colon after a verb when introducing a list in running text

  • Yes: For breakfast, I ate yogurt, blueberries, and nuts.
  • No: For breakfast, I ate: yogurt, blueberries, and nuts.

Commas in Series

Use commas to separate elements in a series of 3 or more elements. Use a comma before the conjunction. 

Note: AP Style omits the comma before the conjunction.

  • Yes: Bring a pencil, an eraser, and a blue book to the final exam.
  • No: Bring a pencil, an eraser and a blue book to the final exam.
  • Yes: Is the TCC star is navy, teal, and burgundy?
  • No: Is the TCC star is navy, teal and burgundy?

Dashes

(See also Dates, Seasons & Time: Time Spans, Years and Formatting: Hours of Operation)

  • Do not place a space before or after a dash.
  • Do not use a hyphen in the place of a dash.

Dashes come in different lengths:

Em Dash (Width of an M)

Use to signal an abrupt change in thought or an emphatic pause.

  • Yes: We offer a quality education—right in the heart of Tarrant County.

How to type:

  • Windows: alt + 0151
  • Mac: option + shift +-

En Dash (Width of an N)

Use to indicate a range between dates and times.

  • Yes: 1–2:30 p.m.
  • Yes: 2021–2022 Academic Year
  • Yes: Monday–Friday

How to type:

  • Windows: alt + 0150
  • Mac: option + -

Hyphens

See also Numbers: Telephone numbers

Use a hyphen in compound adjectives when they come before the noun they describe.

  • Yes: You are a first-time-in-college student if you have never gone to college before.
  • No: I've never gone to college before; this is my first-time-in-college.
  • Yes: He's a 19-year-old senior in college.
  • No: He is 19-years-old.
  • Yes: Rachel is a full-time professor at TCC.
  • No: Rachel teaches full time at TCC

Exception: Do not hyphenate adverbs ending in –ly.

  • Yes: Is TCC a nationally ranked community college?
  • No: Is TCC a nationally-ranked community college?

Do not use hyphens when compound adjectives follow a noun—in many cases—even if those combinations were hyphenated before a noun.

  • Before: An up-to-date final exam schedule will be posted before Thanksgiving Break.
  • After: The final exam schedule is up to date and will be posted before Thanksgiving Break.

Quotation Marks

Use double quotation marks for direct quotes.

Put periods and commas inside quotation marks.

  • Yes: "TCC has provided me stability and strength ever since my mother started working here when I was just a baby," says Stephanie.
  • Yes: Stephanie said, "TCC has helped mold me into the person I am and will forever be."
  • No: Stephanie said, "TCC has helped mold me into the person I am and will forever be".

Put dashes, semicolons, question marks, and exclamation points inside quotation marks when they apply to the quoted matter only. Put them outside the quotation marks when they apply to the whole sentence.

  • Yes: The poster read, "Dead-End Job?"
  • Yes: Have you ever read Maya Angelou's "Phenomenal Woman"?
  • No: Have you ever read Maya Angelou's "Phenomenal Woman?"

Semicolons

Try not to use semicolons very often.

Semicolons are often part of long, complicated sentences—the kind of sentences you want to avoid on webpages.

Consider rewriting your long sentence as 2 (or more) sentences.

Updated January 20, 2023