{"id":1796,"date":"2015-03-13T22:54:23","date_gmt":"2015-03-13T22:54:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.candelalearning.com\/technicalwriting1xmaster\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=1796"},"modified":"2023-03-28T22:49:17","modified_gmt":"2023-03-28T22:49:17","slug":"the-period","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-jeffersoncc-technicalwriting\/chapter\/the-period\/","title":{"raw":"The Period","rendered":"The Period"},"content":{"raw":"Though a seemingly trivial punctuation mark, the period does present some knotty challenges, especially in technical writing. We all know to place a period to signal the termination of a simple sentence that makes a statement. However, here are a few more specialized rules:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Do not use a period in combination with other punctuation marks unnecessarily, especially when a quotation is involved. In such an instance, end the sentence naturally on whatever punctuation mark is logical (e.g., a question mark).<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Avoid using periods at the ends of abbreviated units of measure, except when the period might be confused with another word. (Therefore, so that it\u2019s not confused with the word \u201cin,\u201d use \u201cin.\u201d to abbreviate \u201cinches.\u201d)<\/li>\r\n \t<li>When using a period in conjunction with parentheses, the period comes after the parentheses are closed if the parenthetical comment itself is part of the larger sentence (as in the first bulleted sentence above, and this one). The period comes inside the parentheses only when the parentheses themselves contain a complete independent sentence. (See\u00a0the example in the second bulleted sentence above, as well as this sentence.)<\/li>\r\n \t<li>By convention, if an abbreviated word (such as \u201cetc.\u201d) ends a sentence, let a single period signal the sentence\u2019s end\u2014two periods in a row would be incorrect.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>In acronyms commonly understood or commonly used in your field (ASTM, EPA, US, GIS), do not use periods after the capital letters.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Do use periods after abbreviations and acronyms that are forms of address, initials within proper names, earned degrees, and when expressing measures of time (Dr. Bauer; M.S. degree; Steven S. Wilson, Jr.; 5:00 p.m.; 10 B.C.).<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<div>\r\n<h3>Self-Study<\/h3>\r\nFor everything you always wanted to know about the period, but neglected to ask, visit these sites:\r\n<blockquote><a class=\"ext\" href=\"http:\/\/www.infoplease.com\/cig\/grammar-style\/period-question-mark-exclamation-mark-end-line.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Punctuation rules from infoplease.com<\/a><\/blockquote>\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<p>Though a seemingly trivial punctuation mark, the period does present some knotty challenges, especially in technical writing. We all know to place a period to signal the termination of a simple sentence that makes a statement. However, here are a few more specialized rules:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Do not use a period in combination with other punctuation marks unnecessarily, especially when a quotation is involved. In such an instance, end the sentence naturally on whatever punctuation mark is logical (e.g., a question mark).<\/li>\n<li>Avoid using periods at the ends of abbreviated units of measure, except when the period might be confused with another word. (Therefore, so that it\u2019s not confused with the word \u201cin,\u201d use \u201cin.\u201d to abbreviate \u201cinches.\u201d)<\/li>\n<li>When using a period in conjunction with parentheses, the period comes after the parentheses are closed if the parenthetical comment itself is part of the larger sentence (as in the first bulleted sentence above, and this one). The period comes inside the parentheses only when the parentheses themselves contain a complete independent sentence. (See\u00a0the example in the second bulleted sentence above, as well as this sentence.)<\/li>\n<li>By convention, if an abbreviated word (such as \u201cetc.\u201d) ends a sentence, let a single period signal the sentence\u2019s end\u2014two periods in a row would be incorrect.<\/li>\n<li>In acronyms commonly understood or commonly used in your field (ASTM, EPA, US, GIS), do not use periods after the capital letters.<\/li>\n<li>Do use periods after abbreviations and acronyms that are forms of address, initials within proper names, earned degrees, and when expressing measures of time (Dr. Bauer; M.S. degree; Steven S. Wilson, Jr.; 5:00 p.m.; 10 B.C.).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>\n<h3>Self-Study<\/h3>\n<p>For everything you always wanted to know about the period, but neglected to ask, visit these sites:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a class=\"ext\" href=\"http:\/\/www.infoplease.com\/cig\/grammar-style\/period-question-mark-exclamation-mark-end-line.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Punctuation rules from infoplease.com<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-1796\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>The Period. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Joe Schall. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.e-education.psu.edu\/styleforstudents\/c2_p7.html\">https:\/\/www.e-education.psu.edu\/styleforstudents\/c2_p7.html<\/a>. <strong>Project<\/strong>: Style for Students Online. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":277,"menu_order":10,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"The Period\",\"author\":\"Joe Schall\",\"organization\":\"College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.e-education.psu.edu\/styleforstudents\/c2_p7.html\",\"project\":\"Style for Students Online\",\"license\":\"cc-by-nc-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-1796","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":1197,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-jeffersoncc-technicalwriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/1796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-jeffersoncc-technicalwriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-jeffersoncc-technicalwriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-jeffersoncc-technicalwriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/277"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-jeffersoncc-technicalwriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/1796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2110,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-jeffersoncc-technicalwriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/1796\/revisions\/2110"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-jeffersoncc-technicalwriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/1197"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-jeffersoncc-technicalwriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/1796\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-jeffersoncc-technicalwriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-jeffersoncc-technicalwriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=1796"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-jeffersoncc-technicalwriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=1796"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-jeffersoncc-technicalwriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=1796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}