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Parentheses are used around numbers showing dates (usually dates of birth and/or death), inserted figures, or numbers or letters in an itemized series (such as a series of steps). Date: Joshua Chamberlain (1829-1914) received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his role at Gettysburg. Inserted figures: The Senate vote was very close (50-48). Numbers in
There are half a dozen special uses for the colon. 1. Numerical expressions of time. Example: 5:31 p.m. The colon goes between the hour and minute. If seconds are noted, a colon goes between the minute and second. Example: He ran the marathon in 2:14:33.2. (Two hours, fourteen minutes, and thirty-three point two seconds.) Example:
When a parenthetical phrase or sentence interrupts the middle of a sentence, do not capitalize the first letter inside the parentheses unless, of course, the word is a proper noun or proper adjective. Example: We saw Roseate Spoonbills (they have an exquisite pink color) on our trip to Texas. The first letter in a parenthetical
When a person or work is quoted directly and word for word, the quotation is placed in quotation marks. An indirect quotation in which the substance but not exact wording is used does not take quotations marks. Correct: Macbeth said, “All our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death.” (A direct quotation) Incorrect:
Use a hyphen between the tens and units number when writing out the numbers twenty-one to ninety-nine in words. Just like that! Do not use hyphens for other numbers. Incorrect: Two-hundred-fifty-six Correct: Two hundred fifty-six (Hyphen between tens and units only) Use a hyphen between the numerator and denominator when a fraction is written out
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