Decades Use an initial apostrophe when denoting a decade :
He was the vice-chancellor in the ’ 70s
This helps to distinguish from ‘ a man in his 70s ’, for example .
Plurals
Generally , do not use apostrophes to form a plural : I bought flowers and tomatoes .
I bought flower ’ s and tomato ’ s .
Acronyms and initialisms also do not take apostrophes in the plural form : There were two MPs and five GPs present .
There were two MP ’ s and five GP ’ s present .
There are some situations where you should use an apostrophe to form a plural , if it is needed for clarity : the A ’ s in the index , do ’ s and don ’ ts , so-and-so ’ s
Brackets
Use round brackets ( parentheses ) to insert a comment or technical detail into text : Most respondents ( 56 %) approved the measure .
It is acceptable , though undesirable , to have round brackets within round brackets in certain circumstances :
Under the legislation ( the Copyright Act 1968 ( Cth )), companies must ...
In quoted text , you can use square brackets for editorial clarifications or to fill a gap : The student said , “ The course [ history ] sounds really interesting .”
If you use an ellipsis ( three dots to indicate missing text ) there is no need to put it in square brackets : The Director said , “ The course will have an effect on ... the students .”
If it is necessary to insert slabs of explanatory material in square brackets to make sense of a quote , it is better to rewrite the quote in the third person , with quoted fragments appearing in quotation marks . See the ‘ Quotation marks ’ section below for more information .
Colons
We most often see colons after the introductory statement in a bullet list . In a sentence or heading , a colon show that examples or further information are about to come . Do not use a capital letter after the colon .
All the elements were on the page : logos , tables , copy and graphics .
There was only one thing on her mind : university .
Avoid using a colon where another word has already been used to introduce your examples ( such as ‘ including ’). In the below example , the verb ‘ were ’ is already introducing the list items , rendering the colon redundant :
Among those attending were the Dean of the college and the head of alumni .
Among those attending were : the Dean of the college and the head of alumni .
In a book title , a colon can introduce the subtitle . In this case , you should use a capital letter after the colon :
The definitive business plan : A fast-track for executives and entrepreneurs
Capitalise the first word after a colon that introduces a quotation : He said : “ What are you doing ?”
You can use a colon for ratios : 2:1
For times of the day , use a full stop not a colon : 2.30pm
2:30pm
The Director said , “ The course will have an effect on [...] the students .”
Writing Style Guide | Punctuation 38 | Back to contents