GraIllIllar, Punctuation, and Capitalization - NASA

1 NASA SP-7084 GraIllIllar, punctuation , and Capitalization A Handbook for Technical Writers and Editors 2020-07-31T18:30:20+00:00 ZNASA SP-7084 grammar , punctuation , and Capitalization A Handbook for Technical Writers and Editors NJ\S/\ Mary K. McCaskill Langley Research Center Hampton, Virginia National Aeronautics and Space Administration Office of Management Scientific and Technical Information Division Washington, DC 1990 Preface The four chapters making up this reference publication were originally written as part of an ongoing effort to write a style manual for the Technical Editing Branch of the NASA Langley Research Center. These chapters were written for technical publishing professionals (primarily technical editors) at Langley.

2 At the urging of my branch head, I am making this part of the style manual available to the technical publishing cQmmunity. This publication is directed toward professional writers, editors, and proofreaders. Those whose profession lies in other areas--(for example, research or management), but who have occasion to write or review others' writing will also find this information useful. By carefully studying the examples and revisions to these examples, you can discern most of the techniques in my editing "bag of tricks"; I hope that you editors will find these of particular _ interest. Being a technical editor, I drew nearly all the examples from the doc-uments written by Langley's research staff.

3 I admit that these examples are highly technical and therefore harder to understand, but technical edi-tors and other technical publishing professionals must understand grammar , punctuation , and Capitalization in the context in which they work. In writing these chapters, I came to a realization that has slowly been dawning on me during my 15 years as a technical editor: authorities differ on many rules of grammar , punctuation , and Capitalization ; these rules are constantly changing (as is our whole language); and these rules (when they can be definitely ascertained) sometimes should be broken! Thus much of writing and editing is a matter of style, or preference. Some of the information in this publication, particularly the chapter on Capitalization , is a matter of style.

4 Langley's editorial preferences are being presented when you see the words we prefer, "we" being Langley's editorial staff. I do not intend to imply that Langley's style is preferred over any other; however, if you do not have a preferred style, Langley's editorial tradition is a long and respected one. I wish to acknowledge that editorial tradition and the people who established it and trained me in it. I am also grateful to Alberta L. Cox, NASA Ames Research Center, and to Mary Fran Buehler, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, for reviewing this document. iii 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Contents Preface .. 111 1. (jrananaar .. grammar and Effective Writing Nouns.)

5 Possessive Case .. Possessive of Inanimate Objects Pronouns Antecedents Personal Pronouns Relative Pronouns . Demonstrative Pronouns Verbs .. Tense Mood Voice Verb Number Adjectives .. Articles Unit Modifiers Adverbs .. Misplaced Adverbs Squinting Adverbs . Split Infinitives 1. 7. Prepositions .. 1. Prepositional Idioms Terminal Prepositions 1. Repeating Prepositions . Conjunctions .. Coordinating Conjunctions Subordinating Conjunctions Verbals Coordinate Gerunds and infinitives Idiom Requiring Gerund or Infinitive Dangling Verbals .. v 1 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 5 7 8 8 10 10 11 12 13 14 16 16 17 17 17 18 18 18 19 19 20 22 22 22 23 2.

6 Sentence Structure Sentence Structure and Effective Writing Subjects and Verbs .. Clarify Subject .. Make Verbs Vigorous Improve Subject-Verb Relationship Parallelism.. Connectives Requiring Parallelism Itemization .. Brevity and Conciseness Wordiness Shortening Text . Shortening Titles Comparisons .. Comparison of Adjectives and Adverbs. Ambiguous Comparisons . Comparison Constructions Emphasis Emphasizing With Sentence Structure Emphasizing With punctuation .. 3. punctuation .. A Functional Concept of punctuation Apostrophe Brackets Colon . Colons That Introduce Conventional Uses of the Colon Use With Other Marks. Comma.

7 Commas That Separate Commas That Enclose . Conventional Uses of the Comma Use With Other Marks.. VI 27 27 27 27 29 31 33 33 34 35 35 37 37 39 39 40 41 43 43 45 47 47 47 48 48 48 51 51 51 51 56 59 60 Em Dash Dashes That Enclose Dashes That Separate Conventional Uses of the Dash Use With Other Marks . En Dash. Hyphen . Word :Pivision Prefixes .. Suffixes Compound Words Italics .. Italics for Emphasis Italics for Special Terminology Italics for Differentiation .. Italics for Symbology .. Conventional Uses for Italics . Italics With Typefaces Other Than Roman Italics With punctuation Parentheses Period .. Abbreviations Conventional Uses of the Period Use With Other Marks Points of Ellipsis.

8 Question Mark Quotation Marks Quoted Material Words Requiring Differentiation Use With Other Marks Semicolon.. Coordinate Clauses Series .. Explanatory Phrases and Clauses. Elliptical Constructions' Use With Other Marks Slash .. vii 60 61 62 63 63 63 64 64 64 65 65 67 67 68 68 69 69 70 70 70 71 72 72 73 73 74 75 75 76 77 77 77 78 79 79 79 80 4. Capitalization . Introduction Sentence Style Capitalization Sentences Quotations Questions Lists.. Stylistic Uses for Sentence Style Capitalization Headline Style Capitalization Acronyms and Abbreviations Capitalization With Acronyms Capitalization of Abbreviations Proper Nouns and Adjectives.

9 Personal Names and Titles Geographic Names Administrative Names .. Names of Public Places and Institutions Calendar and Time Designations Scientific Names Titles of Works .. Miscellaneous Names References Glossary Index .. Vlll 81 81 81 82 82 83 83 84 84 85 86 86 86 88 89 90 91 91 92 93 94 95 97 101 Chapter 1. grammar grammar and Effective Writing Nouns All writing begins with ideas that relate to one another. An author chooses words that express the ideas and chooses an arrangement of the words (syntax) that expresses the relationships between the ideas. Given this arrangement of words into phrases, clauses, and sentences, the author obeys grammar and punctuation rules to form a series of sentences that will impart the ideas.

10 English rules of grammar originated in antiquity, but over centuries have evolved according to usage and are still changing today. Thus, gram-mar rules may change and may be inconsistent, but usually have a func-tional basis. This functional attitude toward grammar , and punctuation , is described in Effective Revenue Writing 2 (Linton 1962). A rule of grammar or punctuation with a functional basis will not prevent effective statement of ideas, nor will following all the rules ensure effective writing. Effective writing requires good syntax, that is, an effective arrangement of sentence elements. Obviously, an editor is responsible for ensuring that a consistent and correct set of grammar and punctuation rules have been applied to a report (a process often called copy editing).