Punctuation and Parens

Margie Wakeman WellsGeneral 11 Comments

When you are using parens for the insertion of a blurb — e.g., (indicating) — the rule is as follows: When the information inside the parens is the entire thought, it is capped, and the punctuation goes inside; when the information inside the parens is part of a larger thought, it is lowercase, and the punctuation goes outside. …Q     Where …

“Social Security” or Without the Caps

Margie Wakeman WellsUncategorized 2 Comments

Except for “Social Security Administration,” there is no need to cap “social security.” It is not necessarily wrong to do so. It is just not necessary. …received social security… …social security check… …raise in social security… Happy punctuating! Margie

“Everyday” or “Every Day”?

Margie Wakeman WellsGeneral Leave a Comment

As one word, everyday comes in front of a noun and means “ordinary,” “routine,” “habitual,” or “commonplace.” Otherwise, it is every day. …It is an everyday job. …She had those everyday tasks that drove her crazy. …I was there every day last week. …Will you do that every day? Happy punctuating! Margie

A Dash or a Hyphen?

Margie Wakeman WellsGeneral 3 Comments

Just a quick note to get some terminology cleared up: The dash in formal English is a long mark, called the “em” dash, that is flush against the word on either side. In court reporting, back in the “carbon paper days,” we had only a typewriter, and it did not have the em dash, the long mark. So we decided …

Two Spaces or One?

Margie Wakeman WellsGeneral Leave a Comment

There is one space after a period and a colon when you are using a variable font; there are two spaces after a period and colon when you are using a monofont. In reporting, we generally use a monofont.The two spaces before the ZIP is an affectation and was never part of the formal language. The ZIP has one space …

If You Do Not Have the Document…

Margie Wakeman WellsGeneral 4 Comments

If someone is reading from a document and you do NOT have that document to look at when you are preparing your transcript, you are not going to insert any quotes. There are a couple of ways to handle this. If the material is lengthy, it should be blocked according to the format used in your area. The words [Reading] …

The Comma of Omission

Margie Wakeman WellsThe Comma Leave a Comment

There is a rule for commas called the “comma of omission.” There are two parts to the rule.1. When two sentences are parallel and have no conjunction between them, they are joined by a semicolon. When the verb is left out of the second one, use a comma to show the verb is missing.…John earned $4,000; June earned $6,000.…John earned …