Punctuation Use punctuation marks consistently and correctly. Ampersand (&)Don't use an ampersand in body copy except where citing a UI element or other content that requires an ampersand. Instead, use the word and. Apostrophe (')Use apostrophes to form standard contractions and indicate possession. Asterisk (*)Don't use for footnotes or in documentation to indicate a required element or step. Backslash (\)When describing this character, label it as backslash (\) for clarity. Braces { }When describing these characters, label them as braces { } for clarity. Brackets [ ]When describing these characters, label them as brackets [ ] for clarity. Colon (:)Use a colon principally at the end of a fragment that introduces a list. Comma (,)Use a comma to separate elements in a sentence, such as items in a series, clauses or introductory phrases. Dash (—)Use an em dash sparingly to set off parenthetical material in a sentence — for example, to separate an example from the main clause. Add a space before and after the dash. Ellipsis (…)Use rarely, and only to indicate the intentional omission of words in a quotation. En Dash (–)Use an en dash to indicate a range of numbers when it is not practical to spell out the range in words. Exclamation Point (!)Use rarely, if ever. Focus on meeting customer need simply and directly. Hyphen (-) and Hyphenation RulesA hyphen is used to link parts of a compound word. This includes most dual heritages and all words in a compound modifier except "very" and adverbs that end in "ly". Minus Sign (−)Use in math notation instead of a hyphen or dash character. Period (.)Use to end declarative or imperative sentences and in some abbreviations. Question Mark (?)Use at the end of a direct question. Quotation Mark (")Use quotation marks for cited text and product names. Semicolon (;)Use sparingly to join two independent but closely related clauses that aren't joined by a conjunction. Often, making each clause its own sentence is preferable to keep sentence length short. Slash (/)When describing this character, label it as slash (/) for clarity.