Hyphen 鈥� Hyphenate compound adjectives only if required for clarity: 鈥渇astest-growing company鈥�; 鈥渉igh-level discussion.鈥� Don鈥檛 use hyphens with commonly understood terms, adverbs that end in ly and between figures and units of measure: 鈥済reatly exaggerated claims鈥�; 鈥�2 percent rule.鈥� Do not use a hyphen with a compound modifier after the noun: 鈥淭he driver was well paid.鈥�
Dash 鈥� Dashes set off a series within a phrase: 鈥淥f the many breakfast options 鈥� omelets, waffles, pastries 鈥� he only wanted coffee鈥�; indicate a break in thought: 鈥淔elipe鈥檚 is a popular eatery 鈥� in Harvard Square鈥�; or attribute a quotation to an author: 鈥溾�榊ou must do the thing you think you cannot do.鈥� 鈥� Eleanor Roosevelt.鈥� When using text editors that don鈥檛 support dashes, use two hyphens for each dash.
Comma 鈥� Use a comma to set off a person鈥檚 town of residence, age and other such information: 鈥淭om Menino, Boston, was a popular speaker鈥�; 鈥淛ean Dupont, 32, was released yesterday.鈥� See Oxford Comma entry for OCU鈥檚 preferred style.
Period 鈥� Use only one space after the end of a sentence. Period.
Colon 鈥� Capitalize the first word after a colon only if it鈥檚 followed by a complete sentence. Colons go outside quotes unless they鈥檙e part of the quoted material.
Apostrophe 鈥� An apostrophe indicates possession. Add an 鈥榮 to all single nouns and names, even if they already end in an s: 鈥淢y boss鈥檚 vacation begins tomorrow.鈥� For singular proper names ending in s, use only an apostrophe: 鈥淜ansas鈥� crisis.鈥� For plurals of a single letter, add an apostrophe and an s: 鈥淢ind your p鈥檚 and q鈥檚,鈥� 鈥渢he Oakland A鈥檚.鈥� Do not use apostrophes for decades or acronyms: the 1990s, CDs.
Quotation marks 鈥� Periods and commas go inside quote marks: 鈥溾�楻eginald, your hairstyle makes me nervous,鈥� she said.鈥� The position of dashes, semicolons, exclamation and question marks depends on what鈥檚 being questioned or exclaimed: 鈥淲as she right to say, 鈥榊our shoes are a joke鈥�?鈥�
Parentheses 鈥� AP style suggests avoiding parentheses when possible, and instead rewriting text or using dashes or commas to set off the information. If parentheses are required the rules are: If the parenthetical is a complete, independent sentence, place the period inside the parentheses; if not, the period goes outside.
