HP TextEngineer Technical Writing Guide manual Punctuation, Capitalization

Company Writer's Guide

1.3PUNCTUATION

Standard rules of English (as defined by Strunk and White1) for grammar and punctuation should be used.

Avoid long sentences; use semicolons (;) only in short sentences. Also, avoid using contractions because they often cause confusion.

Use the final comma in a series (e.g., apples, oranges, and pears).

Place periods after the following:

•Sentences

•Between heading digits (e.g., 1.1.1) and after lower-level step letters and numbers (e.g., a., 1.)

Place colons after statements that are followed by lists, such as lists of individual components.

•Bullets (•) should be used in a list instead of numbers or letters when numbering serves no purpose, or no reference to specific item(s) in the list will be made.

1.4CAPITALIZATION

The trend in most corporate and technical writing is to eliminate unnecessary capitalization. Use capitalization only as described below.

Capitalize the first letter of the following:

•Each main word in subsection headings

•First word in a sentence

•First word in each phrase used in a list

•Proper nouns, such as vendor or organization names

•Full titles of formal programs and documents

•Specific company product names

1Strunk, William, and E. B. White, “The Elements of Style.”

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