Many of these 12 common punctuation mistakes don’t matter much in informal writing, and very few people apart from your proofreader will care about them. But just be aware of these common errors when you’re writing a formal business letter, investor report, or any other document that must be error free.
No comma between “hello” and name
Perhaps the most common mistake in letter writing—and the most innocuous—is the missing comma after hi or hello and before the name of the person.
Most people omit the comma after the greeting, even in formal emails. But there should be a comma before the person’s name in a salutation.
Incorrect: Hi Michelle,
Correct: Hi, Michelle,
Incorrect: Hello Dr. Subashi,
Correct: Hello, Dr. Subashi,
Incorrect: Greetings Team,
Correct: Greetings, Team,
If, however, you’re starting the letter or email with “Dear”, there’s no need for a comma before the person’s name.
Correct (no comma after dear): Dear Dr. Subashi,
Correct and more formal: Dear Dr. Subashi:
Question mark after a request masked as a question
In general, a request that looks like a question is a demand. As such, it doesn’t require a question mark at the end, as the Chicago Manual of Style (section 6.69, 17th edition) explains: “Such questions can usually be reduced to the imperative.”
Incorrect: Can you please send me the document?
Correct: Can you please send me the document. (Meaning: Please send me the document.)
Similarly, the following are all requests disguised as questions. So, they shouldn’t end with a question mark, no matter what your automatic grammar checker may suggest.
Other examples:
Could you call me this afternoon. (Meaning: Call me this afternoon.)
Can you send me the final draft by tomorrow. (Meaning: Send me the final draft by tomorrow.)
Again, this is an innocuous mistake that will offend no one but a punctuation stickler.
Some even say a request in the form of a question should always end with a question mark. But look at this example and note the difference between a sentence ending with a question mark and the same sentence ending with a period:
Question: Could you call me this afternoon?
Answer: Yes, I could. (But I won’t.)
Request: Could you call me this afternoon.
Answer: Yes. (I will call you.)
Commas with a restrictive appositive
Look at the following sentence:
Incorrect: Our employee, Xavier, will send you the communication plan his colleagues prepared.
Correct: Our employee Xavier will send you the communication plan his colleagues prepared.
Here, the noun Xavier is a restrictive appositive that modifies the noun employee.
An appositive is a word or phrase that offers additional information about the noun or pronoun it modifies. An appositive can be restrictive (essential) or nonrestrictive (non-essential) to the meaning of the sentence. A restrictive appositive shouldn’t be set off with commas. Unlike a restrictive appositive, a nonrestrictive appositive may be omitted without changing the meaning of the sentence.
How do you know if an appositive is essential or not? There’s an easy test: Remove the appositive and see if the sentence keeps its meaning.
Without the appositive: Our employee will send you the communication plan his colleagues prepared.
This sentence doesn’t have the same meaning as the original one. “Our employee” can be Xavier or any other employee. This means Xavier is essential information here, as it identifies the employee. As such, the word Xavier should not be separated by commas from the rest of the sentence.
If you had only one employee (Xavier), it would be correct to write the sentence as follows:
Our employee, Xavier, will send you the communication plan.
Remove Xavier from the sentence and it doesn’t change its meaning:
Our employee will send you the communication plan.
In this scenario, Xavier is extra information, not necessary to identify the employee you are talking about, because you have only one employee. As Xavier is a nonrestrictive appositive, it can be set off with commas.
Ampersand instead of “and”
Writing & instead of and is common in business writing. In very informal communications, using the ampersand as shorthand for and is acceptable. However, in formal business documents (letters to customers, reports, and so on), you shouldn’t use the ampersand (&) instead of and.
The ampersand has its purpose—it’s used in names of companies, abbreviations (such as R&D), some citation styles (for example, APA)—but it’s not a replacement for and in text.
So, except in very informal business documents, when you mean and, type and, don’t hit the ampersand key or you’ll make your writing look careless.
Colon after “include”
In formal writing, when you use a colon to introduce a series, the information before the colon should be a complete sentence.
Incorrect: Our services include: editing, proofreading, and formatting.
Correct: Our services include editing, proofreading, and formatting.
Another way to correct the example above is to add the following after include and then add a colon.
Correct: Our services include the following: editing, proofreading, and formatting.
Dash instead of “to” in “to…from” constructions
The two parts of the pair from…to need to stay together. If you use from, use to as well, not a dash or hyphen.
Incorrect: Please read from page 9–29.
Correct: Please read from page 9 to 29.
Correct: Please read pages 9–29.
Apostrophe in the plural of abbreviations
To form the plural of abbreviations (for example, CEO, CFO, CIO, COO, and CTO), it’s a mistake to use an apostrophe followed by letter s.
CEO’s does not mean more than one CEO; it’s the possessive form of CEO. The plural of most abbreviations, including CEO, is formed by adding s: CEOs, CFOs, etc. The apostrophe is needed to show possession.
Hyphen instead of en dash for number ranges
The hyphen (-) and the en dash (–) serve different purposes.
When used with numbers, the hyphen separates telephone numbers (555-123), ISBNs (978-0-226-28705-8), and dates (30-12-2018), but it does not mean up to and including. Use an en dash in number ranges.
Incorrect: 2007-2018
Correct: 2007–2018 (from 2007 up to and including 2018)
To type an en dash, use Alt + 0150 (Windows) or Option + hyphen (Mac).
No apostrophe in “years experience”
You need the apostrophe after years in years experience to mean of (years of experience).
Incorrect: I have more than 10 years experience in project management.
Correct: I have more than 10 years’ experience in project management.
Similarly, it’s a month’s delay, not a month delay, two weeks’ notice, not two weeks notice, a day’s worth of work, not a days worth of work.
Using quotation marks to draw attention to a term
It’s correct to sparingly use quotation marks to alert the reader that you’re using the term in a nonstandard or ironic sense. These are called scare quotes.
But using quotation marks to draw attention to a term is a mistake, and overusing scare quotes in business writing is an eyesore.
Correct: Their formatting guidelines are “mandatory”, but they said we can use whatever format we want.
Incorrect: Their formatting “guidelines” are “mandatory”, but they said we can use “whatever format we want”.
Semicolon instead of colon before a list
When you need a punctuation mark to introduce a list, do not ask the semicolon to do the work of the colon.
Incorrect: Send all of the following with your application; your resume, your cover letter, and a photo of your dog.
Correct: Send all of the following with your application: your resume, your cover letter, and a photo of your dog.
Sometimes you may put either a colon or a semicolon between two closely related sentences, but not the other way around.
More than one space between sentences
Unless your publisher’s guidelines say you should use two spaces between sentences, or you’re doing some experiment, type a single space between sentences. Period.
Your spell-checker should highlight the extra spaces between sentences. If it doesn’t, modify its default settings.
The importance of punctuation in business writing
Knowing how to avoid punctuation mistakes in business writing will help you write flawless formal documents in English. Apart from these 12 common mistakes, there are many others that can hide in a text—typos, biased language, dangling modifiers, and more. Your grammar checker can’t catch them all, so don’t skip (human) proofreading.
Do you need an English proofreader for your business documents? Send me a message at editor@languageediting.com.
Related posts:
- The small-business owner’s proofreading checklist
- Common preposition errors and non-errors: Examples and explanations
- The small-business owner’s proofreading checklist
Last revised on 15 July 2022
