42 PRS Proofreading and Editing Service PhD Experts • All Academic Areas • Fast Turnaround • High Quality you’re submitting your paper to recommends using a particular style, familiarise yourself with the punctuation rules laid out in the corresponding manual. When it comes down to the nitty-gritty of punctuating your paper, however, you’ll need to decide which patterns will work best to communicate your research and argument. Once you’ve chosen the patterns you’ll use – a comma or not before that ‘and’ in lists, for instance – be consistent in all similar constructions. Only if you need to change your usual practice to increase the clarity of a sentence (or decrease the risk of misinterpretation) should you vary the pattern (by using a comma before that ‘and’ in lists when absolutely necessary, for instance, even though as a general rule you do not). While you’re refining your punctuation practices, it might be helpful to keep a few basics in mind: • Remember that a dependent clause opening a sentence (and in other positions as well) should usually be followed by a comma (e.g., ‘According to Smith, these results…’), although shorter clauses can function well without one (e.g., ‘In 2003 the numbers increased…’). • Full stops are always used at the end of a sentence, and they should be placed inside (to the left of) footnotes, outside (to the right of) parenthetical citations, and either inside or outside Vancouver-style numerical references, depending on journal guidelines. • The function of a colon (:) is entirely different from that of a semi- colon (;) and the two are frequently confused: a colon heralds an example or several examples (often in the form of a list or quotation) or an explanation of what has just been stated (just as the colon in this sentence does); a semi-colon, on the other hand, is (as it is in this sentence) rather like a large comma, separating PARt II: PRePARIng, PResentIng And PolIsHIng YoUR woRk