Ellipses

Ellipses should be used to show that there is some text is missing, for example from a quotation. Ellipses should be surrounded by single spaces. Sentences should not usually finish with an ellipsis.

For example:

• Dr Paolo Taticchi said: “Imperial College Business School champions the use of innovation and entrepreneurship to address the major challenges facing society … All the students came up with proposals that demonstrate key business skills together with an awareness of the issues facing deprived communities around the world.”

Brackets

Round brackets

Use round brackets to denote a phrase which adds extra information, a translation, dates, an explanation or definition. Include full stops, exclamation marks, question marks or quotation marks before the closing bracket only if the complete sentence or quote is in brackets; otherwise, punctuate after the closing bracket.

For example:

• The show features nearly 50 different devices developed by students on the Innovation Design Engineering (IDE) and Global Innovation Design (GID) courses.
• Each fellowship will provide up to US$119,000 in support, with an additional supplemental family allowance (approximately $55,000 for partner and two children up to age 18).
• Taste Imperial is highly committed to sustainable catering. We are proud to support a variety of sustainability pledges and activities. (Please see our sustainable food policy for more information.)

Square brackets

Use square brackets to enclose comments, corrections, references or translations made by a subsequent author or editor.

For example:

“If we used all of the 200 million tons [of agricultural waste] available in surplus annually in India, we could meet 17 per cent of the country’s energy needs.”

Exclamation marks

Exclamation marks should generally only be used in quotes when writing on behalf of the College. Do not use an exclamation mark coupled with another punctuation mark such as use !! or !?

For example:

Noel Corrigan (Physics 1978) was celebrating his 40th milestone anniversary and enjoyed being back on campus, saying that Imperial had changed in some ways but still the same in others. He has used his physics degree for operational research and admits to “still doing the odd calculation!”