Words as Words. When a word or term is referred to as the word or term itself, it is set within quotation marks.
EXAMPLE:
The term “welded joint” is defined in the glossary.
Punctuation Within Quotation Marks. Commas and periods appear before a closing quotation mark, whereas semicolons appear after a closing quotation mark.
Footnotes. The superscript numerals used for footnote reference always follow punctuation marks except for the dash. See Sample.
Dashes. Compounds that include numerals or spelled-out numbers are to be hyphenated when they are used as adjectives.
EXAMPLES:
4-in. screws
first-grade teacher
10-story walk-up apartment
four-wheel drive
Use a hyphen (-) to
separate noninclusive numbers (e.g., telephone numbers)
clarify certain compound words (e.g., kilowatt-hour)
indicate paragraph, table, and figure designations (e.g., CF-480, Table CF-1)
Use an en dash (–) to
connect a continuing range of numbers (e.g., 12–24)
indicate the year in a book whose designator contains a hyphen (e.g., ASME CSD-1–2006).
indicate components (e.g., Ni–Cr–Fe)
Use an em dash (—), surrounded by thin spaces, to
indicate the second thought break in a title (e.g., Safety Controls for Fired Units: Gas Burners — Natural Draft)
NOTE: Previous style guides used the em dash for initial thought breaks in book, table, and figure titles as well as in glossaries, to separate the word being defined from its definition. That practice has been replaced by the use of a colon in all of the instances named above.
refer to other publishers’ titles, if so used (e.g., ISO 496, Measurement of Fluid Flow — Evaluation)
Use serial commas for lists of three or more items in a sentence (semicolons if even one of the items contains a comma within it).
Generally close words with prefixes (e.g., anti, bi, co, inter, mid, multi, non, over, post, pre, pro, re, semi, sub, super, trans, un, under), and do not hyphenate unless the prefix is standing alone (e.g., over- and underestimation can lead to...), causes a repetition of vowels (e.g., semi-isolated), is combined with a capitalized word or numerals (e.g., non-ASME, mid-1900s), or could be confusing when read (e.g., co-edition).
