Punctuation

Oxford comma

Always use the Oxford comma (also called the serial comma) in lists of three or more items. It prevents ambiguity and keeps lists clear.

Apostrophes

Possessives

Use an apostrophe + s for possessives, including for singular nouns ending in s:

• The project’s settings
• The organisation’s consultations
• James’s account (not James’ account)

For plurals already ending in s, add only the apostrophe:

• The stakeholders’ responses
• The projects’ closing dates

Contractions

Contractions are appropriate in Open Point’s warm, direct voice. Use them in UI copy and body text where they sound natural. Don’t avoid them out of excessive formality — “you’re” reads better than “you are” in most interface contexts.

Common apostrophe errors to avoid

• It’s vs its: “it’s” = “it is” or “it has”. “its” = belonging to it. “The project has its own settings.” / “It’s ready to publish.”
• Plurals never take an apostrophe: “10 responses”, not “10 response’s”. “Project admins”, not “Project admin’s”.
• Decade references: “the 1990s”, not “the 1990’s”.

Em dashes and en dashes

Em dash — breaks in thought

Use an em dash (—) for a break in thought or to introduce a clarification or aside. No spaces around the em dash in UI copy. Use sparingly — one per sentence maximum.

En dash – ranges

Use an en dash (–) for numerical ranges, date ranges, and spans. No spaces around the en dash in ranges.

Hyphen — compound modifiers only

Use a hyphen for compound adjectives before a noun: “plain-language guide”, “open-ended question”, “real-time data”. No hyphen when the compound comes after the noun: “the guide is written in plain language”, “the question is open ended”.

Ellipsis in UI contexts

The ellipsis (…) has two distinct uses in UI copy, and they should not be confused.

Truncation — text cut short

When long text is truncated visually (e.g. a long consultation name in a table cell), the ellipsis is added by CSS or the component, not written into the copy. Writers don’t manually add ”…” to truncated strings.

Loading states — content not yet available

For loading states, use a spinner or skeleton component — not an ellipsis in text. “Loading…” as static text is not accessible and doesn’t communicate progress. The loading-status component handles this.

The one valid use: menus with continuation

In some design patterns, a button or menu item that opens a dialog or continues to another view uses an ellipsis to indicate that more steps follow: “Export…” signals that clicking will open an export dialog. This is a long-established desktop convention — use it only where the product already follows this pattern consistently.

Exclamation marks

Avoid exclamation marks in professional contexts. Open Point is used by government agencies managing formal consultation processes — “Your report is ready!” reads as flippant in that context.

The one exception: Social Point community-facing copy, where genuine celebration of participation is appropriate. “Thanks for sharing your thoughts!” is fine on a post-submission screen in a public engagement campaign. In administrative UI, it is not.

• Open Point (stakeholder, admin interfaces): no exclamation marks
• Social Point (public-facing, community engagement): one per message, for genuine milestones only
• Never stack exclamation marks: “Great work!!!” is never appropriate in either product
• If you feel an exclamation mark is needed to make the message feel positive, rewrite the sentence — the warmth should come from the words, not the punctuation

Question marks in UI copy

Question marks are used naturally in conversational or confirmation contexts, but should be specific:

• Feedback prompts: “Was this helpful?” — direct and appropriate
• Confirmation dialog titles: avoid questions entirely — use the action verb instead (“Delete consultation”, not “Delete this consultation?”)
• Tooltip prompts and help links: “What’s a stakeholder group?” — fine
• Empty state prompts: “Ready to create your first consultation?” — conversational and appropriate in Social Point; use sparingly in Open Point

Punctuation in lists and bullet points

The rule depends on the length and grammatical structure of each item:

Short, parallel items (no terminal periods)

When each bullet is a short phrase (not a complete sentence), no terminal period is needed:

• Consultation name
• Opening date
• Closing date
• Assigned team

Full sentences or mixed-length items (use terminal periods)

When any item in the list is a complete sentence, all items should end with a period:

• Responses are anonymous. Participant names are never stored or shared.
• You can edit your submission until the consultation closes.
• Results will be published on this page once the consultation period ends.

Never mix the two

Don’t have some bullets with periods and some without. Choose one treatment and apply it consistently within each list.