准确的标点符号和大写字母可以帮助Tutor准确理解report的意思。标点符号的某些方面，例如使用逗号，可以是一种个人风格，在引号中正确的标点符号是至关重要的。在前面的一些文章当中我们也给大家说了report写作中标点符号的使用方法，本文中小编就给大家说说这个老生常谈的问题，帮助大家在report写作中正确使用标点符号。
Capital letters
在现代英语中，很难准确地给出使用大写字母的规则，因为在现代英语中，使用它们的趋势更少。但是，在下列情况下，应该使用它们：
(a)句子中的第一个词：In the beginning…
(b)days和月份：Friday 21 July
(c)国籍的词：France and the French
(d)人名/地名：Dr Martin Lee from Sydney
(e)书的标题(只有主要单词)：Power and the State
(f)学科：She studied Biology and Mathematics
(g)组织的名字：Sheffield Hallam University
Apostrophe(’)
这是最令人困惑的英语标点符号之一。它们主要用于两种情况：
(a)显示收缩(contractions)：He’s the leading authority on Hegel.
(b)与所有格(possessives)：
The professor’s secretary(singular)
Students’marks(plural words ending in“s”)
Women’s rights(for irregular plurals)
Semicolons(;)
当一个逗号不足够，一个句号太过了的时候，分号用来显示两个连接的短语之间的联系：
Twenty people were interviewed for the first study;thirty-three for the second.
Nobody questioned the results;they were quite conclusive.
分号也被用来在一个复杂的结构中划分条目，就像在多个引用中一样：
(Maitland,2006;Rosenor,1997;New Scientist,2006b;University of Michigan,2000).
Colons(:)
(a)介绍explanations：The meeting was postponed:the Dean was ill.
(b)开始一个list：Three aspects were identified:financial,social and ethical.
(c)介绍quotation：As the Duchess of Windsor said:“You can never be too rich or too thin.”
Commas(,)
这些是最常见的标点符号之一，但也最难提供指导。逗号的使用在一定程度上是个人风格的问题。把逗号看作是给读者一个短暂的停顿，让他们有机会理解一大块text，这是很有用的。过度使用会减慢读者的速度。但同样地，缺少逗号也会让人confused。一些逗号用法的例子是：
(a)在介绍性词汇或短语之后：
However,more cases should be considered before reaching a conclusion.
(b)在例子或评论中：
Certain crops,for instance wheat,are susceptible to diseases.Nationalism,it is widely recognised,has a positive and negative side.
(c)连词：
Three hundred people were interviewed,but only half the responses could be used.
(d)在列表中：
Tomatoes,beans,cabbages and potatoes were all genetically modified in turn.
Quotation marks/inverted commas(“...”/‘...’)
(a)用单引号来强调一个词：
The word‘factory’was first used in the seventeenth century.
The Swedish‘third way’or the welfare state...
引用其他作家的名言：
Goodwin’s(1977)analysis of habit indicates that,in general,‘It will be more difficult to reverse a trend than to accentuate it.’
显示直接引语：
‘Can anyone find the answer?’asked the lecturer.
较长的引文通常是缩进的(也就是说有更大的范围)/或被设置成较小的类型。
(b)双引号用来显示引号内的引语(嵌套引语)：
As Kauffman remarked:‘his concept of“internal space”requires close analysis’.
注：美国英语使用双引号来显示标准报价。
(c)在参考文献中，引用标记用于文章和章节的名称，但是书籍或期刊标题通常使用斜体：
Russell,T.(1995)‘A future for coffee?’Journal of Applied Marketing 6:14–17.
Full stops(.)
这些都是用来显示句子的结尾的：
The first chapter provides a clear introduction to the topic.
当它们是单词的第一部分时，它们也被用于特定的缩写词：
govt./Jan./p.397
但是，不要使用缩写词，例如：
BBC/UN/VIP
Others
连字符(-)用于某些词，如复合名词和某些结构：
A well-researched,thought-provoking book.
Her three-year-old daughter is learning to read.
感叹号(!)和问号(?)：
‘Well!’he shouted,‘who would believe it?’
括号或圆括号()可以用来提供额外的细节，而不影响主要思想的流向：
Relatively few people(10–15 per cent)were literate in sixteenth-century Russia.