Punctuation and formatting

Punctuation

Apostrophes

Use curly apostrophes (ex. don’t) instead of straight ones (ex. don't).

Commas

We use the serial comma, sometimes called the Oxford comma. This is the comma used before a conjunction in a sentence with a series of 3 or more items. Sometimes a person can misread a sentence without a serial comma.

Contractions

We use contractions on VA.gov to support our conversational, person-to-person voice and tone. Some situations might call for spelling out each word, like in certain legal content. But in general, we use contractions.

• Be careful not to mix up “its” and “it’s”
• Use “it’s” as a contraction of “it is,” never “it has”
• Don’t use non-standard contractions like “would’ve,” “could’ve,” or “should’ve”

Em dashes, en dashes, and hyphens

Em dash

Use the em dash to set off an important clause, like you would with a parenthetical or commas, when commas might be awkward. Try not to overuse them. We don’t add a space on either side of the em dash.

En dash

Avoid using en dashes since screen readers don’t consistently announce them.

Hyphens

This is the short, single dash. We use it in names and to connect words that modify a noun. Hyphens are also OK to indicate ranges when space is limited. However, in normal body copy, use “to,” “through,” etc. to indicate ranges (like 2021 to 2022). We don’t add a space on either side of the hyphen.

Exclamation points

Don’t use the exclamation point on VA.gov for any text elements (body copy, headers, subheaders, field labels, CTAs, etc.). It doesn’t align with our voice and tone, which is conversational, helpful, and straightforward. We don’t yell, and we’re not hyperbolic or casual.

Note: Some design components may use the exclamation point as an icon for visual accent—in alert components, for example—but don’t use it in the message copy itself.

Quotation marks

• Use curly quotation marks (ex. “quotation marks”) instead of straight ones (ex. "quotation marks").
• Periods and commas go inside the quotation marks, even if they’re not part of the quoted text. All other punctuation (em dashes, question marks, colons, parentheses) go outside the quotation marks unless they’re part of the quoted text.
• Use quotation marks when referencing free text that people submit in a form field (like search input).
• Don’t use quotation marks when referencing buttons, screens, or section headers in instructions. For these situations, use bold text.
  Note: If the text is already bold (like in some error messages), we can use quotation marks to reference buttons, screens, or section headers.

Hint text and error message punctuation

Hint text in form fields

• If the hint text has 1 or more full sentences, add a period at the end of each sentence
• If the hint text is a sentence fragment, don’t add a period

Error messages in form fields

• For error messages in individual form fields, don’t add a period at the end of the message unless it has 2 or more full sentences
• For error messages that use the Alert component, add a period at the end of each sentence

Formatting

Notes

• Place notes on their own line directly after the text the note applies to.
• Capitalize and bold “Note:”.
• If a note applies to only 1 item in a list, place the note directly after that specific list item (not after the full list). Use a soft return (shift + enter on PCs, shift + return on Macs) so the note appears on a separate line, aligned with the list indent, with no space between the lines. Don’t make the note its own bullet or sub-bullet.

Error messages in form fields

• Make error messages for form fields sentence case and bold
• Don’t place a period after the error message unless it has 2 or more sentences
• In most cases, start error messages with a verb, like “Enter” (for text fields) or “Select” (for radio buttons, checkboxes, and dropdown menus)
• If an error message references a specific checkbox, radio button, etc., use quotation marks