Copy Editing and Proofreading Symbols Symbol Meaning Example

Meaning
Symbol
Example
Abbreviate
The part was twelve feet long.
Align
|| or =
Personnel
Facilities
Equipment
Apostrophe or single 
quote
The companys policies were rewritten.
Capitalize
A representative of nasa was present.
Capitalize first letter and 
lowercase remainder
GARRETT PRODUCTS are great.
Center
Table 4-1
Close up
The tolerances are with in the range.
Colon
There were three items nuts, bolts, and screws.
Symbol
Meaning
Example
sp
sp
:
,
:
,
,
ital
bf
wf
sm cap
ital
bf
wf
sm cap
‘
:
‘
:

---

Comma
Apply pressure to the first second and third bolts.
Delete
Remove the end fitting.
Delete and close up
Deltete and close up the gap.
Em dash
It was the beginning so I thought.
En dash
The value is 120 408.
Flush left
Move left.
Flush right
Move right.
Hyphen
-|
A valuable byproduct was created.
Insert
The box is inserted correctly.
Let Stand
stet
Remove the battery cables.
Lower
16
2
Lower case
/ or lc
The Engineer and manager agreed.
Move left
Remove the faulty part.
Move right
Remove the faulty part.
Move to a new position
All members attended who were new.
New paragraph
¶
The box is full. The meeting will be on Thursday.
Period
Rewrite the procedure Then complete the tasks.
Raise
16
2
Remove paragraph 
break
no ¶
The meeting will be on Thursday.
All members must attend.
Run in with previous line
He rewrote the pages
and went home.
Semicolon
He left however, he returned later.
Set in bold
This is the only time we can offer this price.
Set in italics
The book was titled Technical Writing Styles.
Set in small caps
Set the MFG REGISTER to zero.
Space
#
Theprocedure is incorrect.
Spell out
The info was incorrect.
Subscript
162