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brackets appears in the middle of a sentence, leave
one space before the opening bracket and one space
after the closing bracket. Example: Q. What did you
see? A. About this far [gesturing] from the hammer,
on the upper side of. . .
Place the period and the comma inside the closing
quotation marks (”) except in congressional and
certain other classes of work showing amendments,
and in court work with quoted language. Punctuation
marks are printed after the quotation marks when not
a part of the quoted matter, Examples: Insert the
words “growth”, “production”, and “manufacture”.
This court finds you Guilty, except the word “steal”,
substituting therefor . . .
Place the semicolon (;) and the colon (:) outside
the closing quotation marks. The question mark and
the exclamation mark must be placed outside the
closing quotation marks if the marks punctuate the
entire sentence.
Place them inside the closing
quotation marks if they punctuate the quoted material
only. Examples: As I was saying, “Seeing is
believing.” Did you see the sign, “Off Limits”? He
asked me, “What is the punishment for shooting a
man with a pistol’?” All he said was, “What an awful
mess!”
Use the single quotation mark (’) when a
quotation is enclosed within a quotation. Example:
He answered, “I am not willing positively to say,
‘Seaman Jones is the guilty one.”
The rules on end spacing are as follows: Two
spaces must follow all end punctuation marks, and
two spaces must follow the colon.
When writing whole numbers, the numbers one
through nine must be spelled out except when used in
conjunction with other numbers in a series (example,
1, 2, 12, 25, and 50); as a measurement (example,
1 inch); time (example, 3 p.m.); decimals (example,
1.25); age (example, 6 years old); or as a percentage
(example, 2%).
At the beginning of a sentence, numbers must
be spelled out (example, Five years ago), except in
questions and answers (Q. and A.) when time,
money, percentage, serial numbers, and so on, are
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concerned. In such cases use the numerals. Show
dates as they are spoken in court (example, 1 June
1993 or 1st of June 1993). Always use numerals
where monetary values are concerned and the
money is a specific amount.
If the amount is
referred to in a general way, use words instead of
figures. Examples: Q. How much money was in
the bag? A. About a million dollars. Q. Exactly
how much? A. $1,055,000.00.
When writing fractions and whole numbers,
transcribe the fraction by separating the figures with a
slant (/); examples: 1/4, 1/2, 1/3, 5/8, 7/8, and 3 3/4.
Do not use the fractions that appear on the keyboard.
The reason for this is your fractions will be typed
consistently throughout the record, since most
keyboards have only the 1/4 and 1/2 fractions. An
exception to this rule would be when the military
judge or president of the court gives instructions,
closes to vote on the findings and sentence, and states
“three-fourths (or two-thirds) of the members present
at the time the vote was taken concurring . . .” Type
these fractions using words.
IDENTIFICATION OF SPEAKERS
Identify the side or person conducting an
examination by using one of the following standard
stock entries (SSEs):
Questions by the prosection:
Questions by the defense:
Questions by the military judge:
Questions by the president:
Questions by a court member (LT DOE):
Identify individual questions posed by the
questioner by a Q. Identify answers by the witness in
response to questions posed by a questioner having
control of the stage of examination by an A. Identify
answers by the witness in response to questions asked
by anyone else by WITNESS.
Use these prefixes to identify speakers:
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