Minnesota Department of Transportation

511 Travel Info

Design System

Formatting and punctuation

Commas

Following AP style, we do not use the serial comma at MnDOT, which is the comma before the conjunction in a series. However, they can be used if not doing so would make the meaning of a sentence ambiguous or unclear.

Example:
Multimodal transport during the holidays can include planes, trains and automobiles.

Hyphens and dashes

Compound modifiers use a hyphen to separate words if words are used as an adjective before a noun.

Example:
the follow-up letter

An em dash is typically used to separate out phrases. Use a space on either side of an em dash. 

Example:
Jesse Ventura — a big believer in plain language — was the governor of Minnesota.

Apostrophes

Don’t use apostrophes in decades, except to show numerals left out.

Examples:

  • 1990s (not 1990’s)
  • ’80s (not 80s)

Spaces

Use one space between sentences and after a colon. Use one space before and after an em-dash. 

Lists (bulleted and numbered)  

Don't format bulleted text as a series with commas. Additionally, don't end list items with periods unless they are complete sentences, in which case every item in the list should be a complete sentence.

Don’t do this:
The pair traveled by:

  • Planes, 
  • Trains, and
  • Automobiles. 

Dates

When a phrase lists only a month and a year, do not separate the year with commas When a phrase refers to a month, day and year, set off the year with commas.

Example:
He said that May 18, 1997, will be the target date.

Months of the year should be spelled out in the body of the document, except for Jan., Feb., Aug, Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec., which should be abbreviated.

Time

In expressing clock time, leave off the zeros for even hours. 

Examples:

  • The workshop will begin at 8 a.m.
  • The workshop will be held from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Instead of using 12 a.m. and 12 p.m., use the terms midnight and noon.

Addresses

  • Abbreviate street titles and include a period when an address number is included (1425 Rainbow Ave., 725 Evergreen Terrace Blvd., 1060 W. Addison St.)
  • Spell out street titles when no address is included (“The building is on Fifth Avenue”).
  • Abbreviate cardinal directions and include a period (200 W. Fifth Ave.)
  • Spell out numbers below 10 when used as street names (W. Eighth St.); use numerals for numbers for 10 and above (W. 23rd St.)
  • Do not use superscript for ordinal numbers in addresses (108 10th St.)
  • Always use numerals for an address number (9 Vista Blvd.; 111 Saint Pl.)

Email addresses

Best practice is to hyperlink a person’s name with an email address. If the full text of the email address needs to appear in copy, it should be all lowercase.

Example:

URLs

Best practice is to hyperlink text instead of spelling out entire URLs. If full URL needs to appear in copy, it should not include the http:// or https:// prefixes, or www. For links on the MnDOT site, always use “mndot.gov/” to begin written URLs instead of “dot.state.mn.us/”

The MnDOT design system has more extensive guidance for links.

Telephone numbers

Area codes followed by a dash and the phone number. It is not necessary to include the “1” prefix before an area code (including 800 numbers).

Example:
651-296-6300