Ensure that special markdown characters are properly escaped

Following the work [here](https://github.com/mattcone/markdown-guide/blob/master/_basic-syntax/escaping-characters.md), we need to ensure that we properly escape all special markdown characters in markdown.

### Characters You Can Escape

You can use a backslash to escape the following characters.

Character
Name




\
backslash


`
backtick (see also escaping backticks in code)


*
asterisk


_
underscore


{ }
curly braces


[ ]
brackets


< >
angle brackets


( )
parentheses


#
pound sign


+
plus sign


-
minus sign (hyphen)


.
dot


!
exclamation mark


|
pipe (see also escaping pipe in tables)