The writing style guide assists staff preparing University publications to ensure consistency and clarity.
Do not use ppl, lol or any other internet abbreviations.
Spell out million, do not use M or m.
Spell out billion, do not use BN or bn.
Begins with a capital A.
Acronyms (eg RSPAS, ACERH, ANU) should be spelled out with the acronym in parentheses in the first instance and all caps thereafter. First reference: “He is with the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (RSPAS)”. Second reference: “At RSPAS he does x”. Also applies to states e.g. Australian Capital Territory (ACT), New South Wales (NSW) etc.
Use an active voice, not passive.
In passive voice, the target of the action gets promoted to the subject position. Instead of saying, “Steve loves Amy,” you should say, “Amy is loved by Steve.” The subject of the sentence becomes Amy, but she isn’t doing anything. Rather, she is just the recipient of Steve’s love. The focus of the sentence has changed from Steve to Amy.
As used in ‘Adviser to staff’ – not advisor, but advisory.
She is eight years old vs an eight-year-old child.
A group of female only graduates.
A group of graduates, male and female.
Ampersands are used in headings and table formats otherwise use ‘and’.
The official title is The Australian National University and this should be used in the first instance (followed by the acronym in parentheses); thereafter use ANU. When used as an adjective it should be preceded by ‘the’ (e.g. the ANU logo) but in all other cases ‘the’ is omitted.
In accordance with the Use of University Name and Insignia Policy, all ANU academic college names must be preceded by ANU in all external and internal written material. E.g. ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, ANU College of Law etc.
ANU’s should never be used. Reword the sentence or write University’s instead.
‘About’ is preferred to ‘around’.
Asia Pacific, with no hyphen, is the preferred form when used as a noun, while Asia-Pacific with a hyphen is preferred when it is used as an adjective.
E.g. the students are studying the Asia-Pacific region; that island is part of the Asia Pacific.
Use only within email addresses and Twitter handles or within scientific measurements.
Do not use in titles, headings or regular text as an abbreviation for the word ‘at’.
One word. No hyphen, no space.
Always use Australian spelling, unless the word is part of a publication or organisation name.
Use ‘re’ in ‘centre’, etc (not ‘er’), ‘s’ over ‘z’ (organisation), program (not ‘programme’) unless it is the name of a particular institution.
Also see postnominals, Bachelor and Master.
When combined with a descriptor such as ‘award’, ‘degree’, ‘level’, ‘program’ etc. it should be ‘Bachelor’. E.g. Bachelor level, Bachelor program. When standalone, it should be ‘Bachelors’. Bachelor or Bachelors should be capitalised in any instance.
Do not us BN or bn to signify billion. Always spell out e.g. $1 billion. In headings, abbreviated forms of large numbers are acceptable.
Where the list is part of sentence (preceded by a colon), begin each point in lower case with no commas or semi-colons, putting a full-stop at the end of the last bullet point.
If the list is not part of a sentence, begin each point in upper case and use full stops at the end of each complete sentence.
Only number points when you will be referring back to them or if the order of the points is important.
No z (also organise, recognise etc).
E.g. Manning Clark Lecture Theatre.
Note one ‘l’, no ‘e’ry.
In accordance with the Use of University Name and Insignia Policy , all ANU academic college names must be preceded by ANU in all external and internal written material. E.g. ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, ANU College of Law etc.
With an ‘e’ at the end not an ‘o’.
One word. No hyphen, no space. Also: coordinator and coordinating.
Two words, no hyphen. Unless using as an adjective.
E.g. He works at the cutting edge of science vs cutting-edge research.
In writing there are two types of dashes. A hyphen is NOT a dash. A hyphen is used to join words only. See also hyphens.
The first type is an en dash (which is twice the length of a hyphen) and the second is an em dash which is twice as long as an en dash. In modern writing the two can be used interchangeably.
A single dash can be used to introduce an explanation or expansion of what comes before it e.g. But when the firestorm of January 2003 ravaged the nation’s capital, much of the two-storey brick home was destroyed – seemingly beyond repair.
A pair of dashes can be used to indicate asides and parentheses, forming a more distinct break than commas would e.g. Helen has only seen her father once in her adult life and – and until her flight from Sydney – had never met her brother.
Lower case, no capital ‘d’.
Also see master and bachelor.
Not drivers or driver. ‘Licence’ not ‘license’.
Not inquiry, unless it is an official investigation into something.
Note the number of ls.
In formal documents, referred to as Professor the Hon Gareth Evans AC, QC, Chancellor. When using postnominals: Professor the Hon Gareth Evans AC, QC, BA LLB(Hons) Melb, MA Oxf, Hon LLD Melb, Syd, Carleton, Queen’s Ont, FASSA.
An exclamation point (which should be used sparingly to be effective) marks an outcry or an emphatic or ironic comment. If in doubt, don’t use it. And don’t ever use it more than once in a single communication.
When used as an adjective to describe a noun use hyphen.
In other situations no hyphens.
E.g. to come face to face with.
Lowercase except Federal Government, Federal Parliament.
Also see Government and Ministers.
Not hyphenated, except when used as an adjective.
E.g. he went to his first class, where a first-class professor was presenting.
Each first letter should be capitalised.
The word government should be capitalised as part of a formal title or abbreviated specific title, but lower case is generally appropriate elsewhere. E.g. The Australian Government is responsible for… and The government proposes to….
Also see Federal and Ministers.
Spell out in full in the first instance then acronym thereafter.
Avoid gender-specific references where possible i.e. ‘chair’, not ‘chairman/woman/person’.
Alumnus is a male graduate. Alumna is a female graduate. Alumnae is a group of female only graduates. Alumni is a group of graduates, male and female.
Do not use 0.5 year when describing half a year or six months. Use one half-year with a hyphen.
Higher Degree Research should be capitalised.
Always spell out Professor, Associate Professor, but not Doctor.
No apostrophe, no capitals when referring to “he has an honours degree”. When listing a person’s qualifications, BA(Hons).
Using a hyphen depends on the context of the sentence.
If you are using adjectives that belong together for their meaning before a noun you usually need a hyphen e.g. a first-year student vs a student in their first year. A world-class university vs our university is world class.
Tip 1: If you don’t know if you should hyphenate read each adjective with the noun separately and see if the meaning still stands. E.g. A first-year student is NOT a first student or a year student they are a first-year student.
Tip 2: If the adjectives come after the noun or at the end of the sentence you probably don’t need to hyphenate.
No full stops, no spaces e.g. AD Hope, HC Coombs, etc.
Always capitalised when it refers to the original inhabitants of Australia (e.g. “Indigenous Australians” and “Indigenous communities”).
Lower case when used to refer to the original inhabitants of other countries.
See page 57 of the Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers for more detailed terminology recommended by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.
Official investigation only (see enquiry).
Always use the Australian form ‘-ise’.
E.g. maximise, capitalise, etc. Never use ‘-ize’.
Never use jail unless part of a publication title. Always use gaol.
Do not use the word ‘like’ for comparing things, instead use ‘such as’ or ‘including’ (if it belongs to a group).
When combined with a descriptor such as ‘award’, ‘degree’, ‘level’, ‘program’ etc. it should be ‘Master’. E.g. Master degree, Master award, Master program. When standalone, it should be ‘Masters’. Master or Masters should be capitalised in any instance.
Also see abbreviations, money, time and dates.
When referring to ministers or members of parliament in news articles and feature stories address them by their role. E.g.
In the first instance: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Then Mr Rudd.
In the first instance: Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Senator Penny Wong. Then Senator Wong.
In the first instance: Member for Canberra, Gai Brodtmann. Then Ms Brodtmann.
If the minister is a member of the Senate they are referred to as Senator.
Members of the House of Representatives always have the postnominal MP after their name.
More formal modes of address are used in correspondence.
All correspondence, including invitations, to members of federal, state and territory parliaments should be sent through SCAPA.
For more detailed modes of address refer to the Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers, John Wiley & Sons 2013 or contact SCAPA.
Do not use M to signify million. Always spell out e.g. $1 million. In headings, abbreviated forms of large numbers are acceptable, e.g. $1bn or $1m.
Use the dollar symbol followed by the figure ($1,000). Use a comma when referring to thousands or bigger numbers.
Use country abbreviation followed by currency symbol to denote currencies (A$1,000, US$1,000, NZ$1,000).
Note that country abbreviation/symbol to use with Australian dollars is ‘A not ‘AUD.
Use “more than” instead of “over” when referring to numbers e.g. there were more than 100 ducks.
One word. No hyphen, no space. Also multilingual, multifaceted.
As a prefix, use with hyphen.
No ‘z’, also characterise, recognise etc.
Two words spelt out. Only use symbol (%) in tables etc.
Should be attributed in formal publications as follows: John Citizen, BSc (Hons) ANU, PhD Oxf. University in italics.
Refer to Young for the Vice-Chancellor’s postnominals.
Spell out in full, never ‘Prof’.
Double quotes are only used for quoting speech or words from published work (i.e. newspapers, journals, books etc) e.g. “The University is world class,” said Mr Blah.
Quoting something inside a quote e.g. “Annabel said ‘The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain’ but she didn’t say why,” explained Mr Blah.
Quote marks always come after the punctuation e.g. “The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain,” Mr Blah said. Unless the quote is not a full sentence e.g. Mr Blah said the rain in Spain “falls mainly on the plain”.
No ‘z’. See Australian spelling.
Present tense (i.e. ‘says’) is used in ANU Reporter features and when paraphrasing. ‘Said’ is used for direct quotes in all other instances.
Schmidt, Brian Vice-Chancellor (2015-current). In formal documents, refer to as Professor Brian Schmidt, Vice-Chancellor and President.
One word. No hyphen, no space. Capitalise where part of name e.g. Southeast Asia.
One word. No hyphen, no space. As in ‘new generation of superfast computers’.
See money, per cent and ampersand.
Publications, plays, movies, conferences, album titles all in italics. Band names in ordinary type. Do not italicise awards.
Also see honorifics for Mr, Mrs etc.
Capital “U” when referring to ANU, small “u” when talking about universities generally.
When including links on a webpage or in an email always hyperlink text that represents the meaningful action/name of the link destination instead of writing out the URL. An exception to this rule is when you have a short promotional URL you would like people to remember.
http:// should not be included in front of URLs in print. URLs without them take you to the same place, and so they are extraneous characters.
Use First World War, Second World War (not World War I or II).
One word. No hyphen, no space. No capital. Also webpage.
Capital ‘X’, small c, hyphen.
Capital ‘Y’, small ‘c’, hyphen.
Eight years old, but an eight year-old child.