Writing:

Some Points of Style

by Jennifer Stewart

When you're writing for general consumption, you need to follow certain conventions of style. These have evolved over the years as the most effective/efficient ways to convey ideas to a mass readership, so who are we to buck the system?

You'll often find that there are 'in-house' variations on these, so follow the lead of your own organization/community.

NB Organization is a perfect example - US-based spelling prefers organization, but in Australia, Britain, and other places it's organisation.

The important point with style is to be consistent. If you use organisation on your first page, then that's how it must be spelled (or spelt) on every page. If you use the -ed form of the past tense for verbs like spelled (rather than the -t), then use it for all similar verbs throughout your document (learned/learnt, burned/burnt, etc).

The whole point of writing something is to communicate your ideas to others. If readers are constantly distracted by your devil-may-care approach to the rules of consistency, they'll be so busy watching for the next example, they won't pay any attention to your message or content.

Numbers

The general rule is to write the word for numbers under (and including) one hundred, and to use numerals for numbers over:

* Ten green bottles; seventy-six trombones; 500 miles; 1,500 (or 1500) people

When the number is greater than 999, a comma is optional (be consistent and follow 'house rules').

If the number opens the sentence, write the words:

* Four thousand tickets were sold, of which 3,000 were pre-booked.

When using approximations and round figures, write the word:

* about forty thousand horsemen; nearly ten million sheep

When referring to millions (and these days) billions, use the numerals to indicate the number of millions/billions:

* $238 million; 3 billion potential customers

When referring to spans of numbers, use as few numerals as possible:

* pp. 350-5; 626-48; except for numbers between 10 and 19:

* 10-15; 12-19

and dates:

* 1630-1698; 1985-2000

When decimal numbers are less than unity, place a zero before the decimal point (except in cases such as caliber):

* 0.25 (not .25); but .303 caliber

Use numerals for sums of money, times, weights, measures, degrees of inclination and temperature, percentages, and a person's age (sometimes):

* $5.50; 48c; 11.30a.m.; 15 tons; an angle of 45 degrees; 50 percent (or 50%); a woman aged 90; he lived to the age of ninety

If writing about military forces use abbreviated ordinal numbers for units and formations up to divisions:

* the 2nd battalion; the 6th Division

Use roman numerals to designate corps:

* the X Corps

Use full ordinal numbers (and capital letters) for armies:

* the Eighth Army

Roman numerals are upper case if they're used in titles:

* George V; Henry IV

but are lower case when used for preliminary pages in books:

* pp. iii-xx

Dates

The preference is for a format that leaves no possibility for ambiguity:

* 1 January 2000 (This requires no punctuation and is clear.)

Years and spans of years are as follows:

* A.D. 1066; 44 B.C.; 1855-59 (not 1855-9); the 1960s (NO apostrophe)

Capitals

All proper nouns take a capital letter:

* people - Garth Hopper; Grandmother (but not her grandmother)

* places - Australia; Sydney Harbour

* days of the week - Monday; Friday

* months - April; August

* NOT the seasons - spring; winter

* important holidays/festivals - Christmas; Easter; Passover; Ramadan

* groups - Labor Party; Wilderness Society

* languages and nationalities - Swahili; Cantonese cooking; Persian cat

* religious deities - God; Buddha; Allah; Yahweh; Zeus

* the World Wide Web; WWW; the Internet; the Web

Points of the compass take capitals when they're part of the name of an area or when they refer to a part of a country

* South Pole; East Malvern; We're moving to the West

Abbreviations use capitals:

* MCG - Melbourne Cricket Ground; B.Sc. – Bachelor of Science

Titles of books, films, plays, television shows etc. use capitals for all words except articles and conjunctions (unless the first or last word of the title) and are also italicized or put in quotation marks:

* The Day of the Triffids: Star Wars; One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; This Day Tonight

Hyphens

Numbers are hyphenated when used to denote age:

* twenty-five year old man

Compound terms in titles take a capital for the first word but lower case for the second word IF it's a modifier:

* Hands-on Learning Program

Both words have capitals if they are of equal weight:

* English-Speaking Facilitators

Jennifer Stewart spent more than twenty years teaching English and History before leaving to establish her Web-based writing business, Write 101, in 1998.If you want to learn how to write well, Write101 is the place. You'll find a 4-part writing course as well as specialty tutorials for students and businesspeople.