To take the guesswork out of the correct spelling and punctuation, La Trobe has created an Editorial Style Guide. It helps to ensure consistent style, punctuation and spelling across the site.

Each of you will have access to the guide, however, we’ve highlighted the top 5 essentials you need to know when editing.

Here are a few things to look out for –

1. Use Australian English

Ensure your Word processing software default language is set to Australian English. Often spell checkers default to US English. The differences may be minor but it can confuse the audience and is against our Editorial Style Guide. This can have a negative effect on our communication objectives and our brand reputation.

Small differences to look out for

  • Words ending with -ise

e.g. Organisation not organization. Recognise not recognize. Analyse not Analyze.

  • Words ending with -our

e.g. Colour and labour not color and labor.

2. Referring to date and time

When referring to date and time please ensure the following guidelines are met.

Dates

Commas are not necessary as dividers between day, month or year e.g. 9 December 1964

  • ‘th’, ‘st’ and ‘nd’ are not needed.

Time

  • a space is only need to separate numeral with am/pm e.g. 11 am
  • when including half hours or listing multiple times use a colon as a separator for hour/ minute e.g. 11:30 am
  • full stops or capitals are not necessary when referring to am/pm.

3. Emphasising

When emphasising, refrain from using capitals, underlining or exclamation marks.

  • bold and italic formatting is preferred to emphasise text
  • when emphasising a word ‘single quotation’ marks are recommended. Only use double quotation for quotes within quotes e.g. ‘The students greeted the Vice-Chancellor with “three-cheers” as the progression began,’ she said.

4. Capitals Letters

Academic titles

  • capitalise titles when appearing before a name e.g. Professor Mary Smith
  • when referring to specific group capitalise (e.g. Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee) not when referring to a general group (e.g. Five vice-chancellors have formed a committee)

Area of study or discipline

  • lower case is used for disciplines unless area of study is a proper noun. e.g. Chinese, French, business, arts.
  • For schools, departments and disciplines use capitals e.g. Bachelor of Arts, School of Business.

5. Referencing

When referencing published promotional work refer to the Harvard system.

  • refer to Harvard’s style guide. Author, date, title, journal title
  • keep full stops, capitals and spaces to the minimum.

Note: when linking, use the item title as the hyperlink.

Remember, consistency is key.

For up to date guidelines, please refer to the Editorial Style Guidelines.

Have questions about your web editing?

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