LX / Style guide basics: abbreviations, acronyms and the rest!

Style guide basics: abbreviations, acronyms and the rest!

Published by LX Team | Last updated 10 March 2023

LX Style Guide Style guide basics: abbreviations, acronyms and the rest!

Answers to common grammar questions for resources, and some pointers on keeping things consistent across collections.

Abbreviations and acronyms

RULE	EXAMPLE
Use full stops for Latin abbreviations like i.e., e.g. and etc.	Fertilizers can be organic (i.e. carbon based) or inorganic. Please bring your documents, e.g. your photo ID, application form etc.
No need to spell out familiar acronyms; don’t use full stops in acronyms	TAFE, ANZAC, NSW, not N.S.W.
Write less familiar acronyms in full first; follow with acronym in brackets. Use the acronym in subsequent sentences.	The Centre for Drug Candidate Optimisation (CDCO) is an innovative collaborative research centre. The CDCO…
Don’t use an apostrophe to make an acronym plural	The CEOs met yesterday

Academic terms and titles

RULE	EXAMPLE
Capitalisation for specific degrees; lowercase for general	a Bachelor of Arts (Fine Arts); a bachelor’s/ master’s degree
Capitalise titles of senior UTS staff, even when not using the staff member’s name.	Yesterday, Vice-Chancellor Professor Alexander said… The Pro Vice-Chancellor said yesterday…
Use capitals for the division name (the part in brackets).	Pro Vice-Chancellor (Social Inclusion)
Capitalise faculty names in full, but not when contracted.	the Faculty of Science; the science faculty
Lowercase	He did his undergraduate degree at UNSW, then postgraduate study at UTS.
Use a hyphen	Re-enrol/re-enrolment; Full-time/part-time.

Ampersands

RULE	EXAMPLE
We usually avoid ampersands (&)	Faculty of Engineering and IT (FEIT) UTS Learning and Teaching Awards
Only use an ampersand where it forms part of an official name.	Innovation & Entrepreneurship Unit

Apostrophes

RULE	EXAMPLE
Singular nouns take an ’s, even if the noun ends with s.	Joseph’s helpful insights Chris’s book
Plural and collective nouns not ending in s (indicating belonging)	people’s experiences of learning online
Plural nouns ending in s have an apostrophe added after the s.	the students’ expectations the lecturers’ sessions
No apostrophes in: Plural acronyms Decades	NGOs, MPs, URLs 1990s
No apostrophe in its (possessive)… …except when used as an abbreviation for it is, it has etc.	Its main purpose is to provide a service for students. It’s been hard work this year (= it has been hard work)

Bold, italics and underlining

RULE	EXAMPLE
Avoid using bold, italics and underlining for emphasis. WordPress headings, blocks and good writing make life easier for the reader!	Mindfulness is defined as ‘the act of noticing new things, a process that promotes flexible responding to the demands of the environment’ (Pagnini et al., 2016, p. 91).
Use italics for book titles, journals, plays, legislation, scientific names of plants/ animals, and foreign words/ phrases not commonly used in English	Assessment and treatment of older adults: A guide for mental health professionals The word for cat in Spanish is gato. The nicotina tobaccum (tobacco plant) has been much studied.

Capitals

RULE	EXAMPLE
Use lowercase for the four seasons and semesters.	Spring and summer programs; semester one in the autumn.
Heading: Only capitalise the first word in a heading, except if it’s a tool name.	Set up Assignments in Canvas
Tools and technologies: Should be capitalised but only referring to the specific tool	The ‘Assignment’ section in Canvas should be capitalised, but not when referring to assignments in general.
Bullets: The first word on each bullet should be capitalised	– First, do the first thing – Second, try the other thing.

Colons, semi-colons and commas

RULE	EXAMPLE
A colon is often used to introduce a series or list.	There are several things to consider here: time, manner and the place where events occurred.
If the colon introduces a sentence fragment, don’t capitalise the first letter.	I’ve got two words for you: exam results.
Use a semi-colon to join clauses when a conjunction is omitted, or when the connection is close.	The data showed that the theory worked; the cynics among us were forced to re-evaluate.
We might omit the comma if the phrase is short and it doesn’t cause confusion.	Before the lecture she reviewed her slide deck and made small changes.

Contractions

RULE	EXAMPLE
Contractions or ‘short forms’ (I’m, we’re) are fine, and can help your writing feel more informal and accessible.	By stating how you’re going to focus on your students’ needs, you’ll maximise participation and engagement.
Contractions can occur after nouns, names, here, there and now and question words. These contractions are more informal, and usually better for speaking rather than writing.	John’ll be very keen to know his results. What’s happened to my Canvas course?

Dashes and hyphens

RULE	EXAMPLE
Use a hyphen for compound adjectives	An 18-year-old student (but: The student was 18 years old.)
Use a hyphen with some prefixes to avoid double vowels	A university-sponsored event
Use a hyphen if not using a hyphen would make the meaning unclear	A small molecule-interaction laboratory A small-molecule interaction laboratory
Dashes in sentences have one space before and one space after them to bracket an independent clause. They can also be used at the end of a sentence to introduce a sentence fragment.	The skills you gain at UTS – to reflect, to think critically, to analyse data and ideas – will serve you well whether you decide to take on a research degree, or go straight to the workplace. The exams results were out – and the news was good!
Dashes without spaces link individual words, often creating a new adjective.	The team engaged students in problem-solving activities. We shared real-time updates as the data came in.

Date and time

RULE	EXAMPLE
In paragraphs, spell out the month in full, and use numerals for the date and year.	17 March 1974
If you include the day of the week, place it first.	Monday 2 October 2008
There is no apostrophe in full-year (plural) dates.	1940s 1700s
Do use an apostrophe to replace the missing prefix from decades in the twentieth century.	I studied biochemistry in the ’70s.
There is no space between the number and the am/pm definer. Don’t use full stops in ‘am’ or ‘pm’.	10am 3pm
To show a time span, use an unspaced dash for simple spans and a spaced dash for complex spans (reading clarity is the aim!).	12–2pm 6.30 – 8.00pm 10am – 2pm
In paragraphs, use either from/to or between/and in place of the en dash.	The lecture will be on between 10am and 11:30am on Friday. The seminar has been scheduled to run from 9am to 3pm on Friday.

Dot points and bullets

RULE	EXAMPLE
Introduce bullet point lists with a colon. If the bullet points are sentence fragments, don’t add full stops, commas or semi-colons.	Enrolment gives you the chance to: – Meet faculty course advisers – Discuss unit selection and course structure – Ask any other questions you have about your studies
Use full stops only if you have more than one sentence in the dot point.	Some important points to remember on exam day: – Get there on time, of course. Then you can take care of the technicalities before you start. – Read the instructions before every question. Many students have lots precious marks by not reading the instructions. – Breathe deeply, and don’t panic!

Gender

RULE	EXAMPLE
Unless gender is relevant, use gender-neutral words rather than gender-specific ones.	‘workforce’ not ‘manpower’ ‘artificial’ not ‘man made’ ‘police officer’ not ‘policeman’
There are lots of alternatives to a generic gendered pronoun like ‘he’ or ‘she’ to talk about a generic person: – Use the second person (you) – Recast sentences in the plural – Use ‘they’, ‘their’ or ‘them’	‘If you apply mid-year, lodge your forms directly to the University’ ‘Mid-year entry applicants must lodge their forms directly to the University’ ‘A mid-year entry applicant must lodge their forms directly to the University.’

Numbers

RULE	EXAMPLE
Use words for 1 – 10	‘four types of…’ not ‘4 types of…’
Use numbers for 11 – onwards	11 students were nominated
Exception to this rule is when using numbers in blog headings	‘3 actions to maintain academic integrity’ ‘4 principles for online accessibility’

Quotes

RULE	EXAMPLE
Single quotation marks: In specialist writing, terms with particular meanings that are unique to that subject are often enclosed in single quotation marks.	The inner margins of a book are called the ‘gutter.’ Many people do not realize that ‘cultivar’ is synonymous with ‘clone.’
Use double quotes for direct speech.	According to our professor, the development is “an exciting opportunity for UTS”.
For longer quotations use the ‘quote’ block in WordPress to indent	You don’t need to use quote marks in this case, as the block adds these into the final visual.
Keep the spelling and punctuation of the source, even if it is not correct.	“Every week… every Monday evening I know okay, I start a new week and I have to get some positive to push myself to learn English” (student quote)
Use ellipses […] if omitting words to shorten or focus the quote	“So, we have to achieve it. […] we know how to do it and set for ourselves to improve in the future as well”

Spelling and vocabulary

RULE	EXAMPLE
We use Australian/British spellings	colour not color organise not organize
To check a word, aim to use the same source each time, for consistency.	We usually refer to the Macquarie Dictionary

Useful style guides

Monash Editorial Style Guide has useful, friendly and occasionally entertaining advice on writing style
UTS Brand Guidelines
UTS Tone of Voice Guide
Learn more about UTS’s visual identity
Canvas Style Guide for academic staff

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