|
Style Guide
Spelling and Usage We use Canadian spelling and Canadian usage for those words where there is a difference between Canadian and American usage. Some French terms for forms for updating listings in the Connexions Directory: English - French Address - Adresse Phone - Téléphone E-mail - courriel Fax - Téléc. Office - bureau No change necessary - Aucun changement nécessaire Changes made - Changements effectués Changes sumitted by - Changements soumis par Winter - Hiver Summer - Été Abbreviations Provinces: Newfoundland & Labrador NL Prince Edward Island PE Nova Scotia NS New Brunswick NB Quebec QC Ontario ON Manitoba MB Saskatchewan SK Alberta AB British Columbia BC Yukon YT Northwest Territories NT Nunavut NU Addresses: Apartment Apt. Avenue Ave./ave Boulevard Blvd./boul Building Bldg. Bureau bureau Caisse Postale CP chemin ch Cote cote Court Ct. (but Court for building name) Crescent Cres. Department Dept. Drive Dr. East E. (but East Broadway) Est est Etage etage (as in 2e etage) Floor Fl. (as in 2nd Fl.) Highway Hwy. Nord nord North N. (but North before street name, e.g. North Main St.) Northeast N.E. Northwest N.W. Ouest ouest or o. Parkway Pkwy. Place Pl. (but Place for building name) Post Office P.O. Post Office Box P.O. Box Road Rd. Room Rm. Rue rue Rural Route RR (no periods) south S. (but South Service Rd.) Southeast S.E. Southwest S.W. Station Stn. Street St. Succursale succ Sud sud Suite Ste. West W. (but West Hastings St.) (no period at end of French abbreviations) Things to watch for: Use a single space after a period, not two spaces. Don't use all-caps (all capital letters) in either body text or headlines. Where the style is for small caps, e.g. the country names in Embassy Row, the information is entered in upper-and-lower, and then small-caps is applied as a style, in the same way that bolding is. Acronyms do not have periods, e.g. Cat Lovers Association of Winnipeg (CLAW not C.L.A.W.), with a few exceptions like U.S., U.K. Publication titles, including book, journal, magazine, and newspaper names, are italicized, as are radio and TV station names. Titles of articles, essays, short stories, poems, news segments, television programs, films, are in quotation marks, e.g. “North of 60”. Federal and Provincial Acts and Bills are in italics, e.g. The Canada Lands Act . Periods and commas always precede a closing quotation mark. Time: there is no 12 a.m. or 12 p.m. Use 12 noon or 12 midnight. Dates: The preferred style is day-month-year, with the month spelled out. Do not use the format number/number/year, e.g. 03/10/9, which could refer to either October 3 or March 10, depending on the individual and on the computer you are using. On reports, in notes fields, in articles, etc., spell out the month or use the three-letter abbreviation for the month . Permissible options, in order of preference, are 3 October 1998, 3 Oct 98, October 3, 1998, Oct 3 98. However, when using a computer database with non-intelligent date fields, you will for the time being be forced to use the number/number/year format. Be aware that different computers are set to different date conventions. One computer will display 3 October 1998 as 03/10/98, another computer will display it as 10/03/98. Note regarding suite numbers: Preferred style, e.g. 300 Avenue Rd., Ste. 704 Alternative style preferred by some listees, with en dash and space before and after en dash, e.g. 704-300 Avenue Rd. Incorrect styles are: #704-300 Avenue 704,300 Avenue Rd. Note regarding numbered street names: Preferred style, e.g. 1600 17th St. S.E., Ste. 250 Alternative style: 250-1600 17th St. S.E. Incorrect styles are: 1600 - 17th St. S.W., Ste. 250 250, 1600 -17th St. S.E. French house numbers are followed by a comma: e.g. 470, boul St-Laurent. Unless bilingual: e.g. 50 rue O'Connor St. Accreditation follows a person's name and is abbreviated with periods but no wordspacing. e.g. B.Sc. F.R.C.S.C. LL.B. M.B.A. M.D. M.Ed. Q.C. S.J. Positions are rarely abbreviated but when abbreviated omit periods. e.g. CEO Ms VP Style for positions (in full): When possible, avoid using ampersand (exception: R&D) Assistant Associate Co-Chair Co-Director Co-ordinator Director, Marketing Executive Secretary Manager Managing Partner President-Elect Vice-Chair Vice-President 7. Book Reviews The standard information block for books reviews consists of the following elements in the following order: Title Subtitle Author(s) or Editor(s) Publisher Year, # of pages, price, ISBN Reviewed by [Reviewer's Name] If one or two titles are being reviewed, this information block normally appears at the top of the review, following the headline, and all elements are bolded. If more than two titles are being reviewed in one article, the block appears at the end, and only the title and sub-title are bolded. General Style and Usage Rules The Connexions Directory style is to avoid abbreviations wherever possible, including in addresses. In addresses, the following are spelled out in full: and (rather than &) Avenue bureau cote Court Crescent Drive East edifice est etage floor Highway nord North ouest Parkway Place Road rue South Street sud Suite West The following are abbreviated: # for Number, No., Numero Apt. for Apartment/Apparretment Bldg. for Building Blvd. for Boulevard, (boul in French) C.P. for Caisse Postale ch for chemin Dept. for Department/Departement Dr. for Doctor Inc. for Incorporated/Incorpore Ltd. for Limited Ltee for Limitee M. for Monsieur Mlle for Mademoiselle Mme for Madame N.E. for Northeast N.W. Northwest P.O. For Post Office, as in “P.O. Box 158” Prof. for Professor/Professeur RR for Rural Route (not R.R.) St. for Saint (St- or Ste- in French) Stn for Station (as in Postal Stn D) S.E. for Southeast S.W. for Southwest succ. for Succursale Initials of people as follows: F.C. Lee, Helen F. Kerr # should not be used at the beginning of the address field. Use “64 Main Street, #5”, not “#5 - 64 Main Street”. No quotation mark around post office addresses. Use P.O. Box 158, Stn. D, not Stn. “D”. Particular Cases: “70 The Esplanade, 3rd floor” (note form of notation for “third”). No special typographic features are used to enhance names of groups even if they use the enhancement in their own letterhead. No ““ , underlining , or italics . In names beginning with The , the “The” is omitted in the name field. Exceptions: The Journey: A Film for Peace and The Pas Friendship Centre (name of town is The Pas). Co-op /Coop/Co-operative/Cooperatif/ve: Our own style is to hyphenate (Co-operative, Co-ordinator) but in organization names, use the name as used by the organization itself. Note that the hyphenated version is never used in French. Saint : Abbreviate it or spell it out according to the preferred style for that locality or organization. Note that it is St. John's Newfoundland, but Saint John, New Brunswick. If there is a choice, Saint should normally be written out if it begins a name, e.g. Saint Christopher House. Our style for “Ms” is “Ms”, not “Ms.” (no period since “Ms” is not an abbreviation). When entering numbers of staff, volunteers, members, etc. in a numeric field, do not use commas or spaces, e.g. enter 2000 not 2,000 or 2 000. When entering information originating from a French-language or European source, be aware that their convention in writing numbers is to use decimal points where we use commas, and to use commas where we use decimal points, e.g., they would write 1,850.75 as 1.850,25. No spaces on either side of an oblique ( / ): e.g. gay/lesbian, not gay / lesbian. One space will be used after punctuation. Begin Purpose section/paragraph with a capital letter. Use complete sentences and punctuation if possible. Some parts will be in point form. Treat them as sentences, beginning with a capital and ending with a period. In Alternative Voices , put all references (e.g. source of item) at the end of the item rather than the beginning Write about organizations in the third person (they will do this, they are asking that, rather than we will do this or we are asking that). Comma between postal code and phone number in address blocks in the editorial sections. The first time an organization is mentioned in an article or review, always give the name in full. It is permissible to use an abbreviation in subsequent references in the same abstract if you introduce the abbreviation to make it clear it refers to the name. For example, on first reference you might write: “Committee for Justice, Liberty and Good Clean Fun (CJLGCF)”. In listing items, a comma is to be placed before the “and”. E.g., cats, dogs, rats, and fishes. Spell out numbers from one to ten. Spell out per cent rather than use “%”/ The preferred authority for spelling and usage is the Oxford English Dictionary; also acceptable are the Cambridge and Collins English Dictionary. Webster's is not acceptable.
Ulli's Quickie Dictionary and Style Guide, with specific instances of usage and style 1) Spelling & Style archaeology (not archeology) armour (not armor) behaviour (not behavior) candour (not candor) centre (not center) clamour (not clamor) colour (not color) co-operate (not cooperate) co-ordinate (not coordinate) defence (not defense) demeanour (not demeanor) endeavour (not endeavor) favour (not favor) flavour (not flavor) glamour (not glamor) harbour (not harbor) honour (not honor) humour (not humor) jewellery (not jewelry) labour (not labor) licence (not license) neighbour (not neighbor) non-profit (hyphenated) odour (not odor) ophthalmologist (often misspelled). If unsure, “eye doctor” is perfectly OK. parlour (not parlor) railway (not railroad) rancour (not rancor) rigour (not rigor) saviour (not savior) savour (not savor) splendour (not splendor) St. Catharines (not St. Catherines) theatre (not theater) trade-mark (not trade mark or trademark) traveller (not traveler) tumour (not tumor) vapour (not vapor)
2) Meaning and Usage advise vs advice (advise is a verb meaning to offer advice, advice is a noun) affect vs. effect ( affect, apart from other senses in which it is not liable to be confused with effect, means ‘have an influence on, produce an effect on'. Effect means ‘bring about, cause, produce, result in, have as result, accomplish) apropos means ‘with reference to’, not ‘appropriate’ cleave: one of those lovely English words with two opposite meanings: complementary vs complimentary: complementary means completing, making up a whole; complimentary means praising or congratulating democracy: A term used to signify one of two opposite meanings: disinterested vs uninterested: disinterested means impartial, not having a vested interest or a conflict of interest; uninterested means not interested distinct vs distinctive: distinct means ‘separate, different, not identical'; distinctive means ‘distinguishing, characteristic' flaunt vs flout: flaunt means ‘to display ostentatiously', flout means ‘to flagrantly disregard' (the law, rules, etc.) forgo vs forego: forgo means ‘abstain from, go without'; forego means ‘precede in time or place' free market (or: free enterprise) : an economic system controlled by monopolistic corporations dedicated to suppressing freedom in terms of is a meaningless verbal hiccup, like “you know” or “uh”. Do not use. indexes, indices: both are acceptable, but not in the same article or publication, please ironic refers to a statement whose meaning is the opposite of what is expressed, intentionally so stated to make a point. It doesn't mean ‘strange' or ‘paradoxical'. its (belonging to it) it's (contraction for “it is”) media (plural: the media are, not the media is) naturalist vs. naturists: naturalists observe nature, naturists like taking their clothes off outdoors. oral vs. verbal: oral means ‘spoken' or ‘with the mouth', e.g. an agreement which is articulated but not written down is an oral agreement; verbal means ‘concerned with or involving words', including both written and spoken words. Do not use ‘verbal contract' when you mean ‘oral contract' or ‘oral agreement'. politically correct: a term used to disparage those who dislike racism, sexism, discrimination, or injustice pornography vs erotica: if you like it, it's erotica; if you don't, it's pornography; in practice, may be used interchangeably principal vs principle: principal means ‘first in rank or importance'; a principle is ‘a fundamental truth or law as the basis of reasoning or action' Saint John, New Brunswick but St. John's, Newfoundland Ulli is the correct spelling, not Uli, Ulie, Ulili, Udie, Ully, Lilli, Ooley, Oulie, Uri, Villi, Lee, or Willy. (Sigh...)
Connexions Library Title Index - Connexions Directory A-Z Index - Connexions Directory Subject Index Connexions Links - Periodicals & Broadcasters Online - Volunteer Opportunities Publicity
& media relations resources - The
Connexions Digest Archive |
