Tertangala Writers’ Style Guide

Download the Tertangala Writers’ Style Guide as a PDF

Welcome and congrats! If you’re reading this style guide it probably means you’re writing something for the Tert. Which we think is pretty cool. The guidelines below are just to help us create a publication that is as consistent and professional-looking as possible. If there’s something you’re unsure of (we know possessive apostrophes and em dashes aren’t everyone’s specialty) or you have a couple of mistakes in your work, that’s ok. We have an awesome team of sub-editors to hopefully pick those things up. We do, however, ask that you at least make an attempt to get your work as close to publication-ready as possible. Thanks!

Chloe and André

Bylines and bios

Please ensure the author’s first and last name is listed directly under the heading. Please include a one or two sentence bio and picture of yourself at the bottom of your article (saved within the one file).

Saving/sending your documents/images

Please use your full name and a keyword or the article title as the name of your document. However you spell your name here is how it will appear in your byline.

Writing

Please email all writing to chloehiggins@live.com.au

Images

Please email all images/photographs/illustration/advertisements to Andre at andre.charadia@gmail.com

Tense

As a general rule, all articles should be written in past tense. However, we understand some fiction, creative arts stuff etc sound better/need to be written in present, so if that’s the case that’s cool. We just ask that you be CONSISTENT.

Language

• Be mindful of using Australian English when you write, i.e. use “s” instead of “z” in words like “organise” or “analyse”, use “our” rather than “or” for “flavour” or “honour”, and “re” for “theatre” and “centre”.
• If you have a word or two in another language, italicise unless the words are in common use in English.

Headings

• Bold and capitalise every letter in main headings. PLEASE NOTE: Word does not pick up spelling errors when writing in caps so be sure to double, triple check your spelling and possessive apostrophes.
• For sub-headings, capitalise the first word and proper nouns only.

Paragraphs

No indents. Leave a line between paragraphs.

Spacing

Only one space should come after a full stop before a new sentence.

Capitalisation

Do not capitalise internet.

‘The’ vs. ‘the’

Use a capital ‘T’ when an institution or company includes ‘the’ as part of their official name. When the institution/company does not include ‘the’ in their official name, do not capitalise ‘the’ unless it is at the start of a sentence.

• E.g. According to The Age… the Sydney Morning Herald, Illawarra Mercury
• E.g. A spokesperson for the University of Wollongong…

UOW

When referring to a specific university, use a capital ‘U’. When referring to university in general, use a lower case ‘u’.

• E.g. John is an employee of the University.
• E.g. John goes to university.

(NB: In news pieces, spell uni out in full. E.g. University. In all other pieces, ‘uni’ is acceptable.)

Capitalise job titles and degree/faculty names (but NOT job descriptions)

• E.g. Henry Pratt, GCP Program Coordinator, completed a Bachelor of Arts (History and Politics) at UOW.

Dates

• Month, day, comma, year. E.g. February 2, 1991.
• Do not use ‘th’, ‘nd’ etc unless referring to a century in time or placing. E.g. The 21^st century was the 31^st on the list.
• Do not shorten month names. E.g. Use February, not Feb.

Title, italics and single quote marks

Italicise the names of all books, albums, films etc. Use single quote marks when referring to the name of a song, chapter etc.

• E.g. ‘Waterloo’ is the fourth song on ABBA’s album, Dancing Queen.

Do not italicise company names, unless it is part of a publication’s name.

• E.g. Woolworth’s magazine, Woolworths, covers…

The titles of websites and blogs should be capitalised but not italicised

• E.g. Facebook

Abbreviations

• The abbreviations i.e. and e.g. are not italicised, used with full stops and require no proceeding commas.
• The abbreviation etc. is not italicised.
• Acronyms should be introduced in full the first time they appear, followed by the acronym in brackets. The acronym may be used unexplained from then on, e.g. Farrago is affiliated with the Retroactive Asbestos Dominion (RAD). RAD has many other affiliated members.

Punctuation

Dashes – do not leave a space either side when using any of these dashes

If you are unsure about the difference between an en and em dash, it is probably best to use a comma instead. That said, here’s how they work:

• An em dash (—) is used in two main situations. The first is a parenthetical expression (e.g. commas—which are another form of punctuation—work equally well here) and the second is when you want to add some extra detail/qualifying information to a sentence/cause. E.g. It was a great day—even the sun was smiling.
• An en (–) dash is used to hyphenate words. E.g. Your piece should be publication-ready.
• A hyphen is used when writing number ranges. Do not leave a space either side of the hyphen.

Ellipsis

Do not leave a space between the word and the ellipsis. Use three full stops only to make an ellipsis.

• E.g. Taylor Hansen, of Wollongong University, said she was “glad to be there… and help out.”

The semi-colon (;)

The information after a semi-colon should clarify or add detail to the information before the semi-colon. It should not be new or separate information.

You may also use a semi-colon to separate items on a list when one item has an internal comma. E.g. Participants were from Sydney, Australia; Varanasi, India and Paris, France.

The colon (:)

Use a colon when introducing a list.

Lists

Do not use a comma before ‘and’ when listing items. E.g. Emily, Chloe and Rachel attended the event.

Quotes

Use double quote marks. When cutting out a section of a quote, use an ellipsis to signify you have left some words out.

Use ‘said’ to attribute quotes.

• E.g. “The day was amazing,” he said.

According to the Fairfax Media Style Guide, there are essentially three types of quotes, each with their own punctuation rules.

1. The stand alone quote

• Rule: Punctuate INSIDE the quote marks.
• Example: “The table is brown.”

1. The partial quote within another sentence

• Rule: Punctuate OUTSIDE the quote marks.
• Example: John Brown, of Lakeside Quarry, said “the table is brown”.

1. The partial and full quote contained within another sentence

• Rule: Punctuate INSIDE the quote marks.
• Example: John Brown, of Lakeside Quarry, said the report was “obviously inaccurate. The table is brown, not black.”

Brackets

When inserting information into quotes, use square brackets.

E.g. “It sat on the mat.” = “[The cat] sat on the mat.”

Numbers

Write out numbers 1-10 in full. Use numerals for numbers above ten, except at the start of a sentence.

• E.g. I own three cars.
• E.g. There are 57 students in CACS101.
• E.g. Two hundred and forty people are expected to attend.
• E.g. 90s, not nineties.