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SECTION
3: STYLE
12 Writing
style
Each publication should be written in English that is clear,
precise and straightforward, easy to read and understand. The language
of each piece of writing should be appropriate to its subject matter and
its audience, direct and informative without being too stuffy and pompous
on the one hand, or too breezy and informal on the other. This does not
necessarily involve any loss of subtlety or complexity in what is expressed.
The readership for NCELTR Publishing is mostly the diverse community of
language-teaching practitioners, with some texts aimed at a more academic
group and some at a more general audience. The scope of this potential
audience increases greatly for anything that is published on the Internet.
Factors such as differing levels of knowledge of English and writing conventions
should be taken into account when writing for an electronic publication.
Authors need to lead the readers into the subject matter of the text,
present the information in an ordered accessible way, and keep the readers
clearly oriented so that they do not get lost or overwhelmed. This process
has been described as telling the readers what you are going to say, saying
it, and telling them what you have said. Writers often assume that readers
have a greater knowledge of the subject than is the case.
What might be called jargon in a more general context can be appropriate
in an article written for the particular audience that uses those terms
and for which the article is written. The term outcomes,
for example, can sound awkward in a general conversation, but has a precise
meaning for teachers of English to speakers of other languages and could
be the best word for a particular context.
12.1 Writing
tips
- Use the active
voice whenever possible. It is usually clearer and gives the writing
more energy than the passive. Choose the passive voice when you wish
to hide or soften the identity of the agent (Stages 1, 2
and 3 are graded to allow …), to focus on a particular
subject (The paper was rewritten five times) or
as one possible strategy to avoid discriminatory language.
- Use as few adjectives
and adverbs as possible, particularly adverbs of degree, whether hedge
words such as rather, pretty, a little, or intensifiers
such as very, greatly, completely.
- Vary the length
of sentences. Rewrite sentences that are too complex or dense.
- Use transitional
words, phrases, sentences and paragraphs to help the reader understand
the writer’s perspective and clarify the relationships between
the ideas that are being presented. For example:
however;
nevertheless;
moreover; on the
other hand
In spite of what X says, Y argues …
While agreeing with the major emphasis of X’s argument, Y’s
findings differ in two important ways: …
Let us now look at the historical background …
Putting this in its Australian context, we find …
13
Inclusive communication
Australian Government legislation makes it unlawful to
discriminate on grounds of gender, race, colour, ethnic origin, ethno-religious
background, age or disability. ‘Writers, editors, designers and
other communicators should always bear in mind the diversity within their
audiences, and ensure that references to and about particular people or
social groups are couched in inclusive terms.’ (Style manual
2002: 55)
Chapter 4 in the sixth edition of the Style manual includes sections
on non-discriminatory portrayal of Australian Aboriginals and Torres Strait
Islanders, of ethnolinguistic minorities in Australia, of people with
disabilities, and of older and younger people.
13.1 Non-discriminatory
language strategies
for
dealing with
sexist pronouns
- recast the noun
and pronoun in the plural
Not: Each student has handed in his essay.
But: The students have handed in their essays.
- delete the pronoun
Not: A good editor uses her common sense.
But: A good editor uses common sense.
- replace the pronoun
with an article
Not: Every participant should bring his instructions.
But: Every participant should bring the instructions.
- use I,
we or you instead of his,
her
Not: Every citizen must register his vote in writing.
But: As a citizen you must register your vote in writing.
- recast the sentence
to avoid pronouns
Not: A conscientious teacher gives her students useful
handouts.
But: A conscientious teacher gives useful handouts
to students.
- use the gender-free
pronoun you
Not: Every student wants his teacher to give him good
marks.
But: You want your teacher to give you good marks.
- use the gender-free
plural pronoun they/their/them
Not: Every student wants his teacher to give him good
marks.
But: Every student wants their teacher to give them
good marks.
13.2 Avoiding
discrimination
for
minimising discriminatory language
No guidance is adequate
in these areas, since the social context of discrimination in Australia,
and therefore also the language, is in a state of flux. But there is already
a body of common experience in ways of achieving a direct, accurate, even
elegant style which avoids bias. See the Style manual pp 48–62.
13.3 Indigenous
peoples
For indigenous peoples, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Commission recommends that the following forms be used to designate
the original inhabitants of Australia and their descendants:
Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander peoples
When referring to
these races individually or to persons of either race, the following terms
are preferred:
Aboriginal (singular
noun)
Aboriginals )
Australian Aboriginals )
plural nouns
Aboriginal people(s) )
Aboriginal (adjective)
Torres Strait Islander (singular noun)
Torres Strait Islanders )
Torres Strait Islander people )
plural nouns
Torres Strait Islander (adjective)
Note the use of capitals.
The word aborigine, uncapitalised, is used to refer to
the original inhabitants of any other country.
14 Grammar
14.1 Usage
versus prescriptive grammar
In the early nineteenth century the rules that had been
developed as guides to good English came to be regarded as prescriptive,
and it is only recently that these rules about what is right
and wrong have given way to more flexible considerations
of what is appropriate or inappropriate usage. Context-appropriate usage
is now the criterion for what is acceptable, and must be interpreted in
terms of the author’s own sensitivity to meaning, rhythm and the
subtleties of usage in particular speech communities and levels of discourse.
Listed below are some common grammatical points where confusion can occur
or prescriptive rules linger. For more details see Chapter 5 of the Style
manual.
14.2 Adjectival and adverbial phrases
Adjectives
and adverbs, and adjectival and adverbial phrases and clauses, need to
be placed carefully in a sentence so that it is clear which word they
modify. Avoid what Americans call dangling modifiers,
where the word that should be modified has been dropped from the sentence.
For example: Riding his bike to school, the magpie dive-bombed
his head. However there are institutionalised dangling
participles, such as judging by, given that.
14.3 Pronoun
references
- Make sure
the reference of pronouns such as it, we,
this and that is clear.
The student’s teacher told him he needed a new textbook.
Who needed the new textbook?
The attitude to how we teach grammar has now changed.
Who is we in this sentence?
The price of these books has risen from $25 to $30. This
is too much.
Is the rise of $5 too much, or the new cost of $30?
- Whom
is obsolescent, but is still used generally as the object of a preposition,
and in formal writing as the direct object of a verb:
The student to whom I spoke is from China.
Our guest speaker, whom I am very proud to present …
14.4
Agreement
The verb in a clause will usually agree with its subject
in terms of whether it is singular or plural, as in:
the
student is absent
the students are absent
With collective nouns,
singular or plural agreement may be used, depending on whether it relates
to the whole group or the individuals within it. For example:
The
family is the basic social unit.
His family are all well-known musicians.
The words data
and media, which take a Latin form in the plural, are
now commonly used with a singular verb when they have a collective sense.
For example:
The
data on that is misleading.
The media has not covered that yet.
14.5
Split infinitives
Split infinitives are now in common use. Style guides
including the Style manual, Fowler, and Peters (see
para 31 and para 32) approve of them where the sentence would otherwise
be ambiguous or artificial. The important thing is for the sentence to
read well and convey the writer’s intention, either with or without
a split infinitive. For instance, compare to boldly go where
no man [sic] has gone before (Star
Trek), which splits the infinitive, with to go boldly …,
which does not. The former obviously achieves the desired effect.
15 Sentence
punctuation
For
a full discussion, see Chapter 6 ‘Spelling and word punctuation’
and Chapter 7 ‘Sentence punctuation’ in the Style manual.
NCELTR policy is to avoid unnecessary punctuation, but not to the point
of losing clarity or readability. The only exception to minimal punctuation
style is in the bibliography or reference list, which follows APA style,
the standard for linguistics academics. Punctuation marks are harder to
read on screen than in print, which makes it important not to write sentences
with multiple clauses that need extensive punctuation for electronic media.
15.1 Full stops
The full stop, or period, is the punctuation mark that
ends a sentence. For its use with captions, in tables and with abbreviations
see paras 10.1,
10.2,
19–19.4. Typing convention dictates
two spaces after a full stop, but the trend in typing and the common practice
in typesetting is to use one space only. NCELTR uses the single space.
15.2 Commas
- Commas should
be used to mark off a non-defining (or non-restrictive) relative clause
– that is, one that contains information that is not essential
to the definition of the subject but comments on it:
The questionnaires, which were distributed to 500 students,
have had an exceptionally good response rate.
- A defining clause
gives information that is essential to the identification of the subject
and should not be marked off by commas:
The questionnaires that contained missing pages were not
returned by the students.
If commas were inserted after questionnaires and pages, it would mean
all questionnaires had missing pages and were not returned.
- Do not use a comma
before and in a series unless it is necessary for clarity:
goals, objectives and learning style
student responses, teaching materials, student tasks, and records.
15.3 Quotation
marks
- For print publications,
use single quotation marks, then double for quoted material within a
quotation, then single within that. If a punctuation mark is part of
the quotation, it should be placed inside the quotation mark; if the
punctuation mark relates to the sentence rather than to the quotation,
it should be placed outside the quotation mark. For example:
The teacher said, ‘Although she told me “I can’t
speak English”, she was communicating very well indeed’.
- Single quotation
marks are more difficult to read on screen than double, so the practice
should be reversed for electronic publications:
The teacher said, “Although she told me ‘I can’t
speak English’, she was communicating very well indeed”.
- If the whole of
a printed sentence is a quotation, the full stop should be placed inside
the closing quotation mark:
‘The aim of the curriculum is to specify a range of
learning outcomes.’
- But if any part
of the sentence contains matter not quoted, then the final stop should
be placed outside the closing quotation mark:
The project coordinator stated, ‘The aim of the curriculum
is to specify a range of learning outcomes,’ and added ‘expressed
as competency statements’.
- Quotation marks
should not be used with indirect speech:
The students said that learning about culture was very important
for them.
or to enclose familiar expressions:
Some people never learn.
- For quotations
longer than a sentence or two, the quoted material should be indented
and single-spaced, without opening or closing quotation marks, or italics.
- When using a non-standard
colloquialism, enclose it in quotation marks, eg ‘buddy’.
15.4 Colons
- A colon is used
to introduce a run-on list or one set off from the text when the items
in the list are in apposition to an introductory word or are preceded
by the following or as follows. For
example:
The class has students of many
nationalities: Vietnamese, Cambodian, Chinese, Malaysian, Greek, Italian,
Chilean and Argentinian.
New vocabulary was presented through:
pictures
definitions
word groups
minimal context
maximum context.
- A colon is required
after words such as for example, including, such as, that is
and namely when they introduce a list set off from
the text, but not when they introduce a run-on list. For example:
The Publications Team consists
of experienced staff, such as:
writers
editors
designers
illustrators
proofreaders.
The worksheet questions tested various aspects of the
text, such as characters, story structure and comprehension.
- A colon is not
needed when the list is the complement or object of the introductory
words, but is generally used when the list is set off from the text:
The parts of speech he mentions
are nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives and prepositions.
The four areas the IELTS test covers are:
listening
speaking
reading
writing.
- A comma is the
most common punctuation to introduce a quotation or reported speech,
but a colon is used in the following cases:
– if the quotation is official:
The Campbell Report noted that: ‘All Australian residents
…’
– if the quotation consists of two or more complete sentences:
A workshop report noted the following: ‘The most obvious
problem with the continuation classes is the small proportion of migrants
who ever attend. Only about 1 in 12 of all migrants reach the classes
and then there is a high abandonment rate.’
– if the quotation is long enough to be indented – usually
when it is more than two or three lines of text:
The Style manual discusses the use of commas as follows:
Some people use commas liberally;
others use very few. In either case, the overriding criterion must
be whether a comma is needed to ensure that the message is unambiguous
and delivered effectively. (p 102)
15.5 Semicolons
A
semicolon indicates a stronger break than a comma but weaker than that
of a full stop.
It can be used to divide a sentence where the two parts are linked in
meaning. There should be a full clause in each of the two parts.
The manuscript is due to arrive
this week; editing can then commence immediately.
If the second clause is introduced by a connective word such
as, nevertheless, alternatively, that is, therefore, use
a semicolon, not a comma.
The closing date is next week; however, few survey forms have
been returned.
The semicolon is also used to separate a series of phrases
or clauses that also contain commas.
The report draws on a number of
sources, including current thinking in public health; risk analysis, which
has reached great sophistication in analysing investment behaviours; and
the results of econometric studies.
15.6 Dashes: em and en rules
The word dash refers to two main types
of punctuation: the em rule and the en rule.
- dash, or em rule
(—). What is generally referred to as the dash is known to typesetters
as an em rule, so called because it is the width of
the letter m in the particular typeface you’re
using.
A pair of dashes (or em rules) may be used to mark off a parenthetical
element when commas or parentheses would not have enough impact. NCELTR
prefers the use of the spaced en rule following the current practice
in modern typography. For example:
Three elements of phonation
– loudness, pitch and timbre – are introduced in the Rheme
of clause 1.
- en rule (–).
The en rule is a shorter rule, or half an em.
An en rule is used in spans of figures, in expressions relating to time
or distance, and to express an association between words that retain
their separate identity. For example:
pages 53–4, Brisbane–Mackay,
Commonwealth–State relations, hand–eye coordination
- spaced en rule
( – ). The spaced en rule is composed of an en rule with a space
either side. It is used where it makes the meaning clearer or more easily
readable, especially to connect compound items which have internal space.
For example:
Adult migrant education entered
a new phase over the next decade (1991 – 2001) …
rather than
Adult migrant education entered a new phase over the next
decade (1991–2001) …
Advanced level proficiency – although there are
some mistakes, you are able to understand and use complicated English
…
rather than
Advanced level proficiency - although there are some mistakes, you
are able to understand and use complicated English…
15.7 Slashes
- A slash –
also known as a diagonal, oblique or solidus – is used to express
alternatives (male/female, books and/or journals)
and to express the words per, a or
an with symbols or abbreviations (80 km/h – but
80 kilometres per hour).
15.8 Punctuation
in lists
- In a list
set off from the text, usually no punctuation is used at the end of
each item.
Social life can be divided into four broad domains of language
use:
– family
– community
– work
– education.
However, if the items are complete sentences, an initial capital and
a full stop should be used.
Generic structure analysis can
be approached in the following way:
– Categorise the text according to its sociocultural purpose.
– Label the stages of the text with functional labels.
– Indicate which stages are obligatory and which are optional.
- Semicolons should
be used at the end of each item in a run-on list if there are phrases
that already contain commas. A full stop is then used for the last item.
Also present were:
– clear, mutual respect, trust and professional interaction,
maintained by constant communication between partners, thus pre-empting
any potential areas of conflict;
– flexibility of the partners to changing circumstances, as
demonstrated by their responsiveness to the developing needs of the
class.
16
Spelling, word punctuation and setting
For standard spellings consult the third edition of the
Macquarie dictionary, published in 1997.
Spelling should be consistent throughout any one text. If in doubt, look
the word up. As a quick reference, a list of word groups with variable
spellings, with the NCELTR preference, is given at 16.1.1.
The spelling in quotations or in foreign names should not be changed.
The word sic, enclosed in square brackets, can be inserted
after a misspelt word.
Many software packages contain a spellcheck facility, but the use of spellchecks
alone is not recommended. They are often based on American spellings,
and they do not identify spellings that are incorrect in the context in
which they occur – for example, their
instead of there, he
instead of the.
16.1 Spelling
variants
The Macquarie dictionary provides the standard
spellings for an Australian audience. When writing for a wider audience,
particularly on the Internet, other considerations arise:
- Australian spelling
conventions may be unfamiliar to the reader
- Australian standard
spellings may be seen as British convention as opposed to the American.
The following list
presents common groups of variable spellings with the preferred form for
NCELTR Publishing and a usage note to provide a wider context.
16.1.1 Preferred
spellings
-er/-or
Rule: Where there is a choice between the –er
and –or endings for agent nouns, use the –er
ending (for exceptions see Usage note 5
). Agent nouns formed from verbs ending in –ate always
take the –or ending, as in communicator.
Examples:
adapter
adviser
conjurer
convener
-ing/-eing
Rule: For verbs that end in e, drop the e
when forming the present participle (for exceptions see Usage note6
).
Examples:
aging
cringing
queuing
-ise/-ize
Rule: Use –ise rather than –ize
for verb endings.7
Examples:
contextualised
maximise
minimising
organise
-l/-ll
Rule: Use l for uninflected forms of verbs ending
with l (see Usage note for exceptions8
).
Examples:
appal
enrol
enthral
fulfil
Rule: Use ll for inflected forms of verbs ending
with l (see Usage note for exceptions).
Examples:
appalled, appalling
enrolled, enrolling
enthralled, enthralling
fulfilled, fulfilling
-ment/-ement
Rule: Do not include an e before nouns ending
in –ment.9
Examples:
abridgment
acknowledgment
judgment
-or/our
Rule: Use –our rather than –or
spellings.10
Examples:
colour
honour
humour
labour
-re/-er
Rule: Use –re rather than –er
spellings.11
Examples:
centre, centred
fibre
kilometre
theatre
-s/-ss
Rule: Do not double the s for inflected forms
of verbs ending in a single s (see Usage note for exceptions
).12
Examples:
chorus, chorused, chorusing
bias, biased
focus, focused, focusing
-t/-tt
Rule: The t at the end of verbs should only
be doubled in inflected forms if the word’s stress falls on the
syllable that ends in the t – as in admitted (see
Usage note for exceptions ).13
Examples:
ballot, balloted, balloting
limit, limited, limiting
market, marketed, marketing
target, targeted, targeting
-yse/-yze
Rule: Use the –yse spelling rather than
–yze. 14
Examples:
analyse
catalyse
paralyse
16.1.2
Miscellaneous preferred spellings
disc (in contexts such as biology: disc flower;
medicine: invertebrate disc; the phonograph industry: compact
disc)
disk (in computing: hard disk, floppy disk)15
program16
supersede 17
16.2 Plurals
There are sometimes alternative ways of forming the plurals
of nouns that are borrowed into English from other languages (loanwords)
– by adding the standard English plural suffix –s,
-es etc, or by using the plural form from the language of origin.
For example, appendix can become appendixes/appendices,
bureau can be bureaus/bureaux, curriculum can
be curriculums/curricula.
Rule: Use the English plural form for loanwords.
Examples:
appendixes
bureaus
curriculums
syllabuses
symposiums
16.3 Word
punctuation
Some punctuation marks affect the form of a word, including
the apostrophe and the hyphen and the full stop. The use of stops in abbreviations
is addressed in para 19, and sentence punctuation in para 15.
16.3.1 Apostrophes
- Apostrophes indicate
contractions and possessives. To form the possessive of a singular noun,
add an apostrophe and an s ( the cat’s tail,
the government’s new policy); to form
the possessive of a plural noun ending in s, add an
apostrophe after the s ( the cats’
tails, the governments’ policies).
For plurals which do not end in s, add an apostrophe and an s
( the children’s hats). The same rules
apply for proper nouns, except ancient and biblical names (Jesus’
words, Achilles’ heel).
- In statements of
joint ownership, only the last name has the apostrophe and s
added (my sister and brother’s cat, Gilbert and Sullivan’s
operas). If the ownership is not joint, each name has
the apostrophe and s (Claudia’s and
Roberto’s cars, Mozart’s and Beethoven’s symphonies).
- Apostrophes are
also used to form the plural of letters (p’s and q’s,
A’s and B’s), but not the plurals of abbreviations
or numbers (PhDs, Mas, 1970s).
- Apostrophes are
not used in the possessive of pronouns (his, hers, its,
ours, yours, theirs).
- Apostrophes are
used to mask missing letters in two-word contractions (can’t,
won’t, I’ll, she’ll, it’s).
- The most common
confusion is between it’s, meaning
it is, and its,
the possessive of it: The dog wags its tail when it’s
going for a walk.
16.3.2
Hyphens
The hyphen (-) is the shortest of the three dashes (compare
em and en rules, para 15.6). It is used in word
division and in forming complex words and compound words (see para
16.4). For guidelines on breaking words that come at the end of a
line, refer to the Style manual (pp 93–4).
16.4
Word setting
The decision as to whether to set a word or phrase that
consists of separate elements (such as prefixes, suffixes, independent
words) solid, with hyphen(s) or spaced, is not always straightforward.
The following paragraphs present some of the rules that govern this decision,
and list some examples.
16.4.1 Complex
words
Complex words consist of words that are combined with prefixes,
suffixes or other uninflected words (known as combining forms) that modify
their meaning.
Rules:
a) Prefixes are not generally followed by a hyphen, except:
- to avoid a double
vowel, and sometimes two vowels coming together, eg anti-immigration,
anti-union, de-emphasise, pre-empt (but note cooperate, coordinate,
extraordinary) 18
- before a capital
letter, eg pre-Columbian, anti-European, un-Australian
- before a date,
eg pre-1600, post-1945
- after ex meaning
former, eg ex-husband, ex-president
- to distinguish
separate meanings, eg re-form and reform, re-creation and
recreation.
b) Non-lexical items
(usually prepositions) are generally followed or preceded by a hyphen.
Examples
| Prefixes |
Combining
forms
(premodifying) |
Combining
forms
(postmodfying) |
|
 |
 |
 |
audio-
audiovisual
bi-
bilingual
co-19
cooperate
coordinate, coordinator
hyper-
hyperlink
hypertext
inter-
interaction, interactive
interpersonal
interrelated
meta-
metadata
multi-
multicultural
multidimensional
multifaceted
multiskilled, multiskilling
non- 20
nonsexist language
nonverbal
non-native speakers
non-standard
non-recognition
non English speaking
non English speaking
background
para-
para-professional
post-
postdoctoral
postgraduate
postmodernism
pre-
predetermine
prepackaged
presupposes
re-
redesign
reorder
rephrased
rereading
restructured
restructuring
rewrite
semi-
semiautonomous
semiformal
socio-
sociocultural
sub-
subheadings
subtitles |
|
cross-
cross-cultural
cross-sectional
e-21
email
in-
in-house
on-
online
ongoing
on-site
over-22
overemphasise
over-representation
self-
self-assessment
self-determined
self-help
self-monitoring
well-
well-developed
well-known |
|
-down
shut-down (noun)
-off
one-off
-out
print-out (noun)
-up
follow-up
pop-up |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
16.4.2 Compound
words
Compound words consist of two (or more) separable parts,
each of which can stand as a word in its own right. The compound may,
however, be set in one of three ways: spaced, hyphenated or set solid.
There is a good deal of variance in the way in which noun compounds are
set, but those for adjectives are relatively clear cut. Both types are
discussed below.
- compound adjectives
– compound adjectives take hyphens
when used attributively (ie preceding a noun). The words of which
they consist may otherwise be spaced, according to their role in the
sentence. Compare:
first-class honours travelling
first class
a real-life experience
it happens in real life
the decision-making
process decision making is an art
– compound adjectives that involve an adverb ending in -ly
are left spaced, eg finely honed, nationally
recognised
Compound
adjective examples:
| Compound
modifiers |
Compound base forms |
Phrasal compounds |
 |
 |
overseas
overseas-born
overseas-qualified
task
task-oriented
task-related |
-assisted
computer-assisted
-based
competency-based
computer-based
enterprise-based
genre-based
industry-based
needs-based
questionnaire-based
team-based
training-based
-directed
goal-directed
-ended
open-ended
-effective
cost-effective
-enhanced
computer-enhanced
-friendly
computer-friendly
reader-friendly
user-friendly
-referenced
criterion-referenced
-related
computer-related
curriculum-related
job-related
language-related
task-related
-scale
large-scale
small-scale,
smaller-scale |
day-to-day
easy-to-use
on-the-job
one-to-one |
|
|
|
- compound nouns
– common nouns used as modifiers or base forms are normally
set solid in compounds:
| Compound
modifiers |
Compound base forms |
 |
 |
work
workforce
workmates
workplace
workstations |
-work
framework
homework
piecework
roadwork |
– when a
single-syllable noun is followed by an inflected verb, the term is
usually set solid: bookmaker, leavetaking, wordprocessor;
when the noun consists of more than one syllable, the term is presented
with a hyphen or as two words: record-keeping, language
testing
17 Capitals
The modern tendency is towards less capitalisation. Capitals
are nevertheless regularly used for:
- specific and proper
names to distinguish them from general and common names, eg Jean
Bennett, Thomas Henry Wilson
- personifications,
eg Beauty, Time
- nicknames and
epithets, eg Alexander the Great
- names of organisations,
institutions and other such bodies when they are given in full, eg Department
of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs, Macquarie University,
the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Amnesty International,
the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, but not when
they are subsequently referred to by their generic element, eg the
university, the department, the company
- some organisations,
when referred to in full and when subsequently referred to in official
publications by their generic element:
the
House of Representatives the
House
the Federal Parliament the
Parliament
But government
is lower-cased in both official and other publications when it does
not refer to a specific entity or is used adjectivally:
local
government
good government
government policy
And some words
connected with specific institutions are capitalised so that they
are distinguished from their generic meaning, eg the Treasury,
the Budget, the Crown, the Bar, the Bench, the Cabinet, the Chair,
the Constitution
- nationalities,
races, tribes, place names, eg the Chinese, African-Americans,
Buddhists, North Queenslanders, the Darling Downs, but
not venetian blinds
- trademarks, eg
Kodak, Kleenex
- computer and Internet
terms such as CD-ROM, Internet, Net, World Wide Web and
Web 23
- days, months,
feasts, ceremonies, time zones, eg Friday, July, Christmas,
Anzac
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