HANSARD STYLE GUIDE Bermuda House of Assembly and Senate Revised May 2011 A note about this Style Guide: This Style Guide has been prepared for the Bermuda House of Assembly and Senate to provide information and guidelines specific to Hansard production. It does not attempt to address all rules of grammar. On matters where this Style Guide is silent please refer to The Chicago Manual of Style. A note about Hansard production: The production of Hansard is guided by the Rules of the Senate, the Standing Orders of the House of Assembly and the principles found in Erskine May’s Parliamentary Practice. JanScription International LLC Prepared by Janet Seffer JanScription International LLC www.janscription.com Style Guide TABLE OF CONTENTS i TABLE OF CONTENTS SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION TO HANSARD What is Hansard? .......................................................................................................................................................1.1 How is Hansard used?...............................................................................................................................................1.1 Hansard Association Links.......................................................................................................................................1.2 Reference works essential to Hansard production................................................................................................1.2 Required Skill Set .......................................................................................................................................................1.3 How Hansard is produced........................................................................................................................................1.4 Sample letter to Members.........................................................................................................................................1.5 SECTION 2 GENERAL INFORMATION Abbreviations: ...........................................................................................................................................................2.2 Accademic Degrees ...................................................................................................................................................2.1 Accent marks: ............................................................................................................................................................2.2 Acronyms:...................................................................................................................................................................2.2 Adjournment: .............................................................................................................................................................2.2 Ampersand:.................................................................................................................................................................2.3 And/or: .......................................................................................................................................................................2.3 Apostrophe: ................................................................................................................................................................2.3 Bills.........................................................................................................................................................2.3 Stages of a Bill...............................................................................................................................................2.3 Terminology relating to a Bill.....................................................................................................................2.4 First reading: ...............................................................................................................................2.4 Second reading..............................................................................................................................................2.5 Committee on .......................................................................................................................2.5-2.6 Report on Bill .............................................................................................................................2.7 Third reading ..............................................................................................................................2.7 Brackets: .................................................................................................................................................2.8 Capital letters: ..................................................................................................................................2.8–2.9 Citations ......................................................................................................................................................................2.9 Clerk.......................................................................................................................................................................... 2.10 Colon: ..................................................................................................................................................2.10 Comma: ................................................................................................................................................2.10 Company names:...................................................................................................................................2.10 Compound names: ................................................................................................................................2.10 Style Guide TABLE OF CONTENTS ii Continuation of debate:.........................................................................................................................2.11 Contractions:.........................................................................................................................................2.11 Corrections ...........................................................................................................................................2.11 Currency: ..............................................................................................................................................2.11 Dash: (see em dash; en dash and hyphen).............................................................................................2.11 Dates:....................................................................................................................................................2.12 Diacritical accents marks: ......................................................................................................................2.12 Digital skips:..........................................................................................................................................2.12 Divisions: (see voting/divisions) ...........................................................................................................2.12 Editing ..................................................................................................................................................2.12 Editorial comments:..............................................................................................................................2.13 Ellipsis: .................................................................................................................................................2.13 Em dash:...............................................................................................................................................2.14 En dash.................................................................................................................................................2.14 Erratum: (see errors (correcting of))......................................................................................................2.14 Errors (correcting of): ...........................................................................................................................2.14 Exclamation marks:...............................................................................................................................2.14 Expletives .............................................................................................................................................2.15 Expunging:............................................................................................................................................2.15 False starts:............................................................................................................................................2.15 Foreign language words: (see italics)......................................................................................................2.15 Grammar: .............................................................................................................................................2.15 Hear, hear: ............................................................................................................................................2.15 Homophones: .......................................................................................................................................2.16 Hyphen: ................................................................................................................................................2.16