COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA HANSARD STYLE GUIDE JUNE 2005 CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................1 1.1 STYLE............................................................................................................................................................1 1.2 SPELLING.......................................................................................................................................................1 2. ABBREVIATIONS AND CONTRACTIONS ...............................................................................................3 2.1 ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................................................3 2.2 AMPERSAND ..................................................................................................................................................3 2.3 AWARDS, GRADES, ORDERS AND TITLES ........................................................................................................3 2.4 CENTS............................................................................................................................................................3 2.5 COMPANY NAMES ..........................................................................................................................................4 2.6 CONTRACTIONS .............................................................................................................................................4 2.7 COURTESY TITLES..........................................................................................................................................4 2.8 HONOURABLE ................................................................................................................................................5 2.9 INITIALS.........................................................................................................................................................5 2.10 LATIN ..........................................................................................................................................................6 2.11 MILLIONS, BILLIONS AND TRILLIONS ...........................................................................................................6 2.12 NUMBER ......................................................................................................................................................6 2.13 STREETS ET CETERA.....................................................................................................................................6 2.14 VERSUS .......................................................................................................................................................6 3. ACRONYMS AND COMPOUND NAMES...................................................................................................7 3.1 ACRONYMS....................................................................................................................................................7 3.1.1 Use capital letters without full stops in acronyms and sets of initials...................................................7 3.1.2 Some acronyms have become fully accepted as independent words .....................................................7 3.2 COMPOUND NAMES........................................................................................................................................7 3.3 BRACKETS .....................................................................................................................................................8 3.4 PLURALS........................................................................................................................................................8 3.5 POSSESSIVES..................................................................................................................................................8 4. THE FUNCTION OF CAPITAL LETTERS.................................................................................................9 4.1 NAMES OF BODIES .........................................................................................................................................9 4.2 COMMONWEALTH, STATE AND TERRITORY GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS ...................................................10 4.3 TITLES OF POSITIONS ...................................................................................................................................11 4.4 DEGREES, ORDERS AND AWARDS .................................................................................................................13 4.5 SCHEMES, POLICIES, PROGRAMS ET CETERA.................................................................................................13 4.6 CONVENTIONS, TREATIES, AGREEMENTS, CONFERENCES, SEMINARS ET CETERA..........................................14 4.7 HISTORICAL, POLITICAL AND SPORTING EVENTS..........................................................................................15 4.8 SPECIAL OCCASIONS ....................................................................................................................................15 4.9 PLACE NAMES..............................................................................................................................................16 4.10 GROUPS OF PEOPLE....................................................................................................................................18 4.11 ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS GROUPS................................................................................................................18 4.12 IDEOLOGIES ...............................................................................................................................................19 4.13 WORDS DERIVED FROM PROPER NAMES.....................................................................................................19 4.14 SCIENTIFIC TERMINOLOGY.........................................................................................................................20 4.15 TRADEMARKS............................................................................................................................................21 4.16 TITLES .......................................................................................................................................................22 4.16.1 Books, poems, plays, operas, ballets, brochures, musicals, films, songs, works of art, and radio and television programs ......................................................................................................................................22 4.16.2 Newspapers and magazines...............................................................................................................22 4.16.3 Reports (including audit reports and reports of committees of the parliament) and white papers...22 4.16.4 Annual reports...................................................................................................................................23 4.16.5 Collections and exhibitions ...............................................................................................................23 4.16.6 Web sites and webpages ....................................................................................................................23 4.17 SACRED WRITINGS .....................................................................................................................................23 4.18 CAPITALS ASSOCIATED WITH PUNCTUATION..............................................................................................23 4.18.1 Hyphenated proper names.................................................................................................................23 4.18.2 Colons................................................................................................................................................23 4.19 PARLIAMENTARY AND PUBLIC SERVICE TERMS ........................................................................................24 4.20 DEFENCE TERMS ........................................................................................................................................24 4.21 NEWSPAPER HEADLINES.............................................................................................................................24 5. ITALICS..........................................................................................................................................................25 5.1 NAMES OF NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS .................................................................................................25 5.2 BOOKS, POEMS, PLAYS, BOOKLETS, HANDBOOKS, BROCHURES, OPERAS, BALLETS, MUSICALS, FILMS, LEAFLETS, WORKS OF ART, SONGS, COLLECTIONS, EXHIBITIONS, AND RADIO AND TELEVISION PROGRAMS .......25 5.3 SCIENTIFIC NAMES .......................................................................................................................................26 5.4 SHIPS, AIRCRAFT AND TRAINS......................................................................................................................26 5.5 DESCRIPTIVE LINES NOT PART OF THE NORMAL FORMS OF PROCEDURE .......................................................27 5.6 DO NOT USE ITALICS ....................................................................................................................................27