Some Points of Style from www.write101.com

When you're writing for general consumption, you need to follow certain conventions of style.
Print out these tips and keep them handy as a ready reference!

These have evolved over the years as the most effective / efficient ways to convey ideas to a mass readership, so who are we to buck the system?

You'll often find that there are 'in-house' variations on these, so follow the lead of your own organisation / community.

NB Organisation is a perfect example - US-based spelling prefers organization, but in Australia, Britain and other places, it's organisation.

The important point with style is to be consistent. If you use organisation on your first page, then that's how it must be spelt (or spelled ...) on every page.

If you use the -ed form of the past tense for verbs like spelled (rather than the -t), then use it for all similar verbs throughout your document (learned / learnt; burned / burnt etc).

The whole point of writing something is to communicate your ideas to others. If readers are constantly distracted by your devil-may-care approach to the rules of consistency, they'll be so busy watching for the next example, they won't pay any attention to your message or content.

NUMBERS

The general rule is to write the word for numbers under (and including) one hundred, and to use numeral for numbers over:

Ten green bottles; seventy-six trombones; 500 miles; 1,500 people (or 1 500)

When the number is greater than 999, you can use a comma or a space (be consistent and follow 'house rules').

If the number opens the sentence, write the words:

Four thousand tickets were sold, of which 3 000 were pre-booked.

When using approximations and round figures, write the word:

about forty thousand horsemen; nearly ten million sheep

When referring to millions (and these days) billions, use the numerals to indicate the number of millions / billions:

$238 million; 3 billion potential customers

When referring to spans of numbers, use as few numerals as possible:

pp. 350-5; 626-48;

except for numbers between 10 and 19:

10-15; 12-19

and dates:

1630-1698; 1985-2000

When decimal numbers are less than unity, place a zero before the decimal point (except in cases such as calibre):

0.25 (not .25); but .303 calibre

Use numerals for sums of money, times, weights, measures, degrees of inclination and temperature, percentages and a person's age (sometimes):

$5.50; 48c; 11.30a.m.; 15 tonnes; an angle of 45 degrees; 50 per cent (or 50%); a woman aged 90; he lived to the age of ninety

If writing about military forces use abbreviated ordinal numbers for units and formations up to divisions:

the 2nd battalion; the 6th Division

Use roman numerals to designate corps:

the X Corps

Use full ordinal numbers (and capital letters) for armies:

the Eighth Army

Roman numerals are upper case if they're used in titles:

George V; Henry IV

but are lower case when used for preliminary pages in books:

pp. iii-xx

DATES

The preference is for a format that leaves no possibility for ambiguity:

1 January 2000 (This requires no punctuation and is clear.) However, 2/11/2004 could be 2 November or 11 February!)

Years and spans of years are as follows:

A.D. 1066; 44 B.C.; 1855-59 (not 1855-9); the 1960s (NO apostrophe)

CAPITALS

All proper nouns take a capital letter:

people - Garth Hopper; Grandmother (but not her grandmother)

places - Australia; Sydney Harbour

days of the week - Monday; Friday

months - April; August

But NOT the seasons - spring; winter

important holidays / festivals - Christmas; Easter; Passover; Ramadan

groups - Labor Party; Wilderness Society

languages and nationalities - Swahili; Cantonese cooking; Persian cat;

religious deities - God; Buddha; Allah; Yahweh; Zeus

the World Wide Web; WWW; the Internet

Points of the compass take capitals when they're part of the name of an area or when they refer to a part of a country:

South Pole; East Malvern; We're moving to the West

Abbreviations use capitals:

MCG - Melbourne Cricket Ground; B.Sc. - Bachelor of Science

Titles of books, films, plays, television shows etc use capitals for all words except articles and conjunctions (unless the first word of the title) and are also italicised or put in quotation marks:

The Day of the Triffids: Star Wars; One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; This Day Tonight

HYPHENS

Numbers are hyphenated when used to denote age:

twenty-five year old man

Compound terms in titles take a capital for the first word but lower case for the second word IF it's a modifier:

Hands-on Learning Program

Both words have capitals if they are of equal weight:

English-Speaking Facilitators

You'll find lots more tips at my site www.write101.com