Abbreviations and Acronyms
Abbreviations should be listed in brackets after the full name in the first instance, i,e Sunshine Coast Independent School Sports Association (SCISSA), Perceptual Motor Program (PMP). The acronym can then be used thereafter.
The following acronyms do not need to be written in full in the first instance.
UNESCO / ATAR / NAPLAN / GELC
Book and Plays
Title of books, films, publications to be italicised, Highschool Musical, Wind in the Willows or Grammar Community Magazine.
Do not use italics for names of initiatives, programs, policies, or surveys, i,e People, Planet and Progress, Buy a Seat on the Bus, Grammar Helping Hands etc.
Companies and Organisations
Do not italicise company or organisation names. Instead, you should write the name as the organisation writes it, including any specific capitalisation or punctuation they use, to ensure consistency and correct identification.
Songs
Song titles are generally placed within single quotation marks and use sentence case capitalisation. Punctuation marks belonging to the title go inside the quotation marks
'We are Better Together!'
Dates
Tuesday 27 October, 2021
Numbers
Please remember that numbers under 10 should be written in full
First XVIII not 1st XVIII
Year 12s not Year 12’s
Year 1, Week 5, Term 4, Division 1, Round 3
Spelling Preferences
‘Program’, not ‘programme’
Coordinator not Co-ordinator
World War II, not World War Two or Second World War
19th century, not nineteenth century
Avoid the use of slang, eg footy
The singular form of "alumni" is alumnus for a male former student and alumna for a female former student.
Lifelong Learner, not Life long Learner
Timor-Leste, not Timor Leste
Punctuation
Apostrophe
To form the possessive of singular nouns or indefinite pronouns, add an apostrophe and s: a dog’s breakfast, a room of one’s own. Plural nouns ending in s just get the apostrophe: the politicians’ dispute, athletics’ darkest day. Treat plural forms not ending in s as you would singular nouns: children’s games. For proper names ending in s, add an apostrophe and another s: Marcus’s parents, Higgins’s claim. Note some set phrases are treated as singular: writer’s block, cow’s milk.
Australian place names generally don’t have apostrophes: Kings Cross, Badgerys Creek. Some international place names retain them. Always check.
'Under 6s and 'Grammar two Ts' and 'Year 7s', not 'Under 6's' and Grammar two T's and 'Year 7's'.
Comma
Do not use a comma before 'and' as per below:
i.e 'Self-help skills and creative play helped develop communication, early literacy, and belonging.
Hyphens and Dashes
Use an en dash (–) to separate numbers, dates or distances: 'Years 1-6', June–July figures. Create it by holding down the Alt key and pressing 0150 on PC or Option + Hyphen (-) on mac
Use a hyphen when it acts as a compound adjective before a noun , i.e "nine-day immersive experience" or "A church-run volunteer group"
'cross country' not 'cross-country'
Capitalisation
Subjects always capitalised, i.e 'Japanese, Digital Technology, da Vinci Decathlon'
A common noun is a general name for a person, place, thing, or idea (e.g., city, river, person) and does not require a capital.
i.e 'primary school, secondary school' or 'swimming carnival, athletics carnival'
A proper noun is a specific name for a particular person, place, thing, or organisation and does require capitalisation.
i.e 'Primary and Seconday Class Coordinators' or 'Book Week'
‘We not Me’
'Grammar Helping Hands'
Quotes
Attribute quotes using the person's full name and title on the first reference, followed by the last name on subsequent mentions, and use the word "said" for attribution, placing punctuation inside the quotation marks.
"We are thrilled to be hosting this event," said Jane Smith, CEO of XYZ
For quotes longer than three lines, use a block quote by indenting the entire text.
Subjects
Language subjects are proper nouns and so must be capitalised.
i.e 'Mandarin' and 'French', but topic areas should be lower case.
For example capital for 'Mathematics' but not 'trigonometry' 'algebra skills'.