Welcome to the Guidomedia basic writing style page

General
Your writing style should follow newspaper practice, which is aimed at brevity and clear communication.

It is critical that you express yourself consistently. You might adopt a slightly different style that is 'wrong' in expression of details, though it will communicate well so long as it is consistent.

This guide is by no means comprehensive and should be treated as a useful starter. There are several good style guides in print and it is worth finding one you are comfortable with. While the details will vary between publications, the principles are universal. We can recommend the News Limited style guide, which is sold via this link.

As a professional writer you will also discover that many publications have a "house style" which will describe how many writing issues are addressed. It is worth asking for a copy of the house style guide, or observing the publication's use of language.

Understanding general and house style will greatly increase your value and opportunities as a writer.

It's worth noting that this document uses the term "publication" in its broadest sense -- anything that is published, regardless of whether it happens to be in print, electronic, or other forms.

Why have a style?
A consistent style makes it easier for your audience to unravel the language and understand your message. It often uses less words.

Numbers
Use words for whole numbers under 10 -- three, nine etc.
Use numerals for numbers 10 and over.
Do not use commas for numbers under 10,000 -- use 7486, 9899 etc. Not 7,486.
When using millions, use 4 million, 32.3 million and so on.
Express fractions as decimals where possible -- 2.3 etc.
You may use common fractions such as half, third and quarter (expressed as words), but avoid complex fractions such as three-sixteenths.

Age 
four years old
the four-year-old 
29 years old 
the 29-year-old woman

Percentages
Express percentages in numerals.
4%

some house styles prefer 4 per cent

Dates
29 January, 2006.

some house styles prefer January 29, 2006

Time
4 o'clock in the afternoon, or
4pm
4.32pm (note use of point rather than colon)
Avoid use of military-style 24-hour expression.

Measures
4kg (note no space)
4.3kg
4km
23kW
Use numbers where abbreviations are used.
When using the whole word (i.e. kilogram or kilometre) use words for whole numbers under 10.

Money
US$4 million (make sure you know which currency -- is it local or US dollars? If in doubt, check and then do a conversion.)
$24.50 or $25 (do not be afraid to round out the figure)

Names
Ms Janine Forest
Mr James Green
Dr Muriel Hatton (note lack of dot point)

Apostrophes
Generally over-used.
Muriel's bag (indicates Muriel's ownership of the bag)
The boy's bag (a bag owned by one boy)
The boys' bag (a bag owned by a group of boys)
Never use apostrophes to indicate plurals -- i.e. CD's. Write CDs.
1980s can be abbreviated to the '80s (note placement of apostrophe), but why bother?
"It's" means "it is" -- It's likely to turn green.
"Its" suggests something belonging to "it"-- Its color is green.

Commas
Generally a sentence should make sense when one of the phrases indicated by commas is removed.
For example:
Ms Harper went home, though much later than she expected.
Ms Harper went home, much later than expected, using the number 49 bus.
Remove the part in italics from either of the above sentences and they still make sense, regardless of whether it comes from the first, middle, or last part of the sentence.

Confusion sometimes arises when a conjunction such as "and" is used. Try this.
We travelled all the way home by bus and, since she did such a great job, bought the driver a present.
We travelled all the way home by bus, and the driver did a great job.
Note the first comma is after, rather than before, the "and" in the first version. Both versions are correct – either sentence could lose the phrase in italics.

Colon
Used when you deliver what you just promised.
They mentioned several factors for the delay: Bad weather, poor access to public transport, lack of interest and the change of venue.
Note use of a upper case letter after the colon. This varies according to publication, but be consistent.

Semi-colon
Often used as a 'soft' full-stop to join two sentences. One to be avoided in most newspaper writing. To follow is an example. It was a night filled with evil; the wind howled through the tree tops. Note the use of lower case after the semi-colon.

Quotations
If ever in doubt, let your interviewee speak. This is by far the preferred format: "There is no reason to believe the rotten beggar ran off with my dog," she said.

Format is: "Blah blah," they said. Uncut quotes are the best. Avoid complications. Let your interview talk directly to the audience.

Punctuation of quotes...

"She won't be there," said Bill, "but I expect we'll see her later today."
"She won't be there, but I expect we'll see her later today," said Bill.
If in doubt, use the latter style. Note placement of commas and stops relative to the double quotation marks. Also note use of caps and lower case.

If you are only using a few words of a quote, rather than a full sentence, try this.
Bill said "she won't be there" and went on to explain that we might see her later in the day.

Or 
Bill explained we might see her later in the day, but advised "she might not get there". (Note the placement of the full stop after a partial quote.)

Single quotation marks are used for quotes within quotes.
"She said 'I won't be there' but I expect to see her later today," said Bill.

Single quotes can also be used to indicate the modified, rather than literal, use of a word.
Bill said they'd had a 'blue' and would miss the party.

You may break a long quote as below, so long as you are not taking it out of context.
Dr Jameson explained, "The climate change was due to several well-researched factors...including increasing use of hydrocarbons."
Note use of three dots -- no more, or less.

Multi-paragraph quotes: Begin the first par with a quote but do not close. Use close quote only on the last par.

Hyphens
Used to connect words as a single term. Use sparingly.
Four-year-old
Socio-economic
There are more subtleties to this, which should be examined in formal style guides.

Dash
Sometimes a useful device to highlight and isolate a phrase mid-sentence.
Her view was that -- given the current circumstances -- we could get on with the job.
In that example, the dash could be replaced with a comma. Note that a dash is 1.5 to twice the length of a hyphen and this may be important for copy that is going direct to publication. Ask your editor.

Simplicity
If you cannot punctuate a sentence, what hope does your reader have of understanding it? If in doubt, keep it simple and consider rewriting the sentence.

Active 
voice for news writing Bruce 
Kaplan (look for his excellent Editing Made Easy style guide) suggests 
the biggest clue to writing in an active news voice is to never use the word "by". 
A cat was run over by a car. A car ran over a cat. 
Always use the latter.

Abbreviations
i.e. (that is)
e.g. (for example)
kg (kilograms)
km (kilometres)
km/h (kilometres per hour)
Use of full words is often preferable, unless your audience is likely to understand the terms. Check the house style guide and be consistent. Expert terms might need explanation.

Abbreviations for organisations
When using an abbreviated name for an organisation, you should spell out the name and bracket the abbreviation the first time it is used.
For example:
The Transport Accident Commission (TAC) released a new policy today.
From there you can use TAC, without further explanation. Note there are no dots in TAC.

Introducing people
Always introduce people in your story.
For example:
Mr James Johnson, the president of the group, said, "We need to..."
From there you can refer to him as Mr Johnson, or preferably Johnson - but be consistent.
For example:
Johnson added that he felt their next move might be...

Titles
Much depends on house style.
A general guide is:
Mr Howard is the Prime Minister.
Mr Howard was a prime minister.
You might also say:
Dame Thatcher was a prime minister.
Again, house style is important.

Titles of artistic works

(e.g. books, films etc)

Use italics, with no quote marks.

Shakespeare's Hamlet will be produced by a local theatre company.

I knew that
You may come across the term (sic). It is used when quoting a source and acknowledging the editor realises that the quoted text is a misuse or mis-spelling of a word.

Singular or plural?
Australian and American styles refer to organisations as singular, while British style often uses plural.
In the UK: British Telecom say they will introduce new tariffs.
In Australia: Telstra says it will introduce new tariffs.

Which spelling?
For the moment we're using "our" rather than "or" -- e.g. colour & neighbour rather than color & neighbor.

For words such as organisation, note the use of S rather than Z.

Terminology
Be sensitive to the needs of the audience. Is a bonnet something worn on your head or something that covers the engine of a car? Or is that a hood?

There are many traps for players when it comes to spelling brands, names of artists and the like. Is it Fortune Hunter or 4Tune Hunter? This can reach ridiculous depths. A good example was the brand name "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince". In the latter case, any sensible editor/producer will find a 'short-hand' version.

Change
Be sensitive to change. Publications can change style overnight with the appointment of a new editor/producer/ringmaster.

Slang and jive-talk
Just a word of caution. Does the term "wicked" denote wickedness or exceptional quality? You might have just heard about it and that term could be yesterday's news for your audience. If in doubt, go for a simple approach.

Don't shout
Use exclamation marks very sparingly and one at a time. Lots of them indicates a desperate attempt to make the copy exciting. Is this more exciting when I use one after the question mark?! No!! Maybe three!!! Oh dear...

Use of italics, CAPS and underline, falls into the same category. Italics might indicate a title of a production/text, or special use of language, while caps and underlines should never be used. Generally they make more work for the person responsible for getting your words in front of an audience. Avoid them and leave the decision to the sub-editor.

Clean copy
Always use your spell-check. This will ensure your work is correctly spelled, though it could still be gibberish.

For example: Eye wrote this to cheque weather my pea-cee wood pick up sum mistakes that might happen. It said we could make a complete fuel of the grammer so long as it maid cents.

So go back and read it. Are the facts right? Have you checked the spelling of names? Have you tried the telephone numbers on a real phone to ensure they are right? Are the e-mail addresses correct? Have you unintentionally upset/defamed someone?

General style for good writing
Avoid using numbers to begin a sentence.
Avoid using the same word to start consecutive sentences.
Avoid using the same word to start consecutive paragraphs.
Avoid repetition of descriptive words in a sentence and paragraph.

Decide whether your piece is news, feature, information, or opinion -- or one of the many variants on those themes. Know your approach from the start.

Hard news style is short, sharp, and direct with information presented in descending order of importance. The whole story should be contained in the first sentence. Our house style is one sentence per par in hard news.

Our soft news style is that of a mini feature.

Feature style is generally more luxurious and the opening sentence may be designed to intrigue, rather than inform. Longer paragraphs than for news are acceptable. However you must be sure not to test your audience's patience too far. The theme should be abundantly clear by paragraph three – at the latest.

Our house style requires the use of a precede (or Editor's intro) and subheads for features. We also require at least one sidebar (or breakout story).

Remember your punter, whose expertise on the subject will vary from nil to greater than yours. Understand your audience.

Don't be afraid to vary the pace of your writing in features. If your sentence structure tends towards long and thoughtful, consider using a short and sharp sentence to highlight a point and perhaps re-awaken the reader.

Does your piece fit with the publication? Become familiar with the environment before submitting a story.

Do not over-write and embellish a story. Good content, simply expressed, will always win over something that is contrived.

Pedants?
Much of this material will seem pedantic in the extreme to newcomers. However it represents what is regarded as basic and normal for any professional publishing outfit and, if anything, understates the case.

None of the rules/advice mentioned here need restrict your creativity. Quite the opposite. Once you understand the detail and implications of what your are writing, you can get published and enjoy yourself. Much of the detail will become second-nature - like learning to drive a car or a computer. An editor/publisher/producer will always give more freedom to a writer who understands the game than to someone they don't trust.

Would you like more information? Our two favourite print guides are Editing Made Easy, Bruce Kaplan (Penguin) and Style by News Ltd. Or return to our style page for further resources.