When submitting your work to On The Record and for most journalism assignments at UniSA you should follow the ABC Style Guide available here. The advantage of the ABC Style Guide is that it is a live industry document and is updated as new words enter the news cycle.
However, we also have a few key rules and tips we want you to be aware of and we have collated these in a short guide below.
Acronyms
Limit the use of unfamiliar acronyms. If you need to use them, though, spell out in first reference and, from second reference, use the abbreviated form. For example: A report was sent to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) on June 5, 2014. The ACMA responded in late July.
Some acronyms are acceptable without explanation, in headlines and elsewhere e.g. (VIP, CEO, BP). Use your judgement to decide if it is widely enough known.
Occasionally, a descriptive sentence is preferable to spelling out, e.g. football’s governing body FIFA or UN children’s agency UNICEF.
Ages
The ABC style guide states that for ages, as with other numbers spell out one to nine and use numerals for 10 and above, use hyphens (not dashes) as part of the age description e.g. 22-year-old Joseph Nagel and six-year-old Jenny Sanders.
However our house style, which should be used in most circumstances in both news and features, is to write the age after the name, and to always use numerals: Jenny Sanders, 6, lost her favourite toy.
When writing in decades do not include an apostrophe e.g. the woman was in her 30s
Artistic works
The ABC style guide states that artistic works should not be written in italics or quotations, but that they do take capitals e.g. A Clockwork Orange.
However, in our house style, titles of artistic works (e.g. books, films, exhibitions, plays, albums) should be italicised e.g. A Clockwork Orange.
Unlike albums, song titles do not need to be italicised, but should be in double quotations e.g. “Somebody to Love” from Queen’s album, A Day at the Races.
Attribution
Attribute everything. Nearly every sentence written in journalism should be attributed somewhere (this includes attributing to your own witnessing of events). Only facts that are widely known can be left without attribution (although they should still be verified.)
Attribution should always be as clear and simple as possible.
For direct quotes the best descriptor for speech is simply the descriptor ‘said’ for news articles and ‘says’ for feature articles. Any other descriptor may introduce elements of bias in your writing.
In most cases the speaker should be introduced first before a full direct quote is used, with their position coming before their name. For example:
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced that the Voice referendum will take place in late 2023.
“This is an opportunity to right the injustices of the past,” Mr Albanese said.
“I will be voting yes,” he said
“I hope you do too.”
In the above example please also note the order of attribution which is paraphrase, full name and courtesy title, she/he/they said and after this no attribution is necessary.
An alternative to paraphrasing in the first instance of introducing a speaker is to use a colon e.g.
Dahas Project team leader Joel F. Ariate said: “The war on drugs will continue so long as people are making money from it.”
In a news story in the lead you may put the news point first followed by attribution. However, after this, so as to ensure clarity about who is talking, the attribution comes first.
Dates and times
For dates write the month then day then comma then year: February 9, 1985.
For time: 6am, 3pm, 9:30pm, 11:58pm. Avoid tautologies such as 3am this morning.
Images
Images should be either taken by the journalist/s, royalty free or supplied by a source.
For any images not taken by the journalist/s, credit must be provided, regardless of whether the image is royalty free.
When submitting a story for publication, always advise the editor where the image was sourced from and, for images sourced online (royalty free), provide a hyperlink to the creator’s webpage.
Images should be in a 4:3 aspect ratio where possible.
Italics
Italics should be used for names of plays, books, films and exhibitions.
Numbers/Numerals (including currency and distances)
Always spell out numerals if they are at the start of a sentence, e.g. Thirty people have died on SA roads so far this year.
Elsewhere in the story write out zero to nine but use numerals from 10 to 999,999. Millions and billions are written in words and figures, e.g. 1 million, 8.6 billion. Once a number gets to 1,000 use a comma.
For currency and distances always use numerals even if the number is smaller than 10 e.g. $2, $7.50, $3 million, $4.2 billion.
If a story uses a foreign currency, convert the amount to Australian currency in brackets following the original amount e.g. the man was fined 3,500 rupees ($70).
Distances e.g. 3 kilometres (not three kilometres).
Quotation marks
Use double quote marks to indicate speech.
When a quote is a complete sentence, put the closing quote mark outside of the comma or full stop e.g. “I am extremely tired.” Or “I am extremely tired,” Mr Smith said.
When it is a partial quote, put it inside e.g. Mr Smith said he was “extremely tired”.
A quote in a quote carries single quote marks e.g. “I asked the bus driver to help but he said, ‘That’s not my job’,” Ms Jones said.
Colons are most often used for full sentences and take double quote marks e.g. The company released a statement, which said: “This is a tragedy and our thoughts are with the families.”
Tenses
In news articles, your teaser text and short teaser text should be in present tense. The first paragraph should also be in an active tense. The rest of the story should be in the past tense, unless specifically referencing ongoing or future events.
For feature stories use present tense throughout.
Titles
General rule for news is to use the first and last name in the first instance (Joanna Bloggs) and the honorific and last name in subsequent references (Ms Bloggs).
General rule for feature stories is to use first and last name in the first instance (Joanna Bloggs) and last name (no honorific) in subsequent mentions e.g. Bloggs says the occasion was “incredibly exciting”.
Don’t assume someone is a Mrs or Miss – if in doubt use Ms, but better to check preference if possible.
If someone if a Sir, Dame, Dr, Reverend (Rev) or Professor (Prof), Councillor (Cr) use that honorific instead of Mr/Mrs/Ms, especially if the honorific is relevant to why they are being quoted in the story. No full stops after the honorific, so Dr/Ms/Mr NOT Dr./Ms./Mr.
Generally, politicians take their full title on first reference, with courtesy titles for subsequent reference: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese today announced… Mr Albanese said. Senators have their own courtesy title to use on subsequent reference: Greens senator Lidia Thorpe today announced… Senator Thorpe said.
The same principle holds for local government: Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore today announced… Cr Moore said.
When describing a position, e.g. Greens senator, the position is lower case. When the position is used in place of an honorific the position takes a cap e.g. Senator Thorpe.
More details and examples are available on the ABC Style guide under the sub heading Titles.
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