This Style Guide can be downloaded in PDF format.
This style sheet is based on the conventions cited in
Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers, 6th edn, John Wiley & Sons, Milton, Qld, 2002.
Format
Articles Submit as an email attachment in Rich Text Format (RTF) or MS Word format to
limina@cyllene.uwa.edu.au.
Provide a separate page giving your name, contact details and title of
the paper, and include a statement to the effect that the piece is not
under consideration elsewhere.
Abstracts Please include an abstract of approximately 150 words with your submission.
Paragraphs and Punctuation
- Single spacing for text and footnotes, unjustified and typed using only one font.
- Denote new paragraphs by indenting the first line with the tab key, not the space bar.
- Do not leave line spaces between paragraphs.
- Leave one space after full-stops (between sentences).
- Language should be set at English AUS or English UK.
Style
Abbreviations - The use of abbreviated titles in the text should be
avoided. Those in common usage (e.g. ABC, ACTU, ALP) are allowed (no
full-stops). Lengthy titles can be reduced to a shortened form (whole
words) after the first reference. The names of states (e.g. South
Australia) should be spelled out in full.
- Full stops should be used
when the abbreviation is in lower case or only the initial letter is in
upper case as in Mon., Jan., e.g., i.e., ibid. Abbreviations such as
WHO and PhD, which have more than one capital letter or all capitals,
have no full stops.
- For people’s names, separate the initials with full stops but not spaces (e.g. R.G. Menzies, J.-P. Sartre).
- Conventional abbreviations: trans. – translator or translated; edn – edition; c. – circa; fo. – folio.
Ampersand - Use an ampersand (&) in company and corporate names in footnotes and references.
Apostrophes - Omit
from years (e.g. 1930s). Use (s’) for plural nouns and (‘s) for
singular nouns unless the ‘s’ sound is already pronounced (eg. for
goodness’ sake).
- Ancient and biblical words do not have an extra ‘s’ (e.g. Jesus’, Achilles’).
Capitals
- Capitals
are appropriate for a specific entity – an institution, official
movement, enactment, place, title-bearer, etc. (e.g. the Federal
Parliament). The lower case is more appropriate for institutions,
officials, etc. mentioned in a general sense (e.g. federal legislation).
- Capitalise
positions/titles where they precede the person’s name (e.g. Senator
Richardson), but use lower case if used more generally (e.g. Richardson
was the senator).
- When referring to publications and other works,
capitalise both the main title and the sub-title (except for
prepositions and conjunctions). Always capitalise the first letter of
the subtitle, even if it is an article, preposition or conjunction
(e.g. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion).
- Capitalise
well-known geographical areas (e.g. Cape York Peninsula, Darling Scarp,
Nullarbor Plain). For more general terms of delineation use the lower
case (e.g. northern New South Wales, central Australia).
Contractions
- Contractions
(which are distinguished from abbreviations by the presence of the
final letter) do not require full-stops (e.g. ‘Dr’, ‘Mr’).
Dates
- Use
the form 19 September 1972, with no comma between the month and the
year. If the day of the week is given, then a comma should be inserted
after it (e.g. Friday, 6 June 1997).
- Use 1990-1995 rather than
1990-95. Use 1978/9 for a financial year. Where the date is given in
the title of a publication in the format 1992-93, leave it as it is.
- For uncertain dates, use a question mark before the date (e.g. ?1915-1930).
- Spell out nineteenth century, twelfth century etc. Hyphenate where used as an adjective (e.g. a fifteenth-century document).
Ellipsis
- An ellipsis is indicated by a space, three unspaced full-stops, space (e.g. ‘the prime minister ... was late.’)
- Where an ellipsis occurs after a full-stop, the format is the same (e.g. ‘It was a hot day. ... Everyone was thirsty.’)
Hyphens
- Keep to a minimum and use only where omission would cause ambiguity (e.g. four year-old children or four-year-old children).
- Compound
adjectives (e.g. middle-class opinion) require hyphens when used
attributively (e.g. ‘a well-known book’ but not in ‘the book is well
known’).
Italics - Use italics for non-English words and
phrases not in common usage, titles of published books, journals,
plays, films, works of art, symphonies and also for emphasis.
- Use italics sparingly for emphasis. Too many may be distracting and irritate the reader.
Numbers - Generally,
spell out numbers between ‘zero’ and ‘ninety-nine’ and use figures for
100 and above. Any size number used to open a sentence should be in
words.
- Don’t use commas in numbers of four or fewer digits. Numbers
of five or more digits should include a space where a comma was
formerly used (e.g. 3 800 000, or 39 000).
Quotations - Quotations
of fewer than thirty words in length should run in the text and be
enclosed within single quotation marks. Double quotation marks should
be used for quotations within quotations.
- Quoted passages which
exceed thirty words in length should be separated from the main body of
the text by the space of a line above and below (i.e. between the
quoted passage and the paragraph containing the quotation). The
quotation should not be enclosed in single quotation marks, but double
quotation marks should be used for quotations within the quoted
passage. Please do not indent the quoted passage.
- Square brackets should be used for interpolations within quotations.
- For the relative position of a closing quotation mark and punctuation mark, the following points should be observed:
- If the whole of a printed sentence is a quotation, the full stop should be placed inside the closing quotation mark.
- If only part of the printed sentence is quoted, the punctuation should be outside the closing quotation mark.
- In
quotations, the spelling of the original should normally be kept. To
avoid unnecessary queries, the marking ‘[sic]’ should be placed
immediately after any unusual spelling.
- When quoting a passage in a
language other than English, include an English translation in brackets
after the quotation. If the passage is longer than thirty words, use
the English translation in the text, and present it in the original
language as a footnote, citing the translator.
References within text
- For journal and other articles, short poems, songs and other single musical pieces use single quotation marks.
- When
referring to an author in the text, use the author’s name as shown on
the work referred to for first reference and surname only for
subsequent references.
- When referring generally to an
author/academic, use common appellation for the first reference and
surname only for subsequent references.
Spelling
- Use ‘ise’
in preference to ‘ize’, such as in organise and recognise (except in
proper names such as the World Health Organization, where the original
spelling is retained).
Footnotes
- Use the automatic footnote facility and place notes at the bottom of each page following the conventions detailed below.
- Do
not include a space between the superscript numeral and the beginning
of the citation. Further lines should not be indented, nor should there
be spaces between citations.
Contractions and abbreviations
- Note that ‘ed.’ is an abbreviation but ‘eds’ is a contraction and is therefore not followed by a full-stop.
Page numbering
- When
citing page numbers, repeat numerals in full, e.g. pp.215-218 (not
215-8 or 215-18). Use an ampersand when referring to non-consecutive
pages in footnotes, e.g. pp.245, 249 & 253.
Titles
- Significant words in the title and subtitle should be capitalised (except for prepositions and conjunctions).
- Always
capitalise the first letter of the subtitle, even if it is an article,
preposition or conjunction (e.g. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and
Religion).
- Use a colon to separate the title from the subtitle.
First Reference
Archival Sources
The range of possible citations of unpublished sources is too great to
allow for a precise convention covering all cases. In general, authors
are asked to follow the convention that the repository is cited first,
followed by any ‘finding aid’ name and number, the title/creator of
collection, the accession or consignment number, the item or file
number, title of item and date of item (optional). For more detailed
information, please refer to the guide to citation of references
produced by the State Records Office of Western Australia.
e.g. a)
State Records Office of Western Australia, AN 3/3, Department of Lands
and Surveys, Acc 541, 1581/1899, Karrakatta Cemetery By-laws.
b) Guildhall Library, London, MS 4329/1, Worshipful Company of Carpenters, Court Minutes Book, 1533-c.1577, fo.5.
Articles in journalsAuthor’s
initial(s) or first name(s), surname, title of article (in single
quotes), name of journal (in italics), volume (vol.), number (no.),
year, page(s).
e.g. Barbara Creed, ‘From Here to Modernity: Feminism and Postmodernism’,
Screen, vol. 28, no. 2, 1987, pp.47-67.
Note that ‘vol.’ and ‘no.’ are not capitalised.
BooksAuthor’s
initial(s) or first names(s), surname, title (in italics), publisher,
place, and date of publication, page reference (p. or pp.) Do not
include a space between p. or pp. and page number.
e.g. E.H. Carr,
What is History?, Pelican, London, 1964, p.3.
Where a reissue is cited, put the date of the original edition in brackets after the title.
e.g. J.B. Gribble,
Dark Deeds in a Sunny Land (1905), University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands, 1987, p.9.
Edited collections or chapters in booksAuthor’s initial(s) or first name(s), surname, title of chapter (in single quotes), in [as for Books above].
e.g.
B. Stoddart, ‘Sport and Society in 1890-1940’, in C.T. Stannage (ed.),
A New History of Western Australia, University of Western Australia
Press, Nedlands, 1981, pp.652-674.
For a general reference, show page numbers to cover the whole chapter (as above).
For a specific reference, simply quote the page(s) containing the passage to which you refer.
Films Title
(in italics), (director’s initial(s) or first names(s), surname,
producer’s initial(s) or first names(s), surname), country of release,
date of release.
e.g.
American Werewolf in London, (dir. John Landis, prod. George Folsey Jr.), USA, 1981.
Websites Person
or organisation responsible for the site and date it was created or
last updated, title of page (optional), name of sponsor of the source,
place of sponsor, viewed (insert date), <URL address>.
e.g.
Centre for Western Australian History 2004, University of Western
Australia, Perth, viewed 21 December 2004,
<http://www.cwah.uwa.edu.au>.
Newspapers Title in italics (omit the definite article), date, page number.
e.g.
West Australian, 23 September 1889, p.3.
Oral history Interviewee’s
name (if not anonymous interview), name of the interviewer, date of the
interview, place where tapes/transcripts are held (also indicate if
they are in possession of interviewer/author), reference number (if
any).
e.g. Jacquie Smith, interviewed by Jane Citizen, 25 February 1994, Battye Library, Perth, OH 1111/7.
Television/video recordingsTelevision productions are identified as video recordings, with details of transmission required.
e.g.
What Are We Going to Do With the Money?(video recording), 8 August 1982, ABC Television.
Theses Author’s
initial(s) or first name(s), surname, title of thesis (in single
quotes), type of thesis, university and year of completion, page
reference.
e.g. C.J. Fox, ‘Unemployment and the Politics of the
Unemployed: Victoria in the Great Depression, 1930-37’, PhD thesis,
University of Melbourne, 1985, p.103.
Subsequent References
- Full
details of each book, article, or other source should be given in the
first footnote citation. Thereafter short titles or abbreviations may
be used as appropriate.
- Op. cit. should not be used.
- ibid. may be used where one footnote is the same as its predecessor. Note that ibid. is not italicised or capitalised.
- An example of an abbreviated archival record reference appears below.
Examplesa) Use the author’s surname only, followed by the appropriate reference.
e.g. Stannage, p.21.
b) Where two or more works by the same author are cited, use short titles after the name.
e.g. Stannage,
A New History, p.22.
Titles of organisation etc. may be reduced to initials (no full-stops) after the first reference.
e.g. a) SROWA, AN 3/3, L & S, Acc 541, 1581/1899, Karrakatta Cemetery
b) GL, MS 4329/1, fo.5.
