Editorial style guide outlining preferred and commonly used words.
Use an before a silent 'h' eg, an hour, an honorary degree; use a before an aspirated 'h': a hero, a historian (but don't change a direct quote if the speaker says, for example, 'an historic'). With abbreviations, be guided by pronunciation: eg, an LLB student.
The abbreviations eg and ie should not use periods but should be followed by a comma as in eg, or ie,
Capitalise and spell out formal titles such as Vice-Chancellor, Professor, Chairman, etc, when they precede a name. Lower case elsewhere (except for Vice-Chancellor). Academic title (Professor, Associate Professor etc) should be used, senior lecturers and lecturers will be referred to as Dr provided they have a doctorate qualification.
The title ‘Dr’ should be abbreviated when it precedes a name.
eg. café – with an accent.
Write the acronym in brackets after the first instance of the full name. The acronym can then be used instead of the full name. Do not use full points, or spaces between initials.
Note: some UC acronyms are not unique eg, Canterbury University Press and the Certificate in University Preparation both referred to as CUP.
Some UC acronyms have mixed uppercase and lowercase letters eg, NZi3, HIT Lab NZ, PGDipChFamPsyc.
Examples
Domestic students who do not meet the requirements for University Entrance may be eligible for the Certificate in University Preparation (CUP). The CUP is designed for school leavers who do not have University Entrance or adult students who want to refresh their study skills before beginning a degree programme. A 15-week programme, the CUP has intakes in February, June and October each year.
When using plural acronyms, simply add as s at the end. An apostrophe is NOT needed (eg, BAs, MAs, FAQs)
The full address of the University is:
University of Canterbury Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha Private Bag 4800 Christchurch 8140 New Zealand
Most adverbial phrases do not need hyphens. Never use them after adverbs ending in -ly, eg constantly evolving programme, wholly owned business.
For adverbs that do not end in -ly, use hyphens only when there would be a possibility of ambiguity without one, eg an ill-prepared speech.
Exceptions: much and well when used before a noun, eg a much-loved character (a character who is much loved), a well-founded suspicion (a suspicion that is well founded), etc.
Although position descriptions within the University use both advisor and adviser, be consistent within a document. Advisor with an 'o' is preferred.
Use with an 'e'. In general, use the Anglicised version rather than the Americanised version - for example, -ise rather than -ize.
Alumni, alumnus, alumna, alumnae – Graduate(s) preferred
Graduate(s) – Preferred over alumni, alumnus, alumna, alumnae
Using 'and' is preferred over an ampersand (&). An ampersand is acceptable if it is part of a proper name such as Johnson & Johnson, UC Careers & Employment, Continuing & Bridging Education but should otherwise be avoided.
It is preferable to use 'Aotearoa New Zealand' rather than 'Aotearoa/New Zealand'. Can use just Aotearoa after the first use. Likewise, Ōtautahi Christchurch, Canterbury Waitaha, Te Waipounamu South Island etc.
Used to indicate a missing letter or letters (can't, we'd) or a possessive (David's book). It’s – abbreviated form of it is.
The possessive in words and names ending in S normally takes an apostrophe followed by a second S (Jones's, James's), but be guided by pronunciation and use the plural apostrophe where it helps: Mephistopheles', rather than Mephistopheles's.
Plural nouns that do not end in S take an apostrophe and S in the possessive: children's games, old folk's home, people's republic, etc.
Phrases such as collector's item, writer's cramp, etc are treated as singular.
Use apostrophes in phrases such as two days' time, 20 minutes’ drive, and six weeks' holiday, where the time period (two days) modifies a noun (time), but not in 19 years old, where the time period is adverbial (modifying an adjective such as old) – if in doubt, test with a singular such as one day's time, one year old.
Proper names that contain an apostrophe stay the same in the possessive: McDonald's burgers may be delicious but Sainsbury's are just as good.
An application for, typically, a mobile phone.
Not ‘artifact’.
Not ‘Assistant Vice Chancellor’.
With an apostrophe. When referring to general bachelor’s degrees, make lowercase, unless referring to the official name of the degree eg, ‘Bachelor of Music’.
Preferred over American English. Use British spelling as in the Oxford English Dictionary. Particularly the use of 's' over 'z'. For example, organisation not organization, civilise not civilize.
Lowercase the word building unless the word is part of the official name of the building eg, Registry building, Erskine building.
If the list has a leading statement, use a colon at the end of the leading statement and lower case for each item with a full stop only after last item. If there is no introductory statement, capitalise and punctuate each item as a complete sentence.
Civil Engineering is about:
The Bachelor of Arts requires a minimum total of 360 points.
In general, avoid unnecessary capitals. Words that are always capitalised include:
Proper nouns such as the University, Canterbury, Mark A Murray, New Zealand.
Proper names such as the University of Canterbury, Faculty of Science, Café 101, Creyke Road, but lowercase general terms such as the faculty, the café or the road.
Course titles use maximal capitalisation: the first letters of all the words in a title are capitalised except articles (unless these articles are the first word of a title) such as the, a, in, of. Subtitles (after a colon) are similarly treated.
Composition titles such as titles of books, movies, songs, televisions programs, lectures, speeches, etc.
Designations and job titles when used immediately before a persons name – see academic titles
Names of schools and departments such as the Department of Geography, and when used as a common noun or adjective such as a Psychology major. Capitalise if referring to the College, School or Department in general, but lower case if referring to a group of colleges, school or departments within the University.
Degree titles and majors such as Bachelor of Laws with Honours, a History major, a Law degree, etc.
UC subject names such as Astronomy, History, etc. All other subjects such as secondary school subjects and sub-disciplines such as social history in lower case.
This can be written with words or a mixture of words and numerals. Use lowercase and don't superscript the 'th' eg, the nineteenth century or the 19th century, not the 19th Century or the Nineteenth Century. Hyphenate numbers when necessary eg, the twenty-first century.
Te Mātāpuna Mātātahi | Children’s University is a source of education for young people, a spring flowing with the water of learning.
Mātāpuna = source, often of water, or a spring
Mātātahi = young people, younger generation
Not civilization.
See list and punctuation.
Insert a space between letters and numbers, eg, LING 101. For multiple courses with the same four-letter code use the letter code only once, such as LING 206 and 207. Use an en dash between course ranges, eg, LING 206–210. See en dash
Use hyphens between the numerical value and the level eg, 100-level, 200-level, 300-level. Use a hyphen only to connect the word with the final number in a list of levels such 100, 200 and 300-level courses.
Write in order of day, month and year with no punctuation eg, 4 December 2009. Use an en dash (with no spaces) for date ranges eg, 10–12 December. See en dash.
Don't use an apostrophe after the last numeral eg, 1940s, 2000s, not 1940's, 2000's.
- Do not use full stops or spaces in acronyms: so BA, BA(Hons), MA, PhD; not B.Com or BE (Hons).
- Capitalise when referring to a specific degree: Bachelor of Laws with Honours.
- Use apostrophe correctly when referring to a degree in general: bachelor's degree, master's degree (but not honour's degree).
- In a sentence write out in full: so 'Bachelor of Arts in History' rather than a 'BA in History'.
Not 'Deputy Vice Chancellor'.
Use figures and the dollar ($) sign in all cases, such as $4, $25, $500, $1,000, $650,000. Use currency indicator (NZ$) before dollar sign. Use a comma if the figure is more than three digits.
eg, rather than e.g. See example (below).
Used to act as a comma or parenthesis to separate out phrases in a sentence.
The en dash (–) is commonly used to indicate a closed range (a range with clearly defined and non-infinite upper and lower boundaries) of values, such as those between dates, times or numbers.
The en dash is also used in sentences and is not to be confused with the hyphen (-).
Lowercase as in the organisation name, and with an accent. Lower case and accent.
Not 'race'. Always capitalise ethnic signifiers when referring to people of that ethnic background (eg, Māori, Pacific or American students). International as in ‘international students’ should not be capitalised.
eg, can be used for short lists and material in parentheses while 'for example' should be used in running text. Can substitute example with ‘such as’.
Specialist degrees (eg, Bachelor of Engineering with Honours, Bachelor of Teaching and Learning, Bachelor of Laws) prepare you for a career in a particular profession.
Points can be cross-credited (or shared) between your degrees, which means, for example, you could complete a Bachelor of Laws together with a Bachelor of Arts in only five years.
Singular noun such as ‘the faculty is located in the Commerce building’. Capitalise when used in the form of a proper noun – see capitalisation. Rather than faculty unless it has to be used, prefer the use of academics, lecturers, staff etc.
Not ‘focussing’ (also focuses, focused).
See example
Grade point average.
Terminology should be gender-neutral wherever possible.
Use terms such as:
Avoid using gendered titles such as Mr, Miss, Ms or Mrs. In written form use the person’s full name in the first instance then their surname in formal writing (media releases) and first name in informal instances. The same rule is used for academics and students.
Avoid using language that excludes non-binary individuals, use ‘they’ instead of ‘he’ and ‘she’ as appropriate and when gender is not known.
Use lower case, unless it is a proper name of a hall eg, Rochester and Rutherford Hall – see capitalisation
Use minimal capitalisation in headings – see capitalisation
Capitalise when used in the name of the degree, but lowercase in general terms such as honours degree. Abbreviate ‘Hons’ and bracket when abbreviating whole degree name such as BA(Hons), not Bachelor of Laws (Honours) or LLB with Honours.
See urls
When two or more nouns that express a single concept are used as an adjective or adverb, link them together with a hyphen. Do not use a hyphen to link the word 'very' or adverbs that end in 'ly'. Some words which are hyphenated when used as adjectives should not be hyphenated when used as nouns.
Requires a hyphen
cutting-edgeFirst-year, second-year, five-and-a-half year coursesfull-time, part-time Hands-onhigh-qualityon-campus - There is plenty of on-campus support for students.on-sitePro-Vice-Chancellor – not ‘Pro Vice Chancellor’ or ‘Pro Vice-Chancellor’. Vice-Chancellor – not ‘Vice Chancellor’.real-worldstudent-ledwi-fi world-class
No hyphen
headstartemail – Only capitalise the ‘E’ when it is the first word in a sentence.In your first year, you will gain a substantial base in pure scienceartworkbiofuels, bioprocess, bookshelfThe BTchLn(EarlyChildhood) is available full-time or part-time on campus in Christchurch.coursework, fieldworkcoordinatordecision making filmakers, policymakersfundraising homepagelifecyclemultimedia, multidisciplinarynotetakeronline – not 'on line' or 'on-line'.postgraduate prerequisiteskillsetssociohistoricalsongwritingwebpage, websitewellbeing
Do not use hyphens in the middle of sentences – see en dash
ie, rather than i.e.
Use the ise spelling of words eg, civilise, dramatise.
Not 'inter-disciplinary' or 'inter disciplinary'.
Lowercase, not 'Internet' or 'inter-net'.
Used to name a publication eg, The New York Times, Lonely Planet or Canta but not an organisation or a list eg, ‘Top cities to visit in 2015’.
One word,eg, ‘Nurturing a lifelong appreciation of learning’.
For vertical lists see bullet points
For a list within a sentence, separate items in the list with commas, except when items in the list include commas. In this case separate the items in the list with semicolons. A comma is not usually needed before the last item in the list but can be helpful for clarification (eg, when the last two items in the list have 'and' as part of their name).
Professional engineers are employed in many fields including management, design, technical sales, marketing and education.
UC provides professional specialist academic training in areas such as Engineering, Accounting, Teaching and Learning, and Law.
You can get help with careers through daily drop-in sessions; one-to-one career guidance; advice on writing an effective CV, cover letter and job application; coaching for job interviews; and seminars.
Should be used on all Māori words as necessary. The following buildings have macrons in their names.
Information on adding macrons to websites is available on the web team's page – Insert macrons to web pages
See ‘macron’ and ‘te reo Māori’. Where a person identifies with one or more iwi this is included. Can be demonstrated in brackets if within a sentence or in the design style of student profile quotes (currently underneath the name of the student/staff member and in italics).
Capitalise when used in the name of the degree, but lowercase in general terms such as master's degree.
Students who have completed an honours degree or equivalent can study for a master's degree by thesis only.
This may take place within the framework of an honours, master's or postgraduate diploma programme.
The Master of Arts degree consists of a first year of coursework followed by a thesis, which is normally completed full-time over 1–2 subsequent years.
Intercultural preferred.
Write in full. 'NZ' may be used if necessary to save space.
In most instances, spell out whole numbers below 10 and use numerals for numbers 10 and above, such as 'every 30 minutes', 'the last 2,000 years', 'three credits', 'nine hours at the 300-level'. See percent and phone numbers
There are some instances where a numeral can be used for a number less than 10 eg, NCEA Level 3, Year 13, page 9, Level 3 of the Registry building. When a sentence has two numbers adjacent to each other, a combination of numerals and numbers can help avoid confusion.
The first year of the BSLT is called the Intermediate Year and comprises a minimum of 120 points (eight 15-point courses or the equivalent).
‘Pasifika’ or ‘Pacifica’ is acceptable. ‘Pasifika’ is the preferred style; however, please use the individual’s preferred spelling and keep this consistent throughout.
The % symbol should only be used with numerals. The word 'percent' may be used with words or numerals. Where a document primarily uses numerals for numbers, use the % symbol and also use the symbol in tables.
When writing in full use the country code with a plus sign (+), instead of 00; area code without 0; local number with space after the third digit; eg, +64 3 366 7001. For the local number only write as (03) 366 7001. Toll free numbers should be written with the letter code first and the numerals it stands for bracketed eg, 0800 VARSITY (827 748).
When deciding between second vs third person point-of-view it is important to try and be consistent within the same body of text. Best practice in marketing materials is to use ‘you/your’ as it helps to make it more personal, direct and warm in tone. However editorial judgement can be applied for different contexts, audiences, platforms and objectives.
It is preferable not to hyphenate words such as postmodern, postcolonialism, postwar. However post-1945 or post-Soviet are hyphenated.
Use ‘ise’ when wanting the verb form; use ‘ice’ when referring to the noun practice, eg, a business practice, legal practice.
Not 'program', unless referring to computer software. Capitalise when used in the sense of 'department', eg, 'the French Programme', but otherwise lowercase, eg, for a collection of courses in a subject area, eg, 'the postgraduate Engineering Geology programme'.
Colon – introduce a list with a colon if what precedes the colon is not a complete sentence. If it is a complete sentence use a full stop. See bullet points
Commas – use serial comma (a, b, and c) if the text has a marketing or academic purpose. Do not use serial comma (a, b and c) if the piece is news writing.
em dash – used to act as a comma or parenthesis to separate out phrases in a sentence.
En dash – between year range, with no spaces either side (2000–2001). Also used in sentences, with no spaces either side (rather than an em dash ( — ). See en dash
Full stops– single space after full stops, not double spacing.
Hyphens – see table under hyphens
Quotation marks – single quote marks (‘’) when quoting someone. Double quote marks for a quote within a quote. (" ").
Slash – see slash
Spaces – use one space after all punctuation (including full stops) except when using punctuation immediately before a close-quote mark.
See British English
Use 'Semester 1', 'Semester One' or 'first semester'.
Use a full stop for all sentences, but it is unnecessary for most partial sentences such as lists or in footnotes, eg, footnote 1: Percentage of SAC funded enrolments
Compare to eg, footnote 1: It should be noted that the 2011 census has been delayed until 2013.
The slash (/), also known as the virgule, has several uses. It is often used to mean per — for example, 99 miles/hour or used to mean and/or (as in and/or itself). It should not have spaces either side of it.
Use hyphen not an en dash, 'New Zealand Speech–language Therapists Association'.
Use British spelling as in the Oxford English Dictionary. British spelling is preferred over American, particularly the use of 's' over 'z'. For example, organisation not organization, civilise not civilize.
Only capitalise the University's official subjects, endorsements and specialisations eg, Accounting, Biological Sciences, Chemical and Process Engineering, International Business. A list of the subjects offered at the University of Canterbury can be found in the Calendar (Publications website).
Use lower case for other subjects, eg, streams, specialisations within subjects and high school subjects: eg, econometrics, human biology, mathematics with calculus. Languages should always be capitalised (eg, NCEA Level 3 English and French).
Be careful to use macrons where appropriate (see ‘macron’). Refer to the Māori Dictionary online as a resource.
Try to use the Māori word alongside place names/geographical locations but without a slash eg, Otautahi Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand, Te Waipounamu South Island, Otakaro Avon River etc.
Note: te reo before English for place names. Use judgement to achieve balance. It might be too much in every instance in a short space and some sentences and contexts work better than others.
Te reo titles should be used in every instance and separated using a pipe ‘|’.
6.30pm or 7pm, not 7:00 p.m. or 7 p.m. or 7 PM.
See University name (below).
Use 'the' for 'the UCSA' (refers to the University of Canterbury Students’ Association).
Use in full as 'University of Canterbury' (not Canterbury University); use abbreviated as 'UC' (preferably if you have spelled it out in full previously in the publication), or shortened as 'at the University', not 'at Canterbury'. Don’t add 'the' when using the acronym (ie, not 'the UC', only 'UC').
Capitalise 'the University' when referring to a specific university, and lowercase when referring to general universities eg, 'He really enjoyed his university studies at the University'.
Write urls starting with 'www' unless https: or there is no 'www'.
Do not use a full stop at the end of the url in print, even if at the end of the last sentence in a paragraph.
Avoid breaking urls over two lines in print, and break after 'canterbury.ac.nz' if it must be broken.
Within webpages, always embed the link into text rather than write the full url eg, 'See the College of Arts website for more details'.
wellbeing (no hyphen)
Capitalise, eg, 'Year 13'.
See spelling