files.transtutors.com · web viewstyle guide for reporting. this style guide is designed to set...

Style Guide for ReportingThis style guide is designed to set standards and ensure consistency for writing client briefs. It also:

ensures that Woman Tradies Australia stakeholders use a consistent tone and style across reports sets standards in language, grammar, spelling, style, and punctuation in accordance to relevant legislation.

1 Document StructuringDocuments must be structured appropriately to ensure reader understanding. The following principles must be addressed to ensure a good document structure:

Audience focused: documents must be specifically written bearing in mind the target audience’s needs, cognitive capacity and proficiency.

Legible and readable: clear document style and layout must be used.

Scannable: documents must exercise effective paragraphing, informative headings, coherent and logical breakdown of content, and clear navigation paths.

Visual: content must be presented visually using illustrations to clarify meaning and ease audience understanding.

2 Language

Documents must be prepared using appropriate language to ensure effective communication, where appropriate language is discussed in the subsequent sections of this section.

2.1 Plain English

Woman Tradies Australia Stakeholders must:

use simple and plain English with a formal outlook use short sentences to avoid ambiguity be clear, concise and relevant avoid unnecessary wording use everyday words and avoid jargons or ‘buzzwords’:

- expert tradesperson instead of growth tradie- honest and open instead of above-board

avoid double negatives- don’t do anything

avoid archaic words- heretofore, naught, shalt

use passive voice rather than active where possible- The tradesperson helped the client (active)- The client was helped by the tradesperson (passive)

engage with the audience:

Use:In the next task, you are required to form a team.

Instead of:In the next task, they will form a team.

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2.2 Punctuation

Woman Tradies Australia Stakeholders must conform to the following rules of punctuation:

Punctuation Details and ExamplesFull stop

(.)Use full stop:

to end a sentence:- He went to the market.

to separate the elements of email and web address:- www.google.com.au | [email protected]

to express time:- 11.15 am

to represent decimal points in numbers and currency formats:- 12.33

to end a bulleted list (see Bulleted Lists) after abbreviations:

- Tue. (Tuesday)- fig. (figure)- e.g. (example)

Do not use full stop after:

document titles headings and subheadings internationally recognised representations of units of measurement (e.g.; kg, mm) acronyms (e.g.; TAFE, NSW)

Comma(,)

Use comma:

to prevent equivocalness:- According to Mark, James was not good at all. two people- According to Mark James was not good at all. one person, unclear

to list items:- He bought an apple, orange, banana, watermelon, and lemon.

to coordinate clauses, introductory statements and transitional expressions:- It was a fantastic event; however, it was too expensive.- Since she can cook great food, she may become a chef too.- For instance, Arabic coffee tastes quite strong.

to coordinate titles:- On the contrary, regardless of his height, Susan jumped very high.- The Principal, John Citizen, requested to call for a meeting.

in numbers with more than three digits:- 1,000- 10,000

Question mark(?)

Use question mark:

to query something or to direct a question (directly or indirectly):- Did you do it?- So, that is all?

to express a doubt:- We expect to have a meeting on her November 25 (?) birthday.

Do not use question marks after:

an indirect question: - I was wondering, if there has been any progress on the issue.

a sentence which has an implicit query embedded:


Punctuation Details and Examples- I need to know how and when it could be done.

Colon(:)

Use colon:

to introduce a bulleted list to introduce a series of items that belong to the same cluster:

- The following tools are good: hammer, saw and plums.

Semicolon(;)

Use semicolon:

to link to clauses where each clause carries a meaning as a complete sentence:- It was a fantastic event; however, it was too expensive.

to connect multiple lists of items where each list uses comma to separate its own items:

- She achieved a remarkable score in each area: painting, 9/10; building, 8/10; plumbing, 8.5/10; and landscaping, 9/10.

Exclamation mark

(!)

Use exclamation mark:

to provide emphasis on emotions: “No, not you again!”

Bulleted Lists

use full stop at the end of the list (without using commas in between):- The idea of dieting relates to:

idea 1 idea 2.

Apostrophe(’)

Use apostrophe:

with singular nouns and personal names:- the company’s policy and procedures- Matt’s mother was very sick.

with plural nouns:- the team’s party

to express time:- in eight months’ time

after acronyms:- WTA’s budget has been increased this year by the Australian government.

Hyphens(-)

Use hyphens:

to clarify meaning when using words with prefixes:- re-sign (to sign again) or resign (to quit)- re-cover (to cover again) or recover (to improve)

to tell the ages of people and other things:- She has a two-year-old daughter.

with prefixes ‘co’, ‘ex’, ‘self’, and ‘all’- co-worker, ex-president, self-motivated, and all-knowing

to prefix ‘e’ for electronic- e-book, e-business, e-commerce

to link noun compounds involving prepositional phrases:- mother-in-law

to use compound numbers, estimates of time, fractions and other quantities:- two thousand three hundred forty-one dollars, one-third of your time- 1:10-1:15 p.m.

Abbreviations and Acronyms

write uncommon abbreviations and acronyms in full when introduced first time:- Women Tradies Australia (WTA)

use full stop after an abbreviation:- e.g. (example)- Mon. (Monday)


Punctuation Details and Examples add ‘s’ at the end of abbreviations or acronyms to make them plural:

- FAQs (frequently asked questions)- MPs (Member of Parliament)

Spacing after punctuation

use only one-character space after a punctuation:- He was a good team player. Also, his brother used to landscape beautifully.- Did you hear what he said? Did I hear him correctly?

2.3 Spelling


use Australian spelling:

- ‘ise’ instead of ‘ize’ maximise instead of maximize capitalise instead of capitalize

- ‘our’ instead of ‘or’ colour instead of color flavour instead of flavor

- ‘re’ instead of ‘er’ centre instead of center theatre instead of theater

- ‘isation’ instead of ‘ization’ globalisation instead of globalization internationalisation instead of internationalization

- ‘yse’ instead of ‘yze’ catalyse instead of catalyze analyse instead of analyze

set software language preferences to English (Australia):- File Options Language Editing Language English (Australia)

use a spellchecker:- File Options Proofing When correcting spelling and grammar in Word

refer to Macquarie Dictionary as a reference point for the spelling of words not listed in this style guide.

https://www.macquariedictionary.com.au

2.4 Inclusive Language


use inclusive language and not linguistically discriminate based on sex, race, age, gender, ethnical background, and physical/mental abilities

write personal and country names, states and territories, ethnic groups and religious affiliation in capital letters:

- Her name is Haruka Tanaka and she is from Japan.- Indigenous, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples- Jamal is a Sudanese Arab and he is Christian.- He was born in Sydney, NSW and then he moved to Brisbane, QLD.- You must comply with the Commonwealth legislation.

avoid gender-specific pronouns:- Apprentices must submit their assessments to their Trainer/Assessor


- police officer instead of policeman refer to people with a disability:

- people with intellectual disability- people with a vision impairment- people with a hearing impairment

use age-inclusive terms:- elderly instead of old people- young people.

3 Capitalisation


use initial capitals for positions, personal names, place names, nationalities, and groups of people- C hief Executive Officer – Bill Gates – Sydney – Australia – Australian

write company/brand names as they are commercially used- M icrosoft Excel, iPhone

capitalise the first letters of headings/subheadings in each section- S ection 2: World’s Greatest Economy

capitalise special names related to inclusive language (see section 2.4 Inclusive Language) capitalise government, parliament, titles, and states and territories only in full formal titles:

- Territories can be administered by the Australian Government, or they can be granted a right of self-government.

- The Federal or Commonwealth Government is responsible for the conduct of national affairs.- The Federal Court of Australia was created by the Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 and began to

exercise its jurisdiction on 1 February 1977.- Australia has three levels of government: federal, state/territory and local. The federal government is

the highest level of government.- The Parliament of Australia, officially The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia but commonly

referred to as the Commonwealth Parliament or the Federal Parliament, is the legislative branch of the Australian Government.

- The Premier of New South Wales is the head of government in the state of New South Wales, Australia.

4 Headings and Subheadings


use black text on a white background to maximise legibility conform to typography rules (see section 7.3 Headings and Subheadings) capitalise each word follow a logical hierarchy and clearly differentiate heading levels use brief headings choosing informative words that give the main idea of that particular section.

5 Bulleted Lists


use bulleted lists to highlight significant aspects of the information use correct sentence structure and punctuation:

- introduce a bulleted list by a sentence or as an extension of a sentence attaching a colon at the end- grammar and capitalisation must follow the same structure of the main introductory sentence


- insert full stop only to end series not add and at the end of the second-last item in the bulleted list use the bullets symbols as shown in the example illustration not indent the first level.

Example Illustration

A good writing consists of the following: document structuring language

- plain English- punctuation

terminating marks spacing

- spelling- inclusive language

capitalisation typography.

6 Numbers, Currency and Dates


hyphenate all compound numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine when used in a paragraph:- Twenty-four people were present in the meeting yesterday.

hyphenate non-decimal fractions in a paragraph if expressed in words:- I ate one-third of my bread.

write a number in words when starting a sentence in a paragraph:- Forty-six people were present in the meeting yesterday.

use numerals to represent numbers when:- starting a sentence with a number that cannot be expressed in words:

$20,876 wasn’t enough to fix the building. 1998 was a great year.

- writing technical documents or representing statistical information: Our market share has increased by 10.2% since last year. There were 20 women in the audience in which 8 of them were over the age of 56.

- ensuring consistency within a body: There were 1,800 people attended to the meeting, where 900 people were from Sydney, 400

from Perth and the remaining 500 were from Brisbane.- the number is lengthy:

2,054,999 rather than two million, fifty-four thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine.- writing measurements attached to a symbol:

We need to travel 50 km to reach home. According to the tomorrow’s weathercast, the temperature will drop to 5 °C.

- expressing decimal fractions: We will increase the capacity to 6.95 until next month.

- using ordinals with relevant suffixes: I will come to visit you on the 3rd of November. This piece of art is from the 17th century.

- mathematical expressions in equations:


42+52=41 express currency in the domestic market using the currency format of ‘$#,##0.00’:

- $5,000.00


express currency in the international market using the currency format of ‘A$ #,##0.00’:- A$5,000.00

express dates in full format of ‘dd mmm yyyy’:- 30 September 2016

express percentages with one decimal point when showing calculations:- 10.8%

express time using twelve-hour system:- The office is open from 10.15 am to 3 pm.

use en rule (–) when providing a range without the use of spacing:

Grade Code Mark RangePass P 50—65

7 Typography

This subsection sets the standards for typography.

7.1 Font, Line and Paragraph Spacing

Woman Tradies Australia Stakeholders must use black text on a white background to maximise legibility. Use Styles (Normal) for prolonged reading in body text with the following settings:

Font type Calibri (Body)Font style RegularFont size 11ptFont colour Automatic (black)Text highlight colour No colourText justification Justified (Ctrl+J)Line spacing in paragraphs 1.15Line spacing in dot-points 1.15Paragraph spacing 6 pt between paragraphs

Example:

Video provides a powerful way to help you prove your point. When you click Online Video, you can paste in the embed code for the video you want to add. You can also type a keyword to search online for the video that best fits your document.

7.2 Bold, Italics and Underline


use italics for the titles of published documents, legislation, regulations, technical terms, and foreign words:- Refer to the latest edition of Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers for more information.- Have you read The Secret by Rhonda Byrne?- I read the information in an article published in The Sydney Morning Herald.- In telecommunication, Manchester Coding is a synchronous clock ending technique. - We did not know the way and at the end, we found ourselves in a cul de sac.

use bold to increase contrast between headlines, key phrases and body text:


Example Illustration 1

This example is to show a bold headline, Example Illustration 1. Refer to Section 7.3 to see how bold is used for headings and subheadings.

Example Illustration 2

Due to insufficient information, people search for interesting words and phrases, to discover the key message.

use underlining to show hyperlinks in a document:

Example Illustration

Click on this link to see more information on punctuation.

not use bold, italics and underline for an entire sentence not extensively use bold, italics and underline as this will make it difficult for readers not use to highlight titles of initiatives, plans, projects or programs as these are not published documents.

7.3 Headings and Subheadings

For Word documents, Woman Tradies Australia Stakeholders must use Styles with the following settings for a three-level heading structure:

Heading 1: Calibri Light (Headings), 16pt, BoldHeading 2: Calibri Light (Headings), 14pt, Bold

Heading 3: Calibri Light (Headings), 12pt, Bold


8 Layout

This section sets the standards for the elements of a document layout.

8.1 Tables

Where possible tables should be used to summarise information conforming to the following standards:

tables must be preceded by an introductory sentence which briefly explains what is represented insert 6pt spacing between this introductory sentence and the table tables must include a caption at the bottom with a number and a brief description of the content table columns and/or rows must be populated with relevant column and/or row headings cells must be easy-to-read incorporating appropriate amount of space, padding, width, and height their size must be aligned to page margins using AutoFit Window centre text vertically and align it to the left side of the cell when tabling numbers, centre column text horizontally and vertically within the cell (including column

headings) wherever possible, justify text in tables (Ctrl + J); however, if this causes typographic anomalies, then align

text accordingly repeat header rows if a table flows over subsequent pages tables must incorporate the following formal Table Style including borders and not showing gridlines:

Column Heading 1 Column Heading 2

Table 1: This is an example of a caption

8.2 Illustrations and Charts

Images, diagrams, charts, or any other type of illustrations should be used to depict the idea described in the text. This is to help readers to understand the key information that is difficult to discuss in written text. Regardless of which illustration medium is used, the following standards must be followed:

All illustrations, when used in a text manipulation software, must:

be meaningful and descriptive be culturally inclusive and not discriminate against gender, race, age, ethnical background, religious or

cultural beliefs, and sexual preferences be preceded by an introductory sentence which briefly explains what is represented insert 6pt spacing between this introductory sentence and the illustration be numbered for cross-referencing purposes by inserting a caption at the bottom of the illustration, where

this caption must include a brief information describing the context be centre-aligned to the page have a professional outlook include in-text citation (if it’s taken from an external source) and place it at the very end of the caption incorporate a suitable background colour to complement the foreground content ensuring visibility be borderless and free of Picture Styles avoid the use of clip art objects due to low quality be enlarged proportionally without distorting the quality.


Charts, when included in a word processing document, must:

Chart element Standardscolour must be colourful and not monochromatic

colours must be easy to distinguish chart elements from each other

chart title have a title centred above the chart title must be brief and informative use Calibri Light (Headings), 14pt, Bold with Automatic font colour for chart title

axis include descriptive axis titles in both x and y axes (applicable to column, bar and line charts)

show axes values in either one decimal point or no decimal point whichever is more suitable

use Calibri (Body), 11pt, Automatic font colour for axis titles

legend include a legend for all charts describing all key parameters without disrupting its readability

use Calibri (Body), 9pt, Automatic font colour for legend itemsbackground have white background to complement the foreground content

not include gridlines (especially column charts, bar charts and line charts)

foreground be simple and clear not be overpopulated with content display units with no decimal point to increase readability (for column, bar and line

charts)

shape outline charts must be wrapped with a black border with a solid dash

data labels mandatory for pie or doughnut charts using percentage format with one decimal point optional for column, bar and line charts (if used, must be presented with only one

decimal) use ‘Calibri (Body), 9pt, Automatic font colour’ as the font format

presentation be wrapped around by a black outline to be differentiated easily in a document

See examples of how the most commonly used chart types must be displayed.

Figure 1: Sample column chart with design standards applied


Figure 2: Sample pie chart with design standards applied

Figure 3: Sample line chart with design standards applied

8.3 Page Layout

Woman Tradies Australia Stakeholders must conform to the following page layout standards when presenting spreadsheet output in A4 format:

Element Standards

Page Margins

Narrow

Top: 1.27 cm Bottom: 1.27 cm

Left: 1.27 cm Right: 1.27 cm

Headers and Footers

Header 1.0 cm

Footer 1.0 cm

Orientation Portrait in general. Landscape may be used based on the output required.

Gutter 0 cm

Gutter position Left

Paper A4 – 21cm x 29.7cm

Page Border None


Element Standards

Page Colour No colour

Page Background Blank, no image

Page/Section Breaks

Main sections must start from a new page using page breaks to ensure consistency

Header Blank

Footer Document Title Version #(located at bottom-left)

Page x of y(located at bottom-right)

9 Citation and Reference List

Any external resources incorporated in Woman Tradies Australia business documents must be acknowledged by inserting in-text citation and a reference list. Details are discussed in the subsequent sections of this section.

9.1 In-text Citations

In-text citations must:

be placed where appropriate without distracting the reader: at the end of a sentence before a termination mark, immediately after the name of the author, or at the end of a paragraph

be written based on the Harvard style- References Style Harvard

include:- the name of the author- date- page number.

Example 1

According to Tezcan (2006, pp.122-152), good assessment tools can help students apply their knowledge and gain more skills.

Journal Article, reference after the author

Example 2

A compliant RTO knows how to incorporate best practices in their daily operations (Tezcan & Long, 2014, pp. 572-574).

Book,reference before the

termination mark (full stop)

9.2 Reference List (Bibliography)

Reference list must:

be placed at the end of the document as a separate and standalone section have the heading “References” formatted as Heading 1 (see Section 7.3 Headings & Subheadings) be alphabetically sorted (A to Z) be written based on the Harvard Style.

ReferencesTezcan, A. & Long, M., 2014. RTO’s in Australia: Governance and Compliance. 2nd ed. Sydney(NSW): VET Fair Publications.

Yilmaz, T., 2006. Helping RTOs Become Compliant. Compliance Articles, 16 May, Volume 845, pp. 122-152.


10 Client Presentations

Woman Tradies Australia Stakeholders must ensure that the slideshows:

have a professional layout:- content fits the margins- content is not cluttered- layout gives a clean and fresh feeling

have a professional format:- typography is readable and legible- font and colour matches the tone of the presentation- good combination of foreground and background

have a coherent structure:- slides are sequenced logically- slides are easy to follow- heading titles are descriptive

have content which:- includes an outline- is not distracting but informative- is relevant to the topic- is non-sensitive- visual aids are easy to understand- visual aids are readable from all areas of the room.
