Formatting

Addresses

Don’t punctuate simple addresses. Don’t use commas.

Examples

Ms J Smithers
Faculty of Humanities
Curtin University
Kent Street
Bentley WA 6102

Dr DK Taronga
Faculty of Science and Engineering
Curtin University
Kent Street
Bentley WA 6102
Tel: +61 8 9266 1234
Email: d.taronga@curtin.edu.au

Alignment of text

Text is easier to read if it is left-aligned (flush left/ragged right). This is because justified text creates uneven word spacing that interrupts the eye’s flow, and because the eye can better track its place on the page when line endings are not uniform.

Bold, italics and underline

Bold

Use bold cautiously. Bolding is useful for headings and emphasising an occasional word or phrase, but a block of text is more difficult to read when bolded. Do not bold and underline the same piece of text.

Italics

Use italics cautiously. Italics can be used to differentiate or emphasise a word or short phrase, but a block of text is more difficult to read when italicised. Do not italicise bolded or underlined text.

Use italics for:

  • the names of published material – books, films, plays, journals and periodicals, reports and legislation
  • artwork titles
  • scientific names of animals and plants at genus level and below
  • foreign words and phrases not commonly used
  • legal cases
  • ship names.

Underline

Don’t underline general text for emphasis, as the reader may assume that text is hyperlinked.

Bullet lists

Use bullet lists rather than numbered lists unless you need to show an order (when writing instructions, for example).

Rules for bullet lists

  • Wherever possible, introduce bullet lists with a lead-in sentence or clause, as it will help to engage your reader
  • List items in order of importance or alphabetically if there is no clear order of importance
  • Begin each list item with a lowercase letter if it completes the lead-in sentence (first example below)
  • Begin each list item with a capital letter if it doesn’t complete the lead-in sentence (second example below)
  • Use a full-stop only for the last item
  • Don’t include more than one sentence per bullet point
  • Don’t use semicolons at the end of list items
  • Don’t use a bullet for a ‘list’ that has only one item.

Examples

Apply directly to Curtin if you:

  • are a current Curtin student seeking to course-switch
  • are a past Curtin student and have withdrawn
  • are applying for mid-year entry.

Careers:

  • Business or retail manager
  • Service delivery manager
  • Business analyst.

Captions

Rules for captions

  • Place table captions above the table
  • Place image and figure captions beneath the image/figure
  • Image captions should be 6 or 8 pt type
  • Do not bold, italicise or capitalise captions
  • Number table and figure captions and place a colon after the number
  • Do not include a full stop at the end of a caption.

Examples

  • Professor Mary Franklin
  • Professor Mary Franklin chats with the Vice-Chancellor at Monday’s ceremony
  • Spring in the Memorial Garden. Photo: M Franklin
  • Table 1: Number of full-time enrolments
  • Figure 5: Workplace incidents for 2017.

Chemicals and compounds

See Numbers, measurements, money, symbols.

Email links

On a web page, show the actual email address in the link text, so the user can easily copy the address. Don’t hide the address behind a button or other text.

Write

Contact us at marketing@curtin.edu.au.

Don’t write

Contact us at Marketing.

Email salutations and sign-offs

If you don’t know the recipient, in your initial email address the recipient as Dear Title LastName. For subsequent emails, be guided by the style of the recipient’s sign-off in their response – whether formal or informal.

There is no punctuation after the salutation and sign-off.

Example

Dear Dr Naysayer

Thank you for the recommendation. We’ll follow this up today.

Regards

Jodie Durante

Events

When promoting an event such as a seminar or information session, ensure that:

  • the lead-in text is concise
  • the event name is in title case (each word begins with a capital letter)
  • you’ve included the name of the seminar, presenter/s (if relevant), date, time, venue, cost and RSVP details (in that order)
  • event details are bolded text.

Example

Subsea Engineering Guest Lecture

Learn about subsea engineering at this lecture by Dr Peta Piper, Manager New Technologies, Deepwater Tech.

Date: Thursday 24 November 2020
Time: From 3:30pm to 5pm
Venue: Engineering Pavilion, Building 215, Curtin Perth
Cost: Free
RSVP: Thursday 17 November 2020, to events@curtin.edu.au

Footnotes

  • Place the superscript identifier at the end of the sentence or clause but before the full stop.
  • Number all footnotes. Do not italicise footnotes.

Forms

  • When creating forms, avoid upper-case headings
  • Don’t bold and underline the same piece of text
  • Number the form fields to make it easier for the user.

Headings

Write headings in sentence case without full stops.

Use a consistent grammatical form for each level of heading. Two common forms for headings are noun
phrases (for example, Research centres) and instructions (for example, Proofread before publishing).

Links and vanity URLs

On the web, don’t use URLs as the link text. Always link words that describe the destination page rather than having https://curtin.edu.au/etc in a sentence.

Link words that describe the destination page rather than click here, go or learn more.

In print:

  • use a vanity URL for simplicity and reporting.
  • use a full stop after a URL if it appears at the end of a sentence.
  • don’t include https://, www. or a slash at the end of a URL.
  • bold URLs.

Write

  • Visit the TISC website to find out about applying to Western Australian universities.
  • To find out about applying to Western Australian universities, visit the TISC website.
  • (in print) To apply for a scholarship, visit curtin.edu.au/scholarships.

Don’t write

  • Click here to find out about applying to universities in Western Australia.
  • (in print) To apply for a scholarship, visit https://scholarships.curtin.edu.au/undergraduate/scholarships/

Paragraphs

Keep most paragraphs to between one and three sentences.

Short paragraphs will help people understand content. The ideal length depends on the type of communication:

  • Media releases and news articles have only one or two sentences in a paragraph
  • Web content has no more than three sentences in a paragraph
  • In reports and other long-form content, aim for a limit of six sentences.

For more information, see Writing on brand.

Sentence case and title case

Sentence case is when the first letter of a phrase is capitalised. Title case is when all words in the phrase begin with capital letters – which is usual for the names of books, films and songs.

Tables

Rules for tables

  • Don’t make tables with other tables inside them (‘nested’ tables)
  • Give your table a title (caption)
  • Create row and column headings
  • Make sure you have a cross-reference in the text.
  • Don’t leave cells empty. If there is no data/information for the cell, write zero or nil
  • Make sure that each separate piece of data has its own cell
  • Align text to the left and numeric data to the right (in left-to-right languages)
  • Use zebra styling (shading alternate rows) where possible. The differentiation is a helpful visual guide to readers.

Telephone numbers

Use spaces to make the number more readable.

For domestic audiences, don’t include the prefix +61. For international audiences, include +61.

Formats:

  • 08 9266 9266
  • 0433 000 000
  • 1300 222 888
  • 13 13 13
  • +61 8 9266 5888
  • +61 433 000 000