SJC-style-and-production-guide-2012

But … “A space probe is believed responsible for an outbreak of itching across the southernUS. The probe, which returned from Jupiter, may have brought a plague of space fleas.” In thiscase, the same clause becomes descriptive and takes which.More about thatThis word can often be left out because its inclusion only breaks the flow of a sentence. Forexample: The Premier said he would retire next week…reads more smoothly than The Premiersaid that he would retire next week…It can also be unnecessary sometimes when used as a relative pronoun. Example: The dog theman bit is being tested for rabies…has a better flow than The dog that the man bit is being testedfor rabies.Sometimes, however, omitting the word can change the meaning. One such case is when itfollows a verb capable of being either transitive or intransitive and the that prevents the subjectof the following clause being read as the object of the preceding verb.Example: The Premier said he assumed the identity of Joe Blow was genuine.Readers could be forgiven for believing that the Premier has been passing himself offas someone else until they reach the final two words. But the Premier was not “assuming anidentity”. He was assuming something about an identity and that would make that clear. Manyverbs require the that treatment, the verb to believe at the start of this paragraph being one.That must also be retained when it is needed to attach an adverb to its correct verb: ThePremier said later he rang the Prime Minister is correct if the Premier is speaking after someearlier statement or event. If he is referring to something he did later, it should read: The Premiersaid that he rang the Prime Minister later.TRYMeaning to attempt, try is a very that should be followed by to, not and. You try to dig thegarden, rather than try and dig it. “Try and” is common failure of spoken English, but it has noplace in print.PUNCTUATIONWhen punctuation marks are going to look ugly in copy, try to find constructions that avoidthem.APOSTROPHESApostrophes are the most abused and misused elements of our language. A walk down anyshopping street will demonstrate horrors from all quarters – SALE! Book’s! CD’s! Video’s! Andhow often have you seen it’s creep into our pages when it should be its? In most cases this is theresult of the kind of carelessness that cannot be tolerated in a newsroom.Apostrophes are used to indicate possessive and to denote the contraction or omission ofletters or numerals. Hence the possessive woman’s, or the contraction don’t for do not, ’64 for1964 and so on. They are also used to form the plurals of letters, but not numerals, as in mindyour p’s and q’s, the four i’s and four s’s in Mississippi, but three F-111s, two B-52s.Where you put the apostrophe is crucial. The singular possessive is formed with ‘s (boy’scoat) and the plural with s’ (boys’ coats). For a plural that does not end in s (women) thepossessive is formed with ‘s (women’s coats).PAGE 13 – 2012UQ SJC STYLEBOOK