SJC-style-and-production-guide-2012

clear: a dark-skinned pickled-herring merchant.But do not use a hyphen between an adverb ending in –ly and an adjective. So, it is a partownedsubsidiary, but a wholly owned subsidiary.Nouns ending in prepositions need a hyphen (a build-up, to break down), but their verbforms do not (to build up, to break down).Prefixes must be joined, either directly or with a hyphen, to the word they belong to. Forexample: overrate, over-estimate; semi-trailer, semiquaver; counter-attack, countermand; extramural,extraordinary; vice-chairman.When the prefix re- means again it takes a hyphen only when the word can be misread,usually when the main word starts with e. For example, reappoint, but re-elect. Be careful withwords that have different meanings with and without hyphens: recover and re-cover, relay andre-lay, re-sign and resign.Hyphens should be there in four-minute mile, where four-minute is a compound adjective,but not otherwise. It is a middle-of-the-road party, but a party that sticks to the middle of theroad.Don’t use hyphens in compound words in which only one syllable is accented or in whichthe hyphen would look odd: busybody, counteract, eavesdropping, hairdresser, schoolboy,teapot, teetotaller, wheelbarrow. While we have a 23-year-old man, he is not 23-years-old. Heis 23 years old. You must also tie the number to the word year (or week or whatever it is). Ifyou think it doesn’t matter, look at the difference between two year-old horses and two-year-oldhorses.Hyphens and slashesThe hyphen used to link numbers indicates a range; 1000-2000 means those numbers and allbetween them. Writing 1000/2000 generally means those two numbers, not inclusive of those inbetween.QUESTION MARKSDirect questions should be followed by a question mark, not a full stop. (How many politiciansdo this sort of thing?) But when a question is merely part of a statement (I wonder how manypoliticians do this sort of thing.) use a full stop.Most of our papers avoid punctuation, including question marks, in headings.QUOTATION MARKSIt is a cardinal rule that what people say is reported accurately. This can be difficult, especiallywith politicians, because it is sometimes hard to know exactly what their words mean. If you arereporting a speech delivered at a lunch or dinner, it may also be difficult to ask the speaker toexplain what he or she meant.Follow the rules here and you’ll keep yourself out of trouble:• anything between quotes should be exactly what was said.In his address to the forum the Prime Minister said: “Let me just make the point – and Isay this often – that this Government had no intention – not now, not in the future, not ever – ofgiving in to those who have it in their minds to commit acts of terrorism on the peoples of thenational of Australia”• it is acceptable to tidy up people’s minor grammatical faults and interpolations such asUQ SJC STYLEBOOK 2012 – PAGE 16