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“y’know”, but be careful not to change the meaning of their statements.The Prime Minister said: “This Government had no intention – not now, not in the future, notever – of giving in to those who have it in their minds to commit acts of terrorism.”• if more work is needed turn it into indirect speech.The Prime Minister said his government would never give in to terrorists.Style points• if a comment can be best expressed in indirect speech, avoid quotes do not use partial quotesunless necessary. (For example, the partial quote would be justified if the Prime Minister saidthe unions were “a bunch of pigheaded morons”, but not when the quoted material merelyconveys information: Police said the thieves stole “two crates of sporting goods”.)• avoid using brackets to introduce explanatory material inside the quote, as in “They (theunions) are pigheaded morons (because of their refusal to negotiate). Better to say: ThePrime Minister said the unions were “a bunch of pigheaded morons” because of their refusalto negotiate.• if words are left out of a quote, show it, as in “They are…pigheaded morons,” he said. But:The Prime Minister said the unions were “pigheaded morons” because of their refusal tonegotiate.• when a new speaker is introduced, put his or her name before the quote, either by usingindirect speech (Prime Minister Peter Latham said the unions were at fault…) or by using acolon (Prime Minister Peter Latham said: “They are a bunch of pigheaded morons.”)• Do not leave the reader wondering who is talking until the end of the quote. Except whenthey are essential for clarity, do not put in quotes: trade names, makes or models of cars oraircraft, sports events or trophies, fictional or stage characters, pets, ships, trains, names ofroyal, official or history houses, castles <strong>and</strong> palaces, nicknames, pen-names.Punctuation• when the quote is a complete sentence, the close quote mark goes outside the finalpunctuation. “I am extremely hungry.”• when the quote is partial, the close quote mark goes inside the final punctuation. He said hewas “extremely hungry”.• a quote-in-a-quote carries single quote marks. “He told me he was ‘extremely hungry’, so Igave him a biscuit.”SEMI-COLONSSemi-colons are useful, especially in lists of names <strong>and</strong> offices where commas can confuse.Don’t confuse the semi-colon <strong>and</strong> the colon. The sentence I needed three things; a comma, a fullstop <strong>and</strong> a question mark needs the colon (:) after things, not the semi-colon.SPELLINGThe Macquarie Dictionary is the reference for the spelling of words not listed in this book.GENERALour as opposed to –or (humour or humor?)The choice between these endings or words such as harbour, glamour <strong>and</strong> so on remains one ofthe most contentious choices in spelling. As far as News Limited goes –our is the choice. But doPAGE 17 – <strong>2012</strong>UQ <strong>SJC</strong> STYLEBOOK