SJC-style-and-production-guide-2012

not change the official spelling of organisations, ships, buildings or the titles of books, moviesetc. Thus, it is Australian Labor Party but British Labour Party.Doubling consonants in word endings (totalling or talling?)The general rule for final consonants is to double them before adding the suffix if:• The preceding vowel is a single letter (e.g. wet, wetted, wetting) and the accent is on the lastsyllable before the suffix (regret, regretted). To illustrate: occur, occurred, occurring; defer,deferred, deferring; budget, budgeted, budgeting; rivet, riveting, riveted; fever, fevered,feverish.• Unfortunately this is only a general rule, with many exceptions, such as format/formatted;kidnap/kidnapped; program/programmed.• Words ending in –l do not appear to follow any particular rule. Thus, we have: channel,channelled, channelling; devil, devilry, devilish; equal, equalled, equalise; libel, libelled,libellous; total, totalled, totality.Use the spellings listed here and in the alphabetical sections of this book. Otherwise, use the firstlisted spelling of the Macquarie Dictionary.Eliminating the etymological digraph (anaemic or anemic?)A digraph is a combination of vowels such as –ae or –oe, as in haemoglobin and foetus. Attemptsare being made to weed them out of the language, with spellings such as paediatrician andarchaeology beginning to take hold, as is fetus (which was the original Latin spelling anyway,the oe not being added until the 14 th century.• However, we cannot make a rule. Look up each word in this guide. And do not alter thespelling of an organisation such as the Regional and General Paediatricians Society.-ise not –ize (realise or realize?)The suffix –ise is our style. Do not try to apply this to words like capsize where -ize is not asuffix.-or and –er noun endings (impostor or imposter?)The agentive nouns ending in –or and –er are a contradictory mixture. Historically, -or was theLatin suffix while English added –er to coin new agentives from its own verbs. If in doubt, theonly sure answer is to consult the dictionary.-ed/-et endingsWe prefer burnt not burned; learnt not learned (although learned, pronounced learn-ed, is in useamong lawyers when referring to each other in court).As a general guide the –or suffix is likely to be attached to Latin stems ending in thefollowing: at- agitator, demonstrator, spectator; it- auditor, creditor, monitor; ut- distributor,interlocutor, prosecutor; ct- collector, contractor, instructor; nt- inventor, precentor; st- imposter,investor, transistor; ns- censor, sponsor; s- divisor, incisor, supervisor.There are many exceptions such as: adviser, digester, presser, computer, dispenser, preventer,contester, molester, promoter, decanter, presenter, protester.-ible and –able endingsUQ SJC STYLEBOOK 2012 – PAGE 18