SJC-style-and-production-guide-2012

admissible notice –ibleadviser not advisor, but advisoryaffect/effect ‘Affect’ is always a verb and can mean ‘have an effect on’, ‘pretend’, or ‘pose as’.It should not be confused with ‘effect’.Alcohol affects people’s ability to drive.He affects ignorance. ‘Effect’ can be a noun or verb. As a noun, it means ‘result produced’ or‘consequence’: The effects of alcohol on driving ability can be measured. Bright colours givethe effect of spaciousness. As a verb, ‘effect’ means ‘bring about’ or ‘accomplish’: The rubberdinghy was used to effect a rescue. But this final use is best not used in journalism. Better tosay, ‘The rubber dinghy was used to rescue the crew’.afflict, inflict where the former is to receive discomfort; the latter to impose it.age teenage, school-age, old-age. Also see numbers. A 19-year-old girl is hyphenated thus,whereas a 19 year-old as a noun has only the one hyphen-age don’t use in usage, wastage, signage; prefer use, waste and signs.aggravate means ‘make worse’. It should not be given the meaning of ‘irritate’.AIDS is acronym for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, and follows symptoms of aperson being first HIV positive. A person who is HIV positive does not necessarily go on tosuffer from AIDS but they do carry the virus which causes it. Don’t write HIV virus, becausethe v in HIV stands for virus. People don’t die from AIDS, but they can die from an AIDSrelated illness.‘a lot’ don’t use. It does not mean ‘a large amount’. There may be some confusion with therelated verb ‘allot’, which means ‘assign’ or ‘distribute by lot’. Also allotting and allotted.all time high/low use with caution as the claims are difficult for reporters to verify. Best usedonly when quoting source.allege use sparingly. Better, after a charge has been referred to to use claim, argue. All right toquote barristers saying ‘the crown will allege that…’.allude means to refer indirectly – modestly to a person’s achievements, passage from a novel.Don’t confuse with elude meaning to avoid capture. Allusion is the noun form. Don’t confusewith illusion which is a fanciful image.al-Qa’ida Islamic organisation.‘alright’ One of the great non-words, whose ubiquity may suggest legitimacy. This is aconfusion with such forms as ‘already’ (compare with ‘all ready’), ‘although’ and ‘always’.The only correct form is still all right.alternate switching between two choices. Frequently confused with alternative meaning takinganother choice. So you have alternative routes, alternative lifestyles. But day alternateswith night.alumnus is a graduate of a university. Being Latin, there are also issues of number (plural/singular) and gender. Alumni is the (masculine) plural for the body of graduates, assuming inRoman culture they were men. However alumna is a female graduate, and alumnae its plural.It makes it difficult to speak of 21st century graduates in non sexist terms. The practice is touse the masculine plural. Fairest is to speak of alumni and alumnus for both genders. Alumniis used to describe the association of graduates formed for the purpose of fundraising for theuniversity.Americanisms Parts of American English are common in Australia because of the amountof American literature Australia imports and the influence of American-based publishersUQ SJC STYLEBOOK 2012 – PAGE 24