SJC-style-and-production-guide-2012

Avoid ‘like the plague’ the hundreds of expressions such as:bite the bullet; blessing in disguise; blue sky thinking; conspicuous by his absence; cool, calmand collected; few and far between; from time immemorial; going forward; the heartbreakingtask of cleaning up; heave a sigh of relief; in the fullness of time; legal minefield; lift thelid on; looking tanned and fit; nip in the bud; pull no punches; political wilderness; politicaldynamite; rain failed to dampen spirits; sadder but wiser; storm of protest; strategizing input;tired but happy; wend one’s way ... and so on.Ugly stepsisters of the cliche are: i) the faded simile — ‘works like a dog’, ‘cool as a cucumber’,‘fit as a fiddle’, ‘bright as a button’; ii) the inevitable adjective — ‘burning question’, ‘blissfulignorance’, ‘gaping hole’, ‘raging floodwater’, ‘shark-infested seas’, ‘brutal murder’, ‘horrificaccident’; iii) the extinct nickname — ‘the Emerald Isle’, ‘the Lucky Country’, ‘MotherNature’, ‘Jack Frost’, ‘Old Sol’; iv) the needless foreign or Latin phrase — ‘sine qua non’,‘persona non grata’, ‘de rigueur’, ‘en passant’, ‘Schadenfreude’, ‘Weltanschauung’.closure a cliché, overused, meaning somebody has resolved a situation, or solved a problem, oraccepted a situation. Better to say any of those instead of closure, as they are clear and simple.collective nouns should take on singular verbs and pronouns. ‘The Queensland Orchestra is theState’s only professional orchestra’. But sporting teams are often excepted. ‘The GeelongCats will defend their title at this year’s grand final.’ (See News Ltd section).collide Means the clash of two moving objects. It is not possible, for instance, for a movingvehicle to ‘collide’ with a tree. But two cars can collide. One car does not collide with another,as it implies the first was at fault.colon See dash. See also News Ltd section. The colon has the special function of preparing thereader for what is to come, to indicate that what follows the colon buttresses what has gonebefore it. It can be summed up as a momentary pause for assessment. Murray-Smith (1990:85) gives these examples:And most marvellous of all: the astonishing silhouettes of animals from the ends of the earth,falcons from the Nile, greyhounds, green parrots, magnificent horses, camels from the farsouth.On numerous occasions Mr Cupitt repeats the same basic idea: ‘there is no longer anyprivileged point from which the earth can be seen objectively and as it really is.’Murray-Smith describes the colon as providing a pause more telling than a semi-colon, butless final than a full point.We had only one thing to fear: fear. Note that the colon is not be followed by an initial capitalunless it is used in question–answer series that occur often in courts or local governmentreporting. Note also the absence of quotation marks in this usage:Smith: You were there.Jones: I was not.Smith: I suggest that you were.See also direct speech.comma (See also News Ltd section)A prime purpose of the comma is to separate clauses. Partridge (1973: 253) gives thisexample:UQ SJC STYLEBOOK 2012 – PAGE 32