City of Wagga Wagga
COMMUNICATIONS STYLE GUIDE
If our message isn’t clear, who will listen? This style guide has been developed to ensure Council News and all City of Wagga Wagga media releases and communications: • Have a clear message • Are accessible to the community and easily understandable • Are well-written and will engage the reader • Are consistent in expression and style to project a united corporate image The guide is based on the Fairfax Style Guide, ensuring best practice and alignment with local media outlets, and the Griffith University style guide. Any topics not covered in the below guide should be referred to the Fairfax Style Guide or The Macquarie Dictionary. For any other issues, please contact the Marketing and Communications team at media@wagga.nsw.gov.au.
a case for lowercase keep it simple
numbers and figures
formatting
RELATED DOCUMENTS • Media Policy (POL 090)
questions?
• City of Wagga Wagga Community Engagement Strategy • City of Wagga Wagga Corporate Brand Guidelines • City of Wagga Wagga Signage Style Guide • Disability Inclusion Action Plan 2017-2021 Version control: July 2016
inclusive communication
City of Wagga Wagga
COMMUNICATIONS STYLE GUIDE
keep it simple
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Additional information that is helpful but not crucial
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Be nice if they had it
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Stories and releases must be concise, clear and interesting.
and look to the “inverted pyramid”.
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Newswriting differs greatly to report writing and the average resident doesn’t want to get caught up in jargon or “Council-speak”.
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The Adweek Copywriting Handbook
WHO WHAT WHEN WHERE WHY HOW
Information they MUST have for your communication to be successful
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Joseph Sugarman,
Follow the “five Ws and the H”
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“If the reader doesn’t read your very first sentence, chances are that he or she won’t read your second sentence.”
Inverted Pyramid Writing
WHAT MAKES A GOOD NEWS STORY?
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City of Wagga Wagga
COMMUNICATIONS STYLE GUIDE
keep it simple PLAIN ENGLISH When it comes to tone and writing style, imagine you’re chatting with a neighbour over the fence. Contractions are allowed – write how you talk. Stories and media releases should be formal for the most part, but don’t be afraid to be more casual where appropriate. Cut back on Council-speak – you may as well be speaking gobbledygook. Stories should be understood after one reading.
The Plain English Campaign website (www.plainenglish.co.uk/ free-guides.html) has a wealth of free guides to help improve your writing, especially “How to Write Plain English”. Keep it simple (but not simplistic) and to the point. Plain English uses: • Familiar, everyday words • Active voice • Personal pronouns such as you and we (where appropriate) • Simple sentence framework, with shorter sentences
MORE ON ACTIVE VOICE From the How to write in plain English guide: With an active verb, the three parts appear in a particular order − subject then verb then object. For example: Peter (subject) watched (verb) the television (object). “Watched” is an active verb here. The sentence says who is doing the watching before it says what is being watched. With a passive verb, the order is reversed – object then verb then subject. The television (object) was watched (verb) by Peter (subject).
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City of Wagga Wagga
COMMUNICATIONS STYLE GUIDE
a case for lowercase Best practice news style is to minimise the usage of upper case letters. As a quick guide, only use upper case for the full or official title. For example, Civic Theatre is upper case, but references to the theatre are lower case. Wagga Wagga Art Gallery and the gallery are okay, but the Gallery is not. City, even referring to Wagga Wagga, should be lower case.
City or city? The organisation’s name is the City of Wagga Wagga. References to Wagga Wagga City Council, Council or WWCC are incorrect and must not be used. The City of Wagga Wagga should be named in full, or can be shortened to the City when appropriate with an upper case “C” ie “the works were undertaken
I work for the City of Wagga Wagga This will be of great benefit to the residents of the City The Civic Theatre is the best place to see a show Did you see the new play at the Theatre?
by City staff” or “The City asks all property owners to pay their rates on time”. CWW is not currently an acceptable shortening of the organisation’s name. Please make sure you only capitalise city when referring the organisation. If you are referring to the location of Wagga Wagga, city must be lower case ie “Wagga Wagga is the largest inland city in NSW”.
City or Council? The term Council can only be used if referring to the elected body, ie “Council last night endorsed a new playground for Forest Hill residents”. When not describing a specific council, it should be used with a lower case “c” ie “The Fit for the Future reforms have impacted many councils across the state”.
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City of Wagga Wagga
COMMUNICATIONS STYLE GUIDE
numbers and figures • Numbers from one to nine are written in full. From 10 onwards they are numerals. • Percentages are always a numeral and written as per cent ie 5 per cent, 97 per cent. • Numbers from 1000 to 9999 are written without a comma. From 10,000 onwards a comma is used. • Million should be abbreviated to an upper case M and should be shortened with a period where possible ie $1.7M, $66.7M. • Refer to the Fairfax Style Guide for more information.
DATES AND TIMES
MEASUREMENTS
• “(Day numeral) (month), (year)” ie Friday 5 December or Monday 12 January, 2015.
As per Fairfax Style Guide, eg 12 square metres is 12sqm, km for kilometres.
• “(Hour).(Minute)(am/pm)” ie 12.30pm. Colons are not to be used.
SPELLING
• The term noon (lower case) is to be used instead of 12pm. Do not say 12noon.
HONORIFICS • Capitalise Councillor, Director, Mayor, General Manager, Manager and other Council titles/positions where applicable. • Councillor is to be written in full for each new Councillor mentioned. References after that are abbreviated to Cr.
We use Australian spelling, rather than American: • “ise” rather than “ize”, eg realise, organise, specialise • ‘our’ rather than ‘or’, for example, ‘colour’, ‘behaviour’, ‘neighbour’ • ‘re’ rather than ‘er’, for example, ‘theatre’, ‘centre’, ‘metre’ • Consult the Macquarie Dictionary to confirm correct spellings.
• The official title is Mayor of the City of Wagga Wagga Councillor Joe Bloggs. • Other honorifics are as per the Fairfax Style Guide.
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City of Wagga Wagga
COMMUNICATIONS STYLE GUIDE
formatting PUNCTUATION
ITALICS
Quotation marks
Published works are italicised ie The Daily Advertiser, Beauty and the Beast as per the Fairfax Style Guide.
Our style is to use double quotation marks. Single quotation marks are used when there is an internal quote.
Published works include:
Examples:
• artworks and exhibitions
“This is our style guide,” Mr Jones said.
• song or album titles
“Then she told me ‘don’t be late’,” Barry said.
• television shows
The critics described the show as “mesmerising”.
Spacing
Single spacing only between words and sentences. Do not use double or triple spacing under any circumstances.
• concerts • poem titles • movie or stage production titles • publications, including novels, newspapers, magazines, reports, and reference or text books
MEDIA RELEASE STYLE AND TEMPLATES Our corporate style for all media releases is to use Arial font in 12-point, with a line of space between each paragraph. All media releases issued from a City of Wagga Wagga facility must follow this format for consistency and to project a united corporate image. Please contact the Marketing and Communications team at media@wagga.nsw.gov.au for more information.
• scientific names
Exclamation points
Should be avoided and used only in rare circumstances depending on the medium.
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City of Wagga Wagga
COMMUNICATIONS STYLE GUIDE
inclusive communication Our language is non-discriminatory and avoids stereotypical, archaic or offensive terms. People are not defined by attributes such as race, gender or disability. For example, write “person with a disability” instead of “disabled person” or “accessible toilet” instead of “disabled toilet”. The National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples style guide advises the following terminology is acceptable: • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples • Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islander Peoples • First Nations • First Nations of Australia • First Peoples • First Peoples of Australia • Australia’s First Peoples
DISABILITY INCLUSION ACTION PLAN - PROVISIONS FOR ACCESSIBILE COMMUNICATION The below items outline the requirements that Wagga Wagga City Council has specified with regards to our communication in our Disability Inclusion Action Plan (DIAP) 2017-2021.
Project owner must review language used in their documents/ publications to ensure it is inclusive and focuses on accessibility, ability and inclusion and reflects best practice for inclusive language. Reference for best practice: www.and.org.au/pages/inclusive-language.html
Project owners should give consideration to more readable and accessible file formats for their documents and online content. Some resources for best practice: webaim.org/techniques/screenreader easyread.com.au
Project owners should be inclusive in selection of images for placement in documents/publications/online content and represent the diversity of our community, eg people with disabilities and people from culturally and socially diverse groups.
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questions? Not sure or want to check something? Contact the Marketing and Communications team: media@wagga.nsw.gov.au or Ext 9190