do need apostrophes if in lower case, but not if in caps (Ps and Qs)

song of praise

and other works of art ... titles should appear in italics

palate is taste, or the roof of your mouth ... palette is a range of colours or a painter's board

(Cannes film festival)

proprietary name is capitalised, but generic name, paracetamol is not

James Fawcett is the Australian paparazzo who faced legal action. He's part of the paparazzi.

...there's still a split among historians about whether he was a hero or villain... It should be either 'a hero or a villain' or just 'hero or villain'

is a word formed from a verb: having, been, going, gone. A participle can cause problems when left to 'dangle'

Labor party, Liberal party ... no need to capitalise party

by on the other side

that's in the past

the worst of the fire danger is now past (present tense) ... the worst of the fire danger has now passed (past tense).

what you do to pass the time

a bicycle, (peddle is what a pedlar) does, unless he's a drug peddler

a peek is what you take when you want to see something, and a peak is the top of a mountain

deprecatory ... nothing to do with perjury

by or in itself; intrinsically (Macquarie). It's Latin, and sometimes appears in Radio National transcripts as 'per say', which is wrong.

per cent, not percent

titles should appear in italics

trademark, so capitalise

Arts is plural. But Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) Art is singular

refers to a period of time ... faze means worry, as in 'nothing fazed her'.

it's Philip Glass, Phillip Adams and, if he's French, Philippe

inhabitants are Filipino (m), Filipina (f), Filipinos (m + f)

now normally used to avoid ambiguity, not PIN alone (even though PIN stands for personal identification number and 'number' is inherent)

major Aboriginal language group

for example, we prefer begin or start to the rather pompous commence; buy to the equally pompous purchase.

This clunker was found on our site:

'The South Australian government has asked consumers to try to find alternatives to turning on their air conditioners, fearing more power outages due to heavy demand.'

Not only is it hard to read because of all the spiky phrases like 'to try to' and 'due to', but it's full of unnecessary words. A simple rewrite makes it shorter, smoother to read, easier to understand, and less pompous.

The South Australian government has asked people to ease off on their air conditioners in case heavy demand leads to more power outages.

no caps for paris

trademark, so capitalise

not plateaux

titles are displayed in italics

a playwright practises the art of playwriting. therefore it's playwriting prize, not 'playwrighting prize'.

Perth Writers' Festival, not Writer's. There are a number of writers involved, not just one. And the Greens' policy, not Green's. The Greens is a political party with a number of Greens in it, not just the one.

titles of long poems should appear in italics, titles of short poems in single quotes ... The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and 'The Tiger' by William Blake. Titles of poetry collections in book or pamphlet form are italicised.

politician

town in the Pilbara Region of Western Australia

artist's model or puzzle ... poseur is a striker of false attitudes

as in Tom's meaning belinging to Tom. There is no possessive apostrophe in the following possessive pronouns:
its (belonging to it), hers (belonging to her), his (belonging to him), theirs (belonging to them) and so on...

trademark, so capitalise

the presentation software

not POW's for the plural please

doctor's practice ... lawyer's practice ... violin practice ... don't make a practice of it ... he saw it could work in theory, but would it work in practice?

they practise law ... that scam is widely practised ... why don't you practise more ... he was practised at storytelling

foremost, or political leader ... a first performance is premiere

ending a sentence with a preposition is fine: something to aim for ... a great place to walk to.

awareness of (not awareness about), knowledge of (not knowledge about), understanding of (not understanding about). Scourge of the countryside (not for the countryside). It does matter which preposition you choose. Check the dictionary if you're not sure.

prescribe is to lay down as a rule to be followed (Macquarie) ... proscribe is to forbid, denounce or condemn. So '...development can only take place under certain proscribed circumstances...' doesn't make sense.

When referring to presidential office, as in 'the current president is George W Bush' then it's lower case. When the word is used as a title as in 'President Bush left the White House', then capitalise.

to be under pressure ... pressurised might refer to the atmosphere inside a plane

speech) procrastinate (action)

not preventative (preventive medicine, not preventative medicine)

Kevin Rudd is the prime minister of Australia. Gordon Brown is England's prime minister. We don't say 'Prime Minister Rudd' as we might say 'President Bush', so there's no reason for capitalisation of the term.

Principal Skinner's overbearing mother is the principal reason he's still single. Principle means a fundamental truth or law, or the basis of something. In principle means regarding fundamentals but not necessarily in detail. On principle means based on some moral stance.

Nobel prize-winning, Pulitzer prize-winning, etc

Pulitzer prize, Nobel prize, Man Booker prize, etc

but precede, preceded, preceding

(action) prevaricate (speech)

means extravagant or wasteful, not a returned wanderer, except in the Bible.

is plural

not programme

you can prosecute a person in the sense of instituting legal proceedings against them, or you can prosecute an inquiry in the sense of carrying it out. But this use of the word is wrong:

Belarus is ... a place where freedom of expression is severely limited, and regularly prosecuted.

Freedom of expression itself cannot be prosecuted, only the people who advocate it. The sentence should read: Belarus is ... a place where freedom of expression is severely limited and its advocates regularly prosecuted.

not prostrate

chief player (in drama or novel). Does not mean participant

in Australia we still say 'protest against' something when we mean, for instance, truckies protesting against fuel price rises. If we use the word on its own, we mean to claim something, for instance, to protest one's innocence.

not protestor

This whole affair has proved to be a disaster, and that's a proven fact

no apostrophes when in caps

avoid recycling publicists' puff words (acclaimed, accomplished, amazing, fantastic, renowned, standout, leading). ABC Editorial Policies state: 'Care should be taken in the choice of words used to describe commercial organisations and people. Qualifying descriptors should be restricted to factual elements...'

the proof of the pudding is in the eating (not 'the proof is in the pudding')

trademark, so capitalise

won with heavy losses

do need apostrophes if in lower case, but not if in caps (Ps and Qs)