ABC Radio National

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.

I'm feeling a bit below par. The golfer finished the round six under par. Can home schooling be seen as on a par with the state-run system?

...there's still a split among historians about whether he was a hero or villain... The sentence trails off disappointingly and needs lifting. It should be either 'a hero or a villain' or just 'hero or villain'. We often naturally speak in parallel construction because the resulting speech rhythms are more satisfying. 'Come for a beer and a pizza.' 

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 RN transcripts as 'per say', which is wrong.

per cent, not percent

titles should appear in italics

trademark, so capitalise

Arts is plural. But in the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) the word '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.

4 pm, 10.20 am

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

not Pope Francis I, a Vatican spokesperson has advised.

describes a place with a large populace

we spent the evening inside, poring over the budget papers. Outside it was pouring with rain.

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 belonging to Tom. There are no possessive apostrophes 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

pray in a church, but hunt your prey. So it's 'preying on young girls', not 'praying'.

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

in speech procrastinate in action

not preventative (preventive medicine, not preventative medicine)

Julia Gillard is the prime minister of Australia. David Cameron is England's prime minister. If we were transcribing an interview we might write, 'Fran Kelly: Good morning, Prime Minister...' because there the term is being used as a form of address, but for descriptive purposes, as in 'Fran Kelly spoke to the prime minister this morning,' we use lower case.

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.

write in full, (not Prof) when part of a title: Professor John Smith. Lower case to describe job: John Smith, professor of linguistics at... Upper case if part of endowed professorship: John Smith is Arthur C Clarke Professor of space studies at...

is plural

not programme

Nothing destroys the credibility of a writer more than sloppy use of people's names. Here are some pointers:

• Public figures: use both given and family names (Barack Obama, Paris Hilton, Osama bin Laden, Ai Weiwei, Vincent van Gogh) at first mention, then either both names or family name only (Obama, Hilton, bin Laden, Ai, van Gogh). Never use only given names as this will undermine the all-important tone and integrity of your writing. And note that not all names follow the European convention of Christian name or first name followed by surname or second name. You may need to do a bit of research to get the name order right, but it's worthwhile.
• Spelling: always double-check spelling, even for a well-known name. Use the subject's own website or a reliable academic source. Particularly check names that have common variants. Be fussy about upper or lower case in names like MacDonald, Fitzsimons, and always try to follow the style used by the subject—even if it's a typographic challenge like kd lang, ee cummings, π-o (the poet Pi O) and so on.

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, drivers protesting against fuel price rises. If we use the word on its own, we mean to claim something, for instance, to protest our 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...'

not publically

Please refer to the RN online main house style points if you are providing copy to be published on the RN website

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

no space between word and punctuation mark, so (part one) never *( part one ), and as follows: not *as follows : The exception is between a word and an en-dash: This morning – and what a morning – was to be my last. If you choose to use an em-dash it is usual to close the spacing thus: This morning—and what a morning—was to be my last. It's all about readability.

A comma comes immediately after a word, with a space after it, not before. The same goes for question marks, exclamation marks, colons, and semi-colons. One good reason for this rule is so the word and its punctuation mark can't become separated at a line break
, like this.

trademark, so capitalise

won with heavy losses

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