Category: Canadian Style

This post is part of the Canadian Style series. 5.25 Roman numerals Roman numerals are becoming increasingly rare, but they still have the following uses: names of rulers, aristocrats, and the names of ships, racing cars and space vehicles numbers of volumes, chapters, tables, plates, acts and other divisions of a book or play Government… Continue reading Canadian Style Tip #10: Roman numerals

This post is part of the Canadian Style series. 7.08 Periods properly omitted Do not use periods with acronyms and initialisms and with abbreviations of compass directions, degrees, memberships, and distinctions, SI/metric unit symbols, chemical symbols or mathematical abbreviations.

This post is part of the Canadian Style series. 13.05 Make your point clearly Avoid empty introductory phrases and padding that obscure the meaning of a sentence. These include expressions such as “I would like to begin by indicating clearly to you that . . .” and “If this step, which may be necessary in… Continue reading Canadian Style Tip #8: Make your point clearly

This post is part of the Canadian Style series. 15.04 Names of inhabited places Only two municipalities in Canada have two official forms of their names, one in English and one in French: Grand Falls and Caissie Cape in New Brunswick, which are also known officially as Grand-Sault and Cap-des-Caissie. All other municipalities have only… Continue reading Canadian Style Tip #7: Names of inhabited places

This post is part of the Canadian Style series. 8.11 Reference to words as such When referring to a word’s function rather than its meaning, use quotation marks: How do you spell “spelling”?

This post is part of the Canadian Style series. 8.02 Quotations: run-in format Use the run-in format when the quoted matter is not more than fifty words or five lines long (longer quotations should be set in block format): Mary said, “You are the best husband in the world.”

This post is part of the Canadian Style series. 7.02 Spacing: obliques No space before or after an oblique when used between individual words, letters or symbols; one space before and after the oblique when used between longer groups that contain internal spacing: and/or University of Lethbridge / Lethbridge College

This post is part of the Canadian Style series. 5.26 Numerical expressions: other considerations Dollar amounts in different currencies should be distinguished from one another by some easily understood marker. A reference to $20 will be ambiguous to a non-Canadian reader and may be taken to refer to American or some other currency. No single… Continue reading Canadian Style Tip #3: Numerical expressions

This post is part of the Canadian Style series. 4.08 Titles of office or rank (g) Capitalize titles only when they refer to a specific person; do not capitalize a term that refers to a role rather than a person. As prime minister, Stephen Harper shuffled his cabinet. Prime Minister Stephen Harper shuffled his cabinet.

This is the first post in what I hope will be a regular series. I will share a guideline from The Canadian Style: A Guide to Writing and Editing, the official style guide for Public Works and Government Services Canada Translation Bureau. 7.41 Enumerations Use a dash, not a colon, to enclose a list of… Continue reading Canadian Style Tip #1: Enumerations