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style-guidev1.1.pdf
Corporate Style Guide
Bounce Fitness Corporate Identity
Advertising plays an important role in communicating the Bounce Fitness Corporate Identity. The overall
objective of Bounce Fitness advertising is to promote awareness of Bounce Fitness as a modern,
progressive and user-friendly multi-faceted fitness facility.
In addition it also:
Builds the Bounce Fitness brand by presenting a single, unified corporate positioning and
look;
Positions Bounce Fitness as a premier health care Centre in Australia;
Attracts new staff, students and benefactors.
All Bounce Fitness advertising is placed through its General Manager Marketing who will develop and
maintain the visual corporate style in consultation with the CEO.
These style guides are not presented in this manual.
Bounce Fitness’ General Manager Marketing is responsible for the placement of all Bounce Fitness
advertisements in print and electronic media, with the exception of staff recruitment advertisements
which are placed by Human Resources.
The General Manager Marketing liaises with Centres and Head Office on the copy, content and style
of their advertisements to maximise effectiveness, minimise costs and ensure consistency with the
Bounce Fitness corporate style. The General Manager Marketing can also provide expert advice on any
marketing or advertising issue.
For further information about advertising contact General Manager Marketing on (07) 1234 5678.
Clothing
Clothing developed as staff or sponsor ‘uniforms’ should adhere to the branding guidelines, particularly
in relation to colour and logo placement.
The Bounce Fitness clothing colour options are available from the General Manager Marketing.
The Bounce Fitness Logo should always appear in the upper left area of the clothing approximately
85mm wide x 35mm high.
Orders should be placed with the General Manager Marketing.
Exceptions may be granted if there are functional reasons that require a different design. Contact
General Manager Marketing.
Name Badges
Plastic name badges are available for Bounce Fitness staff. Space is limited with this design so thought
may be required to customise this design to fit.
There is space on the badges for 3 levels of information:
1. Title (optional): 9pt font size, initial CAPS followed by lowercase font
2. Name: 14pt font size, Initial CAPS followed by lowercase font
3. Position (optional): 9pt font size, initial CAPS followed by lowercase font
These badges are available with either a magnetic fastener or a pin-clip fastener.
Order name badges from General Manager Marketing and provide the following information:
Type of fastener (magnetic or pin)
Script details
Centre account code to charge badges to.
By using written style guidelines to present outsiders with a single, unified ‘voice’ Bounce Fitness can
project a polished professional image that fosters our brand credibility. This style guide provides clear
communication direction that brings accuracy and proficiency to our organisation. The Bounce Fitness
style guide provides you with the basics of our corporate communication’s style for your reference and
use.
Reports
General Bounce Fitness Guidelines
Your report should be typed, single-spaced on standard-sized paper (A4) with 4 pt spacing between
paragraphs, 2.5 cm top margin, 3 cm on both sides and 3 cm on the bottom. You should use 9.2 pt.
Calibri font.
Include a page header at the top of every page. To create a page header, insert page numbers flush
right. Then type “Subject of your Report” in the header flush left.
Major Paper Sections
Your report should include four major sections: the Title Page, Abstract, Main Body, and References.
Title Page
The title page should contain the title of the paper, the author’s name, and the Centre or organisational
affiliation. Include the page header (described above) flush left with the page number flush right at the
top of the page.
Type your title in upper and lowercase letters centred in the upper half of the page. Bounce Fitness
recommends that your title be no more than 12 words in length and that it should not contain abbreviations
or words that serve no purpose. Your title may take up to one or two lines. All text on the title page, and
throughout your paper, should be single-spaced with 6 pt spacing between paragraphs.
Beneath the title, type the author’s name: first name and last name. Do not use titles.
Beneath the author’s name, type the Centre or organisational affiliation, which should indicate the
location where the author(s) is/are employed.
Abstract
Begin a new page. Your abstract page should already include the page header (described above). On
the first line of the abstract page, centre the word “Abstract” (no bold, formatting, italics, underlining,
or quotation marks).
Beginning with the next line, write a concise summary of the key points of your report. (Do not indent.)
Your abstract should contain at least your topic, questions, participants, methods, results, data analysis,
and conclusions. You may also include possible implications of your report and future work you see
connected with your findings. Your abstract should be a single paragraph single-spaced with 6 pt
spacing between paragraphs. Your abstract should be between 150 and 250 words.
You may also want to list keywords from your paper in your abstract. To do this, centre the text and type
Keywords: (italicised) and then list your keywords. Listing your keywords will help others find your work
in the Bounce Fitness database.
Main Body
This is main part of the report, where you present your work. The introduction and conclusions act as a
frame for the body only: therefore all the details of your work (including a summarised version of material
in the appendices) must be included here in the appropriate section. You will need to put some thought
into the ordering of the sections; the presentation of information should flow logically so that the reader
can follow the development of your project. It is also essential that you choose concise but informative
headings and subheadings so that the reader knows exactly what type of information to expect in each
section.
The body of the report:
Presents The Information From Your Research, Both Real World And Theoretical, Or Your
Design
Organises Information Logically Under Appropriate Headings
Conveys Information In The Most Effective Way For Communication:
Uses figures and tables
Can use bulleted or numbered lists
Can use formatting to break up large slabs of text
Referencing
Harvard system referencing is used:
Author surname, Initials, Date of Publication, Title, Publisher, Address (City, State)
Example:
Stratford, SJ, 2009, Health Care, Infobase Publishing, 132 West 31st Street, 17th Floor, New York, NY
10001
Internet site references:
Include the following:
Author/ authoring body name (the person or organisation responsible for the site)
Year (date created or last updated)
Title (in italics)
Name of sponsor of site
Accessed day month year (the day you viewed the site)
URL or Internet address (pointed brackets)
Example:
World Health Organisation 2013, Financial crisis and global health, The United Nations, accessed 1
August 2013,<http://www.who.int/topics/financial_crisis/en/>.
Letters
Use the ‘Bounce Fitness Letterhead Template’ available on the Bounce Website at Documents /
Administrative.
Heading Spacing
0 Indentation
0 pt ‘Before’ spacing
0 pt ‘After’ spacing
Date
Three single spaces before the date from top margin and three single spaces to the address.
Address
Name
Job Title (if required)
Address
City State Postcode
Three single spaces to salutation.
Dear (first name or Mr/Ms as appropriate)
One single space.
Letter Body
0 Indentation
6 pt ‘Before’ spacing
0 pt ‘After’ spacing
After completion of body text, three single spaces.
Yours sincerely/faithfully (as appropriate)
6 single spaces then
0 Indentation
0 pt ‘Before’ spacing
0 pt ‘After’ spacing
Name of Author in bold
Job Title in bold
Business card
Business cards can be ordered from Head Office. The following information will be included:
Line 1 - name set in Mid Blue. Position title – Centre Manager
Line 2 - qualifications (optional)
Line 3 – Centre Location
Please note:
No additional logos or items to appear
Only Bounce email addresses to be included
With Compliments Slip
Printed with compliments slips can be ordered through Head Office. The following information will be
included:
Line 1 – Centre Address
PowerPoint
The PowerPoint files include a variety of page styles. Included in each of the files are two prepared pages:
Title page (with optional space for images)
Body page
Text boxes on these pages are set up so you can use font Century Gothic for all text.
How to use the PowerPoint download files
Go to Documents tab / Administrative Folder / Bounce Fitness PowerPoints:
1. Once downloaded, select the title page and add images if required;
2. To duplicate the slide for including body text, go to the top menu bar then ‘Inser t > Duplicate Slide’. This will create a new slide with the body page style.
Punctuation and Grammar
Hyphens
Hyphens must never be used after adverbs ending in –ly as in ‘fully financed’, partly ‘paid’ (but par t-
paid does need one). Hyphens are useful to clarify meaning: a big cat-lover is not the same as a big-cat
lover.
In general, use hyphens to aid clarity:
‘Abba will never re-form’ does not mean the same thing as ‘Abba will never reform.’ The first sentence
says the band will never play together again, and the second suggests that their past bad behaviour will
never improve. ‘re-enter’ is clearer on first reading than ‘reenter’ BUT cooperate and coordinator are
fine without hyphens.
‘It could be done by 10-year-olds’ is clearer on first reading than ‘It could be done by 10 year olds.’ BUT
no hyphens in this: ‘She was only 16 years old.’
Use hyphens to turn verbs into nouns:
Clean up (verb) clean-up (noun)
Lead up (verb) lead-up (noun)
Turn up (verb) turn-up (noun)
Go ahead (verb) go-ahead (noun)
Shake up (verb) shake-up (noun)
Set up (verb) set-up (noun).
A hyphen is also used to join words in a compound construction, or separate syllables of a word, like
during a line break.
Pro-American
Cruelty-free eggs
Em-dash
It’s pronounced hos-pi-tal-it-tee.
Email is spelled without a hyphen.
Dashes
The en-dash is used following British conventions. This typically uses it to act as a comma or parenthesis
to separate out phrases—or even just a word—in a sentence for various reasons (i.e. an appositive). It is
also used to connect values in a range or that are related. A good rule is to use it when you’re expressing
a ‘to’ relationship. Examples where an en-dash should be used:
School is based on the three R’s—reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Against all odds, Pete—the unluckiest man alive—won the lotter y.
I sense something; a presence I’ve not felt since—
… in years 1939–1945
Pages 31–32 may be relevant
New York beat Los Angeles 98–95
Olivia Newton–John
When American English would use an em-dash –.
Dangling Participles or Dangling Modifiers
These become a problem if a reader has to pause to work out how a sentence should be understood.
For example, ‘Driving up to the house, her dog always barks loudly.’ That split-second hesitation while
you work out what’s going on can be avoided by writing ‘Her dog always barks loudly when she drives
up to the house.’ We still don’t know if the dog’s in the car or in the house, but at least it’s not driving.
Hanging Participles
‘Born in Hobart in 1909, his daughter Rory has now donated her father’s memorabilia to the Tasmanian
Museum...’ That would make Rory 99—not unreasonable except this is the second paragraph of a story
about Errol Flynn and his daughter Rory. Much better to repeat the name: Errol Flynn was born in Hobart
in 1909, and his daughter Rory has now donated her father’s...etc.
Commas
Parenthetical Commas
If you remove a word or phrase from between a pair of commas, the sentence should still make grammatical
sense. Think of them as brackets (parentheses) surrounding an additional piece of information that
could be removed without destroying the sentence.
So this is right:
The author of The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood, was on the panel. Remove ‘Margaret Atwood’
and you’re left with The author of The Handmaid’s Tale was on the panel—and that makes sense.
But this is wrong:
Canadian writer, Margaret Atwood, was on the panel. There should be no commas. If you remove
‘Margaret Atwood’ you’re left with Canadian writer was on the panel, which doesn’t make sense.
If there are more than one of them (as in Canadian writers) don’t put the person’s name between
commas; if there’s only one (as in author of The Handmaid’s Tale) put the person’s name between
commas, but always use the removal rule-of-thumb to check.
No Comma between Subject and Verb
No matter how long your subject turns out to be, never put a comma between it and the verb.
1.
As an adult Layne Beachley, changed the face of female surfing.
2.
The Electricity Suppliers Association of Australia’s Brad Page, says Professor Ross
Garnaut is wrong to suggest they should receive no compensation.
3.
The fact that all countries of the world would come together and agree on the rights that
should be afforded to ever y human being, was truly an amazing historical event.
In all these examples the comma should not be there. If you think it’s too much for the poor reader to
take in without a break, then rewrite the sentence.
Use a comma to separate the elements in a series (three or more things). “He hit the ball, dropped the
bat and ran to first base.” You will have learned that the comma before the ‘and’ is unnecessary. In
newspaper writing you will seldom find a serial comma.
Use a comma + a little conjunction (and, but, for, nor, yet, or, so) to connect two independent clauses,
as in “He hit the ball well, but he ran toward third base.”
Contending that the coordinating conjunction is adequate separation, some writers will leave out the
comma in a sentence with short, balanced independent clauses (such as we see in the example just
given). If there is ever any doubt, however, use the comma, as it is always correct in this situation.
Use a comma to set off introductory elements, as in “Running toward third base, he suddenly realised
how stupid he looked.”
It is permissible to omit the comma after a brief introductory element if the omission does not result
in confusion or hesitancy in reading. If there is ever any doubt, use the comma, as it is always correct
Use a comma to separate coordinate adjectives. You could think of this as “That tall, distinguished,
good looking fellow” rule (as opposed to “the little old lady”). If you can put an and or a but between
the adjectives, a comma will probably belong there. For instance, you could say, “He is a tall and
distinguished fellow” or “ I live in a very old and run-down house.” So you would write, “He is a tall,
distinguished man” and “ I live in a very old, run-down house.” But you would probably not say, “She is
a little and old lady”, or “ I live in a little and purple house”, so commas would not appear between little
and old or between little and purple.
Colon and Semicolon
Use a semicolon to join two independent clauses* where a full stop would be too strong and a comma
too weak:
1. The ferr y was overloaded; the owners were clearly liable.
2. My sister loves mussels; her husband hates them.
Use a colon where what follows elaborates on what precedes it:
1. You’ll never believe my luck: I’m going to Mexico.
2. You should have followed my father’s maxim: ‘Never borrow money’.
* An independent clause, or main clause, must contain a subject and a predicate: The ferry [subject] was
overloaded [predicate] ... You [subject] should have followed my father’s maxim [predicate]
Ellipsis
1.
Useful to show where words have been left out, either from the middle or the end of a
sentence:
‘Once a jolly swagman camped ... down came a jumbuck...’ (note spacing)
2.
May be used to indicate indecision or hesitation, the tailing off of a sentence, or to
represent a pregnant pause—par ticularly useful when transcribing:
And that must have been a happy time, or...
Oh, very happy...well, maybe not completely... (note spacing)
Use three dots only...and even at the end of a sentence, no closing full stop is needed... Punctuation
marks are set in stone and shouldn’t be messed with. Some people type two, five, six or more dots, and
this kind of free expression has no place in a grown-up document.
Note that an ellipsis with one letter space either side indicates missing text in a quotation.
Punctuation Spacing
There are no spaces between the word and the 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.
Apostrophes or Inverted Commas
Joint or Individual Ownership
‘Wolf’s and Erica’s daughter Faith is a writer...’
Here, because the daughter belongs to both people, only the second name needs an apostrophe, so it
should read: Wolf and Erica’s daughter Faith is a writer....
Even though the parents of the daughter are distinct individuals, they’re treated as a single unit. You’d
do the same thing if you were talking about ‘Jim and Mary’s house...’
But if you were talking about books that two people have written (separately, not as co-authors), each
person would need an apostrophe: John Updike’s and Anita Desai’s novels are widely read...
More examples: Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettas, but ‘Rudd’s and Howard’s beliefs...’
Apostrophe After ‘s’
Do not add an apostrophe s to any name ending in s (or ce, as in Beatrice or x as in Marx). The same
applies to names with a final silent s like Dubois’s or Illinois’s.
Numbers
In body copy spell out numbers from one to ten, and then use numerals. Spell out all numbers at start
of sentence (Forty-eight people were injured...)
In headings, though, numerals are fine for everything.
For thousands and millions upwards: 3,000, 500,000, 2 million, 8 billion... abbreviate in headings to 2b,
8m with discretion.
Dates
1950s, ‘50s and ‘60s, and 12 November 2004 (day, month, year but with no punctuation)
Capitalisation
Limit initial caps (apart from those marking the beginning of a sentence) to proper nouns—that is, nouns
naming a particular person or thing. Write ‘Mark Scott, the ABC’s managing director…’ or ‘John Smith,
adjunct professor at ANU…’
No caps for ‘premier’, ‘prime minister’, ‘president’, ‘executive producer’, ‘artistic director’, ‘curator’,
and so on, because these are all common nouns.
When used as a form of address, a common noun is capped and becomes a title: President Obama,
Queen Elizabeth, Pope Benedict, Governor Bartlett; but ‘Australia’s prime minister, Tony Abbott, is
visiting China…’ or collectively, ‘Previous popes have held similar views…’ are all lower case.
Headings
Use the capitalisation for words indicated by MS Word set on Australian English.
Act, act
Capitalised in ‘Native Title Act 1993’, lower case in ‘the act was passed in 1993’, or ‘we don’t need an
act of parliament to do it.’
‘The Privacy Act covers your rights to privacy. This act requires others …’ is correct.
Italics
According to established publishing convention, we use italics for:
Titles of books (but not books of the Bible) and periodicals (newspapers, magazines etc.)
Plays and long poems
Operas, ballets, musicals, most types of musical composition including music theatre
Films, videos, and television and radio programs
Works of ar t including paintings, drawings, sculptures, conceptual and performance ar t
Names of ships, aircraft, trains and spaceships
Foreign words and phrases (except for adopted words like ‘cafe’)
When NOT to use italics or inverted commas
Band names
Organisation names
Festival names
Bulleted Lists
First letter following the bullet should be capitalised.
Dot points that are not complete sentences need no end-of-line punctuation (comma, full stop or semi-
colon). The final dot point in the series, though, should end with a full stop.
The margin for the first bullet is set at 0 and the hanging indent is 1 cm
Ampersand (&)
Please avoid unless part of company name or trademark.
Slash
There are two kinds of slashes.
(\) This is a backslash. It’s not used in written English; it’s only used in computing. Unless you’re writing
about computers or including a URL in your bibliography, don’t use a backslash.
(/) This is a slash, sometimes called a forward slash to distinguish it from the backslash. It doesn’t have
a large role in formal English, but it’s used in specific cases. A slash can show a line break in poem,
song, or play, usually if several short lines are being written together on one long line. Remember to put
a space after the slash.
Quotation Marks
Direct speech is enclosed in double quotation marks.
Single quotation marks are used in mostly all other instances when quotation marks are needed. Such as:
Titles of unpublished documents
Essays
For a word of phrase that has been coined or that is being used in a specific sense
For colloquial words, nicknames, slang or humorous words and phrases in formal writing
Place terminating punctuation inside the final quote mark when there is no carrier (e.g. he said) expression
but outside the final quote mark when there is a carrier expression.
Common Errors
Collective Nouns
Committee, jury, choir, audience:
‘The audience were (plural) drifting in to the auditorium in ones and twos; the entire audience was
(singular) on its feet.’ Use of singular or plural verb depends on how you want the collective noun to be
understood.
Into or in to
This is one word except where ‘in’ and ‘to’ belong to separate phrases, as in ‘sworn in to the presidency’
or ‘I walked in to work’. Into is being used more and more often where ‘in’ by itself is enough. For
instance, ‘enter a film into the festival’ is incorrect. All that’s needed is enter a film in the festival.
From ... To
‘Everyone from trainers, bookies, bar staff and punters are feeling it...’ doesn’t make sense. If you have
a ‘from’ you need a ‘to’ such as ‘Everyone from trainers and bookies to bar staff and punters ... ‘
‘Everything from city design to modern art to the basic box...’ doesn’t make sense either. We need two
points, from and to. So we can say ‘Everything from city design and modern art to the basic box.’ We
want to throw the stone from one shore to the other, not skip it over the water.
Due to
This means caused by, not ‘because of’. So ‘The delay is due to [caused by] bad weather’ is correct.
‘Due to [caused by] bad weather there is a delay’ is widely used but ‘Bad weather has caused a delay’
is considered to be better usage.
Effect, Affect
Effect is defined as the ability to bring about a result. ‘His nagging had no effect whatsoever. Wait for
the drug to take effect.’
The word affect means to produce a change in something. ‘But that change will affect a lot of people.’
Disinterested
This describes impartiality, or being unbiased, having no vested interest. It does not describe a lack of
interest (uninterested) although the distinction is increasingly blurred in everyday usage.
‘Between you and me’ not between you and I.
‘Currently’ use ‘now’
‘Below’ use following
‘Above’ use previously
Font and spacing
Helvetica Neue 10pt is the font used for text. Spacing is 0 pt before and 6 pt after paragraphs.
Headings may be VAG Rounded-Bold, 14 or 16 pt and have 4 pt space after.
Referencing
Referencing used is Harvard Style as detailed at
<http://www.swinburne.edu.au/lib/studyhelp/harvard_style.html>
Sources:
<http://news.anu.edu.au/how-to/storytelling-writing-and-media/writing-style-guide/>
Australian Oxford Dictionar y, Oxford University Press 2004
Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers, John Wiley & Sons 2013
Web links
Enclose in angled brackets e.g. ‘<’ and ‘>’. Always use ‘http://’ as a prefix.
File Names
Office Filenames
The following rules for filenames apply to documents that can be saved and opened by Microsoft Office
applications such as Word, Excel and Powerpoint. The same rules apply to similar applications that can
also open the documents.
The file name must include in the beginning the date when the file was first saved, following the format of
the full year, month and day in number form (i.e. 20071202, 20160811)
The purpose or the title must be the second part of the file name, following the date in titlecase and without
any space. If the file is edited from an existing template, remove words ‘fillable’ or ‘template’, if any, and
follow the title of the original file without any spaces. (i.e. ActionPlan, MeetingAgenda)
Lastly, the version number of the file will be the last part of the file name, where the version number is the
number of times the file has been edited. If it is the first time that the file is being saved, write V01.
Otherwise, increase the version number by one from the previous one. (i.e. V03, V11)
Using the three rules for naming files, an Action Plan Template that was written for the first time on January
12, 2018 would look like: 20180112ActionPlanV01.
Likewise, a Meeting Agenda Template that will be edited for the third time from October 5, 2017 will still
use the original date and title, but the version number will change from 02 to 03:
20171005MeetingAgendaV03.
Screenshots
Screenshots taken with a Windows function or any screen capturing software must follow the rules for
naming screenshot image files.
The file name must include in the beginning the date when the file was first saved, following the format
of the full year, month and day in number form (i.e. 20071202, 20160811)
A brief description of what the screenshot contains must be the second part of the file name. If the image contains the website of a certain company or the product page from a supplier, you can put the words
that describe the image in titlecase, without any spaces (i.e. CompanyWebsite, ProductPage). As much
as possible, keep it to three words or below.
Using the two rules for naming screenshots, a screenshot taken on November 20, 2016 with the image
of new fitness equipment will have the filename of 20161120NewFitnessEquipment.
