Minor conventions: major impact

Small omissions and inconsistencies will not lose you marks but added together they can distract the tutor from your argument and affect their opinion of your argument.

It is often difficult to know the correct use of, for example, abbreviations or capitals.

Professional bodies and publishers have conventions – known as ‘house styles'. The guidance below refers only to some minor conventions and is not binding. Check your module handbooks for guidance too. You can also look at the ‘guidance for authors’ sections of journals in your subject. Once you have chosen a style, use it consistently.

Abbreviations

• Assume that the reader is not familiar with even well-known abbreviations.
• Avoid abbreviations in the title and abstract.
• Keep their use to a minimum. When you do use them, write the words in full the first time, followed by the abbreviation in brackets, for example, Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
• Do not put full stops in initials or abbreviations.

Quotations

• Verbatim (exact) quotations within the text are placed within single quotation marks.
• Quotations of over a couple of lines (30 words or so) should be indented and do not need quotation marks.

Capitalisation

• Use capitalisation as seldom as possible.
• Use capitals only for names and proper nouns.
• Don't capitalise names of subjects.

UK English and USA English

Use UK English.

ize is the usual USA spelling
ise is the usual UK spelling

So generally use 's' not ‘z’, for example:

• minimise
• organisation
• capitalisation

Numbers

In sentences, generally spell out numbers less than 10.
‘The review was sent to four referees’.

This also applies to ordered events:

• ninth (correct)
• 9th (incorrect)
• 112th (correct)

Exceptions are

• measurements with a unit (8mmol/l) or age (6 weeks old)
• when in a list with other numbers (14 dogs, 12 cats, 9 gerbils)
• at the beginning of a sentence, for example, e.g. Nine boys not 9 boys

Express decades as, for example, 1960s (not 1960’s or ‘60s).

Grammar

Avoid ‘he’ as a general pronoun. Make the nouns (and pronouns) plural, then use ‘they’; if that's not possible, use ‘he or she’.

No exclamation marks, except in quotes from other sources.

Tables & diagrams

Large tables or diagrams should be in the appendix of a project or dissertation.

In essays and shorter reports use tables and diagrams to help the reader understand the text. Include them in the main body of the text unless they are big enough to distract the reader. If they are, put on the following page or in the appendix.

Each table/diagram should have a number and a title describing the contents.

You must describe a stand-alone table/diagram in the text. It is an aid to explanation, not an explanation in itself.

Further help

Contact the Effective Learning Service.

Next: Linking words

Updated: 28 October, 2008 | Effective Learning Service | Legal