Spelling and punctuation on nsw.gov.au

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Spelling and punctuation guidelines to help you write content for nsw.gov.au. It includes preferred spellings – including capitalisation and hyphenation – as well as punctuation conventions.

A-Z of preferred spelling and terms

A-G

A

  • app – not application
  • Australian Government (for national government of Australia) – not Government, Commonwealth Government or federal government
  • Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC)

C

  • compulsory third party (CTP) insurance
  • CTP Green Slip

D

  • driver licence – not driver's licence or license
  • NSW Driver Licence – upper case when referring to the actual product
  • drop-down

E

  • email
  • E-Toll, E-Toll Account, myE-Toll
  • EFTPOS

F

  • federal government – use Australian Government

G

  • government
  • Green Slip

H-P

H

  • homepage – not home page

I

  • internet – not Internet

J

  • Justice of the Peace

L

  • licence (noun)
    • driver licence
  • license (verb)
    • to license, licensed premises, licensing authority
  • local council
  • local government
  • local government area in the first instance, then LGA (never Local Government Area)
  • log in (verb)
    • Log in with your username
    • Log in to your account
  • login (noun)
    • Your login is your username and password
  • login (adjective)
    • You have used 3 of your 5 login attempts

M

  • mail – use post
  • Member of Parliament – never use MP

N

  • NSW Seniors Card
  • number plates

O

  • online
  • on-site (adjective), on site
    • On-site parking is available
    • An officer will be on site tomorrow

P

  • passport, passport size photographs
  • Police Event Number
  • post – not mail
    • post to, send by post.
  • postcode (one word)
  • practice (noun)
    • doctor's practice
    • Take the boating knowledge practice quiz
  • practise (verb)
    • To practise for the Driver Knowledge Test, you can download a PDF of questions
  • program – not programme

Q-Z

R

  • registration, rego
  • roll-out (noun)

S

  • service centre
    • initial capitals when part of a service centre's name – Blacktown Service Centre
  • Service NSW
  • statewide – not state wide or state-wide
  • statutory declaration

T

  • terms and conditions – not T&Cs
  • trade plates

W

  • web page
  • website – not site or portal
  • wi-fi – not wifi, WiFi or Wi-fi
  • written-off (adjective)
    • written-off vehicle
  • written off (verb)
    • re-register a light vehicle that’s been written off

 


 

Punctuation

Apostrophes

Use apostrophes in place of missing letters in contractions.

  • can't
  • don't.

Use apostrophes to show possession.

  • your vehicle's number plate (singular)
  • your customers' views (plural)
  • a week's time (singular)
  • in 2 weeks' time (plural).

Don't use apostrophes in plural abbreviations or decades.

  • 1990s – not 1990's
  • PhDs – not PhD's.

Ampersands (&)

Don't use an ampersand in a sentence, unless it's part of an organisation's name.

Commas

If there are too many commas in a sentence, consider using shorter sentences or a bulleted list.

En dash

Use an en dash (–), and not a hyphen, to explain, show an abrupt change or set a phrase apart within a sentence (similar to brackets).

Learn how to type an en dash and an em dash.

Hyphens

Aim for minimal hyphenation.

Examples:

  • Use ‘permit holder’ rather than ‘permit-holder’.
  • Use compound words where the usage is common enough: ‘wellbeing’ over ‘well-being’, ‘startup’ over ‘start-up’.

Exclamation marks

Don't use exclamation marks.

Full stops

Don't add a full stop if an email address is at the end of a sentence.

Do use a full stop for other kinds of links that end sentences. The link text should form part of the sentence.

Don't use full stops on:

  • contractions such as Mr, Dr or Mrs
  • abbreviations
  • acronyms and initialisms.

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