Capitalisation and abbreviations

Capitals

Capitals are often overused, but they are actually rarely needed outside of the main functions of beginning sentences and identifying proper nouns. When referring to generalised titles, it is not necessary to have capitals, much like the usage with bachelor’s degrees versus the Bachelor of Education.

For example, when talking about an academic board in general, capitals are not needed, but when talking about a specific academic board, it would be “USQ’s Academic Board” because it is a proper noun.

Similarly, when referring to the “states and territories”, capitals are not needed, but when naming a specific state or territory (like the “Northern Territory”), capitals are required.

When questioning whether it needs a capital, ask yourself “is it the unique name of something?” If it is a general title like “the business manager”, then no, it is not the unique name of something. However, if it were “USQ’s Business Manager”, then yes, it is specifically referring to one person rather than the generalised business manager.

Abbreviations

Below are the correct ways to write out common abbreviations:

• For example = e.g., (The company has many assets (e.g., unique marketing and an extensive client list)).
• In other words = i.e., (The company has the standard rate of superannuation, i.e., 10%.)
• And others = et al. (“Bradford et al. state” or “the authors (Bradford et al., 2013)”)