Colour palette

Midtones

Eucalyptus — #545b4f

Sea grass — #8f9d8f

Sand — #9ba083

Dune — #cfc974

Ocean dive — #93b6bb

Soothing sea — #b7cbcd

Day sky — #bfe1ec

Forest — #526c73

Desert — #d86449

Foundation neutrals

Wallaby — #b2bab5

Dolphin — #dbdbdb

White — #ffffff

Dark

Night sky — #002338

Highlights

Wattle — #cfcf23

Opal — #a1eeed

Reef — #005ed6

Fonts

Beatrice Semibold

Beatrice Semibold is used for all titles and headings, introduction paragraphs and pull quotes. It should be used in sentence case at all times.

Tablet Gothic

Tablet Gothic is used for all body copy and long form text. Tablet Gothic Semibold is used for emphasis within body text when required.

Arial

Arial is the alternative system font to be used for all internally created documents. For example; PowerPoint, Word documents. Arial Bold is typically used for headings, and Arial Regular for body copy.

Publications

Editorial

• Consult the Australian Macquarie Dictionary for spelling.
• Refer the Australian Government style for grammar and proofing.
• Send any comments or questions to: info@aegn.org.au

Overall

Use “s” and avoid auto correct in Word that replace “s” with a “z”. For example, use realise, organisation, paralyse and analyse.

Active voice

Use the “active voice” rather than the “passive voice” for example “The AEGN catalysed the project” is preferable to “The project was catalysed by the AEGN”.

Our name

At the beginning of any communications, our name must appear in full: Australian Environmental Grantmakers Network.

Once the full name appears, then use the acronym. To do this, introduce the acronym in copy for example: …the Australian Environmental Grantmakers Network (AEGN) …

• You can then use the acronym in the remainder of the copy.
• Avoid introducing the acronym in titles.
• There is no need to introduce the acronym if our name appears once on the page.
• There are no spaces or full stops in our acronym.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations are shown in lower case (unless they are a place or title). For example, Queensland and Victoria are Qld and Vic.

• Preference is not to use abbreviations.
• No spaces are used when using abbreviations.
• When using abbreviations, use sparingly as over-use can impact on readability.
• Using abbreviations where space is limited is acceptable (for example in diagrams, tables and social media).
• Avoid e.g. and i.e. – use “for example” and “that is” instead.

Accents

Use accents if they are a part of a person’s name, organisation name, publication, title or scientific name.

• Be aware of the direction the angle of accents points. For example, you have á and à. For example, with our Board member and member Simon Holmes à Court, the accent angle is to the left.
• Copy and paste the accent from this style guide or from a Google search.

Acronyms

Globally accepted acronyms allowed. For example, CEO and US. Otherwise avoid acronyms.

• You may use acronyms where space is limited, for example in a table, graph or social media.
• You can introduce an acronym if it is widely used within the content. For example the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), and the Australian Environmental Grantmakers Network (AEGN).
• These introductions must be made in copy (not in headings).
• Avoid introducing an acronym if it is only used a few times. Spell it out.
• Avoid using acronyms for the sake of minimising typing. For example, Annual Report (AR). Use the full spelling instead. It is easier to read.
• An exception is for “care of”. In this instance we can use c/o.

Acts

Italicise

Ampersand

Avoid replacing “and” with “&” in copy and when not a part of an organisation name.

For example,

• Keith and Jeannette Ince attended our conference…
• Anna Cerneaz and Graeme Wood gave an interview on funding…

Use the & when part of an organisation name or title. For example,

• The Keith & Jeannette Ince Fund
• Fauna & Flora International
• Pride & Prejudice

Apostrophe

The possessive form of nouns is marked by an apostrophe followed by an -s.

After the plural ending -s, however, the possessive -s is omitted:

• the owner’s car
• women’s rights
• footballers’ earnings

The apostrophe is never used in possessive adjectives: its (as distinct from it’s, that is that is, “it is”), ours, theirs, yours.

Nouns ending in -s, including proper names and abbreviations, form their singular possessive with -’s, just like nouns ending in other letters: an actress’s pay; Mr Jones’s paper; Helios’s future is uncertain; AWACS’s success.

Sometimes you will omit the apostrophe:

• Earls Court
• Kings Cross
• Chambers Dictionary
• Achilles tendon

Avoid the following – spell out the full words:

Apostrophes are also used to indicate contractions, that is, where one or more letters have been omitted in a word or where two words have been joined together. Contractions are common in informal texts, but not in formal texts. For example: don’t = do not; it’s = it is (as distinct from the possessive ‘its’); who’s = who is (as distinct from whose); you’re = you are (as distinct from your).

Brackets

If a whole sentence is within brackets, put the full stop inside the closing bracket.

Square brackets should be used for an interpolation (which is an entry or passage in a text that was not written by the original author) in direct quotations: “Let them [the poor] eat cake.” To use ordinary brackets implies that the words inside them were part of the original text from which you are quoting.

Capitalisation

Place names, people, job titles, company names and how they render their products, publications, products, book and movie titles.

No capitals should be used for compass points or seasons.

For Project Clearinghouse projects – render the project name as the foundation does. Check their website for consistency in their approach (if available). If there is no consistent approach, then default to our editorial style of sentence case.

Country in capitalised when referring to important Aboriginal cultural practices. For example, “Aboriginal people Caring for Country” (care and caring — in these instances — are also capitalised).

• Use lowercase if you are describing a country (for example the country of Finland) or the country as in “outback” or “bush”.

Colon

Use a colon “to deliver the goods that have been invoiced in the preceding words” (Fowler). 

For example, “They brought presents: gold, frankincense and oil at $35 a barrel.”

Use a colon before a whole quoted sentence, but not before a quotation that begins in mid-sentence. 

For example, she said: “It will never work.” He retorted that it had “always worked before”.

Use a colon for antithesis. Man proposes: God disposes.

Use lower case following a colon in most cases unless the:

• Word that follows the colon is a proper noun.
• Text after the colon is a question that is a complete sentence.
• The colon appears in a heading.

Commas

Use commas as an aid to understanding. Too many in one sentence can be confusing.

• Use two commas, or none, when inserting a clause in the middle of a sentence.
• For example, avoid: Use two commas, or none at all when inserting… or Use two commas or none at all, when inserting…
• If the clause ends with a bracket, which is not uncommon (this one does), the bracket should be followed by a comma.
• Do not put a comma before and at the end of a sequence of items unless one of the items includes another and.
• For example, the doctor suggested an aspirin, half a grapefruit and a cup of broth. But he ordered scrambled eggs, whisky and soda, and a selection from the trolley.
• Do not put commas after question-marks, even when they would be separated by quotation marks: “May I have a second helping?” he asked.

Compass points

Use lower case for compass points unless a part of an administrative or political unit.

For example, north, north-west, north-western, unless part of an administrative or political unit or a distinct regional entity. For example, South Australia and northern Australia.

Compound compass points are hyphenated for example south-west.

Avoid abbreviating.

Contact details

Digital and print application.

Use:

t

e

w

For example:

t 03 9699 9999 e info@aegn.org.au w aegn.org.au

Dates

For the year we are in, write out the day and month. No year reference required.

For example, Monday 20 January.

When referring to a past or future year you need to include the year. For example, 12 July 2018.

Use all four digits when writing the year. For example, use 1997 not ’97 (this is even more important now we are the 2000).

If the year appears once already in a sentence, it is acceptable to leave it out in the next date. For example, On 23 July 2001, the Committee adopted … but subsequently on 2 August, it decided…

1990–91 is two years.

Single marketing years, financial years, which do not coincide with calendar years are denoted by a forward slash, for example, 1990/91, which is twelve months or less.

Dashes

You can use dashes in pairs for parenthesis, but not more than one pair per sentence, ideally not more than one pair per paragraph.

Use a dash to introduce an explanation, amplification, paraphrase, particularisation or correction of what immediately precedes it. Use it to gather up the subject of a long sentence. Use it to introduce a paradoxical or whimsical ending to a sentence. Do not use it as a punctuation maid-of-all-work (Gowers).

Em dashes

Rendered as —

They may be used to punctuate a sentence instead of commas or round brackets. They increase the contrast or emphasis of the text thus set off. However, use no more than one in a sentence, or — if used with inserted phrases — one set of paired dashes.

In Microsoft Word, the keyboard shortcut for the em dash is Alt + Ctrl + – (on the numeric keypad). 

En dashes

Rendered as –

They are used to join coordinate or contrasting pairs (the Brussels–Paris route, a current–voltage graph, the height–depth ratio).

In Microsoft Word, the keyboard shortcut for the en dash is Ctrl + – (on the numeric keypad). 

Full stop

Avoid using full stops in abbreviations or at the end of major headings.

No further full stop is required with a quotation complete that end in a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark before the final quotes: René Descartes said “I think therefore I am.”

Always use three points for ellipsis points, preceded by a hard space. In Microsoft Word, use Alt + Ctrl + (full stop) to insert ellipsis points.

If a sentence ends with an omission, no fourth full stop should be added. If any other punctuation mark follows, there is no space before it: Run-in side heads (you are looking at one). These are followed by a stop in English typographical practice.

Hyphens

Compounds may be written as two or more separate words, or with hyphen(s), or as a single word, and many compounds have precisely followed those steps as they become more commonly used for example, database.

One indication of whether words should be joined or separated is stress: underpass is a single word, but under way should be written as two words.

Sometimes hyphens are necessary to clarify the sense:

• re-cover — recover
• re-creation — recreation
• re-form — reform
• re-count — recount

There are few hard and fast rules, but note the following examples:

• Well-known problem
• Broad-based program
• User-friendly software
• Two-day meeting
• Four-month stay (but four months’ holiday)
• Balance-of-payments policy
• Cost-of-living index
• Low-interest loans
• Flood-control measures
• Not-for-profit

Many phrases are treated as compounds, and thus need a hyphen only when used as modifiers for example long-term effects but policy for the long term, large-scale redundancies but production on a large scale.

Compound compass points are hyphenated for example south-west.

Lists

For list items, take care that each is a grammatically correct continuation of the introduction to the list.

Avoid running the sentence on after the list of points, either by incorporating the final phrase in the introductory sentence or by starting a new sentence.

The four basic types of list are illustrated below. In multi-level lists, follow the same rules for each level, however, you may apply different styling for bullets, numbering and alphabetising.

Lists of short items (without main verbs) should be introduced by a full sentence and have the following features:

• introductory colon
• no initial capitals
  • still no capitals

• no punctuation
• full stop is not required

Where each item completes the introductory sentence and has a main verb, you should:

• begin with the introductory colon;
• label each item with the appropriate bullet, number or letter;
• end each item with a semicolon; and
• close with a full stop.

If all items are complete statements without a grammatical link to the introductory sentence, proceed as follows. Introduce the list with a colon:

1. label each item with the appropriate bullet, number or letter;
2. start each item with a lowercase letter;
3. end each one with a semicolon; and
4. put a full stop at the end.

Numbered lists should be used when referring to an amount. For example, there are four items in the list below:

1. No need to introduce the list with a colon.
2. Label each item with the appropriate bullet, number or letter.
3. Begin each item with a capital letter.
4. End each statement with a full stop. This allows several sentences to be included under a single item without throwing punctuation into confusion.

Measures

• Use imperial measures.

• When using the acronym or abbreviation use lower case.

Numbers

When starting a sentence with a number, write the number in words instead of using the figure.

Within copy, use the words from one to nine, then from 10 upwards use figures. Except where there are “sets” of figures. For example, Deaths from this cause in the past three years were 14, 9 and 6.

The first part “three” is using the correct style. The second part “14, 9 and 6” where “6” is an exception to the style as it is with a “set” of figures.

Comma starts at 10,000 then use commas for grouping thousands. For example 4,000,000.

Also use figures for numerals that include a decimal point or a fraction. For example, 4.25, 4¼.

It is permissible to use words rather than numbers when referring to a rough or rhetorical figure (such as a thousand blessings).

Use figures for school years and grades, for example, Year 8, Grade 10.

Fractions should be hyphenated (one-half, three-quarters) and, unless they are attached to whole numbers (8½, 29¾), spelled out in words, even when the figures are higher than ten: He gave a tenth of his salary to the church, a twentieth to Mission Australia and a thirtieth to his wife.

Use 5000-6000, 5-6%, five million to six million (not 5-6m) and five billion to six billion. But donations rose from five million to six million (not 5m-6m);estimates ranged between five million and six million (not 5m-6m).

It is important to use the five million to six million and not five to six million, as the five can be confused with a single digit of five and not five million. For clarity use five million to six million.

Use the words millions, billions. Unless space is an issue, then you can use m and b.

Percentages

Percentages may not total 100 due to rounding.

When this occurs, we should use the above statement near the chart or table that does not add up to 100 per cent. Use words for per cent.

Avoid using the symbol % in copy. The symbol can be used in diagrams and tables.

Organisations

Organisations, ministries, departments, treaties, acts generally take upper case when their full name (for example State Department) is used.

The University of Melbourne, Forestry Commission, Amnesty International, Department for Environment, Treasury, High Court, Senate.

Render the organisation names as the organisation render their name. For example, if the member’s foundation name is The Joan & Garry Tree Foundation, use the ampersand (not the word ‘and’). However, if the member’s foundation name is T and H Bee Foundation, use the work ‘and’ (not the ampersand). The same applies for other organisations and companies. Render the organisation name as registered and shown by the organisation.

People (names and titles)

Use upper case for ranks and titles when written in conjunction with a name, for example President Obama, Professor Ian Lowe, the Queen.

Put a space after an individual’s name and their post nominal honorific title for example Amanda Martin OAM.  No full stops are needed here. The post nominal is always displayed immediately after their name and prior to their job role.

Member names

When rendering member names for the first time in content, use: AEGN member, First name Last name, Foundation name (or individual funder).

In print

• Aim to render names on one line.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

As a collective Aboriginal people generally prefer terms that highlight diversity, such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, First Nations and First Nations People over the term “Indigenous”.

While the term “Indigenous” is used widely by government, many Aboriginal people feel that it is a collective term that fails to recognise the diversity and breadth of nations, clans and tribes in Australia. Use of “Indigenous” and “non-Indigenous” can reinforce black and white binaries and should be used carefully.

The AEGN uses Indigenous Land and Sea Management in the context of a program of work to Care for Country and culture, undertaken by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and supported by government funding programs.

Some Aboriginal people also feel that “First Nations” is more closely associated with people in Canada and the United States and not as widely recognised in Australia.

For this reason, use Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people first and Aboriginal people there after as a shorter term that most people already know and understand.

It is respectful to use capital letters when using any of these phrases.

It may also be useful to note the following rules:

• Avoid using acronyms to refer to Indigenous people for example, ATSIs, TIs, Abl and TSI.
• Avoid using Aborigine.

This approach is a generalised view and individuals may personally prefer to be referred to differently.

Publications

Render as the publication renders their title – usually in maximal caps (title case).

Each word is capitalised (unless the publication renders the words in lower case – in which you would follow).

Quotations

Use double quotation marks for both quotes and when emphasising “words”.

Also see brackets.

Use single ones only for quotations within quotations. For example, the member said “When I say ‘immediately’, I mean some time before April,”.

Quotes are to be included in quotation marks with a full stop at the end of the quote (within the quotation marks). Credits for the quote are to refer to the person who is being quoted, and the organisation and project to which the quote relates.

If the quotation does not include any punctuation, the closing inverted commas should precede any punctuation marks that the sentence requires. Thus: She had already noticed that the “young man” looked about as young as the New Testament is new. Although he had been described as “fawnlike in his energy and playfulness”, “a stripling with all the vigour and freshness of youth”, and even as “every woman’s dream toy boy”, he struck his companion-to-be as the kind of old man warned of by her mother as “not safe in taxis”. Where, now that she needed him, was “Mr Right”?

Recording minutes

Use past tense.

Referencing

Use the Australian Government’s version of the author-date system.

• Refer to the Australian Government’s Style Manual (the absolute go-to book for Australian editors).
• Avoid italicising et al.

Seasons

Seasons are not capitalised.

For example, summer, winter, spring and autumn.

Species names

Use lower case for the names of flora and fauna, capitalising only proper nouns.

Examples

• polar bear
• giant panda
• bandicoot

Examples with proper nouns

• African elephant
• Bengal tiger
• Bush-Stone curlews
• Regent Honeyeaters
• Bluebells

Common and scientific names

Use your judgement about whether to identify species on first reference with both the common name and the scientific name. This is usually appropriate in technical reports or studies, but unnecessary in more casual contexts.

When using both names, the species’ common name should be mentioned first, followed by the Latin (scientific) name. The Latin (scientific) name should be written in italics and in parenthesis:

• The leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea)
• The Brazilian woody vine (Paullinia cupana)

Subspecies names, when used, follow the specific name and are also set in italic type:

• Trogon collaris puella
• Noctilio labialis labialis

Sometimes the common names of species appear to have been derived from a person’s name (and therefore you would think they should be capitalised), for example the olive ridley turtle, when in fact they are not.

If in doubt, check with an appropriate staff member or the AEGN expert panel.

Symbols

Use scientific symbols as rendered scientifically.

For example CO₂ and avoid ampersand (&) use the word “and” unless a part of a name or publication.

Time

Use Australian Eastern Time if relevant nationally.

h.mm am or pm

9.15am

12.30pm

Times must be followed by the relevant time zone. If Australia-wide, use AEST or AEDT (during daylight savings times). If only relevant to a certain state, then use the time zone for that state. For example in Western Australia use AWST.

Some systems automatically use a colon instead of a full stop. Where we cannot control this, then the time is rendered as the system generates it.

Use the time zone relevant to the location. If a nationally relevant time zone is required, use Australian Eastern Time.

Titles

Use sentence case unless an official title such as a publication, book, movie.

Website addresses

Omit https://www

• Write in the following way: aegn.org.au
• No full stop or other punctuation immediately afterwards – even if at the end of a sentence.
• Same for email addresses (no full stop to be used at the end of a sentence.
• The word “website” is one word.

Glossary

This section to contain words specific to the AEGN that might be rendered differently in other organisations.

• Ad hoc (two words)
• CO2 is an acceptable way to display carbon dioxide
• COVID-19 (avoid using Covid-19 or coronavirus)
• Country in capitalised when referring to say “Aboriginal people caring for Country”. Continue to use lowercase if you are describing a country (for example the country of Finland) or the country as in “outback” or “bush”.
• Environmental organisations (avoid using The directory of environmental organisations)
• Funder groups (sentence case) – for example, climate change funder group
• Private ancillary fund and public ancillary fund are to be rendered in lower case
• Project Clearinghouse
• Grantmakers, grantmaking (not grant-makers or grant-making)
• Grantseekers (not grant-seekers)
• Land and sea. The words “land and sea” are in lowercase (unless at the start of a sentence or in the name of a publication).
• Not-for-profit (avoid using “not for profit”)
• Pollinate – our newsletter for Wealth Advisers
• Program (not programme)
• Thought Leadership Forum (maximal caps)
• World Heritage Listed (maximal caps)