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Australian Government Style Manual
- schappim 3y agoI wonder if this will last longer than https://designsystem.gov.au/ https://designsystem.gov.au/
- kimburgess 3y agoIt was first published in 1966, so seems probable. Thankfully prose and the core structure of language is slightly less volatile than the JS ecosystem.
- Maxious 3y agoMany of folks who worked on that moved to work on https://design-system.agriculture.gov.au/ https://design-system.agriculture.gov.au/ https://github.com/steelthreads/agds-next https://github.com/steelthreads/agds-next
- bongobingo1 3y agoAssociated links: - code https://github.com/govau/design-system-site https://github.com/govau/design-system-site - sunset announcement https://web.archive.org/web/20210816211041/https://community.digital.gov.au/t/dta-design-system-has-been-decommissioned/4649 https://web.archive.org/web/20210816211041/https://community... - reasoning (cant say I actually understand, beyond, the government is shifting focus) https://web.archive.org/web/20210624054249/https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2021G00267 https://web.archive.org/web/20210624054249/https://www.legis... Seems it lasted from about 2017 to 2021. Shame.
- bitwize 3y agoThe design system is down. hooDOOdooDOOdoodle hooDOOdooDOOdoodle
- firecall 3y agostill down :-/
- tsujamin 3y agoI did a training course on this the other day - loved how passionate the trainer (who worked on the ASM) was about the correct application of quotes within quoted passages
- jen729w 3y agoI find this an interesting choice. > Double quotation marks aren’t Australian Government style. Use them only for quotations within quotations. My partner is a(n Australian) copy writer. She’s converted me to the following rule: - If it’s a direct quote — some human uttered the words — it goes in “double quotes”. - Any other thing that is quote-like, but not words that an individual human actually said, goes in ‘single quotes’.
- cookie_monsta 3y agoWhich is interesting because probably 99% of whatever gets air-quoted should be done with one finger per hand, not two.
- lotophage 3y agoWe need a style guide for hand gestures.
- SturgeonsLaw 3y agoIt really irks me how people "misuse" quotation marks
- JdeBP 3y agoEric Partridge ("You Have a Point There") disagrees. Single or double, quotation marks are inaccurate if the words are not strictly quoting. Before the age of widespread international computer-mediated communication, authorities generally agreed on a rule of starting with one and alternating to the other for quotations within quotations. Many agreeing that starting with single quotation marks was the U.K. rule and starting with double quotation marks was the U.S. rule; with the U.K. switching to double quotation marks for quotations within quotations and the U.S. switching to single. One U.K. authority that I have from 1985 describes U.K. use of double quotation marks in primary position as "fighting a rearguard action" in the U.K., with only The Times sticking to it. Everyone else used single quotation marks primarily, back then. However, the influence of CMC has put a lot of pressure on the then U.K. habit. Today, after decades of Usenet, Fidonet, the World Wide Web, et al., the top articles on BBC News (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66007017 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66007017) and The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/24/wagner-troops-may-reach-moscow-by-evening-as-kremlin-hurries-to-intercept https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/24/wagner-troops-...) use double quotation marks, and the pendulum has very much swung the other way, with the U.K. norm of the 1970s now being the rare exception. However, the rule of switching for quotations within quotations still holds, and headlines quite often still use single quotation marks, even though article bodies will use double ones for the same quotation. This latter is observably the case on the BBC News and Guardian sites right now, to use the same examples.
- barrysteve 3y agoSome of this stuff is good, but golly gosh some isn't. Transitive verbs use the example, 'A director buys his lunch' to show that the action passes to the object. It makes no sense. Did the lunch buy itself? The page introduces an intransitive rule to cover up all the cases in English where subject-verb-noun generates sentences where there the noun ending is not involved in the verb. The guide overloads the meaning of the English word 'mood' to carry all the intended meaning of the speaker. You are literally ordered around by a 'mood' in this style guide. More loveless, heartless, unrecognizable clone work from the AU gov.
- GordonS 3y agoAt least as a Brit, the "lunch" example you provided makes perfect sense to me?
- defrost 3y agoThey're referring to the example here: https://www.stylemanual.gov.au/blog/transitive-and-intransitive-verbs https://www.stylemanual.gov.au/blog/transitive-and-intransit... 'buy' is the action, 'director' is the subject, 'lunch' is the object. <subject> <verbs> <object> is the typical transitive verb template, a transitive verb connects a subject and object (whereas other verbs don't require an object).
- cycomanic 3y agoI still don't see what the issue is? Is the previous poster suggesting that transitive and intransitive verbs don't exist?
- defrost 3y agoI don't see the issue the previous poster had either. I went to the source to find the context and linked it here for others, but it hasn't (for mysellf at least) shed any light on what they were objecting to.
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- lmpdev 3y agoMy late father was well versed in this writing style - even though he never held a government role Journalists and particularly paper editors (he was deputy editor in chief of a famous magazine owned by the now defunct Federal Publishing) in the 80s and 90s. He and other editors had to adhere to it in overly government focused articles (not necessarily for propaganda, moreso for consistency) I truly believe there were no soft power intentions behind this sort of thing, it was difficult to find these particular resources pre-internet so they were essential pre late-90s
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- andrepd 3y agoI prefer whatever manual produces these https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlUQMH19BkQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlUQMH19BkQ
- tomohawk 3y ago[flagged]
- based2 3y agohttps://commission.europa.eu/about-european-commission/departments-and-executive-agencies/translation/clear-writing-europe_en https://commission.europa.eu/about-european-commission/depar... https://commission.europa.eu/resources-partners/translation-and-drafting-resources_en https://commission.europa.eu/resources-partners/translation-...
- based2 3y agoFR https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/contenu/menu/autour-de-la-loi/guide-de-legistique https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/contenu/menu/autour-de-la-loi... https://www.systeme-de-design.gouv.fr/ https://www.systeme-de-design.gouv.fr/
- ape4 3y agoUnderlined hyperlinks are not that usual any more. But very clear.
- temptemptemp111 3y ago[dead]
- apricot 3y agoI don't know about everyone else, but I find this kind of hypertext, with each section on its own page, infuriating to read. When you are done reading a section, there is no simple way to "turn the page" and go to the next section. You either have to scroll back to the beginning or use the back button. I understand that this is mostly a reference text, and few people will read it cover to cover, but I still think that "show me the next piece of contents" is an operation that should be supported natively.
- dottjt 3y agoI think part of the reason for this is accessibility. If you're using a screen reader, then I think this approach makes sense.
- SeanLuke 3y agoAustralia is foolishly anti-Oxford comma. https://www.stylemanual.gov.au/grammar-punctuation-and-conventions/punctuation/commas#punctuate_sentence_lists_and_strings_of_adjectives https://www.stylemanual.gov.au/grammar-punctuation-and-conve...
- cfcfcf 3y agoDid you read this? It says minimize usage.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- SeanLuke 3y agoIt says "restrict the use". And does not provide a qualification.
- stolen_biscuit 3y ago> The Oxford comma can prevent ambiguity in complex sentence lists. For example, use the Oxford comma before the last item if you’re using a defining phrase applicable only to that final item. > A defining phrase is essential to the meaning of the sentence. The following examples show how the Oxford comma can affect meaning, using the defining phrase ‘for stockfeed’. Seems like it provides a clear cut framework for when to use it?
- SeanLuke 3y agoIt's an insane section. My reading is: - Do not ever use the Oxford comma. - BTW, in case you don't know what an Oxford comma is, here are all the reasons why the Oxford comma is great. They do this in other places too.
- cfcfcf 3y agoYour argument rests on the assumption that the serial comma is demonstrably preferable, that it is foolish not to use it in all cases. It is possible that the authors of this advice are better placed to asses whether their audience is comfortable with nuance and context. It is how Australians learn to read and write.
- aniijbod 3y agoLes Patterson Culture Manual
- funshed 3y agoLove it, a lot of inspiration from gov.uk in this.
- xdennis 3y ago[flagged]
- SturgeonsLaw 3y agoIt's natural to use they/them for any gender in ordinary English "your 2 o'clock appointment is here" "sorry I'm running a bit late, can you please ask them if they don't mind waiting 10 minutes"
- nulbyte 3y agoNever mind modern usage, OED traces it back to medieval English. https://public.oed.com/blog/a-brief-history-of-singular-they/ https://public.oed.com/blog/a-brief-history-of-singular-they...
- mnot 3y ago[flagged]
- Tsiklon 3y agoThe layout looks rather like they've taken the UK's gov.uk setup and done their own thing with it. Excellent!
- c7DJTLrn 3y agoYeah, looks like they either copied or took inspiration, either of which I have no complaints about. GOV.UK is one of the few things about the UK I can praise.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]