Planning
Content
Structure
Design
Expression
Evaluation
Abbreviations
Accents
Acronyms
Ampersands &
and/or
Articles
At signs @
bi-
Capital letters and cases
Compass points
Compound words
Conjunctions
Contractions
eg
etc
Foreign words
Hash signs #
ie
Initialisms
Latin words
Lower case
Parts of speech
per
Plurals
Scientific terms
Sentence case
Shortened forms
Spelling
Title case
Upper case
Ability
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
Addresses
Age
Diversity and inclusion
Forms of address
Gender
Government
Organisation names
Pronouns
Salutations
Street addresses
they
Cardinal numbers
Dates
Decimal numbers
Mathematical symbols
Measurements
Money
Number formatting
Numbering systems
Numbers
Ordinal numbers
per
Percentages %
Phone numbers
Temperatures
Times
Words versus numerals
Years
Zero
Accents
Ampersands &
Angle brackets < >
Apostrophes
Asterisks *
At signs @
Brackets ( ) [ ] < > { }
Colons :
Commas ,
Curly brackets { }
Dashes - – —
Ellipses …
Em dashes —
En dashes –
Exclamation marks !
Forward slashes /
Full stops .
Hash signs #
Hyphens -
Lists
Mathematical symbols
Question marks ?
Quote marks ‘ ’ “ ”
Round brackets ( )
Semicolons ;
Spaces
Square brackets [ ]
Accessibility in MS Word
Alt text
Bold
Design
Email addresses
Emphasis
Headings
Hyperlinks
Italics
Lists
Quotes
Tables
Underlining
Web addresses
Bibliographies
Case law
Endnotes
Footnotes
In-text citations
Intellectual property
Legislation
Parts of a text
Publication titles
Reference lists
Referencing systems
Subtitles

Welcome to the Australian Style GuideTM

The ASG covers the most common style questions for writers and editors in Australia, with invaluable advice for:

  • communication specialists
  • professionals writing at work
  • students and academics.

Our guide covers both the print and digital environments, and it is equally suitable for the government, corporate and university sectors in Australia.

We base our recommendations on the latest evidence on clear communication. Where style advice has evolved in recent years, we explain why without excessive detail. And where there are options, the ASG will help you make an informed choice for your text and context.

Use the ASG every day at work to:

  • make your writing clear, consistent and error free 
  • save time when writing and editing
  • keep up to date with Australian standards.

There are 3 ways you can navigate the ASG:

How to navigateWhere to look
1  Type a keyword in the search box 
In the top right corner of the screen
2  Use the A–Z menu to find a specific entryAcross the top of the screen
3  Explore the guide by categoryIn the menu down the left of the screen

This means you can quickly find the answer to a specific question, but also delve into broader topics. The ASG entries range from the essentials of plain English to the technicalities of punctuation. We cover the nuances of language and numbers as well as formatting and referencing.

The ASG has distilled the best practical advice on the most common style issues in an easy-to-use but definitive guide.



ASG