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Watch your language

You should always assume your reader is new to ECU – either as a student, a staff member or a public browser.

Simplify your language by leaving out words that don’t add any value, and don't use terms that people may not understand.

Things to take out

  • redundant words, e.g. ‘in order to’, ‘is designed to’, or ‘in other words’
  • transitions, e.g. ‘as such’, or ‘in contrast’
  • overemphasis, e.g. don’t say ‘highly critical’ – you can’t get more critical than critical
  • jargon or in-house language
  • cliches
  • abbreviations or acronyms

Avoid acronyms

Universities love their acronyms. Trouble is, acronyms inhibit scanning because their meaning isn’t immediately obvious to people. You should minimise the use of acronyms by:

  • using the full name
  • restructuring your content to use the full name as little as possible
  • only using them where they’re an official and well-known name, e.g. ECU or TISC
  • leaving them out of headings – it makes them meaningless

Here’s a simple example of how to take out acronyms.

Original text:

“Professor Donna Cross was the founding director of the Child Health Promotion Research Centre (CHPRC), established in 2004. The CHPRC research focuses on promoting the health and well-being of children and young people in the areas of mental health, obesity, drug use and injury prevention.”

Acronym-free text:

“Professor Donna Cross was the founding director of the Child Health Promotion Research Centre, established in 2004. The Centre’s research focuses on promoting the health and well-being of children and young people in the areas of mental health, obesity, drug use and injury prevention.”

Punctuation tips

  • Don’t use bolded text.
  • Don’t underline text; this will make the reader assume it’s a link.
  • Don’t use coloured text – links and page titles will default to the appropriate colour.
  • Don’t use exclamation marks! Your readers aren't as excited as you are.
  • Don't CAPITALISE words. It makes them harder to read/scan and it's the written equivalent of SHOUTING at someone.
  • Only use quotation marks (“…”) for personal or direct quotes.
  • Don’t use italics unless it’s for a name/title of a publication/journal/article/book/film, e.g. The West Australian.

For more information about punctuation and other writing rules, please refer to the ECU Corporate Writing Guide on the Policies and Guidelines page for the Marketing Centre.

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