Inside Indonesia
Style Guide for Authors and Proofreaders
This Style Guide is
designed to help make your writing experience as enjoyable and trouble-free as
possible. Read it carefully before you begin to write and check your manuscript
against it before you send it in. If you have queries that are not covered in
the Style Guide, contact your editor for advice.
Please note that Inside Indonesia does not publish
material that has already been published. After publication, you are free to
reproduce your article elsewhere as long as you acknowledge that it was first
published in Inside Indonesia.
General
guidelines
·The main thing to remember is that you are writing for a
general audience. Don't try to cover everything - try to interest readers so
they want to find out more about your subject. It is a good idea to read a
number of Inside Indonesia articles
BEFORE starting to write so that you have a sense of the genre.
·Aim for a secondary-school reading level so that your
article is accessible to all. If you are writing an article on a subject you
have worked on in an academic context, you need to be particularly aware of the
differences between academic and magazine style.
·A good magazine article focuses on one main story. Don't
try to adapt an academic text directly. Pick an ‘angle' that would be
interesting to readers (consult with your editor if you are having trouble with
this), then sit down with a blank piece of paper and just WRITE (imagine you're
telling someone the story). You can always slot in factual material later.
·Inside Indonesia articles are short
(750-800 words), middle-length (1500-1600 words) or occasionally long
(2250-2400 or 3000-3200 words). Remember, the longer the article, the more images
and pull-quotes are required.
·Be
consistent by saying the SAME THING in the SAME WAY throughout the article.
This makes for a cleaner, clearer, more professional manuscript.
·Keep sentences short. Use active (subject-verb-object)
rather than passive sentence structures. Avoid 'big' words, excessive
adjectives and jargon. Avoid repetition.
·DO NOT include footnotes or references.
·Send your article to your editor by email. Be sure to
provide both captions and credits for each image and attach each graphic in
separate file.
·After your manuscript has been submitted, your editor
will work with you to maximise the impact of your article. This often requires
significant rewriting, so keep an open mind on your text. Once that process is
completed, your article will be read by two reviewers, who will recommend
whether the article should be accepted, rejected or changed. We'll let you know
how it goes and help you make any final changes necessary before publication.
Photos
and graphics
·Provide at least two photos or graphics with your
article. The longer the article, the more images it can absorb.
·Good images are very important to the ‘look' of the
website. Make sure images have good
composition, definition and contrast. Remember, it will be easier for you to
find suitable images, because you know the topic.
·Attach graphics in a separate file if you have an
electronic copy of them (which should be scanned at 72dpi). If not, get in
touch and we can make arrangements for you to post them in (leave plenty of
time for this).
·Image formats:Photos should be in .JPG ... and
charts, cartoons & other line graphics should be in .GIF format.
·Image size and shape:The width of all images should be at the very minimum 600 pixels ...
preferably more.Landscape format
[horizontal] is preferred... especially
for the primary image [at top of article] and photo-essays. Portrait format
[vertical] images are okay for images used elsewhere in your article.However if your best images are in portrait
layout we will certainly accept them.
·Be sure to provide both captions and credits with each
image.
Spelling
and standard translations and terms
·Inside Indonesia uses Australian
spelling. That includes 's' instead of 'z' (organisation, NOT
organization), kilometres (NOT kilometers) and travelling (NOT traveling). Try
selecting ‘Australian English' from your word processor's dictionary.
·Use Indonesian language expressions sparingly, and
translate them. Where possible, use an
English word. If you MUST use an Indonesian word, put the Indonesian first then the English
translation in brackets, then use the Indonesian in the rest of the text. Do
not use italics for the Indonesian. Make sure your translations are consistent.
·Inside Indonesia uses
the following standard transliterations: syariah, hadith, Qur'an (NOT Koran),
Sunnah (the normative practice or codes based on the hadith) (capitalised),
fikih and zakat.
·Use
‘western' (NOT ‘Western') in phrases such as ‘western social science', western
values.
·Use
prison, NOT gaol or jail.
·Use
‘district' (NOT regency) for kabupaten, and ‘sub-district' for kecamatan;
‘district head' (NOT regent) for bupati, sub-district head for camat. Add the
Indonesian in brackets on the first usage in the article.
·Use
Suharto (NOT Soeharto), Jusuf Kalla (NOT Yusuf Kalla), PDIP (NOT PDI-P)
·Use
Ministry of Religion, NOT Ministry of Religious Affairs (the official name of
the ministry is Departemen Agama).
·Inside Indonesia uses the following standard translations.
People's Consultative Assembly for MPR and People's Representative Council for
DPR. It is also appropriate to use the generic term ‘parliament'. Use Regional
Peoples' Representative Council for DPRD and Regional Representative Council
for DPD. It is also appropriate to use regional parliament to refer to the
DPRD. It is not necessary to expand the Indonesian versions of these acronyms.
·Both
Papua and West Papua may be used to refer to
the province formerly known as Irian Jaya. As a rule of thumb, Papua is now the
formal name of the province (though there is also another new province called
West Irian Jaya on the western tip of the island) and is how the territory is
referred to in official Indonesian political discourse. West
Papua is the term usually preferred by Papuan nationalists. Usage
in Inside Indonesia might reflect
which perspective is being expressed.
·Check the Macquarie Dictionary or the Oxford Concise
Australian Dictionary if you are unsure whether a word should be hyphenated.
·References
to legislation should appear in the following form: Law No. 24/2003.
·Use Southeast
Asia NOT South East Asia
Capitals
·Titles
of books should appear in maximum capitalisation, for example, Fluid Iron: State Formation in Southeast
Asia (NOT Fluid iron: state formation
in Southeast Asia).
·Translations of book titles, works on art from
Indonesian to English should appear in the following form: Perkenankan Aku
Menjelaskan Sebuah Takdir
(Permit Me to Describe a Destiny).
·Directions should be written in lower case (east). The
names of provinces should be
capitalised (for example, West Java, South Sulawesi).
·Use
Indonesian government (NOT Indonesian Government).
·The
names of government departments and other official entities, organisations and
companies take capitals, for example, the Department of Education, the Attorney
General's Office, World Vision, and Indonesian National Shipping (PELNI). Use
lower case when referring to the generic elements of these entities, for
example, Department of National Education is referred to as ‘the department'
(NOT the Department), the Constitutional Court is referred to as ‘the court' (NOT
‘the Court'), and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is referred to as
‘the commission' (NOT ‘the Commission').
·The
names of government bills and acts take capitals, for example, the Special
Autonomy Bill, the Human Rights Act. Use lower case when referring to the
generic elements so ‘the bill' (NOT ‘the Bill'), the act (NOT ‘the Act').
·Always
use a capital when referring to the Constitution as a specific entity, for
example, ‘According to the Constitution, all Indonesian citizens have the right
to an education.' Use lower case when referring to the generic element, for
example ‘constitutional rights'. ‘The Cabinet' (as a specific entity) also
takes a capital, for example, ‘On Tuesday the Cabinet met to discuss the new
bill' but ‘The president said that a new cabinet would be sworn in as soon as
possible.'
·Use
capitals for academic disciplines, for example Southeast Asian Studies,
Classics and World Religions, Anthropology, Indonesian Studies.
·Use
reformasi NOT Reformasi.
Italics
·Indonesian
words are not italicised.
·The
titles of books/films etc should appear in italics.
Punctuation
·In
general, a comma is not used before ‘and' or ‘or' etc in a list (for example,
‘John, Elena and Warren came to lunch.'). However, a comma may be used if
leaving it out would cause ambiguity (for example, ‘The long days at work, the
nights of intense study, and inadequate food eventually caused them serious
health problems.'). A semicolon may also be used to avoid ambiguity (for
example ‘The long days at work; the nights of intense study; and inadequate
food eventually caused them serious health problems.').
·Full stops, commas, colons and semi-colons are placed
outside the quote marks if the quoted material is not a full sentence. For
example:
A
common response among both Indonesians and Australians was to decry the ruling
for giving confessed terrorists the opportunity to walk out of jail on a 'mere
technicality'. [This is just a fragment
of a sentence.]
·Apostrophes
belong in contractions (don't) and possessives (John's or the members'
depending on whether the possessor is singular - John - or plural - the
members). They do NOT show plurality or missing letters (i.e. photos NOT
photo's and books NOT book's unless you're talking about one book's narrative
structure or something like that).
·Punctuation
is only placed inside quotation marks
when quoting a complete sentence of direct speech. For example:
Houndsworth
once said that ‘Indonesia
is a hopeless muddle of a place.' [Here
we have a complete sentence, the full stop occurs after 'place' in the original
quotation.]
‘What
I don't understand,' she said, ‘is why all the Indonesians round here don't
want to talk to me.' [Here the full
sentence in the quote is broken by ‘she said, but the original sentence is a
full one.]
·Use single quote marks (‘...') not double ("...." ).
Shortened
forms
·Do not
use abbreviations. Write road or street (NOT rd and st), for example, (NOT
e.g.); therefore (NOT i.e.).
·Use a
full-stop in abbreviations that don't end with the same letter, for example No.
for Number. For abbreviations where the end letter is still present, there is
no need to use a full-stop, for
example Dr for Doctor).
·Write
nineteenth (NOT 19th) and twentieth (NOT 20th). For
example, ‘In the nineteenth century...' (NOT ‘In the 19th century...')
·Percentages
must be written as two words (per cent) (NOT % or percent).
·If you are using an Indonesian acronym, write the
acronym, then the English translation in brackets, for example, PKI (Indonesian Communist Party). Acronyms do not need to be expanded.For example Indonesian Communist
Party (PKI) NOT Indonesian Communist Party (Partai Komunis Indonesia,
PKI).
·Do not use full-stops between the letters in acronyms.
Write PKI (NOT P.K.I.)
·All letters in acronyms should appear in capitals, for
example, WALHI (NOT Walhi).
Non-sexist
language
·Use
gender-neutral terms wherever possible, for example, fishers (NOT fishermen).
Numbers
and dates
·Spell
out numbers under 10, for example, seven. For 10 and above, use the figures,
unless the sentence begins with a number.
·Do not
use full stops when writing the time. Write it as one word, for example, 10am,
3pm.
·The date
(for example, ‘in the 1970s') does not have an apostrophe.
·Do not
use a comma in four-digit numbers, for example, 1824. Numbers with five or more
digits take a comma, for example, 10,809 or 100,307.
·Dates
should be in Australian style, for example, 24 October 2004 (NOT October 24, 2004).
·For
currencies, use A$15 (NOT AUD), US$20
(NOT
USD), Rp.20,000 (NOT Rupiah or rupiah). DO NOT put a
space between the currency sign and the amount, and use commas where
appropriate (not spaces or fullstops). Give the Australian dollar equivalent
the first time a rupiah amount is used.
Formatting
·Articles should be presented in single line spacing
·Titles of articles, precedes and sub-headings should be
in ‘sentence case' (capital letter for first word. Subsequent words - except
names - in lower case).
·Use a
single space after full stops and colons.
·Set your
paragraph formatting to add extra space (.6) after a paragraph. Present your
text in block paragraphs (no indents) with no line between paragraphs.
·Websites
should appear in brackets, except after ‘at'.
·Email
addresses should appear in curved brackets. Delete all hyperlinks from copy,
and do not underline or use <>.
Names
and titles
·Always
put a person's title first and their name second, for example, ‘The governor of
Jakarta,
Sutiyoso, said ...'
·Avoid
honorifics. At first mention the person is Megawati Soekarnoputri. If the
person is Indonesian, use their common-use name after that, for example,
Megawati. If the person is from America,
Australia or Europe, use their surname on second mention, unless
you're telling a personal story about them.
·For
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono: when first mentioning him, use ‘President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono, or SBY,...'. All subsequent times within the same article, use
‘SBY'.
·Names
such as Abdul and Mohammad should not be abbreviated.
·Titles
such as chairperson, secretary general, governor, mayor, district head,
commander and general should take a capital when they are part of a person's
title, for example, ‘General Wiranto said yesterday that...'. When they are not
part of a person's title use lower case.
·Academic titles such as
associate professor and professor take a capital letter when they are part of a
person's title. For example, ‘Associate Professor David Reeve coordinates
the Indonesian studies program at the University of New South
Wales'. When they are not part of a person's
title, they should be written in lower case. For example, ‘Elizabeth Fuller
Collins is an associate professor in classics and world religions at Ohio State
University'.
·Use
capitals when referring to the heads of countries, for example, ‘President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said yesterday that...', ‘Prime Minister Kevin Rudd met
with ...'. Use lower case when the title appears without the name, for example,
‘However, the president also said ...'. Use lower case when referring to former
presidents, for example, ‘The bill was introduced under former president
Megawati Soekarnoputri...'. Use vice president (NOT vice-president).
·Capitals
should also be used when referring to government ministers, for example, ‘On
his arrival in Jakarta,
he was met by Indonesian Minister of Defence Juwono Sudarsono...' Use lower case
when the title appears without the name. The Attorney General should also
appear in capitals.
·If there
is more than one spelling for a person's name, use the most common spelling and
put the alternative spelling in brackets at the first usage of the name in the
article, for example, ‘Kahar Muzakkar (also spelled Qahhar Mudzakkar)'. Use the
most common spelling in the rest of the article.
·Do not
use full stops with initials in personal names, for example, Sari P Setiogi (NOT Sari P. Setiogi). Where there are
two initials, place them together without a space, for example, SP Setiogi (NOT S P Setiogi).
