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The “Writing for our Stakeholders” section is new and includes information on the publications process, plain language, and the views and needs of our various stakeholder groups.
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The “AER Style” section has been completely reorganized. While most of the content is the same, below are some notable changes:
- The AER now capitalizes the terms “Indigenous” and “Aboriginal.”
- Abbreviations > First Use: You do not need to formally define obvious abbreviations or truncations of a name or title.
- Capitalization: Although we use the terms “division” and “branch” to describe the top two tiers of the organization, they are not used in the org chart, nor are lower levels formally defined. So we no longer include those descriptors in the business unit names, and if used, they are not capitalized.
- Capitalization: Examples have been added to clarify that you do not capitalize words like “mine” and “project” in phrases like “the Muskeg River mine” and “Imperial’s Kearl expansion project.”
- The sections on formatting tables and figures has been greatly expanded.
- Formatting > Figures and Tables > Tables: Footnote preferences have changed slightly. Symbols are preferred first, followed by letters. Numbered footnotes in tables are still actively discouraged.
- Hyperlinks: AER style is now to underline hyperlinks in documents. Templates are being updated.
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The “Tools of the Trade” section has been reintroduced to the style guide. If there are “how tos” you’d like to see added, let us know.
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The style guide appendices have been moved to the “Quick References” section. A couple appendices have been removed, and most have been simplified. We’ve also added a section on copyright. The “Word List” remains the most important appendix, which we recommend people bookmark and familiarize themselves with.
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Some minor changes have been made to the word list:
- abovementioned -> above-mentioned (though you should still avoid the term when possible)
- biyearly -> semiannually (but we still recommend avoiding all bi- and semi- terms and just writing the numbers out explicitly)
- Internet -> internet
- main line -> mainline
- added “Canada Energy Regulator” (not “Canadian”)
- added “cold heavy oil production with sand” (no hyphens)