FORMATS AND

CONVENTIONS

Michelle Atilano Ogana Prof. Sheryl Farquerabao

Information Processing &

Handling

Convention

refers to the rules or guidelines that govern

the way certain sections of a presentation

should appear.

the major aim of conventions is to ensure

that information is displayed in a consistent

fashion.

The ff. lists should give you some idea of what to consider:

Word ProcessingTEXT

There are conventions governing

ordinary text:

•Paragraph indenting

•Spaces after commas and full stops

•Page numbering

•Location of headings

•Date format

•Paragraph spacing

•Line spacing

•Footnotes or endnotes

•Font and style

•Headers and footers

Desktop publishing page design

Page design also has certain conventions, some of which are:

•Text should be easy to read from top

left to bottom right

•Text should be fully justified

•Columns widths should be between 20

and 40 characters

•Use of upper case in headings should be minimal

•Kerning (letter spacing) should be about 1 unit or point

•Sans serif styles should not be over-used

•Serif style typefaces should predominate

Letters and addresses

These can be done in a range of formats, such as:

•Fully blocked

•Blocked

•Semi-blocked

Addresses are normally

presented in Australia Post format.

References

When you are writing, and you wish to

refer the reader to other works,

references can be organized in different

ways.

You can use the author-date system, a

system of footnotes, or other acceptable

conventions.

Ex: Canberra,1994

Quotations

When you are quoting another writer:

•If the quote is less than about 30

words, keep it in the same paragraph

and place it between quotation marks.

Example:

•If it is more than about 30 words,

indent it and set it one point size

smaller than the body text.

This is one way of dealing with quotations, but there are others.

Bibliographies

•A bibliography identifies sources that are relevant to the text, or quoted in the text.

•They usually go at the end of the text, and follow a consistent style.

Example:

Alexie, S. (1992). The business of fancy dancing: stories and poems. USA: Hang Loose Press.

Author, A.A. (Year). Title of work. Publication: Publisher.

SPREADSHEETS AND NUMERIC OUTPUT

In spreadsheets, some of the conventions of numeric output are:

•No decimals in whole numbers “123 not

123.00”

•Decimal point aligned

•Currency has two decimal places

“123.34 not 123.4567 or 123

•Currency indicated by $ sign “$123.09

or as column or row heading

•Units of measurement indicated in a

legend

•Percentage values indicated directly or

in column or row heading.

TEXT REPORTS

Text reports should contain:

•Title

•Author’s name

•Date

•Column and row headings

•Page numbers

•Legend, if needed

•Software and filename

DATABASES

Database reports should all contain:

•A heading

•The author’s name

•Date

•Sub-headings as required

•Alignment of data in columns

•No column or row overflow

•Normal text conventions

Formats

term ‘format’ refers to the rules or

guidelines that govern the structure of

a specific type of presentation.

For example, a template is used to present legal word-processed documents.

Some common formats include:

•Use of white space in training material

and user guides to enhance readability

•Use of heading hierarchies in reports

•Blocked format for letters

•Standard use of hierarchies in reports

Standard use of headers and footers in word-processed documents.

It is very difficult to outline a range

of standard formats, as there are a great

many in use and the standards or

acceptable practice change.

Sometimes the best way to get a

feel for appropriate formats is to look at

examples: compare a report, business

letters, newspaper, spreadsheet and a

textbook.