INCLUSIVE LANGUAGE PHRASES

We’re the same… We must act… We all agree…

Like you, I believe in… Like you, I want to live in a world where…

Don’t all of us want…?

We must act immediately… We must be cautious

We must act now… We must not rush this… We must act quickly

We need to slow down and consider… We cannot wait / We need to tread warily…

We cannot dither… We cannot afford to make rash mistakes…

We cannot afford to let this opportunity go… We must take the time to get this right

Now is the time… If we are to…then we must act now…

We all care about… We all recognise that… We all know that…

We all know it’s a basic truth that… We all accept…

We all accept the principle that… We You Us We must… We all…

We all believe… We all feel… We all know… We all have…

We’ve all seen… Who of you…? Who hasn’t thought…  You all know…

You all think… You’re all thinking… You all have…

It’s occurred to all of you at some point…

It’s occurred to all of you at some point… It’s happened to all of us…

Who/which of us…? Who/which of us hasn’t this affected?

Who/which of us doesn’t believe this?  What will this mean for us…

Each and every one of us… All of us… It will affect each and everyone of us….

There’s not one of us who…..

4 WAYS TO FINISH A SPEECH

Takeaway message

This technique aims to summarise the core of your argument into one (slogan like) sentence:

In a sentence, the message is this…. We must do this for…for the…and for the…

Call to action

With this conclusion, you challenge your audience to take immediate action.

Action can’t wait until next year or next month. It must start now. We must…

Call to think

Not all arguments are about taking immediate action – some messages are about considering what has been said and being prepared to change opinion.

It would be the easiest thing in the world to ignore what has been said today. But it must be thought about… I’ve made my case, now it’s up to you to think about it…to consider…

Black and white choice

This strategy is about reducing the two sides of the case to a black and white choice.

On the one hand you can believe that…But on the other hand you can see the vision of…

7 WAYS TO START A SPEECH

Anecdote:

Starting with an anecdote about your own personal experience with a topic or issue can engage an audience because they can see that you know what you’re talking about.

I know what it’s like to be in a crash and witness the effects of drink driving and speeding. I have been as close to it as you can get…

Questions:

Asking an audience a question or series of questions at the start of a presentation can get an audience to instantly see how they have a stake in the topic being discussed. This technique is most effective when you as a presenter actually get the audience to put their hands up.

How many of you have been affected by bullying? How many of you have spent money on something you don’t actually need?

This is your issue:

How does what you are speaking about currently impact on the lives of the people in your audience – or how will it impact on them in the future.

Each day, each of you in the audience contribute to the devastation of the environment. Each of uses….

If you think this issues doesn’t affect you, you are wrong. By the time all of us in this room are 30, eight of us will have been….

Startling/Shocking fact:

A related way to engage your audience is to start with a shocking fact (or a shocking picture).

Last night, while you watched tv, texted your friends, or updated your Facebook page, 1000 people died of poverty.

Mental picture:

We can also engage our audience at the start by painting them a picture of a horrible future society that could come into being if we don’t stop doing something (or don’t start doing something) – or vice versa – the great society that we could have if we do something.

Picture a world where your every move is tracked. Where everything you buy is collected on a database, everything you…

Bullet Proof Argument:

This is the argument everyone (or most reasonable people) would agree with. Starting with this means the audience is more likely to agree with what comes next.

You can’t argue with the fact that… We all accept that…

Claiming the high moral ground:

This strategy is about identifying the big picture principle that is at stake in the issue. By arguing from the start that you know what the most important principle at stake is, and your position supports this principle being upheld, you force the audience to accept that your argument has moral worth.

The real principle at stake in this issue is… What this issue is really about is…

READING & ENJOYING TEXTS

The following article will provide you with some simple tools to help you enjoy and learn from the things you read.

Punctuation

Addresses

Set out addresses without punctuation at the end of a line and don’t use shortened forms.

Divisional Director
Advancement Division
PO Box 65
Monash University
Melbourne, Victoria 3800
Australia

Ampersands

Avoid ampersands. (For the uninitiated, they look like ‘&’.) Use ‘and’ instead. You should only use an ampersand where it forms part of an official name.

Art, Design and Architecture
MGW3130 Organisational change and development
Allen & Unwin

Bullet points

End the introductory phrase preceding a list of bullet points in a colon. If the individual bullet points are sentence fragments, don’t use a full stop, comma or semi-colon. Leave it bare until the last bullet point, and then use a full stop. Don’t use capitals.

Disciplines offered at Clayton include:

  • art history
  • engineering
  • marketing
  • management
  • science.

Enrolment gives you the chance to:

  • meet faculty course advisers
  • discuss unit selection and course structure
  • ask any other questions you have about your studies.

Use full stops if each bullet point is a complete sentence.

Five important points to remember on exam day:

  • Get there on time.
  • Take care of the technicalities.
  • Read the instructions.
  • Breathe deeply and don’t panic.
  • Answer the question.

Colons and semi-colons

A colon is commonly used to introduce a series or list. If a colon introduces a complete sentence, more than one sentence, a formal statement, quotation, or speech in a dialogue, capitalise the first word of the sentence.

The sign clearly states: Do not enter.

If the colon introduces a sentence fragment, don’t capitalise the first letter.

I’ve got two words for you: semester break.

Use a semi-colon to join clauses when a conjunction is omitted, or when the connection is close.

The statistical information proves the theory; the doubters are put in their place.

Commas

Introducing information

You can often use commas after an opening clause or phrase.

After the students had discussed the hike in fees, they decided to stage a non-violent protest.
For example, the Indonesian orangutan population could be extinct within 10 years.

You can often omit the comma if the clause or phrase is short and the omission doesn’t cause confusion.

Before the meeting she reviewed the documentation.

The Oxford comma

An Oxford comma is a comma after the penultimate item in a list.

These include degrees in art and design, arts, business, engineering, and information technology.

Where there are several, one-word items listed in a sentence and separated by commas, you don’t need to use an Oxford comma.

By the time you graduate, you’ll have the knowledge, skills and desire to make a positive impact on the world.

However, if readers may be confused from the omission of the comma, leave it in.

It judges universities in 13 areas, including teaching excellence, research that pushes the boundaries of understanding and innovation, knowledge transfer, the quality and diversity of staff, and the ability to provide an inspiring, international teaching environment for undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Extra information

You can also use commas to enclose extra (or parenthetical) information within a sentence. The trick is to work out whether the sentence would retain its meaning if you removed the extra information.

The course, which failed to attract enough students, was cancelled.

While the copy within the commas gives us extra information about why the course was cancelled, if we removed it, the sentence still conveys the same basic information.

The course was cancelled.

The clause ‘which failed to attract enough students’ is called a descriptive clause. In other words, it provides extra description.

But if we are discussing several courses, and I asked you which course was cancelled, you might reply:

The course that failed to attract enough students was cancelled.

Saying ‘The course was cancelled’ would not answer my question. In this case, the clause is restrictive, and does not take commas. Also note that a descriptive clause generally takes the preposition ‘which’, while a restrictive course generally takes a ‘that’.

Numbers

Use a comma in any number with more than four figures.

1000
10,000

If two sets of unrelated numbers are given side-by-side, you can use a comma to separate the numbers as an aid to clarity.

By 1995, 33 per cent of Australia’s population was not so inclined.

Dashes

Generally, hyphens join and dashes separate. A hyphen is the shortest of the horizontal punctuation lines; dashes are longer.

At Monash, we use en dashes ( – ) rather than em dashes (—).

To create an en dash:
PC: Press ‘Ctrl’ + the numeric hyphen.
Mac: Press ‘option’ + ‘hyphen’.

En dashes within sentences have one space before and one space after them to bracket an independent clause, or at the end of a sentence to introduce a sentence fragment. Don’t use more than one set of en dashes in any given sentence.

The skills you gain in academic research – to reason and reflect, to think critically, conceptually and creatively, to analyse data and ideas – will serve you well whether you decide to take on a research degree, or go straight to the workplace.

En dashes without spaces are used to link items that still retain their separate entities (it is because they retain their separate entities that an en dash is used rather than a hyphen).

The American–Australian Free Trade Agreement
hand–eye coordination

However, where an entity is complex (ie more than one word long) you need to add a spaced en dash.

The New South Wales – Victoria border…

See Numbers, dates and times for more information about using en-dashes.

Ellipses

You should begin ellipses immediately after the word they follow, with no space either after the word or between the dots. Microsoft Word will automatically reformat the full stops as ellipses. Place one space after the final dot. Ellipses should always be exactly three dots.

Where a quoted sentence ends with an ellipsis, you don’t need to add a final full stop.

We will pay you… just not with money.
Of course, I could be wrong…

Email addresses

Don’t capitalise people’s names when they form part of an email address.

Full stops

Only insert one space following a full stop at the end of a sentence.

Don’t use full stops with contractions such as Mr, Dr, Mrs, or with terms such as Pty Ltd.

Include spaces between initials and no full stops.

A S Byatt

Quotes and quote marks

Use single quote marks for direct speech. Use double quote marks for quotes within quotes.

In full sentences, include punctuation within the quote marks; for partial quotes, include punctuation outside. Compare these sentences:

“The development is an exciting opportunity for Monash,” the dean announced.

According to the dean, the development is “an exciting opportunity for Monash”.

Pull-out quotes in print materials and online are a design element, and can take different punctuation for effect.

Indented quotes

As a rule of thumb, you should indent quotations that are longer than five lines, or about 60 words. If you’ve indented a quote, you don’t need to use quote marks.

You should maintain the spelling and punctuation of the original source, even if it is not correct by today’s standards or according to this style guide.

If the source quotation is truncated, either in the middle or at the end of the quotation, use ellipses to mark the point of the omitted material. Don’t use ellipses at the start of the quote, even if material has been omitted there.

If you are adjusting the wording slightly to fit the grammar of the sentence, put the new words in brackets.

“It was never my intention to inconvenience [her] in any way.”

[SOURCE]

Writing a Rebuttal

A rebuttal is an explanation of why an opposing view is incorrect.

For example, if I am arguing that school uniform should be banned, one opposing argument I might try and discredit is that school uniform stops bullying.

If I am to rebut this argument effectively I must explain why this is not true or, at least, not a good enough reason to keep school uniform.

First I must understand what the opposition is trying to say, in this case they are saying because all students where the same clothes there is no chance of poorer students being bullied for not having the latest designer gear. How can I discredit this argument?

Well, can poor students still be singled out by bullies if they are wearing school uniform? Yes. They could be bullied for wearing second hand uniforms or because their uniform looks tattered and worn.

Is bullying only ever about school uniform? No. More often than not it is to do with friendship groups and status with in social groups.

Here we have two reasons why the argument that school uniform presents bullying is very convincing. The key to a good rebuttal is clear explaining why a particular argument is not valid. It is not enough to simply present the opposing view.

Only presenting the opposing view:

Some people say school uniform should remain because it prevents students from being bullied for what they wear; this is wrong.

Rebutting the opposing view:

Some people say school uniforms should remain because it prevents students from being bullied for what they wear; this is wrong for two reasons. Firstly, poor students can still be singled out by bullies for wearing second hand uniforms or because their uniform looks tattered and worn; the problem is the bully, not the clothes of the victim. Secondly, bullying isn’t only ever about school uniform; more often than not it is to do with friendships and status with in social groups. Banning school uniform will not solve bullying, but it isn’t claiming to; banning school uniform is about allowing students to be seen as individuals.

Script Formatting

EXT.      ELECTONICS STORE.     DAY    (scene heading)

In the heart of Chapel st., and electronics store’s OPEN  sign blinks on.     (action)

ANTHONY,  Italian-Australian movie editor extraordinaire, 30s and not getting any younger, ambles over. I

ANTHONY  (character)

Hey, how’s everyone today? (spoken words)

 

How to Use Than and Then

Many times people misuse the words “than” and “then.” Whether it’s because the words are pronounced similarly in some areas or because people simply don’t know the difference between them, it is important to know in which situations to choose each word. Follow this guide, and then you’ll be using these words better than anyone you know!