House Style Manual

Question 1

What font and size should be used according to the house style?

Answer 1

Arial, size 12

Question 2

What line spacing is required by the house style?

Answer 2

Single line spacing with no spaces before or after paragraphs

Question 3

How many spaces should follow a full stop?

Answer 3

Two spaces after a full stop

Question 4

How should the inside address be formatted in business letters?

Answer 4

The town or city should be typed in capitals, and the county should have an initial capital

Question 5

How should the salutation be formatted in a business letter?

Answer 5

Use the recipient’s surname (e.g., Dear Mr. Brown), avoiding first names

Question 6

When should ‘Yours sincerely’ be used as a complimentary close?

Answer 6

When the salutation uses the person’s name (e.g., Dear Mr. Brown)

Question 7

When should ‘Yours faithfully’ be used as a complimentary close?

Answer 7

When the salutation is general (e.g., Dear Sir/Madam)

Question 8

What is the procedure for inserting symbols and foreign characters in Word?

Answer 8

Use the Insert tab, click the Symbol button, and select the desired symbol from the list or choose ‘More Symbols’ to find others

Question 9

How can you amend the Normal Template to follow house style?

Answer 9

Change the font to Arial size 12, set line spacing to single, and set before and after spacing to 0 points each in the Modify Style options

Question 10

What is open punctuation in business letters?

Answer 10

Open punctuation means no punctuation is used at the beginning and end of the letter, only in the body of the letter

Question 11

How should letter headings be formatted?

Answer 11

Use open punctuation with consistent spacing between sections, and use the automatic date function for the date

Question 12

How should a continuation sheet be formatted?

Answer 12

Include the page number, date, and name of the person the letter is addressed to

Question 13

What should be included in an agenda?

Answer 13

Title, date, place of the meeting, apologies for absence, minutes of the previous meeting, matters arising, other items, any other business, and the date of the next meeting

Question 14

What are minutes of a meeting?

Answer 14

A brief record of what took place during a meeting, prepared by the Secretary, written in the third person and past tense

Question 15

How should bullets and numbering be formatted according to the house style?

Answer 15

Use the automatic numbering facility with fully blocked style, leaving 2 clear lines before and after bullets or numbering

Question 16

What spacing should be used for indented paragraphs?

Answer 16

Indent text by 1.27 cm from the left margin using the Increase Indent button; use the Decrease Indent button to reduce the indent

Question 17

How should non-breaking spaces be used in text?

Answer 17

Use non-breaking spaces (Ctrl + Shift + Spacebar) to keep elements like names, times, or dates together at the end of a margin

Question 18

How should abbreviations be typed according to house style?

Answer 18

Omit all punctuation marks (e.g., type ‘ie’ instead of ‘i.e.’)

Question 19

How should dates be typed according to the house style?

Answer 19

Dates should always be typed in full (e.g., 15 August 2016)

Question 20

How should units of measurement be spaced?

Answer 20

There should be one letter space between the number and the measurement (e.g., 5 mm)

Question 21

How should time be expressed in business documents?

Answer 21

Use the 24-hour system (e.g., 0700 hours or 2015 hours)

Question 22

What is the difference between a hyphen and a dash in house style?

Answer 22

Use a hyphen for ranges or word splitting (no space before or after), and use a dash for separation in a sentence (single space before and after)