Refresher

At first—and even only—mention, always spell out a term in full and enclose in parentheses its acronym or abbreviation, if any.

• True

• False

Titles must be abbreviated, followed by a period, if used before a name. Otherwise, they must be spelled out.

Example: Rep. Juan V. dela Cruz came from the second biggest congressional district.

• True

• False

For speeches, time periods are spelled out in full to ensure clarity and maintain a formal tone.

Example: The Philippines continued to be one of the fastest-growing economies in Southeast Asia in the first quarter of 2024.

• True

• False

When citing a law from a series of legislation, use the phrase “series of YYYY” at first mention and its abbreviated form “s. YYYY” in subsequent references.

Example: Presidential Decree No. 1771, series of 1981, is abbreviated as PD No. 1771, s. 1981

• True

• False

Capitalize the first letter of each word in the official names of government offices (except prepositions, conjunctions, and articles). However, the first letter of each word in descriptive terms for government offices are written in lowercase.

Examples: (1) Department of Finance, (2) the finance department

• True

• False

Which of the following statements is correct?

• Officer-in-charge Juan V. dela Cruz

• Officer-In-Charge Juan V. dela Cruz

• Officer-in-Charge Juan V. dela Cruz

When starting a sentence with a year, precede the figure with the phrase “the year.”

Example: The year 2011 recorded a pickup in imports.

• True

• False

When citing applicable reglementary and legal periods, follow the formatting convention from the Philippines’ Rules of Court, which combines spelled-out numbers and figures (enclosed in parentheses).

Example: two (2) business days

• True

• False

Use Roman numerals (I, II, III) instead of Arabic (1, 2, 3) when referring to the regions of the Philippines.

Example: Region IV-A (CALABARZON)

• True

• False

For age ranges, write “XX to XX” or “XX–XX,” followed by the phrase “years of age” or “years old.”

Examples: (1) 18–25 years old; (2) 9 to 12 years of age

• True

• False