Acden Style Guide
GENERAL WRITING GUIDELINES
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Keep writing clear, concise and informative.
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Prioritize clarity over complexity; avoid jargon and overly technical language.
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Strive for a balanced tone that honours tradition while embracing innovation.
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Reflect empathy and humility in our communication.
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Follow Canadian Press style for capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.
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EDITING CONSIDERATIONS
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When editing corporate documents, focus on the following elements:
CORRECTNESS:
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Grammar.
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Punctuation.
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Spelling.
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Usage (their/there/they’re).
ACCURACY:
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Fact check quantitative data.
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Ensure visual materials are up to date and correct versions are being used (ex. Org charts).
CONSISTENCY:
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Voice is the same throughout (first person, second person or third person; passive vs active).
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Consistent writing style has been applied (Canadian vs American spelling).
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Formatting has been consistently applied (headings and numbering, caption styles).
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COMMON CORPORATE REFERENCES
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Indigenous (Acden has corporately adopted the term Indigenous instead of Aboriginal).
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Indigenous peoples (plural to represent all peoples identifying as Indigenous).
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Indigenous-owned (hyphenated).
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Ex. Acden is an Indigenous-owned corporation.
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Wholly owned (not hyphenated).
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Ex. Acden Fleet is a wholly owned company.
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Acden Headquarters (official name of Taiganova building).
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Locally owned (not hyphenated).
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Ex. Acden is a locally owned corporation headquartered in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo.
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REFERENCES TO ATHABASCA CHIPEWYAN FIRST NATION
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Acden is 100% community-owned by the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation.
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The acronym for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation is ACFN.
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Refer to ACFN as a Nation, not a band.
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If referencing the Nation multiple times in one document, spell out Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation first with the acronym behind the reference in brackets.
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Ex: Acden is owned by the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN). Acden was founded in 1994 by ACFN Chief Tony Mercredi. The ACFN administrative office is located in Fort Chipewyan, Alta.
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ACFN’s traditional lands are in Treaty 8.
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ACFN hold the rights to eight reserve lands located on the south shore of Lake Athabasca.
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Their membership of approximately 1,500 people resides mainly in Fort Chipewyan, Fort McMurray, Fort Smith, and Edmonton.
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Since 1983, ACFN has followed the custom electoral system under the Indian Act. In addition to the Chief, there are four elected councillors.
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CORPORATE BOILERPLATE
Acden is 100% community-owned by the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN). . ACFN Chief and Council
serve as Acden’s Board of Directors and determine the distribution of profit back to the Nation. Acden’s success
contributes directly to the economic independence of ACFN, helping to deliver programs that support health,
housing, education, well-being, culture and language revitalization, job creation and sustainability, and positive
environmental stewardship.
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ACDEN COMPANY NAMES AND ABBREVIATIONS
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Table
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ACDEN BRAND PERSONALITY
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VOICE: Honest (Empowering, Inspirational, Confident).
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STYLE: Modern (Natural, Clean).​
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BEHAVIOUR: Authentic (Visionary, Community-minded).
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CAPITALIZATION RULES
JOB TITLES:
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Capitalize all proper names, trade names, government departments and agencies of government, names of associations, companies, clubs, religions, languages, nations, races, places, addresses.
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Capitalize all Acden job titles.
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Titles are referenced after the individual’s name using a comma.
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Ex. John Smith, Mechanic.
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Ex. Judy Smith, Chief Operations Officer.
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COURTESY TITLES:
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Do not use courtesy titles such as Mr., Mrs., or Ms.
DEPARTMENTS:
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Capitalize the name of internal departments.
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Ex. Acden Human Resources.
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GENDER - NEUTRAL/INCLUSIVE LANGUAGE
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Use gender-neutral language in all corporate communication both internal and external.
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Use “they” when referring to an individual who has not disclosed their pronouns.
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Gender–neutral titles:
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o Chair (formerly Chairman).
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o Foreperson (formerly Foreman).
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o Journeyperson (formerly Journeyman).
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o Salesperson (formerly Salesman).
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ACADEMIC DEGREES AND HONOURS
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Avoid abbreviations for academic degrees. Use a phrase instead: Paula Sipek, who has a doctorate in biology. If it would be cumbersome otherwise, or if the degree is well-known, use the abbreviation.
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Follow Canadian Press style for abbreviations: BA, MA. Compound abbreviations are written without spaces: M.Sc., P.Eng. Mixed abbreviations that begin and end with a capital letter do not take periods: PhD.
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Use an apostrophe in bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, etc.
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NUMBERING
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Spell out numbers under 10 and use figures for those 10 and above. This means there may be a mixture of words and figures in a sentence or series.
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Ex. At Acden Fleet there are eight employees who have been with the company for 10 years.
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Ex. In 2022, there were three incidents over a 13-week period.
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For numbers at the beginning of a sentence, always spell the number.
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Do not list decades or centuries in the possessive form (ie: 1920s not 1920’s).
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Write out percentages (e.g. 27 per cent).
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REFERENCES TO PARTNER COMPANIES
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When referring to partner companies use the phrase partnerships, partners or partner companies, instead of minority-owned, joint venture, etc.
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Ex. Acden has 12 partner companies and six wholly owned companies.
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VOICE
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Write with an active voice instead of the passive voice.
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In an active sentence, the subject does the action. The sentence is clear and direct.
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In a passive sentence, it may not be clear who or what is doing the action.
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Example:
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Active: We may ask you to provide proof of citizenship.
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Passive: You may be asked to provide proof of citizenship.
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PLACES
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For Canadian provinces and territories, use these abbreviations after the name of a community:
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Alta., B.C., Man. N.B., Nfld. N.S., Ont., P.E.I. Que. Sask.
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For community names, with the exception of provincial capital cities and Montreal, Ottawa, Hamilton, Saskatoon, Calgary, and Vancouver, the community name should be followed by the province.
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Ex: Prince George, B.C. and Fort McMurray, Alta., but Edmonton and Calgary.
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DATE AND TIME REFERENCES
DATES
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Capitalize months.
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Lowercase the seasons.
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For months used with a specific date, abbreviate only Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec. Spell out months standing alone or with a year alone.
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Ex: Jan. 21,, 2023 or January 2023 or January.
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In tabular matter, use these forms without periods: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec.
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Days of the week are abbreviated only in tabular matter and without periods: Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat.
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When a phrase lists only a month and year, do not separate the month and the year with commas: It snowed a lot in February 1980.
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When a phrase refers to a month, day and year, set off the year with commas: It snowed a lot on Jan. 27, 1978.
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TIME
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Use “a.m.” and “p.m.” after the time.
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Ex. 3:30 p.m.
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Eliminate the double zero in times.
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Ex. 2 p.m. instead of 2:00 p.m.
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Use figures except for noon and midnight.
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Use a colon to separate hours, minutes and seconds when figures are used.
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2:30 a.m.
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Use an “en” dash (no space on either side) when using time figures: 2-3 p.m.
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When times fall within the same time of day, there is no need to repeat a.m. and p.m.
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Ex.: 9-10 a.m.
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If in different times of day, use a.m. and p.m.
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Ex. 11a.m.–2 p.m.
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PUNCTUATION
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Apply consistency across all punctuation. Decide whether all elements of the document should end with or without punctuation and apply them consistently across the entire document.
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Ex: All of the bullets in a bulleted list should end with punctuation.
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Use a colon, rather than a comma, to introduce a direct quotation.
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Ex. Dan Rorke said in 2022: “Acden is focusing inward on continuously evolving our corporate identity to reflect ACFN in our words, actions, and how and where we conduct business now and into the future.”
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Use commas between the elements of a series but not before the final element (sometimes referred to as the Oxford comma) unless that avoids confusion.
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Ex. Some of Acden’s services include Acden Environment, Acden Lemax, Acden Fleet and Acden Manufacturing.
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PLACES
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For Canadian provinces and territories, use these abbreviations after the name of a community:
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Alta., B.C., Man. N.B., Nfld. N.S., Ont., P.E.I. Que. Sask.
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For community names, with the exception of provincial capital cities and Montreal, Ottawa, Hamilton, Saskatoon, Calgary, and Vancouver, the community name should be followed by the province.
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Ex: Prince George, B.C. and Fort McMurray, Alta., but Edmonton and Calgary.
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