NUREG-0650, Submits Writing Style Guidance for Special Inquiry Group Repts
| ML19308C931 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane  |
| Issue date: | 12/04/1979 |
| From: | Cornell E NRC - NRC THREE MILE ISLAND TASK FORCE |
| To: | NRC - NRC THREE MILE ISLAND TASK FORCE |
| References | |
| RTR-NUREG-0650, RTR-NUREG-650, TASK-TF, TASK-TMR NUDOCS 8002110671 | |
| Download: ML19308C931 (6) | |
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
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z December 4, 1979 MEMORANDUM FOR: SIG Members FROM:
E. Kevin Cornell, Staff Director, SIG
SUBJECT:
STYLE GUIDANCE FOR SIG REPORT Questions of style in the final report have been raised, and this memo is intended to provide answers. All writing should follow this guidance, with any exceptions cleared with the lead editors.
If additional questions arise, bring them to the lead editors for resolution. 'Ihe time constraints we are under will not permit our outside editing contractor to perform technical editing, so the consistency and quality of our report depends on the writers and lead editors.
Assistance from our contractor can be made available in the area of reference citations.
If the report section sent for word processing is accompanied by a copy of the 1eference cited, the contractor could prepare the full biblio-l graphic citation. Obviously_one.does not need to provide copies of NUREG documents, Reg. Guides,10 CFR, or Federal Register notices, but the citation should note appropriate pages. Copies of letters and other items that are difficult to retrieve.can be compiled into a source file which can then be given to the Public Document Room.
(A source file would contain the cited material identified as, for example, Reference 26,Section II A 2.) contains guidance and examples for reference citations. provides guidance on writing style.
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. Kevin Cornell, Staff Director NRC/TMI Special Inquiry Group
Enclosures:
As stated 8'O O 2113.[7/'
ATTACHMENT 1 REFERENCE CITATION GUIDANCE i
A.
Basic Rule:
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Refer to the NRC Technical Writing Style Guide (NUREG-0650, Appendix A);
and (for legal cites) the Uniform System of Citation (Harvard); (copies available on Mary Ellen's desk) as style bibles.
Familiarize your-sel-es with the conventions adopted by these guides so that we may achieve some measure of conformity.
We_ are responsible for making the report look professional. Omit the availability of the reference from individual citations. We will announce availability by classes of documents (e.g. all depositions of the Special Inquiry will be found in the PDR; all NUREG documents can be obtained from NRC).
B.
System for Citing Sources:
1.
When do you need to cite a source?
Though the editors should assist on judgment calls, each author chould cite ource for quotations, both direct and indirect ~ for documents referred to in the text; and for factual assertio.
that might be questioned.
2.
How do you cite a source?
(a)
Use a series of footnotes, numbered consecutively within -
each subsection or discrete unit. Use your judgment to establish a logical unit.
The footnotes will not appear at the bottom of each page of the report; they will be compiled in a. list on a separate page that will appear at the end of each section.
(b)
Footnotes referring the reader to a source will be in the same compilation as explanatory footnotes.
If you must have an explanatory footnote close to the text, incorporate it into the text via a parenthetical statement.
(c)
Proper format for citing source material is often specified in,the NRC Style Guide. The contractor will try to check that all necessary information is provided in each footnote and that it is in absolutely correct form, but each writer should provide footnotes in the correc.t form.
(d)
The basic principle of citation:
Provide all the information that a reader would need if he wanted to locate the source document. Also, give any information that characterizes the
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document and helps the reader assess its merit (e.g., the j
document's year of publication).
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. C.
Sample Citations:
Depositions Special Inquiry: Case dep, at 47-48.
President's Commission: Case dep. at 104-05 (Pres. Com.).
NOTE:
If a deposition was conducted on two dates, then and only then add the deposition date so it reads:
Case dep. (Oct. 17, 1979) at 14, 16-17.
If reference is to an exhibit write:
Case dep., Exhibit 4.
Interviews Special Inquiry:* Case Interview hkmo at 3.
or Case Interview Transcript at 2-3.
Inspection 6 Enforcement:** Kunder Interview on July 4,1979 (1GE) at 16.
h'ith an SIG interview, the date must appear only if there is more than or.e memorandum or transcript; then it should read:
Case Interview Memo (Oct. 17, 1979) at 14.
- Date of interview should appear on all citations to 16E interviews in order to make the interview easily retrievable from the Public Document Room and to distinguish'from date of interview transcription.
Transcribed Tapes of Events Incident Response Center:
Hg. IRC Day 3 Transcript 03-260-CH7/25-PD-13.
Commission Meeting: NRC Commission Meeting Transcripts (March 28, 1979) at 18.
NRC and Contractor Reports, Correspondence, Reg. Guides, Federal Register Notices:
Follow the Technical Writing Style Guide, Appendix A.
Hearings President's Commission: Pres. Com. Hearing (Aug. 2, 1979) at 17.
Congress:
Hearings before the Subcommittee on Energy Research and Production of the House Committee on Science and* ~
Technology, 96th Cong., 1st Sess. 426 (hby 22,1979).
. D.
Additional Citations from Style Guide, Appendix A:
s Correspondence Letter from D. B. Blackman, Georgetown Municipal Utility, to R. A. Gilbert, NRC,
Subject:
Answers to NRC Questions on Docket 50-825, dated January 31, 1975.
For final reports:
U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, " Reactor Safety Study - An Assessment of Accident Risks in U.S. Commercial Nuclear Power Plants,"
Executive Summary, WASH-1400 (NUREG-75/014), October 1975.
NRC Applicant Documents Exxon Nuclear Corporation, " Preliminary Safety Analysis Report, Nuclear Fuel Recovery and Recycling Center," Vol. 3, p. 5.4-3, Docket 50-564, Regulatory Guides U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Regulatory Guide 1.31, " Control of Ferrite Content in Stainless Steel Weld Metal."
For NRC Safety Standard Review Plan U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, " Standard Review Plan for the Review of Safety Analysis Reports for Nuclear Power Plants - LWR Edition," USNRC Report NUREG-75/087, Section 2.3.1, " Regional Clinatology,"
Rev. 1.
Codes and Standards "American National Standard Requirements for Collection, Storage and Maintenance of Quality Assurance Records ror Nuclear Power Plants,"
. Federal Register Notices U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, " Licensing Procedures for Geologic Repositories for liigh-Level Radioactive Wastes," Federal Register, Vol. 43, No. 223, -Nov.17,1978, 53869-53872.
Journal, Magazine, and Newspaper Articles
" Argentina Says It Has Atom Fuel to Triple Its Electrical Capability,"
- p. 53, The New York Times, August 31, 1976.
Do not cite personal communications or internal papers not publically available.
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. e ATTACHMENT 2 WRITING STYLE 1.
Edent paragraphs (This will be done by our contractor and need not be done by NRC typists).
2.
Acronyms and initialisms.
See NRC Style Guide. Basically, put the acronym that you will later use in a parenthesis af ter the full name first appears in text. At the start of each succeeding subsection, do the same; (e.g., Babcock and Wilcox (B&W)). Try to avoid excessive use of acronyms.
3.
Make sure you distinguish between facts, interpretation,'and assumptions in the text.
Use phrases such as, "It seems clear," "We may assume,"
"We feel," to accomplish this.
4.
Use clock time, not military time (e.g., write 1 p.m., not 1300).
5.
Use both dates and days; cite dates in March 29, 1979 form instead of 29 March 1979, form.
6.
Outline in high school format (i.e., I, A,1, (a), (1), etc.) rather than in technical form (i.e. 2; 2.1; 2.1.1; 2.1.3.5; etc.)
7.
Use "we believe" instead of the impersonal "it is believed."
8.
Use Metropolitan Edison (Met Ed) instead of the" licensee" unless discussing licensing procedure.
Similarly, use' corporate names instead of the
" vendor," "the architect-engineer," etc.
9.
Use "TMI-2" for the Three Mile Island-2 nuclear reactor and spell out Three Mile Island Station for the full site.
10.
Make sure the titles and subtitles of each section of the report are comprehensible to someone who is reading just the outline. Keep jargon out of the titles and subtitles as best you can; make them less cryptic.
11.
Write "the NRC" instead of simply "NRC;" similarly, write "the DOE" instead l
of " DOE," etc. (But " HEW" not "the DHEW"...).
Refer to agencies by acronyms most used by newspapers.
12.
Titles: Write " John Doe, a Commissioner of the NRC," rather than " John l
Doe, Commissioner, NRC."
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13.
Write "Denton" or " Harold Denton," not "hr.
Denton." (Same for all people.) Use initiala only when the last names are not unique.
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