The Hong Kong Institute of Chartered Secretaries Corporate Governance Paper Competition and Presentation Award 2011 Rules Rules and Regulation 1. The paper should be written in English and not exceed 5,000 words (exclusive of footnotes and bibliography). Participants are required to follow the HKICS style guide (attachment 1). 2. The Oxford System should be used for referencing. A bibliography is set out at the end of the paper whereas a footnote, if made, is set out at the bottom of the relevant page. 3. Times New Roman font with size-12 (single line spacing) should be used. 4. Plagiarism is a serious academic offence and all papers suspected of the same shall be disqualified at the absolute discretion of the judges. 5. The decision of the judges on all matters relating to this Paper Competition and Presentation Award is final. 6. The submission deadline the paper is 26 August 2011, before 6:00 pm. Each team or individual participant is required to submit the following by email to student@hkics.org.hk: i. Softcopy of the paper with participant name(s), name(s) of department and name(s) of university set out clearly at the end. ii. One photo with file size 2MB or above (either individual photo or group photo) iii. Abstract of the paper (not more than 100 words) You will receive an email acknowledgement from the Institute.
7. All notifications/ reminders from the Institute will be sent to participants by email and SMS. Participants are obliged to inform the Institute of their update correspondence (i.e. email address and mobile phone number). Assessment The paper will be assessed based on the following criteria: 1. Clarity of research objectives (10%) 2. Robustness of analysis (35%) 3. Strength and merit of recommendations/ proposals for reform (35%) 4. Conclusion (10%) 5. Referencing (10%) Short Listing All submitted papers will be marked as anonymous for assessment. The first round of papers review will be conducted by reviewers from local universities. Reviewers will not be assigned to review papers submitted by students from the same university. Papers with equal marks, if any, will be sent to the Working Group for decision. The six papers with highest total scores will be identified for the second review by Panel of judges which are composed of senior members of the Institute. The top six teams will be invited to present their papers on 22 October 2011 and compete for the Best Presenter Award. The Champion of the paper competition will also be announced on the same day. Here are the details of the Corporate Governance Papers Presentation Competition 2011 Date: 22 October 2011 (Saturday) Time: 2:00 pm -5:00 pm Venue: United Conference Center (UCC), 10/F., United Centre, 95 Queensway, Hong Kong 1. Each team will be given a 15-minute presentation of their papers, followed by a 5-minute Q&A session. 2. Presentation is to be conducted in English 3. To use the HKICS corporate power point template. 4. Each team is welcome to invite their classmates and professors to attend for support.
Awards A. Paper Competition Champion HK$10,000 and publication of the paper (edited version at the Institute s discretion) in CSJ, the official monthly publication of the Institute (November 2011 issue). 1st Runner up HK$7,000 2nd Runner up HK$3,000 B. Presentation Award Best Presenter HK$5,000 1st Runner up HK$3,000 2nd Runner up HK$2,000 Advertorial The post event coverage of the Corporate Governance Presentation Competition 2011 including the paper presentations will be published at the Singtao EDUplus in November 2011. Corporate Governance Paper Competition 2001 Winning papers booklet The Institute will publish papers of the Champion, 1 st runner up and 2 nd runner up in the Corporate Governance Paper Competition Booklet in December 2011. Important Dates Deadline for Submission: 26 August 2011 Announcement of the six finalists: 3 October 2011 (Announcement will be made via email and SMS) Papers Presentation competition: 22 October 2011 Contact Address: The Hong Kong Institute of Chartered Secretaries 3/F, Hong Kong Diamond Exchange Building, 8 Duddell Street, Central, H.K. Tel: 2881 6177 Fax: 2881 5050 Email: student@hkics.org.hk Website: www.hkics.org.hk
The Hong Kong Institute of Chartered Secretaries WRITING STYLE GUIDE 1. Use dot' style - e.g.: 'p.m.', 'a.m.' 2. No honorific, and avoid using 'Mr.' and 'Ms.' etc where possible (only in the first instance if necessary). 3. Use double quotes for speech and single for emphasis (e.g.: 'corporate governance' rather than "corporate governance", or We are not amused, she said). Use single quote marks for quotes within quotes. 4. Use English rather than US spelling. 5. The style for dates is: 27 January 2001, not January 27, 2001. Note the following for dates and times: 1 January 1993 (text should not be changed to follow either of these first two points in quotations on legislation including enacting dates for legislation) 1890 1910; 1964 1965 (not 1964 65 or 1964 5) (en rule) 1990s (no apostrophe) In text: twentieth century, but a fourth-century church or an eighteenth-century house (where used adjectivally). 20th century may be used in tables. Times should be given: 8 a.m.; 9.30 p.m.
6. The term Chartered Secretary should always be upper case. The term 'company secretary' is lower case unless where it is someone's official title. For example: 'company secretaries are increasingly seen as corporate governance officers,' but 'David Chan, Company Secretary, Hong Kong Electric.' 7. Use present tense for interviews. Standfirsts have no full stop (unless there are two sentences). 8. Use the following style for sub-heads: A head bold, title case; B head italics, title case; C head italics, lowercase, same font size as text, followed by en-dash and runs into text. 9. Title case means that all words in [A] and [B] titles start with a cap, but not prepositions, and, but, for, etc. 10. Photo captions should not have full stops. 11. Pullouts (highlighted quotes) don t have full stops, nor an initial cap (unless there are two sentences). They only take quotation marks when they are a direct speech quote. 12. Bullet point lists should have no punctuation until the penultimate line which has, and then the last point has a full stop. If bullets include sentences, use full stops, and no penultimate, and. 13. Bullet points begin in upper case. If the order is significant, the list may be numbered, 1, 2, 3 otherwise use bullet points. Sub-points should use letters (a) (b) (c) or i, ii, iii i.e. Roman numerals. 14. New paragraphs do not need to be indented (except in a printed document where style / layout requires), but should be a clear line below the previous paragraph. 15. Numbers one to ten are spelt out, including first, second, third etc, except when followed by per cent (% in a table) or in a table, use Arabic numerals thereafter. If there is a mixture of numbers in one sentence, use figures, e.g.: found in 9 of 40 cases.
Spell out figures starting sentences, e.g.: Eighty-five people went to Spelt out numbers are hyphenated, e.g. twenty-one 16. Use a comma when there are four or more figures, e.g. 2,160; 18,429 (except when referring to page numbers). 17. Numbers are separated by en-rules not hyphens, e.g. 28 30 September, pages 26 27 (note there are no spaces either side of the en-rule unless it is being used parenthetically). 18. In text, if a person s full name is mentioned once, e.g. Clare Joyce, further references should be Joyce (i.e. the surname), except in informal documents where you may use their personal name. 19. Use upper case M for Mainland China, and on the Mainland. 20. Where a quoted extract is over 50 words, it should be typed as a separate paragraph. 21. Names of publications (journals, newspapers, etc), are in italics. Titles of articles are in quotes. 22. Italics can also be used for: Case names Emphasis Foreign words or phrases, e.g. yum cha, et al, ibid, inter alia. Although all foreign words and phrases which have been absorbed into the English language are to be in ordinary roman type, e.g.: bourgeois, elite, facade International treaties and conventions, e.g. the Hague Convention. No need to italicise Ordinances, Laws, Bills, Notes, etc. 23. Website addresses should not be underlined or in bold and should only contain the "http://" if "www" is not part of the URL, e.g.: www.hkics.org.hk or http://goodpub.co.uk. 24. Cite a direct link to the home page rather than a more detailed address. 25. ABBREVIATIONS Write out in full the first time unless it s well known, e.g. general accepted accounting practices (GAAP), OECD
Write out in full measurements in text, e.g. kilometres, inches, but abbreviations can be used in tables Do not use Use United States US United Kingdom UK section 39 s 39 (unless at the beginning of a sentence) art 39 article 39 para 39 paragraph 39 Ltd Limited Note: Abbreviations can be used in a technical brief or document but not in the course of normal prose. 26. AMPERSANDS Do not use in text, except for companies that have one in their name: Pictet & Cie. 27. APOSTROPHES Use to show possession not plural, e.g. in the 1990s not 1990 s Use if there is a contraction, e.g. it s, hasn t Use to show possession, e.g. the Society s office, Bridget Jones s diary Note: Contractions should not be used in a normal prose document e.g. a report. 28. CAPITALISATION Proper nouns, e.g. names, places, months, etc. Titles of office holders, e.g. Tung Chee-hwa, Chief Executive. Names of organisations, e.g. the Hong Kong Government. Use lower case if not referring to a specific organisation e.g. government, secretariat Registered trade names, e.g. Coca-Cola. Guangdong Province Southeast Asia but western China. Titles of publications (also need italics) Accounting standards enclosed in single speech marks Note: Web, website and internet do not need capitals unless at the beginning of a sentence
29. COLON Use a colon before a list of items, e.g. countries to visit include: Hong Kong, China, Thailand. Only capitalise after a colon if it s a proper noun or if the sentence can stand alone as a sentence. 30. COMMAS Use commas to separate items in a series, e.g. goose, liver, leg of lamb and dessert. Commas are not needed before the and. However, for clarity they are needed in: accounting and auditing, and taxation. Use a comma to separate two or more adjectives that modify the same noun, but only when the adjectives are parallel to or independent of each other, e.g. the report gave a penetrating, accurate analysis Use two commas to set off descriptive clauses (also called non-restrictive and non-defining clauses), e.g. The eldest daughter, Jane, is going to school; Eric Li, LegCo Member, has a column in CSJ. If you take out the descriptive clause the sentence still makes sense. Not to be confused with restrictive clauses which cannot be set off with commas as the meaning would be limited, e.g.: People who live in glass houses shouldn t throw stones ; Past President Peter Kam has been appointed as a Council member. Use a comma to set off a participial and infinitive phrase, introductory words or phrases Before and after a quotation, e.g. The seminar, he said, was interesting. 31. DASH Use en-rules not em-rules (not to be confused with hyphens). 32. HYPHENS Attributive phrases, e.g. long-term benefits but not long term; paid-up shares Titles, e.g. Vice-President, Secretary-General Avoidance of misunderstanding, e.g. re-register Time/Fractions/age, e.g. one-and-a-half-hour seminar; two-thirds; 26-year-old man Seldom needed with adverbs, e.g. newly launched company; publicly listed company Prefixes need hyphens, e.g. ex, anti, non, neo, post Anything followed by based needs a hyphen, e.g. home-based
33. MEASUREMENT No full stop after abbreviations and no (s) in the plural. Space between figure and measurement, e.g. 5 metres long Use abbrev in tables, but in text write in full 34. MONEY Specify which currency, HK$ or US$, RMB, etc In text when referring to the currency, but not an amount use renminbi, US dollar, etc 35. SEMICOLON Use to separate two independent clauses that are too closely related for a full stop but not closely related enough to need a comma, e.g. the easy part was doing the research; the hard part was meeting the deadline. Use a semicolon to separate items in a series, e.g. Mr Clarke, the Past President; Mr Smith, the President; Mr Green, the Director; and Mr Law, Vice-President. 36. SPELLING Some spelling points: Do not use judgment program bureaux fulfill cooperation center Use judgement programme bureaus fulfil co-operation centre Common spelling mistakes practice/practise licence/license effect affect practice (noun); practise (verb) licence (noun); license (verb) means result means influence
37. GENERAL Be careful with tenses and use of plural and singular. Adjectives (descriptive words) are rarely required in business correspondence. So avoid them instead try and personalise the message e.g. instead of The Institute is deeply grateful for your very generous support try On behalf of the Institute I would to thank you for your support In general if you would not use an adjective in verbal communication, do not do so in the written form, e.g. On behalf of the Institute I am delighted to accept your invitation to visit you rather than On behalf of the Institute I am very much delighted to accept your invitation to visit your esteemed organisation. Keep sentences short. If more than one point is made within a sentence then you can usually split it into two. New point means new paragraph. Do not worry if paragraphs are short. For reports, short is good. Always strive for clarity. Use bullet points where possible. Always have someone else, preferably someone not familiar with the topic, read your report before sending. This will save you time in the long run. And always, always, spell-check every document, including email, before sending.