Electronic Filing and Calculating

Rule 3 Punctuation and Possessives

Rule 3 All punctuation is disregarded when indexing personal and business names. Apostrophes, commas, dashes, exclamation points, hyphens, periods, question marks, quotation marks, and diagonals are disregarded, and names are indexed as written. Close up the letters or words and index them as one filing unit.

Practice Rule 3 Read and examine examples of Rule 3 on page 15. Complete Group A of Self-Check 4 on page 19.

Rule 4 Single Letters and Abbreviations

Rule 4 When single letters are part of a name, the spacing between the letters determines the filing unit. Index single letters that make up a complete name or a single abbreviated word as one filing unit. (B-T Reality = BT Reality) Radio and TV station call letters are one unit, regardless of spacing.

Rule 4 (con’t.) Personal Names –Initials in full personal names are considered separate indexing units. –Abbreviated personal names (Chas., Jos., Theo., Thos., Wm) and nicknames (Andy, Barb, Chuck, Joe) are indexed as written. –Disregard punctuation.

Rule 4 (con’t.) Business Names –Index single letters in business names as they are written. –If there is a space between single letters, index each letter as a separate unit. –If the single letters are written together, index them as one filing unit.

Rule 4 (con’t.) Business names –Index acronyms (words formed from the first, or first few, letters of several words) as one filing unit. –Abbreviated words (ft., Co., Inc.) and abbreviated full names (YMCA, M. A. D. D.) are one filing unit regardless of spacing and punctuation. –Abbreviations of complete business names (AT&T, IBM) and acronyms (A R C O) are one filing unit regardless of spacing and punctuation.

Practice Rule 4 Read and examine examples of Rule 4 on page 16. Complete Group B of Self-Check 5 on page 23.

Rule 5 Titles and Suffixes

Rule 5 Index all titles last when they are used with full personal names. Index titles as they are written when they appear with only a given name or a surname. Index personal name suffixes last—but before titles—in the order that they appear after the surname.

Rule 5 (con’t) Place numeric suffixes (II, III) before alphabetic suffixes (Jr., Mayor, Senator). Index titles in business names in the order that they are written.

Rule 5 (con’t) Titles and suffixes –A title is Dr., Miss, Mr., Mrs., Ms., Prof. –A seniority suffix is II, III, Jr., Sr. –A professional suffix is CRM, D.D.S., Mayor, M.D., Ph.D. –A religious title is Sister, Fr., Brother, Rabbi, Rev. –A royal title is Queen, Prince, Princess, King. Index all titles last when they appear with full personal name.

Rule 5 (con’t) When a seniority designation is required for filing, it is the last filing unit in the name, but consider it before using any titles. Numeric suffixes come before alphabetic suffixes. When professional suffixes are required for filing, index them last in alphabetic or as written, but consider them before all titles.

Rule 5 (con’t) Royal and religious titles –Royal and religious titles followed only by a given name or a surname are indexed and filed as written. –Apply the same principle to courtesy and professional titles.

Rule 5 (con’t) Titles in business names are indexed as written. –Dr. Chang’s Dental Clinic –DR CHANGS DENTAL CLINIC

Practice Rule 5 Read and examine examples of Rule 5 on page 17. Complete Group C of Self-Check 6 on page 27.