1. Refresher Series: IBISWorld Style
Eleni Kostopoulos, Copy Editor
Editorial Department

2. CP and IO Growth Rates
Incorrect: The industry grew an estimated 10.6% over the past five years, including an additional expected 3.4% in 2015.
Correct: Industry revenue is expected to grow an annualized 10.6% over the five years to 2015, including a 3.4% jump in 2015.

3. CP and IO Growth Rates (cont.)
Specify that revenue is increasing or decreasing.
Avoid redundant phrasing.
Ensure the proper tense is used.
Annual/annually are NOT equivalent to annualized.
The 2015 rate is included in the five-year rate; it is not an additional increase.

4. Establishments vs. Enterprises
Refers to business location(s), which are the total number of operating plants or entities owned by an enterprise within an industry.
Enterprise
Refers to a company within an industry. Words that are often used in lieu of enterprise include operators, company, manufacturer, firm and business.
Firm is a word used to describe a type of company. The term generally refers to enterprises as opposed to establishments. The term should also be reserved for professional services companies (e.g. marketing, law) as opposed to manufacturing companies.

5. Captions
Report captions, found on the front page of each report, should be in sentence case. The first part of the caption must be a two to three word catch phrase, followed by a colon and a brief key theme of the report. The key theme should reflect the Executive Summary and tie into a projection about the industry’s future performance. Always capitalize the first word after the colon.
Do not use second person in captions.

6. Formatting a company name
Major Companies
Formatting a company name
Corp., Co., PLC, LLC, Ltd. and Inc.
Always abbreviate, regardless of how it is written in the copyright.
Do NOT use a comma before these abbreviations.
The Financial performance subhead should always be in sentence case.

7. Major Companies Tables
Use “Estimates”
Asterisk in title = Footnote applies to entire table
Asterisk next to one or more years = Footnote applies to these rows only
Asterisk in “Year” column = Footnote applies to fiscal year-end
Semicolon between notes (i.e. *Estimates; **Year-end March)
Make sure asterisks are in sequential order
Add .0s to figures

8. Profit
Profit margin: the amount by which revenue from sales exceeds costs in a business.
Incorrect: Profit margins will reach 12.0% of revenue. This is redundant.
Correct: The industry’s profit margin is expected to reach 3.0% in 2015.

9. CA Reports Use Canadian spelling Annualized, globalized
-or is typically converted to –our
-er is typically converted to –re
Currency is the Canadian dollar, but simply using dollar is sufficient. (If a note in the Major Company table indicates that figures are in CA dollars, go ahead and delete it!)
US cities: Same rule as in US reports, i.e. the city must be followed by the two-letter state postal abbreviation, offset in commas (unless the city is one of 30 well-known cities that can stand alone).

10. Miscellaneous (common errors)
Use inexpensive or less costly in lieu of cheap.
Always spell out one through nine. Numbers greater than nine should not be spelled out.
Percentages should always have one figure after the decimal point: 72.3% or 68.0%.
Anytime a compound figure is used to describe a noun, it should be hyphenated. For example: $4.0-billion industry.
Remember to ensure that objective language is used throughout.

11. Miscellaneous (common errors cont.)
Use at least one decimal point for every figure and percentage. Never use decimal points when stating numbers of people (e.g employees).
For descriptive phrases such as second-best, third-largest, fifth-fastest, fourth-to-last, use hyphens in adjective form before a noun. For example: The second-largest company.

12. Miscellaneous (common errors cont.)
Using by
Incorrect: Revenue grew by 12.0%.
Correct: This law is expected to be passed by the end of 2020.
KEDs should be fully written out in last sentence
Incorrect: This driver is expected to increase in 2015.
Correct: The price of cotton is expected to increase in 2015.