Public Services and Procurement Canada
Symbol of the Government of Canada

Institutional Links

 

Important notice

The Canadian Style has been archived and won’t be updated before it is permanently deleted.

For the most up-to-date content, please consult Writing Tips Plus, which combines content from Writing Tips and The Canadian Style. And don’t forget to update your bookmarks!

Search Canada.ca

7.55 Alternatives and headings

An oblique may indicate alternatives:

  • Send in your cheque / money order without delay.
  • and/or
  • Parent/Guardian: ______________________

A similar use is seen in bilingual titles such as L’Actualité terminologique / Terminology Update.

The expression and/or may be redundant and should be used with caution:

  • The engines will be manufactured in Canada and/or the United States.

but

  • renovations or repairs not renovations and/or repairs

Oblique strokes may separate headings on a form:

  • Division/Branch
  • Series/Cert. No.

The oblique is used increasingly to indicate complex relationships between words, a role traditionally filled by the hyphen:

  • the student/teacher ratio (the student-teacher ratio)
  • labour/management relations (labour-management relations)
  • owner/manager (owner-manager)
  • the total Boston–Montréal/Montréal–Toronto air mileage