Language selection

Government of Canada / Gouvernement du Canada

Search

Annex D – Guidelines on writing citations

  1. To meet and remain consistent with the current DND standards for National and Departmental award citations, as well as in accordance with The Canadian Style and Le guide du rédacteur, it is requested that the following guidelines are applied when preparing citations for nominations of honours & awards.
  2. For examples of citations, please refer to Governor's general website, DH&R Annual Review Book and the MSC, MSM and MID Anniversary publications.

Format

  1. Provide electronic copy in a Microsoft Word document, ensuring that the form corresponding to the honour & award in the applicable language is being used. In order to obtain the appropriate template, please send your request to DH&R’s positional mailbox.

Language

  1. Citation is written in the primary language of the recipient as indicated on Member's Personnel Record Resume (MPRR).
  2. For CFUCs: Only provide the English citation with the original case file. Once the CFUC has been approved by the CDS, a request for translation will be sent by DH&R to the recommending L1.

Header Format

  1. Ensure all components are at time of incident: Substantive rank in full; all given names; surname; post-nominals at time of incident as well as of the award being conferred.

    Example: Brigadier-General Scott Philip Smith, MSM, CD

  2. For Foreign recipients the header format is (ensure all components are at time of incident): Substantive national rank in full; all given names; surname; of Commonwealth orders or decorations as applicable as well as of the award being conferred, if American; "of" Country Name.

    Note: Not all countries can accept Canadian post-nominals. The USA has given authority to accept the Canadian post-nominals.

    Example: Brigadier General Scott Johnson, MSC, of the United States of America
    French Example: Brigadier-Général Scott Johnson, CSM, des États-Unis d'Amérique

Length

  1. 3 to 5 sentences long (introduction, body, conclusion);
  2. CDSC & CFMDS: Will accept 2-3 words extra:
    1. English: 70-80 words; and
    2. French: 90-105 words.
  3. CFUCs should have a maximum of 130 words in English so that when it is translated, it does not exceed 150 in French.

Content

  1. If the content does not need to be scrubbed due to security level, include, if applicable:
    1. When: indicate specific day if an event; use range of months+years or years if over time;
    2. Where: city+country; in some cases, name of unit and operation are necessary;
    3. Who: include role or job title if applicable (see further notes below);
    4. What: indicate conflict, what the member did; and
    5. Why the member is deserving, how the member stood out, concrete impacts.

Rank

  1. Rank used is the substantive rank held at the time of incident/deed.
  2. Rank is written out in full, however the ordinal numbers are written with ordinal indicator. In English, the ordinal indicator is regular text size (ex. "1st Class" instead of "First Class"). In French, the ordinal indicator is superscript (ex. « 1re classe » instead of « première classe »). This also applies to unit names that contain numbers.
  3. First letter of rank in French is not capitalized unless the rank is at the beginning of a sentence.
    Example: Le capitaine Landry est né à Val d'Or. Capitaine Landry est originaire de Val d'Or
  4. Retired CAF members who have been honourably released with over ten years' service are entitled to use their last substantive rank with "(Retired)" after the postnominals.
  5. The use of feminized ranks in French is a personal choice as per CANFORGEN 014/22.
  6. Foreign ranks are not necessarily written the same as its Canadian equivalent. However, we will use the Canadian equivalent in the translation.
    Example for USA: Brigadier General (no hyphen); Brigadier-Général (when translated to French)
  7. The substantive rank of a Canadian Ranger (CR) can only be ranger. A CR member may only be promoted to a higher acting rank.

Role and/or Title

  1. Reminder: English: sergeant major; French: sergent-major.
  2. The use of feminized titles in French is a personal choice as per CANFORGEN 014/22
  3. As per Termium Plus, capitalize titles only when they refer to a specific person.
    Example: Commanding Officer Captain(N) Ryan of His Majesty's Canadian Ship Iroquois was deployed as part of the Task Force Arabian Sea from April to October 2023.
  4. Do not capitalize a term that refers to a role rather than a person. In most citations, the role is used more often that the title of the person.
    Example: Captain(N) Ryan was deployed as commanding officer of His Majesty's Canadian Ship Iroquois and deputy commander of Task Force Arabian Sea from April to October 2023
  5. Capitalize all titles following and placed in apposition to a personal name, except those denoting professions.
    Example: Captain(N) Ryan, Commanding Officer of His Majesty's Canadian Ship Iroquois, was deployed as part of the Task Force Arabian Sea from April to October 2023.

Names

  1. Given names and surnames are spelled with accents as per their respective fields in the MPRR.
  2. Given names should appear as written in the GIVEN NAMES field, in the order listed on the MPRR, which is supposed to reflect the accents and order of the names on the birth certificate or official name change document.
  3. However, if given names are not all appearing on the MPRR or in the same order as per the initials of the NAME field, they shall be provided on the DND 2448. There is no need to provide DH&R copies of the member's official identification documents

Post-nominals

  1. Post-nominals used in citation title are those held at the time of incident/deed, in addition to the post-nominal of the award being conferred (if applicable).
  2. List post-nominals in order of precedence.
  3. DND does not use periods in the post-nominals.
  4. Some post-nominals are written differently in English vs French. Example: Star of Courage – SC in English & ÉC in French.

Pronouns

  1. Member's pronoun of choice is to be used and narratives/citations are NOT to be written automatically gender-neutral.
  2. Upon request, if the member’s pronoun of choice was unknown at time of nomination, the citation may be amended after the award has been presented.  

Acronyms

  1. Acronyms are permitted after writing the words in full the first time it appears in citation.
    Example: Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) […] CAF
  2. The following items are permitted to be written as acronyms without appearing in full:
    1. 2SLGBTQI+ = Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex +
    2. COVID-19 = Coronavirus disease 2019;
    3. NATO = North Atlantic Treaty Organization;
    4. NORAD = North American Aerospace Defense Command;
    5. UN = United Nations; and
    6. HMCS = His Majesty’s Canadian Ship 

Transportation

  1. Use "His Majesty's Canadian Ship" for incidents dating on or after 8 Sep 2022.
  2. Use gender neutral pronouns to refer to transportation.
    Example: The forward engine room (instead of Her forward engine room)
  3. "Italicize the names given to individual ships, spacecraft, aircraft and trains but not abbreviations preceding them." In the case of citations, as they will be public and historical documents, (i.e. used outside of DND) the names of ship are italicized in both French and English
    Example: His Majesty's Canadian Ship Iroquois

Commas

  1. When writing in English:
    1. Where there is a dateline after a province, it is not necessary to include a comma after the province;
      Example: While in Moncton, New Brunswick on 18 July 2023, Corporal Smith witnessed a motorcycle accident.
    2. Use a comma when there are 2 independent clauses joined by the "and"; and
      Example: In this role, he provided outstanding leadership and support to the ship's crew, and judicious advice to the commander of Standing NATO Maritime Group 1.
    3. Do NOT use a comma before the conjunction in a list of 3 or more items.
      Example: Corporal Smith's actions exemplified the Canadian Armed Forces military values: duty, loyalty, integrity and courage

Other Style Points

  1. "served" is preferred over "was employed".
  2. Use past perfect verb tense for deployments.
    Example: Captain XXX was deployed
  3. In most situations, nouns and adjectives used should correspond to the applicable award.
    Examples:
    1. Bravery: courage
    2. MSC: extraordinary
    3. MSM: exceptional
  4. In cases where there are multiple correct usages of spelling or grammar, follow UK convention.

Final Reminders

  1. Avoid the repetition of words.
  2. Avoid the use of “great credit to himself/herself”, alternate option “great credit to the Canadian Armed Forces”.
  3. Ensure that verb tense is consistent and use spell check.
  4. Citations become public and a historical document. Tell the story so that in the coming years people from inside and outside DND's organization can understand the event in reading the citation.

Page details

2025-10-09