Honorary awards

Guidelines for writing citations for conferring of honorary awards

At the conferring ceremony when the award of an honorary degree or honorary fellowship is made, the Vice-Chancellor reads out a citation about the person being honoured before the Chancellor presents the testamur.

Each successful nominator is asked to prepare a draft citation which is finalised by the Vice-Chancellor and the Chair of the Advisory Committee.

The following guidelines have been developed to assist in drafting citations:

Content:

• Full name of nominee
• Imperial or Australian honours
• Discipline area and major achievements that warrant the nomination for an honorary award
• Accurate information

Style:

• Simple English
• Describe achievements, especially in specialised fields, so that they may be readily understood and appreciated, as well as being easy to read out aloud, i.e. the use of technical terms should be kept to a minimum

Length:

• A maximum of one typed, single spaced A4 page

Submission of citation:

• The draft citation should be emailed to Mr Rod Tindall, Officer-in-Charge, Graduations Unit at R.Tindall@records.usyd.edu.au not later than 31 January in the year in which the honorary award is to be conferred.

Sample citations:

• A wide range of citations can be accessed here.