SayPro Alphabetic Filing

Alphabetic systems group documents together by letters of the name from A – Z. These systems can be used for any volume of records. There are a number of protocols or rules for filing alphabetically that must be committed to memory:

• The alphabetical sequence must be strictly adhered to abbess comes before abbot and Richards before Richardson
• Files or entries are sequenced letter by letter:

• Indefinite and definite articles (a, the) are ignored in entry titles
• Abbreviations are filed as written: Messrs Smith and Williams
• Abbreviated names like BBC, ITV etc are filed according to their abbreviated letter sequence
• St is filed as Saint and foreign versions like San or Sainte are filed as spelled. Some filing systems treat Mc, Mac or M’ as different versions of ‘Mac’ and file them according to their individual letter sequence; others tream them all as ‘Mac’.
• Entries which are shorter come first.

• Personal names are normally filed surname first:
• Titles like Mr, Mrs, Dr, Prof, Sit etc are ignored, save for forming part of the entry after the initial surname shown.
• Where the same word occurs as a name, then the convention is to enter the forename followed by the surname, followed by the corporate name and then the name as the subject.