The Department of Education (DepEd) – Philippines oversees and regulates the basic education system. Its primary mandate is to promote accessible, equal, and quality basic education. DepEd also releases issuances regarding various rules, standards, and guidelines, which should be adhered to and implemented by the officials and personnel of the department and educational institutions. To avoid uncertainty and promote uniformity, the department issued the DepEd Order 30, series 2019, aiming to standardize issuances and official documents.
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The order enclosed a Manual of Style that the department and schools from all levels, including the central, regional, and division offices of DepEd, should utilize. It contains in-depth guidelines about the Principles of Effective Business Writing, from abbreviations, acronyms, and capitalization to formatting, language usage, references, and spelling. In addition, the DepEd Manual of Style (DMOS) contains guidelines for creating official issuances and letters and operational procedures.
What is DepEd Order 30
On October 18, 2019, the Department of Education released the DepEd Order (DO) 30, series (s.) 2019, entitled “DepEd Manual of Style (DMOS), 2018 Edition.” Based on The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition, the DMOS specifies recent language style, format, and usage. The Manual also incorporates the DepEd House Style or the common usage within the department. It contains a set of rules and standards that the department’s personnel will use as a guide in the style and format for developing DepEd issuances and other official documents.
Furthermore, it aims to instill excellence in Filipino learners by delivering accessible, relevant, and quality education. Hence, DepEd encourages all officials and personnel from the central, regional, division offices, and school levels to participate in promoting DMOS. It will help DepEd establish credibility and promote a unified identity to its partners, stakeholders, and the public. DepEd will also organize a National Orientation and Workshop on the Use of DMOS for all personnel preparing official documents to ensure its implementation.
Guidelines on the Use of the Department of Education Manual of Style (DMOS)
Scope
This order applies to all officials and personnel from DepEd operating units from the central, regional, and division offices and public schools. All stakeholders should use the standard style, grammar usage, and unique styles stated in DMOS when preparing DepEd issuances and official documents.
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Procedures, Roles, & Responsibilities
In this section, the department specified the procedures, roles, and responsibilities of all officials, offices, and personnel involved in preparing DepEd issuances and other official documents to ensure the implementation of DMOS.
A. Central Office
The PAS-PD Editorial should perform the following:
- Revise DMOS based on the latest DepEd House Style and Formatting Standards, approved by the Secretary of Education
- Reform the current Edition of DMOS based on the latest progress of the Chicago Manual of Style
- Impose and enact guidelines and standards about formatting and styling DepEd issuances
- Offer technical assistance on formatting and styling DepEd issuances to Central Office (CO) operating units and field offices if requested
- Perform the National Orientation and Workshop on the Use of DMOS (NOWU-DMOS) for regional information officers (RIOs), division information officers (DIOs), and other personnel responsible for preparing DepEd issuances and official documents
- Offer NOWU-DMOS participants PDF and hard copies of the Manual
- Request help from the Bureau of Human Resource and Organization Development on drafting the NOWU-DMOS training design
B. Regional Office
Meanwhile, the RIOs of the Public Affairs Unit (PAU) at the regional level should perform the following:
- Actively partake and enhance an action plant for NOWU-DMOS
- Share the action plan for Regional Orientation and Workshop on the Use of the DMOS (ROWU-DMOS) with other PAU personnel
- Mobilize core teams comprising administrative officers and personnel involved in NOWU-DMOS
- Instruct core teams in facilitating sessions for ROWU-DMOS
- Offer DMOS participants a PDF copy before commencing ROWU-DMOS
- Develop workshop activities for officers and personnel responsible for preparing DepEd regional issuances and official documents
- Monitor and evaluate core team members who will enact DMOS in their place of work
- Discuss DMOS principles, rules, and standards with the resource person
- Establish core group leaders (CGLs) who will guide core group members (CGMs) who are unable to attend the ROWU-DMOS
- Provide orientation to CGLs regarding the DMOS and Monitoring and Content Evaluation (M&CE) Form
- Collect the schedule of CGs to perform Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) depending on their availability
C. Schools Division Office
Officers and personnel assigned as DIOs and involved in preparing official documents who partake in the orientation and workshop should perform the following:
- Establish Division Core Groups (DCGs), which consist of those unable to participate in any NOWU-DMOS
- Establish Division Core Group Members (DCGMs), consisting of personnel unable to attend any NOWU-DMOS
- Utilize DMOS with the Monitoring and Evaluation Form (DMOS M&E Form)
- Collect responses to DMOS M&E accomplished forms and merge them before submitting them to RIOs
Principles on DepEd Issuances and Official Documents Preparation
Aside from that, the PAS-PD Editorial Staff should enact the following principles when styling and formatting draft DepEd issuances asked by CO operating units to deliver comprehensive official documents:
- Clarity – clear and straightforward provisions
- Conciseness – brief and precise
- Concreteness – no vague terms, language, figures of speech, and idiomatic expressions
- Consistency – items or provisions must be consistent in spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalization, hyphenation, abbreviation, and typeface
- Coherence – language items or provisions must conform to logical sequences
- Courtesy – must include courteous and polite terms to establish goodwill
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DepEd Order 30 Full Memo Download
To access and download the complete PDF of DepEd Order No. 30, series of 2019, a direct link is available on this page. By clicking the download button below, you can easily obtain a copy of DepEd Order 30 in PDF format.
Full PDF DepEd 30 memo file: https://www.deped.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/DO_s2019_030-2.pdf
Video: DepEd Manual of Style DO 30 s2019
As shown in the video, DepEd Order 30, series 2019, features the Department of Education Manual of Style (DMOS), 2018 Edition. It contains rules regarding the usage of abbreviations, such as names of organizations, articles, capitalization, acronyms, countries, educational degrees, footnotes, governments, issuances, headings, and titles. Moreover, it features standard use of capitalization, currencies, exchange rates, and dates.
DMOS also contains guidelines about formatting, language usage, numbers, world-class, punctuation, references, spelling, organization terms, and abbreviations. These standards should apply in all DepEd issuances and official documents to establish the department’s identity. Thus, all officials and personnel should know this Manual and its guidelines.
Summary
Overall, the DepEd Order 30, series 2019, established clear and comprehensive guidelines about the DepEd Manual of Style (DMOS). All DepEd officials and personnel can use the Manual as a reference when drafting DepEd issuances and official documents. These guidelines will help them create documents with DepEd’s identity, preventing confusion during the promulgation of issuances, memorandums, amendments, and other announcements from the department. Therefore, all stakeholders involved in preparing DepEd documents are encouraged to promote and implement the usage of DMOS.