University Advancement Communications Editorial Style Guide January 2006
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- ABBREVIATIONS ACRONYMS
- In lists and addresses, (in the magazine
- Degree abbreviations
- CAPITALIZATION Titles and headings
- DISPLAY TYPE
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Editorial Style Guide January 2006 Our references on spelling, grammar, and style: Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed. (Web 11th) Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed. (CMS) New York Times Manual of Style and Usage (NYT) ABBREVIATIONS & ACRONYMS •Avoid using abbreviations in headings and titles. •In text, spell out all terms/names on first use; introduce abbreviation in parens immediately after them and use abbreviation thereafter. •Except for traditional abbreviations of state names, abbreviations/acronyms don’t take periods. And they don’t take an apostrophe to form the plural. Examples: Pioneer Valley Life Sciences Institute (PVLSI), "PVLSI speeds the development of ideas and products to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of human disease." Off-Campus Meal Plan (OCMP) Fine Arts Center (FAC), “The FAC’s budget has been increased.” PhD, “Two PhDs are better than one, if you survive.”
•In text (and in the UMass Amherst magazine’s class notes section), spell out name of state, or, in cases where space is a concern, use traditional abbreviations. •In lists and addresses, (in the magazine, in Inbox and In Memoriam), use postal abbreviations. For a list of both see CMS 15.29. Examples: “She went to Florida to drive voters to the polls.” John Somes ‘31, Altoona, FL - 9/20/05
“Sheila writes from St. Paul, Minn., that her cat coughed up a hairball and she published a book about it.” •States with no traditional abbreviation: Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Maine, Ohio, Utah. In text, always spell out these states. They do have postal abbreviations, though, so use them in lists and addresses (and in the magazine, in class notes and Memoriam: Examples: Text: “Ginny is up to her gills in her fish-cleaning business in Fairbanks, Alaska.” Inbox: Ginny Smith, Fairbanks, AK
•Spell out months in text. Examples: “When the program began in January 2004, there was a waiting list to get in” and “The first class was held on January 3, 2004, and a mob of students showed up, trying to get in.” • Spell out months when used alone; abbreviate when used with a date. Examples: “George is a single father of six, with his youngest born on Mar. 25, 2003” and “George reports that he adopted his youngest child in March 2003” • Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., May, June, July, Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec. See CMS 15.42. Degree abbreviations •No periods. BS, MA, MFA, PhD, MD, etc. For a list of degree abbreviations, see CMS 15.21.
•Course titles: No italics or quotation marks. Just initial caps. Example: ENGL999: Literary Theory: The Postmoderns •Book titles: Italicize in text, class notes, everywhere. This is long-practiced CMS style and is much more common than NYT style, which is to use quotation marks. Using quotation marks around book titles gets clumsy. Example: “Eats, Shoots & Leaves Is a Stickler’s Best Friend, Says Reviewer ” •Titles of TV shows, movies, CDs, magazines: Italicize everywhere. Examples: The Sopranos, Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, PBS’s The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, CBS Evening News, UMass Amherst magazine BUT use quotation marks for names of specific episodes of TV shows, songs, chapters in books. Examples: “Calling All Capos” is Episode 41 of The Sopranos. CAPITALIZATION Titles and headings •Initial-cap all verbs, including forms of be: is, are, was, were, be, been, being. Example: “The Future Is Now” •The word it is capped in titles/heads. Example: “Pulling It Together” •Prepositions are not capped, unless they start or end the title/heading or are part of a proper noun. Examples: “Life down the Rabbit Hole” “Trying to Get Through” “University Without Walls Breaks Barriers to Education” Honorific titles •John V. Lombardi, chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Amherst; UMass Amherst chancellor John Lombardi; Chancellor Lombardi; Chancellor John Lombardi (ok, but avoid if possible); the chancellor •Jack Wilson, president of the University of Massachusetts; UMass president Jack Wilson; President Wilson; the president of UMass •Charlena Seymour, provost and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs of the University of Massachusetts Amherst; Provost Seymour; Provost Charlena Seymour (ok, but avoid if possible); the provost •Janet Rifkin, dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences; Dean Rifkin •Suzanne Thomas, professor of chemistry; Professor Thomas; Professor Suzanne Thomas (ok, but avoid if possible) •Eddie Bustamante, president of the Student Government Association; president of student government •Mitt Romney; Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney; Governor Romney (avoid Governor Mitt Romney) Not honorary •Elizabeth Dale, vice chancellor for university advancement; vice chancellor, Office of University Advancement •Mike Gargano, vice chancellor for student affairs and campus life; Mike Gargano, vice chancellor, Office of Student Affairs and Campus Life •Lisa Perlbinder, director of the Office of University Advancement Communications; director Lisa Perlbinder Programs/offices •Spell out generic references to degrees, using lowercase. Examples: “He earned a master’s degree in landscape architecture,” “She earned a master of fine arts in sculpture,” “He earned a doctorate in botany” •To refer to programs, use initial caps for the title of the program but not for “degree program,” etc. Examples: Master of Science in Nursing/Master of Public Health dual degree program the Master of Fine Arts in Studio Arts degree program (from art department’s Web page) the master of fine arts degree program in Studio Arts Peace Psychology and Prevention of Violence doctoral degree program Entomology master’s degree program Women’s Studies program, Advanced Feminist Studies certificate program the certificate program, Department of Political Science, Political Science Department, political science major, the political science faculty are agitators Office of the Vice Chancellor of University Advancement
•Do not cap names of Web sites/dot-coms unless the company caps it or the name starts a sentence. Examples: umass.edu, boston.redsox.mlb.com, eBay.com, marthastewart.com; “EBay offers a gazillion items” POSSESSIVES The campus’s growth has accelerated in recent years. The board members’ comments stunned the crowd. The United States’ role in world affairs is considerable. Department of Veterans Affairs (in this case, “Veterans” is attributive, not possessive) For rules, see CMS 7.17-7.30. WORD LIST •References to the University of Massachusetts Amherst: spell out complete name on first use; then use UMass Amherst or “the campus” •References to September 11, 2001: 9/11 is most commonly used to refer to overall event and date Examples: “A 9/11 memorial service will be held,” “Since 9/11, many airlines have declared bankruptcy,” “The 9/11 Commission report is a top seller at amazon.com and has gone into second printing.” (By the way, the full name of the 9/11 Commission is the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.) You can also use “September 11, 2001,” or just “September 11th” (CMS 6.115, 8.81)
See CMS 7.90. •Atlantic 10 Conference, A-10 Conference •The Campaign for Amherst – this is the official title, and the chancellor wants “The” capped: “Moved by the chancellor’s speech, she contributed twenty dollars to The Campaign for Amherst” •campus, campuses (plural), campus’s (possessive) •Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the commonwealth •dot-com (n, adj, Web 11th): “She started her company as a dot-com” •DVD, DVDs •first-rate (closed adj, open adv): first-rate institution, “our faculty are first rate” •Gateway •home page (Web 11th) •home run, home plate •left fielder, right fielder •log in (v), log-in (n) (Web 11th) •matchup •off-campus (adj), off campus (adv), “off-campus housing,” “housing off campus” •off-line (hyphenated as adj and adv; Web 11th): “he preferred old-fashioned, off-line shopping, in real stores with real people” and “she worked off line” •online (closed as adj and adv; Web 11th): “he was addicted to online shopping” and “you can register for class online” •President Bush; George Bush, the president of the United States seasons: fall, winter, spring, summer, fall semester – “he took five classes in fall semester” and “starting fall semester 2005, we will offer a major in artisanal breadmaking” •United States (spell out as noun), U.S. (adj), possessive: “The United States’ penchant for interfering in oil-rich areas of the world is well known.” •URL, URLs •World Wide Web, the Web, Web site (Web 11th) NUMBERS •1990s (no apostrophe) •Ordinal numbers: spell out first through ninth; then use “th” - full size, not as superscript. Examples: UMass Amherst is second in heirloom trees on campuses in the United States. UMass Amherst is 18th in the nation in square feet of concrete.
No punctuation, even if a sentence. See CMS 6.12, 6.15. GUIDELINES AS TO HOW WE REFER TO UMASS AMHERST UMass Amherst is one of five campuses in the University of Massachusetts system. This complicates the way we write about UMass, UMass Amherst, the University, and campus, and the like. Generally, when referring to the system we write: the University of Massachusetts system. The word University (upper case) refers to the system of all five campuses. The word university in lower case can refer in context to either the system or the campus or other institutions that are university-like in general. When we refer to this campus, we should use the word campus to avoid confusing the campus with the system because they are not the same thing. We can write: “the campus is alive with students” when we mean UMass Amherst. We can write: “the system (or the University of Massachusetts or the University) Trustees are exceptional representatives of the Commonwealth.” We can say “our campus” when we mean UMass Amherst. We can say “the University” when we mean the system. An exception involves athletics. For historical reasons, UMass is the name for our athletic program, and to confuse things further UMass is also the name the system uses to describe itself. Although we try to include Amherst in copy that uses UMass, some athletic contexts use the UMass tag alone to refer to our sports teams and program. Sports tags are traditionally short, and so UMass, as in Go UMass!, will likely survive intact in these contexts. In summary, then, the system is described using the word University and when referring to our campus we should use the following language: the University of Massachusetts Amherst, UMass Amherst, or the campus in communications and publications. We can use university, in lowercase, when we are talking about UMass Amherst in general contexts, however, we should never use University, upper case for this campus, because the system is legally and organizationally the University. Download 58.97 Kb. Share with your friends:
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