Eastern Mennonite University

Editorial Style Guide

About the Style Guide

As a service to the EMU community, our department has developed this EMU Style Guide, based largely on the Associated Press Stylebook. (The AP Style book is available from the University Bookstore or online. You may also refer to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary online at www.merriamwebster.com/.)

It is not mandatory that you adhere to these guidelines; there are valid reasons for diverging from them at times. We simply present a reference to help campus communicators adopt a consistent style that is appropriate for university use, especially when writing for an external audience.

We thank the University of Colorado at Boulder, from whose style guide we have adapted some ideas. They note that: “In the final analysis, good writing ‘style’ is determined not by consistently following rules but by making appropriate rhetorical choices for a given purpose and audience.”

This guide is not intended to replace other writing style guides used for specific purposes or publications. Nor is it intended for use by students or faculty writing academic papers.

Have a question or concern that isn't addressed here? E-mail it to webdesk@emu.edu.

General Rules

Official names and proper nouns are capitalized. Common nouns and various shortened forms of official names are not capitalized.

Quick Links to Other Rules

Index:   A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Academic degrees: Do not capitalize names of degrees in narrative text. Capitals may be used in a list or headline, or when it is otherwise awkward not to capitalize. Do not use “'s” at the end of the degree: use masters degree, not master’s degree. See also “Professional titles”

Example: He received a master of arts in teaching and she earned a bachelor of arts in English. The other woman also earned a bachelors degree.

Academic year: 2000-01, not 2000-2001.

Acronyms: Multiple acronyms tend to confuse readers and clutter copy. Use acronyms only when you need to refer repeatedly to an entity that has a long title, otherwise find a way to refer to the entity using a word from its name.

With multiple acronyms, a paragraph could look as cluttered as this:

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) and Church World Service (CWS) helped Afghani employees of UNICEF come to Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) to receive training in courses at the Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI) and in Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR)

For repeated references, spell out the full name of a department or program the first time it is used, followed by the acronym in parenthesis. Refer to the acronym throughout the rest of the document.

Example: The Adult Degree Completion Program (ADCP) is growing by leaps and bounds. Students in ADCP often have a wonderful experience. [This assumes you will continue referring to ADCP in the text. If not - if you will only refer to the program once or twice in the text or if there are other acronyms in the text - omit “ADCP” and simply say, “Students in the program often have a wonderful experience.”].

On the web: Spell out the full name in the first reference on each page, even if it has been spelled out on a previous link.

Addresses:

Name
Street address
City (no comma) State abbreviation (two letter, see States) Postal Code

Example:
EMU
1200 Park Rd.
Harrisonburg VA 22802-2462

Ampersand: Avoid the use of "&" in sentences and program names, unless essential, as in a tight-fitting headline. This includes program/departmental names, such as "Conferences & Events" [Should be "Conferences and events." See Capitalization entry below.]

Athletics: Not the athletic office (an office cannot be athletic).

Bold: If you have to emphasize something, make it bold. Underscore copy in rare cases as emphasis for an important word or phrase.

Books titles: Do not capitalize, bold, italicize or put in quotation marks. Capitalize the principal words. Capitalize an article -- the, an, a -- or word of fewer than four letters if it is the first or last word in a title.

Buildings and Places: Capitalize the full official names of buildings and formally designated places on campus. Examples: Campus Center, Park Woods.

Example: The art gallery is located in Hartzler Library. I wonder if he'll go to the library after eating at the dining hall?

Capitalization: Do not capitalize title names or department names within paragraph text. In copy, there is no need to capitalize the title of anyone at the university, including the president. Only capitalize when used in stand alone copy such as business cards, web headers, job titles on personnel web pages and name badges.

Do not capitalize major/minor names except when the name is proper (English, Bible and Spanish departments) or the first letters are often used as an abbreviation (ADCP).

In general, beware of over-capitalization, which can result in a paragraph as ridiculous as this:

The Task Force welcomes a new Dean, beginning Spring Semester 2002. Everyone from the Executive Secretary to the Chair of the Department is invited to a Welcoming Reception in the President's Room, where the Assistant Professor of Nonsense will make our University proud.

Chairperson vs. chairman: We use "chair." Use gender neutral terms whenever possible.

Example: firefighter, mail carrier

Colors: EMU colors are blue (PMS 300) and white. Links on EMU website are royal blue (PMS 300). Use of other colors on the website is discouraged except where specific colors have been approved. See the web graphics standards.

Commas: Use commas to separate elements in a series, but do not put a comma before the conjunction in a simple series. Feel free to use a comma in a series of multi-word phrases or if needed for clarity.

Example: EMU is fun, pretty and friendly. BUT: EMU is fun for international graduate students, pretty when the sun is setting, and friendly to most visitors.

Another example: EMU is noted for its Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP), excellent biology and education departments, and spiritually challenging chapel services.

Committee, center, group, program and initiative names:
Unless a committee, center, group, program, or initiative is officially recognized and formally named, avoid capitalizing. An ad hoc committee's name, for example, would not typically be capitalized. Do capitalize the official, proper names of long-standing committees and groups and formally developed programs and initiatives.

The Hartzler Library’s Menno Simons Historical Library contains a wealth of intriguing materials. The collection is located on the library's third level.

The Honors Program has been a huge success.

Both faculty and students support the Environmental Sustainability Initiative.

The university's presidential search committee met in closed executive session.

Course titles:
 Upper case course titles in running text. Upper case the first word only in brochure copy. Upper case in a header.

Students should consider taking Conflict and Organizational Management.

Courses include:

  • Organizational management
  • Family and consumer science

Dates: Abbreviate month names in copy only when accompanied by an actual date. If a year follows the date, separate the year with commas.

Example: The meeting is Oct. 12, 2007, not in November.

Degrees:
 Capitalize abbreviations of degrees (see Abbreviations section) but not the spelled-out versions and not when they're referred to generically.

Lawrence Detweiler received a masters in conflict transformation from EMU.

Miller family members hold a total of five doctors, three masters, and 10 bachelors degrees.

James Miller, PhD, earned his bachelor of science degree from JMU.

Department names:
 Capitalize official department names when they are used as headline copy. Lower case department and office names in running text except in cases where capitalization is needed for clarity. References using shortened or unofficial names should be lowercase.

Faculty members from the biology, chemistry and psychology departments are meeting this afternoon.

Members of the Information Services staff are available to assist you.

Mary Miller of the music department has been promoted to associate professor.

Dashes:A dash within copy should be separated from the nearest word(s) by a space. Dashes can be indicated by two hyphens in a row or by an em-sized dash mark.

E-mail: Hyphenated; capitalize only at the beginning of a sentence.

Example: For information on admission, you can phone or e-mail: admiss@emu.edu

Exclamation points: Use only one at a time as an occasional punctuation device.

Hyphenation:Avoid ending a line with a hyphenated word, even if it means rewriting the sentence. Use hyphens to combine words that make an adjective.

Example: She works in a part-time position. He does not work part time. (In the first sentence "part-time" is an adjective; in the second it is not.)

Internet: Always capitalized.

Italics: In general, save italics for website addresses. Book, magazine, play, poem, movie, article and song titles should be in quotation marks, not italics.

Italics can also be used for emphasis, but do not combine with another graphic element such as bold or underline.

Mennonite jargon: Do not assume that your audience is Mennonite. Spell out references to common Mennonite acronyms in the first reference, followed by the acronym in parenthesis. A helpful list of Mennonite-related acronyms can be found in the Mennonite Yearbook.

Example: EMU alumni sometimes serve with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). MCC is the relief, development and service agency of Mennonites in Canada and the United States.

Months: See Dates

Names: Use initials with a name (first or middle) in the first reference to the person as often as possible. This helps to distinguish between the many current students and alumni who share last names.

Numbers: Spell out numbers one through nine at the beginning and within a sentence. Beginning with 10, use numerals, except when the numeral begins a sentence. Use numerals for all ages. All academic credit hours should be represented by numerals. Write: $2 million, not $2,000,000. For percentages, use the numeral followed by the % sign.

Example: Nine boys, ages 3 to 6, came on three buses to tour the Suter Science Center; they spent 16 hours there, earned 3 academic credit hours, and sold $1 million worth of raffle tickets to EMU students. This amounted to 10% of all tickets sold.

Online: one word, no hyphen.

Professional titles: If someone has his/her doctorate, refer to Stan Yoder, Ph.D. The only case in which we do not put periods in academic titles would be in Crossroads.

We do not use Mr./Mrs./Miss/Ms.

In general, we do not refer to people using the title "Professor" or "Assistant Professor," Although exceptions can be made to enhance clarity. In general, list the full name (including any initials; see “Names”) in the first reference and use the last name in subsequent references. Capitalize job titles only when they immediately precede the individual's name or when they are named positions or honorary titles (last example).

It's common knowledge that President Loren Swartzendruber loves to golf.

The president, Loren Swartzendruber, is in his second term at EMU.

The president of EMU travels frequently.

Have you taken a course from Professor Byler?

See more under Capitalization.

Question marks: Is one enough? (The answer is "yes!")

Quotation marks: Always put the period inside the closing quotation marks, even if the quote is not part of the sentence.

Example: The professor said, "I told you I am a brilliant scholar."

Do the same for single quotations: The professor said, “The students have jokingly said that I am ‘heavy with the marking pen.’”

Seasons and semesters:
 Lowercase seasons, semesters, and terms. Examples: spring semester, fall 2008, the summer 2007 term.

Spaces between sentences: Use one space between sentences. Word processing systems manage spacing properly between sentences when you key in only one space.

States: Below, alphabetically, find (1) the standard abbreviations and (2) the postal codes. Standard abbreviations are what you find in newspapers and magazines. This is what the communications department uses in news releases and in Crossroads. In addresses always use the two-letter abbreviation, both upper case (no comma between city and state — see Addresses).

Postal codes should be used only in addresses — at the top of a business letter, on an envelope, and so on. In the body of a business letter, in official documents, etc., spell out all state names.

STATE IN TEXT IN ADDRESS
Alabama Ala. AL
Alaska Alaska AK
Arizona Ariz. AZ
Arkansas Ark. AR
California Calif. CA
Colorado Colo. CO
Connecticut Conn. CT
District of Columbia D.C. DC
Delaware Del. DE
Florida Fla. FL
Georgia Ga. GA
Hawaii Hawaii HI
Idaho Idaho ID
Illinois Ill. IL
Indiana Ind. IN
Iowa Iowa IA
Kansas Kan. KS
Kentucky Ky. KY
Louisiana La. LA
Maine Maine ME
Maryland Md. MD
Massachusetts Mass. MA
Michigan Mich. MI
Minnesota Minn. MN
Mississippi Miss. MS
Missouri Mo. MO
Montana Mont. MT
Nebraska Neb. NE
Nevada Nev. NV
New Hampshire N.H. NH
New Jersey N.J. NJ
New Mexico N.M. NM
New York N.Y. NY
North Carolina N.C. NC
North Dakota N.D. ND
Ohio Ohio OH
Oklahoma Okla. OK
Oregon Ore. OR
Pennsylvania Pa. PA
Rhode Island R.I. RI
South Carolina S.C. SC
South Dakota S.D. SD
Tennessee Tenn. TN
Texas Tex. TX
Utah Utah UT
Vermont Vt. VT
Virginia Va. VA
Washington Wash. WA
Washington, D.C. D.C. DC
West Virginia W.Va. WV
Wisconsin Wis. WI
Wyoming Wyo. WY

Within copy, spell out state names that stand by themselves. Within copy, use the abbreviations as listed in AP style after a city name: First letter upper case, subsequent letters lower case, followed by a period and comma (or semicolon).

Example: Development staff will travel this week to Bluffton, Ohio; Souderton, Pa.; Chesapeake, Va.; and Illinois. Next week's itinerary includes Hagertown, Md., and Hickory, N.C.

An editor may make exceptions to this rule for certain stories or uses, such as spelling out state names in copy where the audience may be heavily international and thus unfamiliar with the state abbreviations.

Students:
Do not capitalize freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, or first-year student, unless they appear at the beginning of a sentence or in a headline. First-year is the preferred adjective for students instead freshman.

Submitting articles for publication: Use Word format, make page flush left, ragged right. End each paragraph with a “return,” then double-space before next paragraph. Do not indent the first line on the next paragraph. This kind of uniform formatting makes it easier for our copyeditors and designers to do their jobs.

Example: EMU is a fun place to be. The people are funny. Chapels are challenging. And the food is out of this world. We have a great athletics program, comfortable dorm rooms and state-of-the-art library resources. We wish everyone would come to EMU. Wouldn't that be great?

But if everyone came to EMU, our dorms would be full. Then we would have to raise a lot more money and charge more tuition. That would change the atmosphere of our lovely campus.

Telephone numbers: (540) 432-4000; not 540-432-4000 or 540/432-4000

Drop the "1-" prefix from phone numbers where the area code is included, unless writing for an international audience.

Theater vs. theatre: The former is the standard U.S. spelling, the latter is the British one. EMU marketing and communications department uses "theater." Most university communications departments do this as well. Some people in the field prefer "theatre."

Time: Cut out unnecessary 0s. Use lower case a.m. and p.m. (note use of periods)

Examples:
The meeting will be at 9 a.m. (not 9:00 a.m. and definitely not 9:00 a.m. in the morning)
It's noon, not 12 noon; it's midnight, not 12 midnight.
It's 8 to 9 a.m. or 8-9 a.m. (not 8 a.m. - 9 a.m.)

Underscore/Underline: Underscore copy judiciously as emphasis on an important word or phrase. (See Bold and Italics)

Also, be aware that web page links are usually underlined in browsers, so avoid underlining text that is not a "clickable link."

United States: Use United States (spelled out) when used as a noun. Use " U.S. " as an adjective.

Example: Most EMU students are from the United States. As U.S. citizens, they often pay taxes.

University:
Use no capital unless you are spelling the full name of the university. Example: Eastern Mennonite University is the university of choice in town.

URLs: Do not include "http://" before a web site address in print, unless necessary for clarity. Furthermore, the “www” is often appropriately dropped in ad, brochure or poster copy. URLs in copy should be italicized.

Example: Find out more about EMU by taking a virtual tour at: www.emu.edu/virtualtour/

In e-mail, do not add any treatment like italics to the URL and do not remove the "http://" or any other part of the URL. Doing so would reduce the likelihood of being able to click through to the actual web site.

Web/web site: Capitalize World Wide Web. Lower case web and website (one word).

Words to avoid: The following words are often overused, especially in academic settings. Think carefully if there is a better word choice (communications department avoids these!):

  • networking
  • learnings
  • imaging
  • impacted
  • resourcing
  • prioritize
  • facilitate
  • partner
  • reference (as a verb)
  • enable

In general, avoid making nouns into verbs.

Widows : Do not leave one word stranded on its own at the beginning of a line or at the top of a column of text. Rewrite the sentence or change formatting to eliminate the stranded word. This can be difficult on the web, because different browsers and screen sizes will wrap text differently. One trick that often works is to replace the space before the last word with a non-breaking space —   in the code. (Example: word widow.)

Years: 1990s not 1990's. Use an apostrophe when shortening a reference to a decade such as the '90s.

Example: The air temperature was in the 80s throughout the '80s.

Printing a hard copy of this style guide: Due to varying browsers, printing directly from this web page may result in right-hand margins being cut off. Instead, save the document to your word processing system before printed. If you use Windows Notepad click on your edit menu and then "Select all"; then copy into Windows Notepad. If you use Microsoft Word, choose "Select all" from the edit menu and "paste special, unformatted text."

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