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Style Guide
1.9. Style Guide
Academic Degrees
- Abbreviations for academic degrees should not include periods (Exceptions: Ph.D., Pharm.D.)
- Separate multiple degrees with commas (Example: MBA, Ph.D.)
- When spelling out academic degrees, use lowercase and an apostrophe (Example: bachelor's degree)
- See Alumni and Titles (People) entries below
Academic titles - See Titles (people)
Acronyms
- On first reference, spell out full formal name of organization (or other entity), followed by the acronym in parentheses; use the acronym in subsequent references (Exceptions include acronyms such as FBI, DNA, CIA, where the acronym is better known than the full title and can be used at first reference without spelling it out); avoid using acronyms where possible, especially if there are three or fewer references to the organization in the article.
Example: The School of Business has joined the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV).
- Plural forms of acronyms do not require an apostrophe (Example: Ph.D.s, NGOs)
Ages
- Always use figures. Ages expressed as adjectives before a noun or as substitutes for a noun use hyphens. (Examples: A 5-year-old-boy. The boy is 5 years old. The boy, 7, has a sister, 10.)
Alumni - Also see Students entry
- Alumni is a Latin noun, so the ending changes according to gender and singular/plural: alumnus (singular, male); alumna (singular, female); alumni (plural, male or both genders); alumnae (plural, female). When in doubt, use the abbreviation "alum" or "alums."
- When a UConn alum is mentioned in a story, on first reference his/her name should be followed by:
- The alum's year of graduation from UConn; a closing apostrophe (') should precede the graduation year (e.g., '98)
- His/her School or College (and graduate/professional degree, if applicable). Indicate an undergraduate degree in parentheses as a School/College acronym and a graduate/professional degree as an abbreviation of the degree, without parentheses. If more than one degree, place a comma between each degree.
Examples:
Peter LaPorta '86 (CLAS) released his second book.
Kelly Hennigan '97 (CLAS), '98 MS is a financial analyst.
Karen Myrick '89 (NUR), '99 MS, '10 DNP teaches in the doctoral program.
Kevin Clarke '04 MD arrived in Malawi.
- Acronyms for Schools/Colleges that award undergraduate degrees should appear as follows:
College of Agricultural and National Resources – CANR
School of Engineering – ENG
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences – CLAS
School of Fine Arts – SFA
Neag School of Education – ED
School of Nursing – NUR
Ratcliffe Hicks School of Agriculture – RHSA
School of Pharmacy – PHR
School of Business – BUS
School of Social Work - SSW
Other/Former Schools and Colleges:
Center for Continuing Studies – BGS
School of Allied Health – SAH
School of Family Studies – SFS
- Abbreviations for graduate and professional degrees should appear as follows:
Master of Arts – MA
Master of Science in Physical Therapy – MSPT
Master of Science – MS
Doctor of Dental Medicine – DMD
Master of Dental Science – MDS
Doctor of Medicine – MD
Master of Business Administration – MBA
Doctor of Musical Arts – DMA
Doctor of Nursing Practice – DNP
Master of Fine Arts – MFA
Doctor of Pharmacy – Pharm.D.
Master of Music – MM
Doctor of Philosophy – Ph.D.
Master of Public Affairs – MPA
Doctor of Physical Therapy – DPT
Master of Public Health – MPH
Juris Doctor – JD
Master of Social Work – MSW
Sixth-Year Certificate – 6th Year
NOTE: Do not use periods in abbreviations for degrees that are all caps (MD, MSW); only use periods where there's a mix of caps and lower case (Ph.D., Pharm.D.)
Board of Directors
- “board of directors” (or trustees) should be lower case unless used in formal title – e.g. the UConn Board of Trustees; Larry is on the board of trustees of UConn.
Campus
- Do not capitalize (Example: "UConn's Greater Hartford campus")
Caps
- Avoid all caps where possible; use upper and lowercase instead: "Big East," "UConn 2000."
Captions
- "From left" or "left"; no parentheses, and don't abbreviate "l to r" (Example: "From left, President Philip Austin, President Susan Herbst, Gov. Dannel Malloy" or "President Philip Austin, left, and Gov. Dannel Malloy.")
Centers and Institutes
- For the formal names of the University's and Health Center's recognized centers and institutes, refer to the following webpages for the most current lists:
- When a shortened form of a UConn center/institute is used on second reference, capitalize the word "Center" or "Institute"
Example: The Center on Aging provides elders with healthy aging advice related to nutrition and disease prevention. The Center also conducts a diverse range of clinical, laboratory, and community-based research efforts.
City/State
- Following AP style for city/state abbreviations, only abbreviate names with more than five letters and only if the state accompanies a city. Never abbreviate Alaska or Hawaii. Include a comma after the state unless the state appears at the end of the sentence. (Examples: "She lives in Boca Raton, Fla." and "Fans cheer on the Husky football team during a win over Baylor in Waco, Texas, in September.")
The abbreviations are:
Ala., Ariz., Ark., Calif., Colo., Conn., D.C., Del., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Kan., Ky., La., Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mo., Mont., Neb., Nev., N.H., N.J., N.M., N.Y., N.C., N.D., Okla., Ore., Pa., R.I., S.C., S.D., Tenn., Vt., Va., Wash., W. Va., Wis., Wyo.
Co-
- Hyphenate (Examples: co-author, co-host)
Company Names
- Do not use a comma before Inc. or Ltd., even if it is included in the formal name. (per AP style)
Dates
- Dates are always used with Arabic numbers, not st, th, or nth. (Example: It's June 24, not June 24th.)
- Abbreviate January, February, August, September, October, November, and December only when used with a specific date, but spell out otherwise. Never abbreviate days of the week. (Example: It's Sept. 24, 1996, but it's September 1996.)
The abbreviations for months are as follows:
January – Jan.
February – Feb.
March – March
April – April
May – May
June – June
July – July
August – Aug.
September – Sept.
October – Oct.
November – Nov.
December – Dec.
Degrees and Majors
- For the most current list of UConn's academic degrees, majors, and minors, please refer to the following resources, which are posted online around the start of each academic year:
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Speaking generically, you would write master’s degree or bachelor’s degree – e.g. Jack has finally earned his master’s degree.
-
Speaking of a specific degree, you would capitalize Master (or Bachelor) – e.g. He holds a Master of Fine Arts from UConn.
Departments - See Schools/Colleges
Doctorate
- Refer to a Ph.D. as a "doctorate" (noun) or a "doctoral" (adj.) degree; do not use Ph.D. in apposition to a name, as in "Mary Smith, Ph.D., is a professor of genetics."
Emeritus
- Emeritus is a Latin adjective, so the ending changes according to gender and singular/plural: emeritus (singular, male); emerita (singular, female); emeriti (plural, male or both genders); emeritae (plural, female).
Fiscal Year
- Capitalize "Fiscal Year" only when associated with a specific year; also, do not use periods in the abbreviation (Examples: "Fiscal Year 2012," "FY 2012," and "this fiscal year")
Fractions
- Spell out amounts less than 1 in stories, using hyphens between the words: two-thirds, four-fifths, etc. Use figures for precise amounts larger than 1, converting to decimals whenever practical: 1.25 pieces.
Headlines
- Capitalize the first letter of all words in headlines, with the exception of prepositions, articles, and conjunctions that are less than four letters long, such as for, but, and, or, nor, a, an, to, and the. Always capitalize the first and last word in the headline, regardless of word length.
Examples:
Improving Security for Information Transmitted Online
Sounds of Music Rise in Phoenix Museum
The Joy of Artistic Expression
- Use smart single quotes in headlines (Example: 'Arms Race' Targets MRSA)
Numbers
- Generally, spell out one through nine; use numerals for the rest. Spell out numbers at the beginning of a sentence. (Examples: "He wrote five books." or "She sold 15 manuscripts this year." or "Twenty-five students attended the dinner.")
- Exceptions to these rules include the following, in which numerals should always be used:
Ages
Scores
Days of the month
Serial numbers
Degrees of temperature
Speeds
Dimensions
Sums of money
House numerals
Time of day
K-12 grades
Time of races
Percentages
Votes
Proportions
Years
- Also see Dates entry above
Percentages
- Use figures and spell out "percent" in running copy: 1 percent, 2.5 percent (use decimals, not fractions). For amounts less than 1 percent, precede the decimal with a zero (Example: "The cost of living rose 0.6 percent.")
- Repeat the unit when there's a range (Examples: "between 20 percent and 30 percent," "from 5 percent to 10 percent")
Phone Numbers
- Use hyphens (Example: 860-486-3530)
Photos
- Include photo credits for photographs obtained from external sources.
- Also see "Students" and "Alumni" entries regarding how to identify current UConn students and alumni.
Possessives
- For possessives of nouns and proper names ending in "s": Use an apostrophe only after the "s," rather than an apostrophe followed by an additional "s"; (Examples: "the Storrs campus' buildings"; "Professor Jones' book"; "Brookings' Global Economy and Development program")
Punctuation
- Use serial comma in lists
- Use comma with the word "too" to indicate a pause (Example: Competing eats up more than time – it can be pricey, too.)
- One space after periods
- One space on either end of em dashes
- One space on either end of ellipses (Example: "We have fewer than 20 students ... these are important numbers for future students.")
- No space around hyphens in dates (Example: May 15-26, 2011)
- Initials: Use periods, but no space, when an individual or organization uses initials instead of a full name (Example: "the A.J. Pappanikou Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities")
- Brackets: Use [ ] for material added to quotes. Example: "She said Coach [Geno Auriemma] was responsible for her success."
- Semicolons:
- The semicolon (;) most often bridges two short independent clauses that are related (Example: "My 30th birthday is Tuesday; my friend is taking me out to celebrate on Saturday night.")
- Semicolons are also used to break up a complex series, when at least one element within the series requires commas. (Example: "I spent my morning vacuuming the bedrooms, living room, and dining room; shopping for okra, persimmons, cream of tartar, and aged Stilton; and picking up Laverne, Fiona, and Aloysius from preschool.")
- Question marks: The question mark usually goes outside of quotation marks unless the quoted matter is all or part of the question.
Examples:
Did you say "thank you"?
He actually had the nerve to ask, "Is that horrible stench coming from you?"
- The same rule applies to titles.
Examples:
I thought Woody Allen's "What's Up, Tiger Lily?" was hilarious.
Have you ever seen the movie "Where's Poppa?"?
- Quotation marks: Single quotes for a quote within a quote; single quotes for a quote within a headline or caption.
Quotations
- One attribution per paragraph; separate adjacent quotations by different speakers with an attribution so it is clear that the second quotation is by a different person.
Regional Campuses
- Refer to regional campuses by their location (Example: "at the Stamford campus" not "at the regional campus located in Stamford")
Registered Trademark
- Don't use the symbol; do capitalize the name (Examples: Kleenex; AstroTurf)
School/College
- Capitalize "School" and "College" when referring to one of UConn's 14 academic Schools/Colleges (Example: "...says David Woods, dean of the School of Fine Arts.")
- When a shortened form of a UConn School/College is used on second reference, capitalize the word "School" or "College"
Example: Philanthropists Raymond and Beverly Sackler have made a $100,000 gift to augment the music composition prize bearing their name in the School of Fine Arts. The Raymond and Beverly Sackler Music Composition Fund has brought international acclaim to the School.
Department, Division, School, and College references:
- For departments, divisions, schools, and colleges within UConn, use uppercase when referring to the formal name (Examples: "the School of Law," "the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology," "the Division of Athletics")
- Use lowercase in other instances, except for words that are proper nouns or adjectives (Examples: "the English department," "UConn's linguistics department")
School name references
- On first reference, give the complete name (Clairton High School) and on second reference, the town or area name (Clairton) instead of initials. Because you may be writing about a number of different schools, initials can become confusing.
Spelling/Style
- advisor
- African-American – Per AP, hyphenate as a noun and adjective (Example: "There are two African-Americans on the faculty." "Two African-American faculty members work in that department.")
- Bioscience Connecticut
- board (of directors, trustees, etc.) – When using the full formal name of a specific board, use uppercase (Examples: "the UConn Alumni Association's Board of Directors"; "the Dallas Children's Theater Board of Directors"; "She also serves as member of the Franklin Pierce Law Center Board of Trustees."); otherwise, use lowercase (Example: "He accepted a position on the board of directors for AdEx Inc.")
- commencement (lowercase)
- email
- en route (two words, per AP style)
- firsthand
- freelance
- fundraise, fundraising
- halftime
- health care – Spell as two words (Example: "... can elevate the quality of health care" or "... to improve health care delivery") except when it is listed as one word in the name of a company or publication (Example: "The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is located in Maryland." or "He is publisher of Hearing Healthcare News.")
- nonprofit (although preferred phrase is "nonprofit," hyphenate any instances of "not-for-profit")
- postdoctoral
- roundup (no hyphen, per AP)
- startup (noun and adjective)
- theater - Spell with an "er" in generic references to a theater; for proper names of specific theaters, follow the spelling for the official name of the theater (Exceptions to "theater" spelling for on-campus venues: Student Union Theatre; Nafe Katter Theatre; Connecticut Repertory Theatre; Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre)
- UCONN Magazine – All caps for "UCONN"; all italics for magazine title; "magazine" is capitalized
- U.S. – Follow AP style, which accepts the abbreviation as a noun or adjective for "United States."
- Washington, D.C.
- website, but "the Web," "Web-based," and "the Internet"
- For other questions regarding spelling, refer to the most recent version of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary (currently in its 11th edition, available online at www.M-W.com)
States
- The AP Style state abbreviations are as follows:
Ala., Ariz., Ark., Calif., Colo., Conn., D.C., Del., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Kan., Ky., La., Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mo., Mont., Neb., Nev., N.H., N.J., N.M., N.Y., N.C., N.D., Okla., Ore., Pa., R.I., S.C., S.D., Tenn., Vt., Va., Wash., W. Va., Wis., Wyo.
- Do not abbreviate Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas, or Utah.
Students
- When a current UConn undergraduate student is mentioned in a story, on first reference specify the student's anticipated year of graduation (e.g., '14), followed by the acronym for his/her School or College, in parentheses (See Alumni entry for style). If possible, specify the student's major(s) as well. Example: "John Smith '14 (CLAS) is a psychology major who ..."
- When a current UConn graduate/doctoral student is mentioned in a story, if possible specify the type of degree and the student's field of study. Year of graduation is typically omitted for graduate/doctoral students, unless they are in their final semester and know they will graduate.
Examples: "Sue Smith, who is pursuing a master's degree in history..."; "... says John Ngunjiri, now a Ph.D. candidate in molecular and cell biology in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences ..."
Superscript
- Don't use superscript with numerals (Example: 9th grade)
Times
- Use the word "to" in copy, not a hyphen: "from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.;" only use an en dash in abbreviated copy, such as a calendar item or an invitation: "11 a.m.-2 p.m."
- Use "noon" and "midnight," not 12 p.m. or 12 a.m.
- 9 a.m. (not 9:00 a.m.)
Titles
- Titles (books, films, TV shows, lectures):The general guidelines, followed by some examples:
- Italicize titles of books, journals, and magazines
- Use quotation marks around titles of TV shows, films, song and album titles, etc. (Examples: the NBC-TV "Today" program; a performance in the Broadway debut of "South Pacific");
- Use quotation marks around titles of journal articles and unpublished dissertations
- Capitalize the principal words, including prepositions and conjunctions of four or more letters (Example: "Gone With the Wind")
- Capitalize an article – the, a, an – or words fewer than four letters only if it is the first or last word in a title (Example: "The Star-Spangled Banner")
- Use "titled" or "called" rather than "entitled." (Examples: "A presentation titled 'Alliteration in Chaucer's manuscripts,'" or "a book called Moo.")
-
- Titles (people):
- Capitalize and spell out academic and formal titles preceding a name but lowercase when they follow a name; also on first reference, indicate the School or College with which any UConn professors are affiliated
- Examples: "Professor John Smith in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences"; "Jane Smith, professor of accounting in the School of Business"; "U.S. Rep. John Larson"; "Paul Adams, senior vice president of Pratt & Whitney Engineering"
- Exceptions:
- Capitalize the title of an endowed chair (Example: "Joe Smith, the Pratt & Whitney Chair of Engineering")
- Capitalize the title of professors with the Board of Trustees Distinguished Professors designation (Example: "Joseph Renzulli, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of educational psychology")
- PER SUSAN HERBST: Capitalize "president" in reference to Susan Herbst in all cases (Examples: "President Susan Herbst"; "Herbst is UConn's 15th President")
- Capitalize a title preceding a name only if it is used as a form of address (Examples: "Professor John Smith"; "accounting professor Jane Smith"; "assistant professor of management Joe Brown")
- On subsequent references, use the person's last name only, unless included as part of a quotation
- Courtesy titles:
- Do not use "Mr.," "Mrs.," or other courtesy titles, unless included as part of a quotation
- Exception: Use "Dr." only for physicians and dentists, on first reference only; do not add "MD" or "DMD" after the name (If the physician or dentist is a UConn alum, follow the style outlined in the "Alumni" entry; see Page 2).
- Titles (UConn courses): Capitalize the main words in the name of the course and do not use quotation marks. (Example: Introduction to LGBT Literature)
University
- Capitalize names of all universities (Examples: University of Connecticut, Tulane University, University of Cincinnati); but lowercase universities when several are grouped together: (Example: the universities of Connecticut, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsyvlania)
- Capitalize "University" by itself when referring to the University of Connecticut (Example: "Pratt & Whitney will work with UConn on fundamental and applied research initiatives. The University's primary focus will be research in..."); also capitalize University for UConn when it is used as an adjective: (Example: the University community; University-wide)
- Lowercase "university" when referring to universities in general (Example: "UConn has created one of the best human rights teaching and research programs at a public university anywhere in the world ...")
URLs
- All lowercase for words in URLs (Example: uconnmagazine.uconn.edu); exceptions to this rule are: UConnAlumni.com and UConnHuskies.com
- Begin root URLs with "www"; otherwise, omit the "www" unless the URL requires the "www" to function (Examples: law.uconn.edu; hartford.uconn.edu; reslife.uconn.edu; www.uconn.edu; www.foundation.uconn.edu)
Other
- No comma before "Jr." and "Sr."
- No comma before "Inc."
- Use "says" not "said" in running copy; use past tense "said" when it's tied to a particular time or event (Example: "At a press conference at the Capitol, the Governor said the budget was dire."
- Italicize references to bacteria, genus names, and species names (Examples: "His research focuses on Trypanosoma brucei, the parasite carried by the tsetse fly in sub-Saharan Africa that causes sleeping sickness."); species names should be lowercase