Editorial Standards

Abbreviations and acronyms

A few universally recognized abbreviations are required in some circumstances. Some others are acceptable depending on the context. Do not use abbreviations or acronyms a reader would not quickly recognize. Guidance on how to use a particular abbreviation or acronym is provided in entries alphabetized according to the sequence of letters in the word or phrase. Some examples:

before a name: abbreviate the following titles when used before a full name outside direct quotations: Dr., Gov., Lt. Gov., Mr., Mrs., Rep., The Rev., Sen. and certain military designations. Spell out all except Dr., Mr., Mrs. and Ms. when they are used before a name in direct quotations. For guidelines on how to use titles, see the entries for the most commonly used titles in the AP Stylebook.

after a name: abbreviate junior or senior after an individual’s name. (For clarification, see under Jr., Sr.) Abbreviate company, corporation and incorporated when used after the name of a corporate identity. In some cases, an academic degree may be abbreviated after an individual’s name. (see academic titles, credentials and certifications)

With dates or numerals: Use the abbreviations A.D., B.C., a.m., p.m., No., and abbreviate certain months when used with the day of the month. Right: In 450 B.C.; at 9:30 a.m.; in room No. 6; on Sept. 16. Wrong: Early this a.m., he asked for the No. of your room. Right: Early this morning, he asked for the number of your room.

Special cases: Abbreviations are used in tabulations and certain types of technical writing.

Academic degrees

For materials other than news releases, use Associate of Arts (first reference), A.A. (second reference); Bachelor of Arts (first reference), B.A. (second reference); Master of Science (first reference), M.S. (second reference); Doctor of Education (first reference), Ed.D. (second reference); Doctor of Philosophy (first reference), Ph.D. (second reference). No space after periods in abbreviations. The word degree should not follow a degree abbreviation: he has a B.A. in history, not he has a B.A. degree in history. Use associates, bachelor’s and master’s degrees, never associate’s, bachelors and masters degrees. When referring to degrees in general, lowercase the first letter of the degree and use the ‘s’ ending; “They all had master’s degrees in engineering.” Capitalize formal names of academic degrees: Associate of Science, Bachelor of Arts in Accounting, Doctor of Philosophy. Check the preference of AP Stylebook regarding the use of academic degrees and the prefix “Dr.”

Academic departments/offices

Capitalize the name of departments and the words department, office and school only when they appear as part of the official divisional name (Department of Anthropology, anthropology department). But for news releases, use lowercase except for words that are proper nouns or adjectives: the department of history, the history department, the department of English, the English department.

Academic titles, credentials and certifications

Capitalize and spell out formal titles such as professor, dean, president, chancellor, graduate research professor, professor emeritus and chairman when they precede a name. Lowercase elsewhere. Lowercase modifiers such as history in history Professor Jane Doe or department in department Chairman John Smith. Place longer titles after the name. Example: John Smith, executive director of the Center for the Study of Environmental Conservation, said he agrees.

Here is the preferred style for a list of staff or faculty when you want to name their degree and credentials, certifications and/or other associations:

• Name (no courtesy title even if Ph.D., because that will be listed after, and a double listing would be redundant)
• Highest degree a person has received
• Certifications following a name should be avoided if they are vague to the general public. However, if they are to be listed, they should go in order received. No periods.
• Licensing/memberships/associations should be avoided if they are vague to the general public. However, if they are to be listed, they should go in alphabetical order. No periods.

For example:

• Betsy Ross, Ph.D., CPA, AICPA
• George Washington, MBA*, CFP *MBAis an exception to this rule (no periods are necessary

Advisor

Not adviser.

Alumnus, alumni, alumna, alumnae

Use alumnus (alumni in the plural) when referring to a man who has attended a school. Use alumna (alumnae in the plural) for similar references to a woman. Use alumni when referring to groups of men and women. Never use “alum,” which is a crystalline compound containing aluminum.

Annual

An event cannot be described as annual until it has been held in at least two successive years. Do not use the term “first annual.” Instead, use “first” or “first-ever,” indicating there will be more.

Boardroom

At National Park College, the correct form is one word: boardroom.

Capitalization

In general, avoid unnecessary capitals. Use a capital letter only if you can justify it by one of the principles listed here. Many words and phrases, including special cases, are listed separately. If there is no relevant listing for a particular word or phrase, consult a dictionary

Proper nouns: Capitalize nouns that identify a specific person, place or thing: Heather, Atlanta and Africa.

Proper names: Capitalize common nouns such as party, river, street, west, when they are an integral part of the full name for a person, place or thing: Democratic Party, Potomac River, Fleet Street, West Virginia. Lowercase when they stand alone in subsequent references: the party, the river, the street. Lowercase names in all plural uses: the Democratic and Republican parties, Main and State streets.

Titles: Capitalize formal titles when used immediately before a name. Lowercase formal titles when used alone or in constructions that set them off from a name by commas. See academic titles.

Chairman, chairwoman

Chair is preferred: department chair. Never chairperson unless it is an organization’s formal title for an office.

Classes, courses

Lowercase when referring to courses and classes: I took a history class and a math class. Uppercase if referring to specific name of a class or the class uses a proper noun or numeral: I took Biology 200 and English 100.

Coach

Capitalize only when used without a qualifying term before the name of the person who directs an athletic team: Coach Jason Hudnell, head coach Jason Hudnell, the coach said.

Courtesy titles

Do not use Miss, Mrs., Mr. or Ms. before full or last names. First reference of the use of Dr. in the print media is reserved for medical doctors. Otherwise, if an individual has earned a doctorate, the name should be followed by the appropriate degree abbreviation (e.g. Ph.D. or Ed.D.) set off by commas: Jane Doe, Ph.D., announced today... Also, examples of subsequent references are as follows: first reference would be President John Hogan; second reference would be Hogan. Also see formal titles.

Dates

Spell out days of week and months without days: September 2000. Abbreviate months — except March, April, May, June, July — when used with specific dates: Sept. 1, 2000. Never use a comma between month and year when a specific day is not mentioned. Same is true for seasons: fall 1991. Comma should follow year when specific date is given: Feb. 8, 1990, was the date mentioned.

Do not use “on” with dates when its absence would not lead to confusion: the program ends Dec. 15, not the program ends on Dec. 15.

Spell out numerical designations first through ninth and use numerals with letter suffixes for 10th and above: the first semester, the 10th anniversary.

Do not use “st” or “th” with dates: submit applications by Oct. 14, not Oct. 14th. Use ‘s’ without apostrophe to indicate spans of decades or centuries: During the 1940s; the 1700s. Use an apostrophe for class years: She belonged to the Class of ’72.

Days of the week

Do not abbreviate, except when needed in a tabular format: Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat. Three letters, without periods, to facilitate tabular composition.

Dean’s list

Lowercase in all uses: He is on the dean’s list. She is a dean’s list student.

Department/office titles

Use uppercase when department is part of the official and formal name: National Park College Department of Math and Science. Otherwise, AP style calls for lowercase except for proper nouns or adjectives: the department of biology, the math department, the department of English or the Business department.

Director

Lowercase in most uses, unless it is an official title.

Ellipsis (…)

Use an ellipsis to indicate the deletion of one or more words in condensing quotes, texts and documents. Treat an ellipsis as a three-letter word. See details in the AP Stylebook.

Email

Electronic mail. Note lowercase ‘e’. While email does not include a hyphen, words like e-commerce, e-trading and e-retailing do. When writing email addresses, use all lowercase unless the address is case sensitive.

Faculty

Lowercase unless part of the name or title.

Formal titles

Capitalize professional or academic titles immediately before the name: President Tracy Fitzsimmons, Ph.D. For professional or academic titles immediately following the name, use lowercase and set them off with commas: Tracy Fitzsimmons, Ph.D., president, introduced the speaker. If the individual has more than one title, use only the one most appropriate to the context of the publication. A long list of titles can interfere with the clarity of the message.

full time, full-time

Hyphenate when used as a compound modifier: He works full time. She has a full-time job.

Graduation/commencement

A student graduates when he/she fulfills all the requirements to graduate. A student does not have to participate in a commencement ceremony in order to graduate. National Park College holds one commencement exercise each year in May.

Hyphens

Hyphens are joiners. Used to avoid ambiguity or to form a single idea from two or more words. The fewer hyphens the better; use them only when not using them causes confusion (small-business owner, but health care center).

Internet

Always lowercase.

It’s, its

It’s is a contraction for it is or it has: It’s our option. It’s been a long day. Its is the possessive form of the neuter pronoun: National Park College has earned its reputation.

Lectures

Capitalize and use quotation marks for their formal titles, as described in composition titles.

Long term, long-term

Hyphenate when used as a compound modifier: We will prevail in the long term. It is a long-term issue.

-ly

Do not use a hyphen between adverbs ending in -ly and adjectives they modify: an easily remembered rule, a badly damaged island, a fully informed student. See the compound modifiers section of the hyphen entry in the AP Stylebook.

Magazine names

Capitalize the name but do not place it in quotes. Lowercase magazine unless it is part of the publication’s formal title.

Majors, programs

Do not capitalize majors, programs, specializations or concentrations of study in news releases when they are not part of a designated degree: She received as Associate of Arts in Geology. She majored in economics. She was a history major.

Master of arts, master of science

A master’s degree is acceptable in any reference. Do not use “a master’s.”

Months

Capitalize the names of months in all uses. When a month is used with a specific date, abbreviate only Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec. Spell out when using alone or with a year alone. When a phrase lists only a month and a year, do not separate the year with commas: December 2001 was a warm month. When a phrase refers to a month, day and year, set off the year with commas: Mar. 16, 1979, was her birthday.

More than, over

Acceptable in all uses to indicate greater numerical value. Prices went up more than $20 per item. Items went up over $20 apiece.

Non –

The rules of prefixes apply, but in general, no hyphen is used when forming a compound that does not have special meaning and can be understood if not is used before the base word. Use a hyphen; however, before proper nouns or in awkward combinations: non-nuclear.

Noon, midnight

Do not use 12 a.m. or 12 p.m. in reference to either noon or midnight. Do not use “12 p.m. noon” or “12 noon.” It is simply “noon.”

Numbers

Spell out a number at the beginning of a sentence, with one exception: a numeral that identifies a calendar year: 1968 marked a turning point in the Vietnam War. Spell out whole numbers below 10. Use figures for 10 and above: They had 10 dogs and four cats. When large numbers must be spelled out, use a hyphen to connect a word ending in ‘y’ to another word; do not use commas between other separate words that are part of one number: twenty, twenty-one, one hundred forty-five.

Numerals

In general, spell out one through nine and first through ninth, use numerals for 10 and 10th and above. For more details, see the AP Stylebook.

On, about

On refers to spatial objects: He sat on the chair. Use about in non-spatial references: The professor will host a class about history.

On campus, on-campus

On-campus is a unit modifier: he lives in on-campus housing; on campus shows adverbial location: she has a job on campus.

Online

One word in all cases for the computer connection term. Do not use hyphen.

Organizations and institutions

Capitalize the full names of organizations and institutions: the American Medical Association; General Motors Corp.; Harvard University; Harvard University Medical School; the Society of Professional Journalists, Phi Theta Kappa. Use lowercase for internal elements of an organization when they have names that are widely used generic terms: the board of directors of General Motors, the board of trustees of Columbia University, the history department of Harvard University, the sports department of the Sentinel-Record. For more details, see the AP Stylebook.

Percent

Spell out, except in headlines: Two percent or 15 percent. Always use figures with percents.

Professor

Capitalize when used as a formal title only before a name. Do not capitalize a course subject, unless it is a proper noun: He studied history under Professor John Smith.

Seasons

Lowercase for fall, winter, spring and summer and all derived words such as springtime. Capitalize only when part of a formal name: Winter Olympics.

Telephone numbers

If a publication is strictly for on-campus use, omit area code for university numbers: 555-5555; if publication might or will be sent off campus, include area code in parentheses with a space between parentheses and number: (501) 555-5555.

That (conjunction)

Use the conjunction that to introduce a dependent clause if the sentence sounds or looks awkward without it. There are no hard-and-fast rules, but in general: – That usually may be omitted when a dependent clause immediately follows a form of the verb to say: The president said he had signed the bill.

Time-date-place sequence

For consistency, when giving time, date and location of an event, list as follows: The meeting begins at 4 p.m. on Thursday in Room 212. Note order: time, date, location.

Times

Use figures except for noon and midnight: 4 p.m. or 10 a.m. Use a colon to separate hours from minutes: 11 a.m., 3:30 p.m. The word “o’clock” is cumbersome: not 4:30 o’clock, which would be redundant; the colon and numbers are short for o’clock.

Also avoid redundancies such as “10 a.m. this morning.” Time listings with a.m. or p.m. are preferred, except in formal invitations and announcements. The construction 4 o’clock is acceptable, but time listings with a.m. or p.m. are preferred. Also, :00 is not necessary but :30 is.

Website

One word, lowercase w.

examples: webcast, webmaster, website

Web address

In most cases, “http://” as well as “www” may be omitted: np.edu.