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The Office of Marketing and Communications uses the Associated Press Stylebook as its chief reference on questions of editorial style, with certain exceptions. The following guide is a brief look at acceptable style rules to be used when writing Johnson School documents. While not comprehensive, it suggests ways to express many of the terms we commonly use.
- University is not capitalized unless part of the formal name, Cornell University.
- CU is the correct abbreviation for CornellUniversity.
- On second reference, refer to Cornell University as CU, Cornell, or the university.
- Capitalize the names of colleges and schools.
- Don't abbreviate the names of colleges and schools in running text.
- The second reference to a college or school is the college or the school, not the field of study:
A survey of the School of Management faculty reveals that teachers in the school [not management] favor the proposal.
- Capitalize office, department, division, program, institute, center, etc. in official titles:
the Office of the Dean
the Admissions and Financial Aid Office
the Career Management Center
- Otherwise, lowercase office, department, division, program, institute, center, etc.:
the dean's office
the alumni relations office
the program
Other Colleges and Universities
- Use the full name of the college or university in a first reference:
University of Pennsylvania
Notre Dame College
- On second reference, use the short name of the college or university; or use an anagram abbreviation if one exists:
RIT
Harvard
- Lowercase college and university when they are used in the plural:
Cornell and Princeton universities
- When referring to the state system, use the State University of New York on first reference and SUNY in second references.
- When referring to individual campuses, follow these examples for first and second references:
the State University of New York at Oswego
SUNY OswegoException: The second reference to SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry is simply ESF.
- When an address includes a name or a title, follow these models:
Dean Robert J. Swieringa
Johnson School at Cornell
Cornell University
207 Sage Hall
Ithaca, New York 14853-6201Office of the Dean
Johnson School
Cornell University
229 Sage Hall
Ithaca, New York 14853-6201
- When an address doesn't include a person's name or a title, follow this model:
Marketing Department
Johnson School at Cornell
230 Sage Hall
Ithaca, New York 14853-6201
- When addresses are given in running text, list elements in the same order as indicated above, separating them with commas:
For information on the next conference, write to the Office of the Dean, Johnson School, 207 Sage Hall, Ithaca, New York 14853-6201, 607 255-6418.
- Note that telephone numbers, including area code, are written with one hyphen and no parentheses.
- Follow these examples for room-number designations:
121 Sage Hall
B01 Classroom Level
- Omit college, hall, building, etc. if the name of the building is known.
- Capitalize academic titles when they immediately precede personal names:
Vice President Thomas Bruce
Professor Lee
Dean Swieringa
Director Ash
- Lowercase titles when they are used as occupational identifiers:
vice president for Human Resources, Mary G. Opperman
Mary G. Opperman, vice president for Human Resources
J. Robert Cooke, dean of the faculty
Angela Noble, director of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion
professor of accounting Mark Nelson
- Capitalize the titles of named professorships and fellowships:
Don and Margi Berens Professor of Entrepreneurship
- Henrietta Johnson Louis Professor of Management
- Capitalize the names and abbreviations of academic degrees, whether they follow personal names or stand by themselves:
Jonathan R. Macey, Doctor of Law
His MBA is from the Johnson School.
She recently received her PhD.
- Do not capitalize doctorate, doctor's, bachelor's, master's, master of science, etc.
- In text, refer to persons as doctor rather than M.D., and professor, rather than PhD (unless, of course, the person is not a professor)
- In formal listings of faculty members, such as course catalogs, always indicate rank:
Maureen O'Hara, professor of management
Sanjeev Bhojraj, assistant professor of accounting
XXXXX XXXX, adjunct professor of XXX
- The following list illustrates ways in which university titles and offices are referred to in running text:
Dean Robert J. Swieringa, dean of the Johnson School; Dean Swieringa; Dean and Mrs. Swieringa; the dean Cathy S. Dove, associate dean; associate dean DoveAngela Noble, director, Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI); Director Noble; the directorCharles M.C. Lee, director, Parker Center for Investment Research; professor, accounting and finance; Professor Lee; the director; the professor
- Designate all alumni who appear in alumni publications. Elsewhere, use alumni designations only when they are relevant.
- Use the right word for gender. Alumna is the feminine singular form. Alumnae is feminine plural. Alumnus is the masculine (or nongender) singular). Alumni is masculine or mixed-gender plural:
Joan is an alumna of
Joan and Linda are alumnae of
Henry is an alumnus of
Every alumnus will attend Homecoming.
Henry and George are alumni of
Joan, Linda, Henry, and George are alumni.
- In running text, use the following forms for class-year contractions:
John Skeeter, a 1927 Johnson School graduate
1927 graduate John Skeeter
- When alumni status is obvious from the context, use class-year contractions, set off by commas:
John Skeeter, MBA '27,
- Designate Cornell undergraduate degree with year only; designate graduate degree with contraction and year:
John Skeeter '75, MBA '80,
John Skeeter '75, MBA '80, PhD '84
- Use alum or alums only in direct quotations.
- References to semesters should be lowercased:
the spring 1992 semester
- Capitalize the names of courses:
He gives the introductory course, English Literature 101.
He studied English literature.
- The term credit hours is redundant; use credits.The abbreviation for grade point average is GPA.
- For grade point averages, use figures to at least one decimal point: 3.0, 2.75
- Don't italicize letter grades or place them within quotation marks:
Frank received one A and five Bs.
- Capitalize the names of recurring Johnson School events when they are used in a specific sense:
This year's Homecoming was unforgettable.
- Lowercase the names of university events when they are used in a general sense:
He attended countless reunions, strawberry festivals, and parents weekends.
- When specifying the year in which an event took place, use the contraction for the year: Reunion '87
- Lowercase names of seasons, including references to semesters.
We are beginning the fall semester.
He will graduate in the spring.
Note: Grammatical rules regarding capitalization are often bent for the sake of visual appeal, especially in headings or display type.
- Abbreviate Eastern Daylight Time as EDT, without periods.
- Use the ampersand (&) only in corporate titles or if space demands it in course abbreviations.
- When it is necessary to use them, abbreviate complimentary titles, such as Mr., Mrs., and Dr., but, as a rule, do not use them, and do not use them in combination with any other title or with abbreviations indicating scholastic or academic degrees.
- Paul Huston, PhD, not Dr. Paul Huston, PhD
Carol Green, M.D., or Roger White, D.V.M.,
not Dr. Carol Green, M.D., or Mr. Roger White, D.V.M.
- Abbreviate the degrees Bachelor of Science and Master of Science, Master of Arts, Doctor of Philosophy, Bachelor of Fine Arts, Bachelor of General Studies, Associate in Science to BS, MS, MA, PhD, BFA, BGS, AS. All degree abbreviations should be without periods.
- When it is necessary to use a subject-matter designation and course number to identify a specific course, e.g., ENGL 101 Composition, use the official course code.
- When names of universities, government agencies, or other organizations are abbreviated as acronyms (first letter of each word), use full caps with no periods: USC (not U.S.C.), ROTC, MIT.
- Use a.m. and p.m. with periods and lowercase letters. In tabular matter, the periods may be omitted to save space.
- Use U.S. in text only as an adjective. Spell out United States as a noun, e.g., the U.S. Senate, but a resident of the United States.
- Do not abbreviate:
- Names of countries, other than USA.
- Given names, such as George, William, and Charles.
- Use traditional state abbreviations (e.g., Boston, Mass.) in conjunction with the name of a city or town in text, except Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas, and Utah. Use the two-letter postal abbreviation with a zip code only in addresses (e.g., Boston, MA). Do not use the postal abbreviation in running text.
- The words association, avenue, boulevard, department, institute, street, etc.
- Christmas in the form of Xmas.
- Barbecue in the form of BBQ
- The name of an organization the first time it is used; spell out and put the acronym in parentheses. If the term appears only once, do not add the acronym.
University of South Carolina School of Medicine (USCSM); thereafter, USCSM.
- The word percent: In general spell out the word percent, but in scientific, technical, or statistical copy use the symbol %.
Of this year's student enrollment, 52 percent are men and 48 percent are women.
Pittsburgh and Jersey City each lost 0.2% of their 1960 population.
The greatest percentage growth was experienced by Las Vegas—115.2%.
- Parts of geographic names, except Saint in St. Louis, St. Paul, etc., unless they are used in tabular matter.
Fort Wayne, North Dakota
- Assistant and associate and professor when used in a title.
assistant professor of bacteriology
- Names of buildings in running text.
Room 109 Russell House, not 109 RH
Note: Abbreviations may be used more freely in tabular matter.
- Use a comma before the words and and or in a series.
The Carolina Band, University Chorus, and South Carolina String Quartet will perform on Tuesday.
- Place a comma after the digits signifying thousands, except when reference is made to temperature or to SAT scores.
1,150 students, but 1100 degrees, and an SAT score of 1143
- Follow a statement that introduces a direct quotation of one or more paragraphs with a colon. Also use a colon after as follows.
- Introductory words such as to wit,namely, i.e., e.g., and viz should be immediately preceded by a comma or semicolon and followed by a comma.
- When listing names with cities or states, punctuate as follows:
George Andrews is a Camden, South Carolina, native.
Carol Green, Columbia, is vice president.
- When writing a date, place a comma between the day and the year as well as after the year.
July 4, 1980, dawned clear.
Tuesday, July 6, was rainy.
- Do not place a comma between the month and year when the day is not mentioned.
June 1980
- Do not precede I, II, III, Jr., or Sr. with a comma.
Please call Mr. William Case Jr. for the report.
Contact Don James III for further information.
- If you have a phrase in parentheses at the end of a sentence, place the period after the closing parenthesis. If a complete sentence is in parentheses, the period should be inside the closing parenthesis.
- No word space should be used between the initials of an abbreviation or a person's name.
U.S., J.B. White, Charles M.C. Lee
- Use only an apostrophe when making possessive a singular proper name ending in s.
Achilles' heel
Palms' speech
Dickens' novel
- In making the plural of figures and multiple letters, do not use an apostrophe.
The 1980s are here.
The three Rs
Two MBAs
- In making the plural of single letters, do use an apostrophe.
- Mind your p's and q's.
- Punctuate years of college classes with an apostrophe (single closing quote). Use Ctrl + ' to create character on a PC.
Class of '76
John White '19
- Bachelor's and master's degrees should always be written with an 's. Never write masters' degree.
- Use primes (keyboard apostrophe and quotes) to designate inches and feet.
12", 12'
- Use the nonhyphenated spelling of a word if either spelling is acceptable.
startup
- Do not hyphenate the words vice president and words beginning with non, except those containing a proper noun.
non-German
nontechnical
- Do not place a hyphen between the prefixes pre, post, semi, anti, multi, etc., and their nouns or adjectives, except before proper nouns or when two vowels with no hyphen separating them would be unclear.
predentistry
electro-optical, but preindustrial
pro-American
- Do not place a hyphen between the prefix sub and the word to which it is attached.
subtotal
- Hyphenate the word X-ray and use a capital X.
- Hyphenate part-time and full-time when used as adjectives. Hyphenate any modifying word combined with well, ill, better, best, little, lesser, when preceding a noun. Do not hyphenate adverbs ending in -ly; do not hyphenate when the expression carries a modifier.
well-built engine
a moderately well built engine
The engine is well built.
- Hyphenate a compound in which one component is a number and the other is a noun or adjective.
30-mile run
10-year-old child, but 10 years old
12,000-square-foot building
- Use your dictionary to determine whether to hyphenate frequently used compound words such as leading-edge. Note that hyphenated words can be created for the sake of clarity. As a rule of thumb, hyphenate x-y z when x modifies y but not z:
fixed-income securities
fixed reference point
- Whenever possible, avoid the hyphenation of proper names when breaking text lines.
- Use an en dash with no extra space before or after
a) to indicate continuing (or inclusive) numbers, dates, times, or references numbers.
1968-82 but from 1968 to 1982 (never from 1968-72)
May-June 1967 from May to June 1967
10 a.m.-5 p.m. between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.
pp. 38-45 from pages 38 to 45
b) in a compound adjective one element of which consists of two words or of a hyphenated word. New York-London flight
post-Civil War period
quasi-public-quasi-private judicial body
- Use an em dash with no extra space before or after
a) to denote a sudden break in thought that causes an abrupt change in sentence structure.
Consistency—that hobgoblin of little minds.
b) in defining or enumerating complementary elements. The influence of three musicians—Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven—was of great importance to his development as a musician.
c) in sentences having several elements as referents of a pronoun that is the subject of a final, summarizing clause. Smith, Jones, and McCoy—all felt groggy on humid days.
- The titles of books, plays, movies, radio and television programs, long musical compositions, pamphlets, periodicals, etc., should be italicized, while titles of book series, film series, radio and television episodes, songs, essays, lectures, and parts of volumes (chapters, title of papers, etc.) should be placed in quotation marks.
- Use single quotation marks for quotations printed within other quotations.
- If several paragraphs are to be quoted, use quotation marks at the beginning of each paragraph, but at the end of the last paragraph only. No quotation marks are needed if the quote is set in smaller type and set off from the text by a space.
- Set quotation marks after periods and commas and before colons and semicolons. Exclamation points and interrogation marks that are not part of the quotation should be set outside quotation marks.
Emerson replied nervously, "There is no reason to inform the president."
He had not defined the term "categorical imperative."
A "zinc," or line engraving, will be made from the sketch.
Kego had three objections to "Filmore's Summer": It was contrived; the characters were flat; the dialogue was unrealistic.
The man cried, "They stole my new car!"
- Use editor's brackets, not parentheses, to set of editorial remarks within direct quotations.
"Johnson saw it [the war] as a personal test of wills."
- In general, treat an ellipsis as a three-letter word, constructed with three periods and a regular space on either side of the ellipsis, as shown here ( ... ).
- When the grammatical sense calls for a question mark, exclamation point, comma, or colon, the sequence is word, punctuation mark, regular space, ellipsis, e.g., "Will you come? ..."
- When material is deleted at the end of one paragraph and at the beginning of the one that follows, place an ellipsis in both locations.
- In writing a story, do not use ellipses at the beginning and end of direct quotes.
"It has become evident to me that I no longer have a strong enough political base," Nixon said.
not
". . .it has become evident to me that I no longer have a strong enough political base. . .," Nixon said.
Bullets are graphic devices that substitute for alpha-numeric designation of items in a list. In a bulleted list the graphic device obviates normal grammatical punctuation.
- In bulleted lists within text passages, the bullet is the punctuation. No other punctuation is required to separate listed items. Do not use commas or semicolons at the end of each item.
- If an item in the bulleted list is a complex sentence, then the first word should be capped and there should be a period at the end of the sentence. If the item is a nonsentence fragment, then the first word should be lowercased, with a period placed at the end of the last item in the list.
- Avoid mixing sentence and nonsentence items in a bulleted list. Use parallel construction for items.
- Figures 100 or over, including ordinals, e.g., 122nd.
- Days of the month, omitting rd, th, st, nd.
April 6, June 1
- Degrees.
longitude 67?03"06'W
21.5?F below zero
- Sums that are cumbersome to spell out, but spell out the word million.
5-3/4 million
17.9 million
- Write phone numbers without setting the area code off by hyphens, e.g., 800 555-1212 or 412 792-2075. When set in display, precede the number by phone: or fax:.
- When listing grade point averages, carry the figure after the decimal point out to the hundredths, e.g., 3.00, not 3.0.
- Use extended zip codes wherever possible.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
http://chronicle.com/
Editorial Eye—discusses wide range of editorial issues
http://www.eeicommunications.com/eye/
Elements of Style—classic guide to clear, concise, prose.
http://www.bartleby.com/141/
Virtual reference desk—links to other helpful reference works.
http://www.refdesk.com/
NetLingo—electronic terminology
http://www.netlingo.com/
Webgrammar's Place—helps with basic grammar and punctuation questions.
http://www.webgrammar.com/
Wired Style—issues concerning web style.
http://hotwired.lycos.com/hardwired/wiredstyle/aske/index.html
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