10 Style Guidelines You Should Know

These guidelines adhere to AP style as a first instances where navigation to a site requires it. reference and Webster’s dictionary as a secondary Visit us at www.ohsu.edu. Always test URLs before source. The below categories touch upon common use to be sure they are valid. questions and issues but do not represent a full list. For more information, visit apstylebook.com. & And and &

A, b, c, d, Ph.D. Use an ampersand when it is part of a company’s formal name or composition title: House & Garden, Periods are always used when abbreviating Procter & Gamble, Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway. academic degrees and certifications:B.S., F.A.A.N., The ampersand should not otherwise be used in M.S., M.D., Ph.D., R.N., D.D.S., etc. Even when place of and. an acronym/degree is long or unwieldy, the For certain circumstances OHSU units may be punctuation is still retained: P.A.-C. (AP Style makes granted approval to use their unit name along with an exception for MBA where periods are not used. the OHSU master logo. In those instances where These style guidelines do not follow that exception the name is very long an ampersand can be used to for consistency and to avoid confusion.) replace and. However, uses in text always require These guidelines do not apply when titles are spelling out and. included in databases where space is constrained. ... Making a list and getting it right Location, location, location Bulleted lists: When directing to a location: First give context as to • Include periods after bulleted items if those which part of town the visitor will need to navigate. items are clauses or long phrases, or if they Identify the campus first, followed by the parking are short phrases that complete the statement garage, building name, elevator location, floor introducing them. Do not use periods if the items number and final destination. resemble a shopping list, regardless of whether When using postal delivery: they complete the introductory statement. OHSU • Capitalize the first letter of each item in a Vein Clinic bulleted list. Mail code: L492 • Do not use semi-colons after each bulleted item. 3181 S.W. Sam Jackson Park Road Commas: Do not use an Oxford comma in a simple Portland, OR 97239-3098 series but do include it in a complex series. He When directing to a website: Use a link rather than ate peas, carrots and celery. Not peas, carrots, and giving a URL, as in Read more about deep brain celery. The meal consisted of a roasted turkey that stimulation at OHSU, with the link directing to was stuffed with feta cheese and pine nuts, baked the appropriate site. It is preferred that websites sweet potatoes with thyme, and a Brussels sprouts referenced in printed materials do not include side dish. http:// at the beginning of the URL except in those Aa Upper or lower: Headings and subheadings: Wondering where Take it case by case to use capitals in a document? The table below provides some answers. Colons: Capitalize the first word after a colon if the word starts a complete sentence: Then he This Heading Is in This heading is in made a promise: The research results will be Title Case. Capitalize sentence case. Only the available to scientists worldwide within 12 months. the principal words, first word is capitalized. including verbs, Departments are capitalized when referring prepositions and to their proper names, but not in faculty titles conjunctions of four referencing the specialty: It’s the Department letters or more. of Pediatrics but Elisha DuBois, M.D., chairman of pediatrics. Title of a document or Subhead within a website: NICU Services document, website, Professional title: Capitalize when a formal title at Doernbecher, The publication such as directly precedes a name: OHSU President Joe Economic Impact of brochure, poster or Robertson, M.D. Do not capitalize when set off from OHSU newsletter: Find a the name by punctuation: OHSU’s president, Joe provider, Infants younger Robertson, M.D., and Joe Robertson, M.D., president than six months, OHSU of OHSU. And don’t capitalize an informal title: community service ICU nurse Jane Smith. Capitalize chairman, Titles in publications, Headlines in press chairwoman as a formal title before a name: such as a brochure, releases: OHSU cures department Chairman, Henry Ford, committee poster, newsletter cancer once and for all. Chairwoman Margaret Chase Smith. or magazine titles: Do not capitalize a casual, temporary position: You and Your Baby at Doernbecher, Community meeting chairman Robert Jones. Use chairperson, Connections, OHSU At a chair or co-chair as preferred by your program Glance or department. A title with a signature on letterhead is the Lecture titles: The 24- All sentences within Hour Clock in Human body copy, regardless of exception to the above guidelines: Joe Robertson, Health, The Promise of whether they are online M.D., President. Gene Therapy or printed. Capitalize book titles and the names of newspapers and magazines. Include magazine, journal, etc. Although AP Stylebook does not stipulate lowercase and without italics unless it’s part of the within its guidelines where title or sentence case publication’s formal name: Harper’s Magazine, Time is used, the guidelines above represent the magazine, the journal Nature. See the composition examples AP provides in the layout of its printed titles section of the AP Stylebook for further and online guides. clarification. Make a date to check Do you take one or two words the time with your health care?

There’s more to know than how many days are Two words, except in the use of a formal noun, as in each month. Capitalize every month in all in Tuality Healthcare or OHSU Healthcare. uses. When a month is used with a specific date, abbreviate only Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec. Spell out months when using alone, Make your numerals count or with a year alone: The lectures will be held Spell out whole numbers below 10. The Yankees Feb. 16 and March 22 this year. finished second. He had nine months to go. When listing time of day: 11:30 a.m., 11 a.m. Use figures for 10 or above and whenever (not 11:00), 12 p.m. or noon, (never 12 noon). preceding a unit of measure or referring to ages AP Stylebook encourages noon over 12 p.m. of people, animals, events or things, and also, in all tabular matter, and in statistical and sequential Don’t carry the abbrevs. too far forms. The law is 8 years old; the 101-year-old house. Some exceptions to the below-10 rule: Ages, In general, avoid alphabet soup. Do not use weights, millions and billions (except casual uses), abbreviations or acronyms that the reader would percentages and currency: My 8-year-old daughter, not quickly recognize and do not use abbreviations who weighs 9 pounds, just inherited $3 million from or acronyms in headings and titles. her aunt. A week ago she had about 5 cents to her Do not follow the name of a program or other name. I asked her to lend me a thousand at 6 percent, formal nouns with an abbreviation or acronym in and she said she’d think about it. parentheses or set off by dashes. If an abbreviation At the start of a sentence: Forty years was a long or acronym would not be clear on second reference time to wait. Fifteen to 20 cars were involved in the without this arrangement, do not use it. Names not accident. The only exception is years: 1992 was a commonly before the public should not be reduced very good year. to acronyms solely to save a few words. Correct: The Center for Typed Words was formed to enlighten the public about printed communications. Calling all hyphens The center has many members. Phone listings: Use hyphens after area code and Incorrect: The Center for Typed Words (CTW) prefix. Do not use parentheses around area code. was formed to enlighten the public about printed For example: 503-494-8311. communications. The CTW has many members. An em dash ( — ) with a space on either side is Do not abbreviate department and specialty used to indicate an abrupt change in thought or an names. For example, use: Hematology and emphatic pause in a sentence. Medical Oncology not Hem Onc. Use Obstetrics A hyphen ( - ) is a word joiner. Use it to avoid and Gynecology not OB GYN. ambiguity or to form a single idea from two or When composing posts for social media, adhere to more words. the style guidelines with the exception of posting to twitter. Due to the character limit set by the platform, it’s acceptable to use abbreviations, use figures for numbers below 10 and use an ampersand instead of and. If your post requires Questions? Contact Brand Strategy in Marketing more than one tweet to communicate the message, and Communications at [email protected] end each tweet with 1/3, 2/3, 3/3, etc. This will show readers each tweet is a part of a longer message. HCM 21443416 10/16