MARIAN UNIVERSITY WRITERS GUIDE –UPDATED JULY 2009 acronyms academic titles Acronyms should be used to shorten Should be capitalized when preceding a phrases in order to save space or to avoid name (Interim President Mary Mollison), not awkward repetition of phrases. Acronyms otherwise. are abbreviations of the things they represent and are formed by combining the accept/except first, and sometimes other, letters of the Accept means to take in, agree to, or principle words. receive. Except means to leave out or omit. When using an acronym for the first time, accrediting organizations spell out and use the official name of the Accrediting organizations that have company or organization and follow it with accredited various Marian programs the acronym in parentheses; after, an include: acronym may be used. Capitalize acronyms • Higher Learning Commission of the and do not use periods. North Central Association of Colleges and Schools: Responsible academic degrees for accrediting the entire college. Initials may follow the recipient’s name, set • International Assembly of Collegiate off by commas, for master’s and doctoral Business Education (IACBE): degrees (John Smith, Ph.D.). Accredits the Bachelor of Business Administration, the Bachelor of The degree is properly called a bachelor’s Science and the Masters of Science degree or master’s degree, or a Bachelor of degree programs in business. Science or Master of Arts degree. • Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education: Accredits the School of In external communications, because the Nursing. public assumes doctors to by physicians, • National Council for Teacher the title Dr. should be used only for doctors Education (NCATE): Accredits the of medicine, osteopathy or podiatric Education program. medicine. If using the term Dr. to describe a • Council on Social Work Education: non-medical doctor, the person’s specialty Accredits the Social Work program. should immediately follow the person’s • Wisconsin Department of Justice name (Dr. John Smith, a chemist). In any Law Enforcement and Standards communications, the term Dr. and Ph.D. or Board: Accredits the Criminal Justice Ed.D. should not be used at the same time. Program. For example, Dr. Daniel Maloney, Ed.D. Correct use: Dr. Daniel Maloney or Daniel As of December 2001, Marian also has Maloney, Ed.D. received approvals from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and the academic divisions Wisconsin State Board of Nursing. The Marian’s seven traditional undergraduate Wisconsin State Educational Approval academic divisions are the School of Arts, Board also has approved Marian for veteran Humanities & Letters, the School of education. Business, the School of Criminal Justice, the School of Education, the School of Math affect/effect and Natural Science, the School of Nursing, Affect is a verb and means to act on. Effect and the School of Social and Behavioral is a noun and is something that is produced Science. by a cause 1 MARIAN UNIVERSITY WRITERS GUIDE –UPDATED JULY 2009 afterward board of trustees Afterward should never have an “s” at the When referencing the Marian Board of end. Trustees, capitalize in all formal references. Use lowercase when using only “trustees”. Agnesian HealthCare Like Marian, it is sponsored by the bookstore Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes. The Marian University Bookstore, called the Sabre Shop, is located in the Hornung Alumni Student Center. The term applies to a person who attended Marian for at least one year. An alumnus is buildings and rooms male, an alumna is female, alumni refers to The room number follows the building a group of males or a group of males and name: Regina 122, Administration 100, females, and alumnae refers to a group of Stayer Center 119. females. campus chronology a.m., p.m. Following are the years in which Marian When using a.m. and p.m., always keep buildings opened: lowercase and always use periods. When • 1961: Regina Hall writing for a range of time, use “to” to • 1966: Administration Building, Ben connect, rather than a dash mark. Sadoff Science Building, Cardinal Meyer Library, Dorcas Chapel. ampersand/and • 1968: Hornung Student Center, When writing, use an ampersand (&) in Naber Hall place of the word “and”, only if it is part of • 1982: Howard L. Sadoff Memorial the official name of a company or Gymnasium organization. • 1988: Marian Townhouse Village • 1994: Marian Courtyard apostrophe • 1999: Todd Wehr Alumni An “s” should not follow an apostrophe for a Center/Common Grounds word where the last letter is S. Use an Coffeehouse. apostrophe to show a contraction of two • 2001: Stayer Center for Technology terms or to show possession. & Executive Learning. • 2002: Smith Fields award • If the word “award” is an essential part of 2006: Agnes Center • the title, it should be capitalized; otherwise, 2008: Herr-Baker Field it should be lowercase. capitalization backward As a general rule, do not capitalize a term Never put an “s” at the end. unless it is a proper noun. Also, do not capitalize general references to people or believe/feel/think items that might be capitalized in specific These terms should be used accurately, situations. and not to substitute one another. For example, we feel emotion and we think or Example: Marian University is capitalized believe ideas or thoughts. because it is in its official form, yet “university” does not need to be capitalized when it is used alone. 2 MARIAN UNIVERSITY WRITERS GUIDE –UPDATED JULY 2009 Cardinal Meyer Library class years Named for Cardinal Albert Gregory Meyer, The two-digit year of anticipation (in the brother of a former Marian registrar, Sister case of current students) or actual (in the Mary Therese Meyer, CSA case of alumni) graduation should be listed Cardinal Meyer was Archbishop of after the name, with a closed single quote Milwaukee from 1953 to 1958 and and with a comma: John Smith, ’09. No Archbishop of Chicago differentiation should be made between from 1958 to 1965. traditional undergrads and MAAP undergrads, and no differentiation should be catalog made as to which undergraduate degree Not catalogue. was earned, except as appropriate in narrative. Alumni who received more than Catholic and other religious references one degree from Marian should have the and titles degrees separated by a slash: John Smith, • God: Capitalize God. ‘08/’09. o Example: Allah, the Father, the Son, Jesus Christ, the colors Son of God, the Redeemer, The official colors of Marian University are the Holy Spirit, etc., and Marian Blue PMS 293 and Marian Scarlet pronouns referring to God. PMS 221. • Life of Christ and Mary: Capitalize the names of major events in commas in a series Christ’s and Mary’s lives that do not In general, use commas to separate terms include His or her Name: The Last in a series. A comma should not be used Supper, the Crucifixion, the before a coordinating conjunction (and, but, Resurrection, the Ascension, the or) linking a series of terms, unless it is Immaculate Conception, the essential for clarity. Also, for a series of Assumption. etc compound terms, semicolons should be • Sacraments: Always capitalize. used to separate the terms. • Holy Days: Always capitalize. • Catholic religious titles: Use Fr. to Commencement abbreviate for Father, Msgr. to The term Commencement should always be abbreviate for Monsignor, and Sr. to capitalized. Marian holds its mid-year abbreviate for Sister. Spell out Commencement ceremony in December. Cardinal, Archbishop, Bishop, Commencement is celebrated in May. Brother, and Mother. committee titles o Other Religious titles: The equivalent of priests in non- The full proper name of a committee should Catholic churches is Rev. in be capitalized, except for the prepositions Protestant churches, Rabbi and articles (i.e. of, to, in, for, the, a, an). If in Judaism, and Sheik, using a modified name, or just referring to a Mullah or Imam in Islam. committee in general, it does not need to be capitalized. city of Fond du Lac, state of Wisconsin When writing about the city of Fond du Lac company names or the state of Wisconsin, it is not necessary Company names are not to be written in all to capitalize “city” or “state.” capital letters, unless the letters are pronounced individually. Also, do not use a comma before “Inc.” Use “Co.” as an abbreviation for company and “Corp.” for 3 MARIAN UNIVERSITY WRITERS GUIDE –UPDATED JULY 2009 Corporation, when it is the last word of the knowledge and values to transform official business name. the individual, our communities and the world. comparisons Service Through active service and The terms over and under should be ministry, we support one another replaced by more accurate comparisons— and seek to meet the needs of the younger than 12 instead of “under 12”, more larger community. than 1,000 people instead of “over 1,000 Social Justice We work to create people.” individual and societal change which supports the value, dignity and Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes opportunity of every person. Marian’s sponsoring organization. CSA Spiritual Traditions Valuing Sisters should have the suffix CSA after Marian’s Catholic religious heritage, their names. CSA organizations, besides we respect each individual’s Marian University, include: Agnesian freedom to explore a diversity of HealthCare Fond du Lac (including spiritual beliefs. Agnesian HealthCare Enterprises, Consultants Laboratory, Fond du Lac course work Regional Clinic, St. Agnes Hospital, St. Should be used as two words, in all uses. Francis Home and Waupun Memorial Hospital); Hays Medical Center, Hayes, database Kan.; The Monroe Clinic; St. Agnes Hospital Should always be used as one word. Foundation; and St. Francis Home Foundation. dashes and hyphens The “M” dash, or long dash, should be used contractions in places where a colon might be used, or Most formal types of writing prohibits the for setting off parenthetical phrases without use of contractions, though they can be using the parentheses: The $500,000 goal used in general writing.