Grammar and Style
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CEHD STYLE GUIDE 1-24-2020 Grammar and Style: Abbreviations Academic lower case: bachelor of science, master of arts, or doctor of philosophy; abbreviate degrees without periods: BS, MA, MSW, MEd, PhD Addresses In running text, spell out rather than abbreviate (Marshall High School was located on Fifth Avenue Southeast), except when numbered street names are two digits or longer (137th Street). For addresses not appearing in running text, or when used with a building number, abbreviate as follows: - Spell out First through Ninth when used as street names. - Single-letter directionals (E., W., N., S.) are abbreviated with a period. - Two-letter directionals (NE, SW) take no period. - Abbreviate Ave., St., Rte., etc. with a period. (example: 1313 Fifth Ave. SE) States Per Chicago style, do not abbreviate state names, even when used with a city name (Eau Claire, Wisconsin). Capitalizations Awards Capitalize the names of awards and prizes; do not capitalize descriptive terms used alone: Outstanding Achievement Award, Fulbright Fellowship; the award, the fellowship. Campus Capitalize names of campuses but not the word “campus”: Twin Cities campus. designation Capitalize West Bank and East Bank when referring to parts of the Minneapolis campus but do not capitalize campus. College Capitalize the full name of the college but not when using just the word “college.” designation Committees, Spell out and capitalize the full names of committees and work groups: The Student work groups Scholastic Standing Committee. Use the committee on later references. Departments, Only capitalize the department or office name when written in full: Department of office names Educational Psychology or Communications and Marketing Department; educational psychology student or communications office. Events Capitalize events such as Homecoming, Minnesota State Fair, Spring Jam. Fields of Do not capitalize fields of study or majors. study • business and marketing education • master of education, professional studies • MEd/professional studies • the Department of Educational Psychology’s school psychology program Headings Use sentence case. Capitalize the first word and proper nouns only. This includes Connect magazine and the news blog. Job titles, Uppercase official titles that precede names or function as a part of the name (President descriptions Eric Kaler, Professor Masten). Lowercase after the name (Karen Hanson, executive vice president and provost; Marvin Martian, anthropology professor) and in titles that are more descriptive rather than name-based (kinesiology professor Mary Jo Kane). Exceptions, before and after name: regents professors and holders of endowed chairs or professorships (Regents Professor of Ecology and Behavioral Biology Margaret Davis; Christopher Uggen, Regents Professor of Sociology). Organizational bodies: Board of Regents. But: the board, the regents. Buildings: Uppercase Building or Hall if part of a formal name. Abbreviate political titles in running text (Gov. Mark Dayton visited campus with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, U.S. Rep. Betty McCollumn, and State Rep. Jim Davnie.) After name: Mark Dayton, governor of Minnesota. If you can't abbreviate, a long title may look better after the name: The governor visited with Jim Davnie, a Minnesota state representative. Projects and Capitalize the full name of official projects or plans. Always lowercase the project or plans plan when the word stands alone or when using only part of the formal name. We worked on the 2014 Mental Health Project for Children. We worked on the mental health project. Semesters Title case only for specific semesters: fall semester; Fall Semester 2014 Titles of Capitalize the principal words. Use italics for titles of books, newspapers, and other works media. Use quotation marks for articles, chapters of publications, and any smaller pieces of larger works. The New York Times published the article “Study Links Autism and Somalis in Minneapolis.” University of Use University of Minnesota on first reference. Minnesota U of M and the U are OK on second reference. Avoid UMN in most communications. Capitalize University when referring to the University of Minnesota. (“The University provided what I was looking for.”) Hyphens, dashes, and compound words Notes: Consult Merriam-Webster for most one-word compounds. Consult the Chicago Manual of Style’s hyphenation table for more specific guidance. Compound nouns are usually written as one word, compound verbs are generally written as two, and compound adjectives are often written with a hyphen. Chicago style requires hyphens in a modifying phrase that appears before a noun, but no hyphen if the phrase appears after or is not connected to a noun. (They are employed on a part-time basis. They work part time.) Use a hyphen when a prefix is used with a capitalized word (ex: non-University). Adverbs are not hyphenated to subsequent adjectives. Common changemaker, collegewide, coursework, noncredit, nonprofit, nonresident, online, email, compounds, policymaker, postsecondary, statewide, schoolwide, systemwide, yearlong, caregiver, no hyphens dropout, youthwork, smartphone, preschool Common at-risk, first-year (students, experience), follow-up (adj.), long-term, social-emotional, hyphenated start-up, student-athlete, university-wide, well-being compounds En dash The en dash ( – ) connects things related to each other by distance or time, often used in ranges. (Teacher–student connection, May–September issue) Em dash The em dash ( — ) allows an additional thought to be added to or within a sentence. Punctuation Ampersands Use ampersands when they are part of an official title. Generally, ampersands cannot be (&) used in place of the word and to save space or time. Campus The preferred way of listing campus locations with the University system is to list the designation campus directly after the University (no comma or hyphen): the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Commas Use the serial (or Oxford) comma (students, schools, and communities). Do not use a comma with names that include Jr. or Sr. Do not use a comma before a title of a work when it functions as an essential part of the sentence (Tom Rademacher, ’07, wrote It Won’t Be Easy.) Use a comma when the title of the work isn’t essential to the construction of the sentence. (The researchers won an award for their article, “Examining alphabet writing fluency in kindergarten.”) Ellipses When an ellipsis links two complete sentences, use a period followed by three dots with spaces at the beginning, end, and in between each dot. (“What you see is what you get. They have never forgotten who they are and where they came from,” said Whalen.) When an ellipsis links two parts of one sentence, use 3 dots with spaces at the beginning, end, and in between each dot. (“We were having conversations around mental health, promotion, early intervention . but we really didn’t have dedicated research.”) Exclamation Use exclamation points sparingly. They indicate emphatic or emotional statements; do points not use them to provide routine emphasis. Punctuation Periods, commas, and other ending punctuation belong inside quotation marks. in quotations Numbers Numerals In nonscientific writing, spell out exact numbers of less than 10. Use figures for numbers of 10 or more. Always use figures with a.m. and p.m. Always spell out zero. Use figures for numbers through the thousands. 1,543; 150,000. For larger numbers, use a figure and million or billion (etc.): The collection includes more than 4 million volumes. Dates Use figures for dates: Classes begin September 4, 2007. Do not use th, st, rd, or other ordinal indicators after a date. Spell out days and months. Readers from different countries could read 4/5/14 as April 5 or May 4. In running text, connect a range of dates with from and to. (The workshop runs from April 15 to 17.) In shorter event listings, use an en-dash to connect a range of dates. (April 15–17) Add a comma after a full date if the date is followed by more text. (We met on September 4, 2015, in an English class.) Times Do not include :00 or o’clock (4 p.m., 7:30 a.m.). In running text, connect a range of times with to. In shorter event listings, use an en- dash to connect a range of times. If both the start and end times fall in the same half of the day, only use a.m. or p.m. once, at the end. (The 2017 Chase Lecture runs from 7 to 9 p.m. or 2018 Chase Lecture, 7–9 p.m.) Include periods in a.m. and p.m. Use noon and midnight rather than 12 p.m. or 12 a.m. when possible. Plurals Names and Form the plurals of proper nouns by adding s. If a name ends in s, add es. proper nouns Other Add an s, no apostrophe to words and phrases like ABCs, the 1970s, and PhDs except if it’s confusing to do so. Possessives Common Do not use an apostrophe with plurals that are descriptive rather than possessive errors (teachers union, farmers market). Proper nouns Add an apostrophe and an s. Language and Usage Spelling Common spelling advisor, OK errors Common two- all right, a lot, childcare, health care word phrases Quote vs. Quote is a verb, while quotation is a noun. quotation (The professor quoted John Dewey in his lecture. The lecture included a quotation from John Dewey.) Technology 3D printing (noun), 3D-print (verb), 3D-printed (adjective) cc’d, email, emoji (singular), emojis (plural), Flipgrid, internet, IT, newsfeed, online, onscreen, retweet, screentime, timeline, touchscreen, username, voicemail, web page, website University- and CEHD-specific language Alumni/Emeriti alumna (female); alumnus (male); alumnae (plural female); alumni (plural male, mixed) Alum is acceptable as a gender-neutral single term. Degree information should be set in commas, with or without the degree type. (Brenda Hartman, MSW ’89, conducts a therapy practice for people with cancer. OR Jennifer Eik, ’13, remembers her first year of teaching as one of the most stressful in her life.) It is not required to mention the major or degree program in the same sentence.