THETHE DIAMONDBACKDIAMONDBACK 2012Stylebook/13 S2t0y l1e2b/o13o k “A man’s gotta have a code.” — Omar Little, The Wire “The difference between the ‘almost right’ word and the ‘right’ word is really a large matter — ’tis the difference between the light- ning bug and the lightning.” —Mark Twain “Remember the waterfront shack with the sign FRESH FISH SOLD HERE. Of course it's fresh — we're on the ocean. Of course it's for sale — we're not giving it away. Of course it's here — otherwise the sign would be someplace else. The final sign: FISH.” —Peggy Noonan THE DIAMONDBACK THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPERS THE DIAMONDBACK // intro and index // stylebook 2012 INTRO INDEX * From the editors — Reference this quick list of tagged entries — Why style? IMPORTANT abbreviations 3 Style is inherently arbitrary. Immaculate AP and about/around 3 Diamondback style may be our holy grail, but that academic departments 3 standard is not based on the laws of physics. David accent marks 3 Foster Wallace referred to it as the arbitrariness of lin- arrested for 4 guistic sign, saying, “there's no particular metaphysi- black 5 Notes cal reason why our word for a four-legged mammal campus, university 7 that gives milk and goes moo is cow and not, say, charged for, charged with 7 prtlmpf.” We, as editors, yes, but also as everyday college/colleges 8 English speakers, decide how best to encapsulate lan- District of Columbia 11 guage as a written medium. Division of Information Technology 11 folio 14 This responsibility creates an everlasting tug of war last/next 19 between descriptive grammar – the way language is letters and sciences 19 actually used – and prescriptive grammar – the way like, such as 19 language should be used. However arbitrary these 40 names 22 pages of style are, they’re very prescriptive. We tell possessives 25 you how to refer to buildings, people, cities and insti- race 26 tutions. We provide dozens of grammar tips. We’ve Route 1 27 been specific; between this, your AP stylebook and that, which 30 Google News “Associated Press” searches, you should University Police 32 feel very well-resourced. AP DEVIATION We last edited this in summer 2012. The university composition titles 9 will change; what we write about will change. When a datelines 10 stylebook becomes an impediment, rather than a legislative titles 19 mechanism for clearly delivering news to readers, political parties 24 we’ve lost our way. titles 31 tomorrow 31 Consider this a living document. Learn it; question it; University Police 32 challenge it; take notes in it. We can always PDF it yesterday 34 again. SPORTS ACC Championship 3 Dan Appenfeller All-America, All-American 4 Assistant managing editor, 2012-13 athletic department, athletic director 5 Bob “Turtle” Smith Stadium 6 Mike King Byrd Stadium 6 Managing editor, 2012-13 Cole Field House 8 Comcast Center 8 Alex Knobel Eppley Recreation Center 13 Managing editor, 2011-12 NCAA tournament 22 Ritchie Coliseum 27 Rock and Roll, Part II 27 three-point, 3-pointer 31 - 2 - stylebook 2012 \\ THE DIAMONDBACK It’s bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and a doc- torate degree. Do not use M.S., B.S. etc. Use doctorate A instead of Ph.D. Use masters of business when you A mean MBA. Use editorial judgment if masters of busi- ness is mentioned repeatedly. Our goal is not to waste IMPORTANT space. abbreviations and acronyms: Use abbreviations See professor. of organizations with long origins in lede (SGA, BSU, ASU, HSU, MaryPIRG, RHA, NAACP, etc.). IMPORTANT Spell out on second reference and use the abbre- academic departments: Lowercase unless the viation on all other references: department name is a proper noun. Always take out The SGA elections took an unexpected turn as the the preposition of. Notes New Party swept all offices. Wrong: Department of Physics, Physics depart- This is the first time in Student Government ment, department of English. Association history the New Party has won the majori- Right: English department, physics department ty vote. Do not put the abbreviation in parentheses on any SPORTS reference. ACC Championship: Uppercase Championship to Avoid overuse of acronyms so the story isn’t describe a team winning it. But ACC championship alphabet soup. Try the club, the council, etc. game. Use periods if the abbreviation is fewer than three letters: U.S., U.N. ACC schools and divisions Wrong: The Student Government Association See addendum|ACC. (SGA) did something. Do not abbreviate names of cities except in quot- IMPORTANT ed material or headlines. When you do, use periods: accent marks: Don’t use unless in official title of the L.A. institution or person’s name. Abbreviate names of states only when they follow See addendums|âççéñts. cities: I love Charleston, S.C. I went to South Carolina. Use periods to abbreviate names of states with act, bill, law, statute: A bill is a piece of proposed two words: N.C., R.I. See AP state names for full list legislation. It remains a bill until it is passed by a leg- of state abbreviations islature and becomes an act. When an act is signed by See AP datelines for list of cities that do not an executive — the president, governor, county exec- require state identification. utive, etc. — it becomes a law. A statute must be passed by the legislature. IMPORTANT Capitalize legislative acts, but not bills: the Taft- about, around: Not interchangable. Do not use Hartley Act, the improved mini-dorm bill. approximately. Measure, mandate may be used to mean bill or Use about for quantities and time: proposed legislation, but do not mean law. About 2 a.m., he was shot... There were about 50 students at the rally. acting: Always use lowercase: former acting Gov. Use around when referring to spaces: Blair Lee III. He walked around the campus. See titles. academic deans: Each college and school has a Adele H. Stamp Student Union: Use this formal dean, who reports to the provost. title only in a quote. When referring to a dean, use the title as listed in See Student Union. the faculty/staff directory. Use your own discretion with wordy titles. Adele’s: The restaurant in Stamp Student Union See colleges. where students can use meal plan points to pay. It’s named after Adele H. Stamp, the woman Stamp academic degrees: Mention only when significant. Student Union is named after. Only medical doctors get Dr. before their names on first reference. administration: Lowercase. Do not personify the - 3 - THE DIAMONDBACK // stylebook 2012 administration. Administrators can say things, but the Wrong: He left at 7 a.m. in the morning. administration cannot. Be more specific when possi- Right: The Terps women’s soccer team’s game ble. The administration is singular, so it’s an it, not a starts at 7:30 p.m. they. A among, between: Among applies to several things; adopted, approved: ROAR: resolutions, ordinances, between applies to two: There were differences of amendments and rules are adopted or approved. Bills opinion among the copy editors. The biggest argu- are passed, laws are enacted. ment was between Ethan Rosenberg and Amanda Perez. adviser: Not advisor, unless it’s in a formal title. But it is advisory. amount, number: Amount refers to a non-numeri- cal or unspecified quantity, while number refers to a African-American: Use only in a quote. The quantity that can be counted. Much, little and less Notes Diamondback uses black to identify a person by his or refer to amount; many and few refer to number. her physical description. Identify persons by race only Wrong: There was a large amount of mistakes in when relevant. the story. (Use number.) Right: A large amount of water filled the base- African American studies: Not Afro-American ment. studies, the old name. The name of a university Wrong: Letters to the editor should be 600 words department and major. Note there is no hypen. or less. (Use fewer.) Right: He arrived in less than two hours. (Time is afterward: Not afterwards. not counted in whole numbers; therefore, 1 1/2 hours is less than two hours.) animal science and agricultural engineering building ampersand (&): Use only as part of official names: See buildings. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. airport: Capitalize if part of a proper name. Use the Anderson, Kevin: Athletic director. following on the first reference of local airports: Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood anxious, eager: These words are not interchange- Marshall Airport, College Park Airport, Dulles able. International Airport and Reagan National Airport. On If one is anxious, one is worried: The coach is anx- second reference use BWI, College Park Airport, Dulles ious about tomorrow’s game. and Reagan. If one is eager, one looks forward to something: The quarterback is eager to play. alcohol: Use often and liberally, but spell it correctly. approximately: Don’t use this ridiculously long SPORTS word unless it’s in a quote. Use about. All-America, adj., All-American, n.: Hyphenated. see about, around All-America refers to the actual team. All-American refers to a noun, such as a player. IMPORTANT See addendum|sports. arrested for: Never use this libelous combination because it convicts the person of the crime. Use Allen, David: J. David Allen, DOTS director, should arrested on (offense) charges, or preferably, charged be referred to as David Allen. Do not use the J. with: Wrong: The Diamondback’s editor in chief, alumnus, alumni, alumna, alumnae: Use alum- Yasmeen Abutaleb, was arrested for reckless driving. nus (plural alumni) when referring to a man who has (This convicts her of the crime.) graduated from a school.