U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs National Institute of Justice JUNE 2021 JUNE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF JUSTICE STYLE GUIDE NCJ 250404 National Institute of Justice Style Guide Updated June 2021 Table of Contents Part I. General Style and Editorial Guidelines ............................................................................................... 1 Abbreviations and Acronyms .................................................................................................................... 1 Academic Degrees and Titles .................................................................................................................... 2 Capitalization ............................................................................................................................................ 3 Compounding and Unit Modifiers ............................................................................................................ 4 Dates ......................................................................................................................................................... 5 Italics ......................................................................................................................................................... 5 Lists ........................................................................................................................................................... 6 Numbers .................................................................................................................................................... 6 Preferred Terms and Usage ...................................................................................................................... 7 Punctuation ............................................................................................................................................. 10 Ranks and Civilian Titles .......................................................................................................................... 11 State Names ............................................................................................................................................ 12 Trademarks ............................................................................................................................................. 12 Writing Referral Text for Content on NIJ.ojp.gov and OJP.gov ............................................................... 12 Additional Considerations ................................................................................................................... 13 Part II. Notes and References ..................................................................................................................... 14 General Format for Notes ................................................................................................................... 14 Multiple Citations in One Note ........................................................................................................... 14 Using Short Forms in Subsequent Notes ............................................................................................ 14 URLs for Online Sources ...................................................................................................................... 15 Using “Accessed on” in Online Source Citations................................................................................. 15 Citing Indirect Sources ........................................................................................................................ 15 Books ....................................................................................................................................................... 16 One Author ......................................................................................................................................... 16 Two Authors ........................................................................................................................................ 16 Three Authors ..................................................................................................................................... 16 Four or More Authors ......................................................................................................................... 16 Book With Editor ................................................................................................................................. 16 Book With Translator .......................................................................................................................... 16 Chapter in an Edited Book .................................................................................................................. 17 Editions Other Than First .................................................................................................................... 17 Periodicals ............................................................................................................................................... 17 Journal Articles .................................................................................................................................... 17 Magazines and Newspapers ............................................................................................................... 17 NIJ Final Reports and OJP Publications ................................................................................................... 18 NIJ Final Reports ................................................................................................................................. 18 ii NIJ Journal Articles .............................................................................................................................. 18 Other OJP Publications ....................................................................................................................... 18 Reports (Other Than NIJ) ........................................................................................................................ 19 Online Sources ........................................................................................................................................ 19 Generic Form for Online Sources ........................................................................................................ 19 Blogs .................................................................................................................................................... 20 General Website Homepage ............................................................................................................... 20 Page Within Website .......................................................................................................................... 20 Multimedia .......................................................................................................................................... 20 Interviews and Personal Communication ............................................................................................... 21 Press Releases ......................................................................................................................................... 21 Conference and Other Unpublished Papers ........................................................................................... 21 Solicitations/Funding Opportunities ....................................................................................................... 22 Award Descriptions ................................................................................................................................. 22 [NEW] Notes in HTML Versus Print ......................................................................................................... 22 Part III. Web Writing ................................................................................................................................... 23 The Inverted Pyramid .............................................................................................................................. 23 Examples of Effective Web Writing ........................................................................................................ 23 Consider the Audience ........................................................................................................................ 23 Follow the “Page Principle” ................................................................................................................ 23 Use Plain Language ............................................................................................................................. 24 Use Familiar Words ............................................................................................................................. 24 Use Active Voice ................................................................................................................................. 24 Create Web Pages for Scanning, Not Heavy Reading ......................................................................... 25 Organize Content by “Chunking” ........................................................................................................ 25 After Writing: The Delivery ..................................................................................................................... 25 Questions To Ensure a Web-Friendly Document ...............................................................................