editorial style guide Whitman College EDITORIAL STYLE GUIDE The Whitman College Style Guide provides a resource for all employees to ensure consistency across our communications. Whether you are writing for the magazine, web, social media or just writing letters to colleagues, students, alumni or friends, we want all our content to communicate who we are as a college. This style guide offers guidance on spelling, punctuation, capitalization and how we talk about Whitman College. It should be used in conjunction with the Whitman College Visual Identity Guide. As a general rule, Whitman College follows The Associated Press Stylebook, or AP style. This style is designed to be easily read and understood by people from a wide variety of backgrounds, including those outside academia. This guide includes style examples that are specific to Whitman College and academia. For complete style guidelines, access the AP Stylebook at apstylebook.com. Exceptions to AP style are indicated as such. For style questions not addressed here, refer to AP style and Webster’s New World Dictionary. Additional style questions can be sent to Director of Content Savannah Tranchell at [email protected] or 509-527-5116. A academic centers Always use the full name and correct academic departments See departments. capitalization on first reference. On second reference, preferred use is "the center." academic titles Capitalize and spell out formal titles such as • The Academic Resource Center can help students provost, president, professor, chair, etc., when they precede struggling in classes. The center offers tutors and study a name. Lowercase when the title is after a name or stands help. alone. For instructors, use the correct earned title or rank; do not use “Professor” as a courtesy title. Lowercase modifiers, such academic degrees In editorial copy, spell out and capitalize as department in department Chair Jerome Wiesner. See also the full degree name on first reference. On second reference, Doctor/Ph.D., Endowed professorship, Professor and Titles. use bachelor’s, master’s, doctorate, etc. • President Kathy Murray • Avoid abbreviating degree names in copy: He earned a B.A. in physics. See also Majors. • Kathy Murray, president • Bachelor of Arts in psychology • The president said … • He earned a bachelor’s in anthropology. • Assistant Professor George Smith • Use an apostrophe in bachelor’s, master’s, but not • George Smith, assistant professor associate degree. • When used after a name, an academic degree academic year When indicating an academic year that abbreviation is set off by commas: John Snow, Ph.D., spans a calendar year, use all four numbers for both years, separated by a hyphen: • Academic degrees should only be cited after a name if it is a terminal degree (Ph.D., J.D., etc.) or • The 2018-2019 academic year specialist certification, such as medical or nutritional certifications. • Academic degrees should only be listed after a name if it is relevant to the content, or upon request from the subject. • The use of “Dr.” as a courtesy title is reserved for medical and veterinarian degrees only. Being specific about the specialization is preferred. • A person earns a degree, they do not receive a degree. 1 editorial style guide acronyms In general, always state the full name of the alumna, alumnus, alumnae, alumni The forms shown are program on first reference, and use a parenthetical to the feminine singular, masculine singular, feminine plural indicate the acronym. If the acronym does not appear later in and masculine plural. When referring to more than one the content, there is no need to add it as a parenthetical. Do gender, use alumni. Do not shorten to “alum” or “alums” in not use periods in an acronym. official communications. Class year is denoted after the name of the alumnus or alumna. Be wary about using multiple acronyms in a single piece. Acronyms can make content hard to read and understand. • He is a Whitman College alumnus. Only use acronyms when the meaning is clear and it does not • She is an alumna of Whitman College. hinder understanding or readability. When in doubt, use the full name or a generic name, such as the center, rather than • Jane Doe ’09 the acronym. Avoid creating new acronyms. • Whitman welcomed its alumni from the Class of 1961 to • The Student Engagement Center (SEC) is hosting … campus. • The Center fOr Writing and Speaking (COWS). Note that Any individual who has attended the college and completed the “O” in “for” is capitalized. Also referred to as the the required number of credits may be considered an COWS. alumnus. Note that students who did not graduate are still considered to be alumni of the college. See also Class Year and Nondegree Holders. acting or interim titles Follow capitalization guidelines for academic titles. alumni association Whitman College Alumni Association on first reference. On second reference, preferred use is the addresses Abbreviate the words avenue (Ave.), boulevard alumni association. (Blvd.) and street (St.) when they include a house or building number and spell out when they do not. Also spell out when in direct quotes. author Resist the temptation to use this word as a verb. Instead: write/wrote. • Do not abbreviate road, lane, circle or court even with an address. • He was the author of the paper. He wrote the paper. • The college is at 345 Boyer Ave. a.m., p.m. Lowercase, with periods between the letters. Use a • The college is on Boyer Avenue. colon to separate hours from minutes. When showing a span • “He lives at 772 Alder Street,” Smith said. of time, use a hyphen if it is within a.m. or p.m. If it crosses from morning to afternoon, or vice versa, indicate with “to.” administration Never capitalize unless part of a title. If • Noon is preferred to 12 p.m. possible, use the name of an administrator. • Midnight is preferred to 12 a.m. • The committee was created by President Kathleen M. • The center’s hours are 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Murray. • The event is 6-8 a.m. • Not: The administration created the committee. • The meeting is at 3:30 p.m. admission, admitted students Singular. Office of Admission or admission, not admissions. Students whose applications ampersand (&) Avoid using ampersands in editorial copy are accepted by the college are admitted. If they accept the unless it is part of a trademarked name. It is OK to use the offer of admission, they enroll. The percentage of applicants & in display type, such as headlines, logos/wordmarks and who are admitted and then enroll is referred to as yield. invitations. advisor Preferred spelling for one who advises. This is an annual An event cannot be described as annual until it has exception to AP style. happened at least two consecutive years. Do not use the term first annual; instead say the organizers intend to host it annually. African-American See Race, Ethnicity and Protected Class. afterward, backward, forward, toward These words do not end in s. 2 editorial style guide area codes Area codes should always be included with all Board of Trustees Uppercase only when used in its entirety, phone numbers. Use dashes to offset the numbers. lowercase in other uses. Capitalize trustee or governor only when used before a name as a title, but lowercase after a • 509-527-5116 name. • Do not surround area codes with parentheses: • The Board of Trustees meets monthly. (509) 527-5116. • The trustees guide and support the college. athletic teams Lowercase on all references, except on • Trustee John Smith listings, such as for calendars and score reports. • John Smith, a trustee • The women’s ice hockey team had an outstanding season. bookstore Uppercase as part of the official name of the • He was a star on the Whitman cross country team. bookstore. Lowercase on second reference. • Field Hockey vs. Colby, 5 p.m., Monday. • The Whitman College Bookstore will hold its annual sale this weekend. attribution verbs Said is the preferred verb for attributing • The bookstore has many great deals on T-shirts. quotations, both direct and indirect. Avoid exclaimed, shouted, laughed, explained, etc. Asked is acceptable boy, girl Never use in association with students. Whitman when the quote is a question. Attribution should go in the College students should be referred to as adults, regardless middle of the quote at the first natural sentence break. If the of age. Man/men is preferable to boy. Woman/women is quotation is only one sentence, the attribution should go at preferable to girl. Do not use “ladies” to refer to people the end. Preferred order for attribution is subject verb, unless who identify as women. In referring to a collective, gender- a title or explainer needs to be given. inclusive language is always preferred. Quotations should nearly always start a new paragraph. • “The first sentence of a quotation ends in a comma,” breaks Always lowercase, even when referring to specific George Peterson said. “It can then continue after an breaks in the academic calendar year. attribution is given.” • He worked on campus over winter break. • “Sometimes a long title is given with the identity of the • She went to Honduras during spring break. quoted speaker,” said George Peterson, vice president of Whistles and Springs Inc. “In that situation, the attribution verb should be first.” building names When referring to the official name of the building, capitalize all principal words. When using a generic name, don’t capitalize. Avoid using abbreviations except in reference to room numbers. • The Office of the President is in the Memorial Building. B • I’ll meet you in Memorial. Baccalaureate Capitalize when referencing the college’s • Her office is MEM 321.