Editorial Style Guide
A Guide to Wesleyan Style
It’s not grammar and it’s not spelling. It’s that shadowy third area of language that causes a lot of disagreements. Here’s an example of a style question. Adviser can also be spelled “advisor.” Which one is correct? Both are. But it’s important to be consistent and use just one spelling throughout a publication. Style may also include usage that is unique to a particular institution. Wesleyan, for instance, uses the term Office of Admission. Some other institutions use the term admissions. Both are correct, but it’s important to know, and use, the Wesleyan style.
There are many style guide books, and it’s not uncommon for them to disagree with each other. For this reason, institutions settle on one guide and use it for all their text editing. The Office of Publications uses the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition. Our standard reference for spelling questions is Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. The Wesleyan magazine, however, adopts some conventions from the Associated Press style guide.
Just as language itself is always changing, so matters of style are in constant flux. Successive editions of the Chicago Manual reflect the major trends. For example, the current edition suggests that it is acceptable to do away with the commas that previously bracketed suffixes like “Jr.” and “Sr.” after people’s names. It is not uncommon for all of us (even editors) to encounter rules that are not like what we learned in school!
The following is a quick reference to style questions that are frequently encountered at Wesleyan.
A
a cappella
Admission, Office of—Office of Admission (not “Admissions”)
Advancement, Office of—Office of Advancement (formerly "University Relations")
advisor—This is the preferred spelling for university publications.
AfAm (abbreviation for African American American Studies)
African American (not “African-American”)—as in Department of African American Studies; see also "Black"
Allbritton Center—This center contains the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life, the Quantitative Analysis Center, the Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, the Science and Society Program, Instruction Media Services, and the office for the publication History and Theory.
alma mater
alumna (one female) / alumnae (more than one female)
alumnus (one male) / alumni (more than one male)
Use alumni when referring to a mixed group.
a.m.—not am or AM
ampersand sign (&) vs. "and"—Use the word “and” instead of the ampersand sign. The ampersand sign (&) is reserved for proper names, such as Standard & Poor, which use the ampersand sign as an official part of the proper name. But: For Reunion & Commencement/R&C, the ampersand is part of the brand name.
Andrus Field
Annual Fund—Always capitalized, even when the full name (Wesleyan Annual Fund) is not used.
anti-racist/anti-racism
apostrophes—Wesleyan publications use “curly” apostrophes and quote marks (’ and ”) rather than straight marks (' and "). To make these marks, hold down option-end bracket key (opening single quote mark); option-shift-end bracket (closing single quote mark/apostrophe); option-open bracket key (opening quotation mark); option-shift-open bracket (closing quotation mark).
Art and Art History (Department of)
art studio major (not studio art major)
Asian Pacific American Alliance (A/PAA)
B
bachelor’s degree or BA (plural=BAs) ; bachelor of science
Readers may be accustomed to seeing this and other academic abbreviations punctuated with periods. Here is the Chicago Manual’s comment on the move away from this practice: “The trend now is strongly away from the use of periods with all kinds of abbreviations that have carried them in the past. In the University of Chicago Press’s view this is to the good: anything that reduces the fussiness of typography makes for easier reading.”
best seller (two words); but: best-selling author
The Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching is given to three faculty members at Commencement.
Black (capitalized when used in a racial, ethnic, or cultural sense); note: "Black" and "African American" are not interchangeable. The Black community includes (among others) those in the African diaspora and within Africa.
Board of Trustees (always capitalized)
C
campus-wide
capital letters—Avoid using all capital letters when typing out headings and names of events and lectures when submitting copy to the Office of University Communications. Headings and names of events and lectures should be typed out using uppercase and lowercase letters.
Center for Faculty Career Development (formerly the Office of Faculty Career Development)
Center for Film Studies—not Film Studies Center
check-in/checkout (n.); check in/check out (v.)
Class of 1932 or Class of ’32* (but senior class, junior class, etc.)
(*to make the curly apostrophe before the class year on your computer, hold down the option & shift keys & the end bracket key.)
co-author, co-found, co-edit, co-direct
College Board (proper name)
College of Design & Engineering Studies
College of Science and Technology Studies
Commencement (the event)
Connelly Room
Convocation (the event)
Course names—upper/lowercase, initial cap (no italics or quotes)
CTW Consortium; CTW Library Consortium; the consortium—group consisting of Connecticut College, Trinity College, and Wesleyan University
D
database (one word)
dashes—There are two kinds of dashes:
en dash: Connects ongoing series of numbers or dates (1999–2000, pages 29–35, May–June). En dashes are made on the Mac by typing “option” and the dash key; on the PC by typing “control” and the minus key on the far right of the keyboard.
em dash: Used somewhat like a comma, but produces a more noticeable pause in a sentence. “The regional director—she had been waiting all afternoon for a major donor to return her call—jumped when the phone rang.” Em dashes are made on the Mac by typing “shift,” “option,” and the dash key; on the PC by typing “control,” “option,” and the minus key on the far right of the keyboard.
dates:
the 1940s
the 20th century (Superscripts—20th, for example—should not be used in everyday language. They are reserved for academic citations, especially in music and mathematics.) Centuries are only hyphenated when they are used as adjectives: 20th-century art.
For months and days, use ordinal not cardinal numbers: August 2 (not August 2nd)
Davison Art Center (DAC; FDAC for Friends of the Davison Art Center)
Davison Art Center print collection
Davison Rare Book Room (in Olin Library)
Deans’ Office; also grouped with Student Affairs/Deans’ Office
degrees—BA / MA / PhD (no periods in degrees)
degree years (by group)
alumni – name ’92, MA ’95
parent – name P’95, ’00 [no space before apostrophe, drop “P” for subsequent years]
grandparent – name GP’95, ’00 [no space before apostrophe, drop “GP” for subsequent years]
honorary – name Hon. ’95,
MALS – name MALS ’15
mixed Wes degree and other degrees – name ’92, MD
Departments
Department of Classical Studies (not Classics Department)
Department of German Studies (not German Department)
In recent times and in less formal documents, department and program names are not necessarily capitalized, especially when several departments or programs are named at once: biology, chemistry, and mathematics departments
Formal/official name: Department of Chemistry
Informal/shortened reference: chemistry department
Do not capitalize academic disciplines or majors:
Dave is studying chemistry.
My favorite subject is biology.
Zelda is a classical studies major.
However: The most popular major is English. He is a professor of American studies. The major in Russian and East European studies . . .
dollar sign
Use the dollar sign when a specific dollar amount is mentioned:
Betty donated $5 million to the White Shoe Foundation.
But:
Betty has donated millions of dollars to her favorite charity.
His father has a business worth half a billion dollars.
E
ellipses—a series of three dots used to indicate that something has been left out of a quotation.
There should be spaces before, after, and between the three dots in quotations:
“I liked the book . . . and admire the illustrations, ” said Margery.
email (one word, no hyphen, but e-book, e-commerce
Email addresses should not be underlined in text and should appear in black font.
Correct: ltipping@wesleyan.edu
Incorrect: ltipping@wesleyan.edu
If it is necessary to divide an email address in text, no hyphen should be used and the break should be made after the symbol @ (to avoid confusion as to whether or not the hyphen is part of the address)
emeritus—
Capitalize “emeritus” when it is used before a proper name:
Professor Emeritus Arthur Wensinger
Use “emerita” when referring to a woman:
Professor Emerita Sheila Gaudon
Use “emeriti” when referring to more than one male or a mixed group.
Use “emeritae” when referring to more than one female.
But: Henry is a professor emeritus.
Note: George Creeger is professor emeritus of English (not George Creeger is professor of English, emeritus)
But: Louisa Smith is Olin Professor of English, Emeritus ("emeritus/emerita" comes at end of named professorships)
Eras—Use AD, BC, CE, BCE (full capitals, no periods)
F
Faculty Student Affairs Committee—not, Student Affairs Committee
fax, not FAX
Film Studies—Film Studies is a department, not a program.
firsthand— one word
first-year student (not frosh or freshman)
First-Year Seminar Program (FYS) / first-year seminars—name of specific academic program aimed at developing university-level writing through writing-intensive courses.
Willbur Fisk—There are two ls in Willbur.
Fulbright fellowship
A student is a Fulbright scholar or a Fulbright fellow.
fundraising—one word
G
General Education (GenEd) – note no spaces in “GenEd”
GLS – Graduate Liberal Studies (not GLSP)
GOLD Group (not G.O.L.D.)—The o in “of” is not capped (Graduates of the Last Decade)
Gordon Career Center (formerly Wesleyan Career Center)
grades—Word grades, when written out, are not capped: absent, incomplete, etc., but are capped when they appear as single letters A, I, etc.
H
health care (n. and adj. forms)
Homecoming (the event); also Homecoming/Family Weekend (not Parents Weekend)
home page (two words)
hyphens—Please see “dashes” above
I
IDEAS - Integrated Design, Engineering, Arts & Society
Indigenous
interlibrary loan
International Baccalaureate (IB)
internet
invitation style:
No punctuation at the ends of lines; internal punctuation only
No zeroes is the preferred style: 7 p.m. Use zeroes in more formal documents (7:00 p.m.)
Capitalize titles after people’s names
italics
Use italics for names of books, movies, plays, and television shows.
Poems are enclosed in quotation marks.
Use italics for names of legal cases when mentioned in text.
Use italics for titles of operas, oratorios, tone poems, and other long compositions. Titles of songs are set in roman and surrounded by quotations marks.
Use italics for names of paintings, drawings, and other art works, including cartoons and comic strips, as well as formally titled arts exhibitions.
But: Names of large-scale exhibitions and fairs (the Great Exhibition of 1950, the New York World's Fair) should be capitalized but not italicized.
J
Jr.—The Chicago Manual now recommends that “Jr.” and “Sr.” not be set off with commas: Fred Flintstone Jr. is a member of the Olin Associates.
K
kickoff (n.)—not kick-off
L
libraries
All the Wesleyan libraries, taken as a single administrative unit, are called the Wesleyan Library, which is capped.
Listserv, not listserve—the word “Listserv” is a trademark
livestream
log-in (n.)—not login
long list (n.), long-listed
M
MAAE—MA ad eundem gradum
master’s degree or MA (plural=MAs)
MALS (Master of Liberal Studies, which is a GLS degree), MALS ’14
Millett Room (in Russell House)
months—Names of months are always spelled out in text, whether alone or in dates. Capitalize the names of months in all uses. If it is necessary to abbreviate, only do so with Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., and Dec.
Mystical 7
N
Nietzch Factor (ultimate Frisbee team)
numerals:
Use words for one through nine, numerals for 10 and above.
Spell out “million” when using a round figure:
Lionel Hepplethwaite left Wesleyan $47.3 million.
But:
Leona Hepplethwaite left Wellesley $477,353,767.
Lila Hepplethwaite gave $47,353 to Williams.
Spell out a numeral at the beginning of a sentence (but better to reword to avoid this construction):
Ninety-seven students are volunteer tutors.
Spell out casual expressions: Thanks a million.
In news headlines, use “M” for “million”: NSF Awards $2.4M to Scott Plous
O
offices—Capitalize when referring to the organization (Deans’ Office, President’s Office), lowercase when referring to a physical place (chemistry department office).
Office of Admission (not “Admissions”)
Office of Advancement (formerly “University Relations”)
Office of International Student Affairs—although “Office of International Student Services” is also okay, “Office of International Student Affairs” is the official title
Online—not on-line
Orientation, the event, is capped
P
Parents Council
Parents Fund
Parents Handbook
parent years
Use a single “P” in parent year designations. This rule also applies to parents with multiple years: Donna S. Zilkha, P’10, ’10, ’16
percent—spell out in running text, use symbol when listing multiple data points or in tables
Permanent campus sites are capitalized (North College Lawn, North College Steps, Davison Courtyard, etc.). Temporary sites are not capped (registration tent, registration table, etc.)
PhD (plural=PhDs)
place names
p.m.—not pm or PM
postdoc/postdoctoral (not post-doc/post-doctoral)
prefixes
Most are not hyphenated (multipurpose, nonprofit, postgame, etc.). Webster’s lists words that require hyphenated prefixes. Exception: co-author, co-edit, co-found, co-chair.
President:
When used before a name, “president” is capitalized: President Michael S. Roth
But:
Michael S. Roth, president of Wesleyan, attended the meeting.
Michael S. Roth is the president of Wesleyan.
Program names are capitalized—American Studies Program, Latin American Studies Program
Professor:
When used before a name, “professor” is capitalized: Professor Robert Rollefson or Professor of Physics Robert Rollefson
But when “professor” follows the name (or no name is included), use lower case:
Robert Rollefson, professor of physics, gave a lecture.
He is a physics professor.
However, named professorships are always capitalized:
George Creeger is the Willbur Fisk Osborne Professor of English.
Many faculty members at Wesleyan teach in a variety of programs, but all of them have only one home department. Professor X may teach in the American studies programs, but she is a member of the history department faculty. Be sure to properly identify the single department to which a faculty member belongs.
Pulitzer Prize winner; Pulitzer Prize–winning
Q
Q&A (not "Q and A" or "Q & A")
quotation punctuation—
At the end of a quotation, a period or comma is placed inside the quotation mark; a semi-colon or colon is placed outside the quotation mark:
“I’ll write a check for $1 million,” Mr. Buckram said.
Mrs. Peevish scolded us for making “such a foolish request”; later, we received the check for $1 million.
A question mark or an exclamation mark is placed inside the quotation only if it applies to the quotation:
He asked me, “Are you kidding?”
Did he tell you, “I’m only kidding”?
quotation marks and apostrophes—Wesleyan publications use “curly” apostrophes and quote marks (’ and ”) rather than straight marks (' and "). To make these marks, hold down option-end bracket key (opening single quote mark); option-shift-end bracket (closing single quote mark/apostrophe); option-open bracket key (opening quotation mark); option-shift-open bracket (closing quotation mark).
R
Reunion (the event—always capped)
Reunion & Commencement—note use of ampersand instead of “and”
RSVP—caps and no punctuation
S
scholar-teacher (not teacher-scholar)
seasons are not capitalized—winter, spring, summer, fall; but: Winter Session
sendoff—as in “summer sendoff”
Service Learning (n.); service-learning courses (adj.); Office for Service Learning
setup (n.)/set up (v.)
short list (n.), short-listed
Special Collections & Archives—specific department within Olin Library (note ampersand)
sports:
Sports are not capitalized: Casey is on the baseball team.
Exceptions: Frisbee (a trademarked name); Wiffle (a trademarked name)
state names:
State names are always written out in text. If you need to abbreviate in text other than an address, use the list below. Only use the U.S. Postal Service abbreviations (CT instead of Conn. etc.) immediately before a ZIP Code number.
State abbreviations
|
Ala. |
Ky. |
N. Dak. |
|
Alaska |
La. |
Ohio |
|
Ariz. |
Maine |
Okla. |
|
Ark. |
Md. |
Ore. or Oreg. |
|
Calif. |
Mass. |
Pa. |
|
Colo. |
Mich. |
R.I. |
|
Conn. |
Minn. |
S.C. |
|
Del. |
Mo. |
S. Dak. |
|
D.C. |
Mont. |
Tenn. |
|
Fla. |
Neb. or Nebr. |
Tex. |
|
Ga. |
Nev. |
Utah |
|
Hawaii |
N.H. |
Vt. |
|
Idaho |
N.J. |
Va. |
|
Ill. |
N. Mex. |
Wash. |
|
Ind. |
N.Y. |
W. Va. |
|
Iowa |
N.C. |
Wis. or Wisc. |
|
Kans. |
|
Wyo. |
Superscript—Superscript is reserved for footnoting and scientific material. It should not be used in ordinary text. Incorrect: 14th; Correct: 14th
T
The
Do not capitalize the “t” in “the” unless it appears at the beginning of a sentence:
We received a grant from the Ford Foundation.
The Ford Foundation has been generous.
But if “the” is a part of the official name of a publication, the “t” is often capitalized:
The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker
3D (not 3-D)
titles—People’s titles are capitalized when they appear immediately before the name (Dean Martin Shore) but are not capped when they appear by themselves or after the name (Martin Shore, dean of the college; the dean is attending a conference). Capitalize titles after names only on invitations or posters or when appearing directly under a person’s name in a list of names and titles.
toward (not towards)
Trustee
Capitalize Trustee when it is used before a proper name: Trustee Alan Dachs
But: Alan Dachs is a trustee.
U
UConn—abbreviation for University of Connecticut
UMass—abbreviation for University of Massachusetts
Ujamaa
under way, not underway
United States vs. U.S.
Avoid abbreviating the United States in text.
U.S. (no periods) may be used as an adjective, but whenever possible spell out “United States” upon first mention.
University
Capitalize “university” when referring to Wesleyan University as a noun, particularly more formal and official publications:
The University offers both MA and PhD degrees.
(This style rule is not always followed in the Wesleyan magazine, online newsletter, and some online media.)
Also: the University Plan
University Relations, see "Advancement, Office of"
university-wide (but campuswide)
upperclass student, not upper class or upper-class
URLs
If you need to divide a URL in text, do not use a hyphen. The break should be made after a colon, a slash, or a double slash but before a period or any other punctuation or symbols:
http://www.roundabouttheater.org/
members
or
http://www
.roundabouttheater.org/members
Note: A URL containing a hyphen should not be divided at the hyphen.
V
versus—Do not abbreviate in ordinary speech and writing. In short expressions “vs.” is permitted (AP Style) – “The issue of guns vs. butter has long been with us”
Note: In legal cases, versus is abbreviated as v.: Debs v. United States
vice president (no hyphen)
voice mail
But: voice-mail message
W
the web (not World Wide Web)
But: website (one word) and web page (two words)
WES—Always capitalize WES when creating a new word beginning with these letters (WESeminars)
the Wesleyan Fund (not The Wesleyan Fund)—The "the" may be capitalized in a logo, but is lowercase in print usage.
Wesleyan magazine, Wesleyan University Magazine
Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore (no periods or spaces in "RJ")
Wesleyan Writers Conference
Wesleyan teaching award—The Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching is given to three faculty members at Commencement.
Winter Session—initial cap because it's a specific term (even though seasons are usually lowercase)
Y
For academic years, always use two digits for second number unless it signals a change in century, then use all digits: e.g., “1899–1900” “1987–88” “1999–2000” “2008–09”
Z
Zilkha Gallery—More formally, the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery
Last modified: January 2020