Carleton College: Publications: Carleton College Style Guide

Carleton College Style Guide

There is a distinction between style and grammar. Grammar involves rules that we rarely (if ever) break, but style often is a matter of choice. The key to adopting an effective style is to choose one prevailing guide and apply it across the board consistently.

The Office of Publications has chosen the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, which is published by the University of Chicago Press and is the preferred style guide for most academic institutions and academic presses. We follow Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition, on questions of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, and foreign words. Because not everyone has a copy of Chicago and because even those of us who do often find it cumbersome to use, we have identified the following items that come into question frequently. In addition, we have listed some Carleton-specific terms.

This style guide is intended to evolve, as the English language does, to reflect current usage and to embrace new terms as they come into common use. Please contact the publications office with your suggestions for making this guide more helpful and more inclusive or to request a paper copy of the style guide.

Teresa Scalzo
Director of Publications
Editor, Carleton College Voice
tscalzo@acs.carleton.edu

	abbreviations	Generally, no periods with abbreviations: IQ, IOU, VCR, HMO Exceptions: U.S., U.N. Form the plural by adding an s (no apostrophe): VCRs, HMOs, CD-ROMs.
	academic degrees	Abbreviations: BA, PhD, MD, RN, MBA, MFA. (See Chicago 15.21 for a more complete list.) Use lowercase and, where appropriate, possessive in text: “master’s degree in business administration”; “doctorate in political science.” A degree takes the indefinite article a: “He earned a PhD.” Form the plural by adding s: BAs, PhDs, MBAs.
	acronyms	No period, put in small caps: CARE, VISTA, AIDS
	adviser	Not advisor
	African American	No hyphen
	ages	Spell out one through nine; use numerals for 10 and up: “a six-year-old boy,” “a 47-year-old man.”
	alumni affairs office	Use lowercase for informal usage; capitalize formal name only: Office of Alumni Affairs; no hyphen.
	Alumni Annual Fund	Capitalize for clarity. For the same reason, capitalize related entities: Parents Fund.
	Alumni Association of Carleton College	Capitalize the formal name of this group, which includes all people who have attended Carleton.
	alumni board	Use lowercase for informal usage; capitalize formal name: Alumni Board of Directors.
	alumnus/alumna/alumni	Alumna is a female graduate; the plural is alumnae. Alumnus (plural: alumni) is, strictly speaking, the masculine form, but it’s still gender-inclusive and we use it exclusively. Avoid alum.
	arboretum	Lowercase informal usage; capitalize formal name: Cowling Arboretum. But: “the Arb.”
	birth name	Do not set off a birth name in parentheses or quotation marks: Jane Doe Smith. In publications with alumni as the primary audience, use a female graduate’s birth name followed by her married name: Becky Loraas Zrimsek ’89.
	Board of Trustees	Capitalize when it refers to Carleton’s governing body: “the Board of Trustees.” But: “the board.” Trustee, however, is lowercase: “trustee chair Winston Wallin.” (See also titles, personal.)
	brackets	Use square brackets, not parentheses, to add words to quoted material (see Chicago 6.104).
	‘C’ Club	Use single quotation marks when referring to the Carleton athletic hall of fame.
	campus names	When a college or university has more than one campus, separate the campus name from the institution’s name with an en dash: University of California–Berkeley, Cal State–Fullerton, State University of New York–Buffalo.
	capitalization	See Alumni Annual Fund; Board of Trustees; class year; college; departments; reunion; titles, personal; and titles of works.
	captions/cutlines	End with a period if caption/cutline is a complete sentence. No period if it is not a complete sentence. Length is not the determining factor.
	Carleton College Voice	Italicize the formal name of the College’s alumni magazine; less formally, the Voice.
	The Carletonian	Italicize the formal name of the College’s student newspaper.
	Carleton Student Association	Capitalize the formal name of the student governing body; no periods in CSA.
	cities	See state names.
	class titles	See course titles.
	class year	No comma before it, no parentheses around it, and make sure that the apostrophe that takes the place of the “19” or “20” is a real apostrophe, not a single open quote: Becky Loraas Zrimsek ’89 Capitalize the word class when it refers to a specific year: “The Class of ’56 presented a gift to support science technology.”
	college	When referring to Carleton, capitalize the word college: “the College’s policy is”; “the College archivist.” But: “one of the crucial questions facing every college.”
	comma	Use the serial comma: “Abe, Bob, and Camille.” In a series consisting of three or more elements, the elements are separated by commas. When a conjunction joins the last two elements, use a comma before the conjunction. (See Chicago 6.19–6.20.) Follow Chicago 6.31 on punctuating nonrestrictive clauses—for example, “My husband, Gabe, liked touring the campus” (since the speaker has only one husband, the construction is “nonrestrictive” and the name is set off with commas), but “My three girls, including my daughter Kate” (Kate is one of several, thus “restrictive,” thus no comma). See also Jr., Sr.
	Commencement	Capitalize when it refers to the Carleton event in June.
	compound words	In general, use Merriam-Webster's to determine whether or not to hyphenate or to spell solid or open: clear–cut, workweek, chain saw. To avoid ambiguity, hyphenate compound modifiers preceding a noun: “the compound-modifier issue.” If the compound is in the dictionary, ambiguity is unlikely: “a high school student.” Do not hyphenate when the first word of a compound modifier is an adverb ending in -ly: “a badly remembered past.”
	convocation	Capitalize only when it is modified by an equally important adjective, transforming it into a special event: Honors Convocation and Opening Convocation, for example. Otherwise, use lowercase: “The convocation speaker was Sylvia Rhyne ’78.”
	course titles	Capitalize and use quotation marks: His course “Bandits, Outlaws, and Other Rebels” was offered last fall. (Exception: In a long list of courses, e.g., the course catalog, omit quotation marks.)
	dates	Use month-day-year sequence (omit the year if it’s obvious). Use cardinal, not ordinal, numbers: June 30, not June 30th. Do not separate month and year sequence with a comma: September 2003.
	dean’s list	Lowercase
	departments	Use lowercase—except proper nouns: German and Russian department, biology department, sociology and anthropology department. Capitalize a department’s full, formal name: Department of Philosophy. (Follow Chicago 8.73.) Administrative departments: Unless it is the name of a publication (like the Voice) or a building (like the Alumni Guest House), lowercase the informal usage of all campus offices: admissions office, alumni affairs office, dean of students' office, development office. Capitalize the formal name: the Perlman Learning and Teaching Center, the Math Skills Center, the Wellness Center, the Office of College Relations.
	electronic addresses	Never any spaces between characters; no period at end unless it’s the end of a sentence; all lowercase Break an electronic address on either side of a slash (keep two slashes together) or at a period, which goes at the beginning rather than at the end of a line. Don’t break at a hyphen (or, if necessary, break before, not after, a hyphen), and never add a hyphen.
	ellipses	Use periods separated by spaces on all sides except when ending a sentence: “The class . . . read Dickens enthusiastically.” “The class, as sophomores, read Dickens. . . . As seniors, they read Joyce.” Do not use the Microsoft Word version of ellipses.
	e-mail	Use the hyphen.
	em dash	No spaces around an em dash (—): “He knew—or thought he knew—he was right.”
	en dash	Follow Chicago 6.83–6.86: New York–style hot dog, post–Civil War, 1979–83.
	faculty/staff	These are singular nouns, referring to groups en masse: “The faculty is granted certain privileges under the charter.” To make it plural, or to refer to individual professors, use “faculty members”: “Faculty members expressed concern over the proposal.” The same is true of staff: “the staff is,” but “staff members are.”
	foreign words	Use italics for words not listed in Merriam-Webster’s.
	fractions	Spell out fractions: two and a half years; one-fifth. (See also percent.)
	full time/part time	Use as a noun: “I work full time.”
	full-time/part-time	Use as an adjective: “I have a full-time job.”
	geographical terms	The West, the Western world, Western civilization; the Midwest; the East; the industrialized North; the developing South; the third world. Follow Chicago 8.46–8.50.
	Gould Library	The formal title of Carleton’s library is the Laurence McKinley Gould Library (capitalize). Other references include: Gould Library (capitalize), the library (lowercase) and the libe (lowercase).
	graduated	“He graduated from college,” never “He graduated college.”
	hyphens	Follow Chicago 6.82 (on hyphen use with numbers) and 7.82–7.90 (on compound words).
	initials	Use a space between initials: R. S. Smith, W. E. B. DuBois.
	italics	Court cases: Roe v. Wade Foreign words not listed in Merriam-Webster’s See also titles of works.
	Jr., Sr.	In contemporary usage, no longer preceded by a comma: Robert A. Oden Jr.
	liberal arts	No hyphen, even when it’s used as an adjective: “a liberal arts environment”
	maiden name	See birth name.
	majors	See departments.
	middle initials	Not necessary except in formal usage, or where someone with a common name (say, John Smith) might otherwise be confused with someone else. Be alert to cases in which a middle initial stands in for a woman’s birth name, and substitute the full name for the initial. (See also birth name and initials.)
	months	Spell out in text. (See also dates.)
	names, personal	In text, first reference should include full name; later references last name only. Repeat first name only to avoid confusion with someone else with the same last name.
	newspaper names	If the name of a newspaper you’re citing includes the city but not the state, and the city is not on the Associated Press Stylebook’s list of stand-alone cities (see Associated Press Stylebook under “Datelines”), use the following style: “Oberlin (Ohio) News-Tribune.” Note that the name of the Star Tribune, which is published in the Twin Cities, does not include a city name.
	nicknames	Use quotation marks, not parentheses, for nicknames: Muriel “Tootsie” Smith Jones ’45.
	numbers	Spell out one through nine. Use numerals for 10 and up. Follow style for ages as well: “a six-year-old boy,” “a 47-year-old man.” Exceptions for consistency: “five or ten years from now”
	percent	Spell out and always use a numeral: 7 percent.
	photo captions	See captions/cutlines.
	possessives	Singular common nouns that end in s: add ’s “the class’s graduation party” Singular proper nouns that end in s: add ’s Davis’s book, Texas’s laws, Congress’s deadline Plural common nouns that end in s: add only an apostrophe “the three dogs’ bowl” Proper nouns with plural form: add only an apostrophe Los Angeles’, United States’, General Motors’
	prefixes/suffixes	Follow Chicago 7.90.
	president of Carleton	In a first reference to President Oden, give his title and full name: “President Robert A. Oden Jr.” (no comma). Thereafter, refer to him as “President Oden.” But, “Robert Oden is the president of Carleton College” (lowercase “president”). (See also titles, personal.)
	quotation marks, punctuation with	Always place commas and periods inside quotation marks. Follow Chicago for the use of exclamation points (6.79), question marks (6.75), and semicolons (6.9) with quotation marks.
	quotes or italics	Follow Chicago 8.164–8.208: titles of poems, short stories, and short musical compositions in quotes; titles of periodicals, books, plays, movies, paintings, and long musical compositions in italics. (See also titles of works.)
	résumé	Use the accents.
	reunion	To avoid ambiguity, capitalize only in references to the official Carleton-sponsored event held every June: “She came back to campus for Reunion,” but “He enjoyed a quick reunion with friends after Thanksgiving,” “the 50th-reunion class.”
	sports	Use en dashes, not hyphens, in scores: “Carleton defeated St. Olaf 49–6.” In describing events that include distance, add a hyphen for compound adjectives (“the men’s 100-meter dash”), but not when the phrase is used as a noun (“He ran the 100 meters”). Note, too, that “meter” (or “yard”) is singular in the former instance, plural in the latter. Lowercase names of individual sports: rugby, men’s cross-country, volleyball Exception: Ultimate Frisbee
	staff, staff members	See faculty/staff.
	state names	Spell out in text. Use two-letter postal abbreviations (no periods) only in addresses, with zip code. There is no need to use state names with the cities listed in the Associated Press Stylebook under “Datelines.” To this list, we add Northfield and St. Paul.
	student organizations	See Carleton Student Association.
	telephone numbers	Use hyphens between sets of numbers: 507-222-1234.
	television/TV	Spell out as a noun; OK to abbreviate as an adjective.
	terms, academic	Lowercase: fall term, spring term, summer break.
	theater	Spell it theater—unless Theatre is part of an organization’s official name, and then use it only in the full name.
	titles, personal	Capitalize when they precede a name as a courtesy title; use lowercase when they follow the name or stand alone. Always place long titles after a name. Use lowercase for descriptive titles (“history professor Harry Williams”) before or after a name; consider former titles to be descriptive. Follow Chicago 8.21–8.35. Examples: “Nancy Cho, associate professor of English,” but “Professor Cho” (note that the honorific doesn’t distinguish between professorial ranks); “development officer David Quanbeck”; “Dean Shelby Boardman”; “Paul Thiboutot, dean of admissions”; “trustee Elisabeth Steele” Capitalize named professorships and place them after the name: “Perry Mason, John E. Sawyer Professor of Philosophy and Liberal Learning” Emeritus professors use their last active title followed by emeritus or emerita: “W. Hartley Clark, professor emeritus”;“John Smith, professor emeritus of history”; “Bardwell Smith, John W. Nason Professor of Religion and Asian Studies, emeritus” Spell out titles preceding names: “Senator [not Sen.] Paul Wellstone taught at Carleton.” “General [not Gen.] Colin Powell is a member of the Bush administration.” Avoid honorifics like Dr., Rev., and Esq.
	titles of works	Titles in italics: book, magazine, online magazine, newspaper, movie, play, long poem, work of art, opera or other long musical composition, television program or series, art exhibition, record album (vinyl, tape, CD), video, radio program Titles in quotes: comic strip, short story, short poem, song or other short musical composition, episode of TV series, college course (quote marks are not necessary in college catalogs or as part of a long list of course titles) Titles roman (no quotes or italics): newspaper/magazine column, computer program, computer game, Web site
	trademarks	Capitalize trademarks (trademark symbol is not necessary).
	T-shirt	Always capitalize the T.
	Ultimate Frisbee	Capitalize (Frisbee is a brand name).
	United States	Spell out as noun, abbreviate as adjective: “She returned to the United States,” but “the U.S. representative to Japan.”
	Voice, the	Carleton College Voice (italics, no quotes) or the Voice (not The Voice)
	Web site	Two words, Web always capitalized. See Merriam-Webster’s for other Web-related words.
	which/that	That is a restrictive, or defining, pronoun; it introduces a phrase or clause that is essential to the meaning of the sentence. Which is a nonrestrictive, or descriptive, pronoun; the phrase or clause it introduces, which is usually set off by commas, could be eliminated without changing the meaning of the sentence.
	World Wide Web	Capitalize: the Web, Web site, Web page. But: webcam, webcast, webmaster.