Copy style guide

Spell out on first use in most cases; don’t use periods, i.e., the Associated Students of Washington State University Vancouver holds elections annually. The ASWSUV vote takes place in March. Use acronyms only for the following:

• AAUW (formerly known as American Association of University Women)
• P.E.O. (women’s educational organization uses periods in its formal title)

Other widely recognized abbreviations: AARP, AFL-CIO, ASAP, CIA, FBI, GOP, NAACP, NATO.

However, because some abbreviations could refer to more than one group (AMA could mean American Medical Association or American Marketing Association), it is seldom wrong to spell out an organization name.

Although it is acceptable to use the slang term “alum” in casual conversation, it should generally not be used in written communications. Exception: “Nominate a notable alum” in a headline. [Because “Nominate a notable alumnus or alumna” wouldn’t make a good typographic element in an ad, flyer or email.] The formal name of the award at WSU Vancouver is the Notable Alumni Award.

Alumnus – this is a male who has graduated or has earned the required number of credits. It is a singular term, referring to one person, who is male.

Alumna – this is a female who has graduated or has earned the required number of credits. It is a singular term, referring to one person, who is female.

Alumni – this is a plural term, referring to a group or groups of two or more males only and/or groups of males and females who have graduated or earned the required credits.

Alumnae – this is a plural term, referring exclusively to a group or groups of two or more females who have graduated or earned the required credits. Remembering that for every rule there is an exception, here is one — there are some people who use the term “alumni” for “alumnae,” largely because more readers are likely to understand the first term. For our purposes, it’s best to use the term that your audience would want.

See also, “class year” and “nondegree holder.”

Capitalize only when used in their entirety, in the formal sense: The Board of Regents meets monthly. Lowercase in other uses: The regents guide and support the college. Capitalize regent only when used before a name in a formal sense: Regent Mike Worthy lives in Vancouver. Scott Carson is a regent.

WSU Vancouver class years should be listed like this: Butch T. Cougar ’98. For alumni couples: Butch ’98 and Kitty Cougar ’00. For couples with only one alumnus/a: Butch and Kitty Cougar ’00 or Butch ’98 and Kitty Cougar. (Also see “maiden name.”) The apostrophe before the class year must curve to the left – ’ not ‘ – and must be created manually by one of the following methods:

• Press the following three keys together: Option + Shift + Close Bracket ( ] )
• Hit the apostrophe key twice and then delete the first one.

Do not use commas before the words “and” and “or” in a series; e.g., Please complete sections one, two and three of the financial aid application. Exceptions include some official documents, such as the Commencement program and the college catalog. Use commas before and after a spouse’s name: He and his wife, Veronica, have two children. Do not use commas with “Inc.”; e.g., Cisco Systems Inc.

Use an em (long) dash—no space on either side—when setting off text with a dash. Exception: Use spaces around the dash in datelines (VANCOUVER, Wash. — The college is building a new parking lot.) Note the following:

• A hyphen denotes a single term (blue-green).
• An N-dash indicates a range (10 – 20).
• An M-dash provides emphasis (The man—a frightening apparition—demanded money).

Do not include .00 as you would when the dollar amount includes cents; e.g., Tickets cost $50; not Tickets cost $50.00. For amounts less than $1, use the word cents, i.e., Raffle tickets cost 50 cents each, not $.50. For amounts of $1 up to $999,999.99, use the dollar sign. For amounts of $1 million or more, omit zeroes and spell out the word. Also, don’t break these amounts at the end of a line, even in justified copy. The amount should read clearly as $1 million, not $1 million.

In general, do not hyphenate words beginning with “post,” “pre” and “co,” e.g., postdoctorate, preregister, cocurricular, coeducational. However, retain the hyphen with “co” when forming nouns, adjectives and verbs that indicate occupation or status, e.g., co-author, co-founder, co-chairman, co-worker. For “non,” the rules of prefixes apply, but in general no hyphen when forming a compound that does not have special meaning and can be understood if not is used before the base word, e.g., nontraditional. Use a hyphen before proper nouns or in awkward combinations, e.g., non-Western, non-nuclear. Also: Do not use hyphens with adverbs ending in “ly,” e.g., highly developed technology, environmentally responsible students.

On first use, always include the person’s complete proper name; on second reference, use only the last name; e.g., “Enrollment in the program has risen,” according to David Harris. “It has continued to grow throughout the last five years,” Harris said. You may use first names on second reference when subjects within the same article have the same last name, such as siblings and spouses.

ALSO:

• Do not use courtesy titles; e.g., Mr., Mrs., Ms., Miss.
• Abbreviate as Jr. and Sr. only with full names. Do not precede by a comma; e.g, John Jones Jr.
• Nicknames may be included on first reference after the formal name; e.g., Jonathan David “J.D.” Hall ’95.
• In alumni magazine news: Follow the last-name-on-second-reference rule throughout, EXCEPT Class Notes, where the first name is used on second reference.

Spell out zero through nine, use numerals for 10 and above. Spell out numbers at the beginning of a sentence, or, if necessary, recast or rewrite the sentence. However, a number that identifies a calendar year may be used at the start of a sentence; e.g., 2010 was a very good year.

Some exceptions in which numerals are always used for zero through nine:

• Ages: She has a 2-year-old daughter. Her daughter is 2 years old. They have three sons, 2, 4 and 6.
• Times: 2 a.m., not two a.m.
• Dimensions: He built a 4-foot-long fence. He is 5 feet 6 inches tall. The storm left 5 inches of snow.
• ALSO: No. 3 choice, 5 percent pay raise, a ratio of 2-to-1.

For more, see “numerals” in the AP Stylebook.

“Over” is a descriptor of physical location (as in over the hill); “more than” is a descriptor of quantity. Use more than when referring to quantities; e.g., The event raised more than $1 million; not over $1 million. Or: More than 800 individuals attended the concert; not Over 800 individuals attended.

Periods and commas always go inside the quotation marks; e.g., WSU Vancouver is great. The dash, semicolon and question mark go within the quotation marks when they apply exclusively to the matter being quoted; e.g., He asked, “Why is WSU Vancouver great?”. They go outside when they apply to the whole sentence: Did I just hear you say, “WSU Vancouver is great”?

Spell out state names when the city or town is not in the same state as the dateline, or where necessary to avoid confusion: Portland, Oregon, or Portland, Maine.

Exceptions:

Use AP Style state abbreviations in the magazine and, if desired, in brochures, posters, etc. (See AP Stylebook for the list of those abbreviations.)
Use U.S. Postal Service abbreviations (listed below) when using complete addresses; e.g., The college is located at 14204 NE Salmon Creek Ave., Vancouver, WA 98686. (Note that area codes are necessary in online communications, such as email invitations, so that Google Maps can identify the location when a reader clicks on it.)
Post office abbreviations:

Post office abbreviations listed by state name and two letter abbreviation.

Select a StateAlabama (AL)Alaska (AK)Arizona (AZ)Arkansas (AR)California (CA)Colorado (CO)Connecticut (CT)Delaware (DE)District Of Columbia (DC)Florida (FL)Georgia (GA)Hawaii (HI)Idaho (ID)Illinois (IL)Indiana (IN)Iowa (IA)Kansas (KS)Kentucky (KY)Louisiana (LA)Maine (ME)Maryland (MD)Massachusetts (MA)Michigan (MI)Minnesota (MN)Mississippi (MS)Missouri (MO)Montana (MT)Nebraska (NE)Nevada (NV)New Hampshire (NH)New Jersey (NJ)New Mexico (NM)New York (NY)North Carolina (NC)North Dakota (ND)Ohio (OH)Oklahoma (OK)Oregon (OR)Pennsylvania (PA)Rhode Island (RI)South Carolina (SC)South Dakota (SD)Tennessee (TN)Texas (TX)Utah (UT)Vermont (VT)Virginia (VA)Washington (WA)West Virginia (WV)Wisconsin (WIWyoming (WY)

Other notes about state names:

• Use a comma before and after the state; e.g., The event was held in Helena, Montana, on Nov. 15, 2010. They live in Washington, D.C., and work at the White House.
• Do not include the state name for cities well known to our audiences, e.g., Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, and for other well-known cities nationwide. (See list below.)

U.S. cities that do NOT require a state name:

Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Honolulu, Houston, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland (when it’s Oregon), Spokane, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver (when referring to the city in Washington state as opposed to the one in British Columbia).

International cities that do NOT require a country name:

Amsterdam, Baghdad, Bangkok, Beijing, Beirut, Berlin, Bagota, Brussels, Cairo, Copenhagen, Djibouti, Dublin, Frankfurt, Geneva, Gibraltar, Guatemala City, Hamburg, Havana, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Islamabad, Istanbul, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, Kabul, Kuwait City, London, Luxembourg, Macau, Madrid, Mexico City, Milan, Monaco, Montreal, Moscow, Munich, New Delhi, Oslo, Ottawa, Panama City, Paris, Prague, Quebec City, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, San Marino, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Vatican City, Vienna, Zurich.

Determine if the usage is a formal name. If so, uppercase. If not, lowercase.

• departments and programs – Department of Biology is the formal name; biology department is the reference. Office of Marketing and Communications is the formal name; marketing and communications office is the reference. However, if any of the words for a department or program are formal names, capitalize only those words, but do not capitalize the word program or department, e.g., English department.
• job titles – Capitalize and spell out when the title is used in its formal sense before the name, i.e., Associate Professor of Computer Sciences Butch T. Cougar has published his research on Web use. Preferred use is to put the title after the name and use lower case, i.e., Butch T. Cougar, associate professor of computer sciences, has published his research.
• college – Clark College is the formal name; college is a reference: Beverly works at Clark College. She likes working at the college.
• publications – Chicago Manual of Style, but the manual; The Columbian, but the newspaper; Journal of Neuroscience, but the journal.

Remove hyperlink so text is not underlined. If Web or email listing comes at the end of a sentence, place a period following the listing. Make sure website addresses are not underlined or hyperlinked. http:// and www. are not necessary for most addresses. Include vancouver.wsu.edu in every promotional piece(e.g., “Save the Date” cards and fliers), unless advised otherwise.