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Le Moyne Style Guide

The Le Moyne College Style Guide was created to serve as a resource to members of the College community. It outlines the guidelines followed by the College’s Office of Communications in preparing text for internal and external audiences, including copy for posters, brochures, the Web and Le Moyne College Magazine. In general, the College follows the AP Style Guide, and many of the most common entries in that guide are included in the College guide. Other entries are specific to Le Moyne.

If you have any suggestions for additional entries to the Le Moyne College Style Guide, please contact Molly McCarthy at [email protected].

Abbreviations

Abbreviate the following titles when used before a full name outside direct quotations: Dr., Gov., Lt. Gov., Mr., Ms., Mrs., Rep., the Rev., Sen. Spell out all except Dr., Mr., Ms. and Mrs. when they are used before a name in direct quotations.

Abbreviate “junior” or “senior” after an individual’s name. No comma is necessary.

Abbreviate “company,” “corporation,” “incorporated” and “limited” when used after the name of a corporate entity. No comma is needed.

Abbreviate “avenue,” “boulevard” and “street” in numbered addresses. All similar words, including “alley,” “drive,” “road,” “terrace,” etc., should be spelled out.

Use the following state abbreviations in conjunction with a name of a city, town, village or military base: Ala. (AL), Ariz. (AZ), Ark. (AR), Calif. (CA), Colo., Conn. (CT), Del. (DE), Fla. (FL), Ga. (GA), Ill. (IL), Ind. (IN), Kan. (KS), Ky. (KY), La. (LA), Md. (MD), Mass. (MA), Mich. (MI), Minn. (MN), Miss. (MS), Mo. (MO), Mont. (MT), Neb. (NE), Nev. (NV), N.H. (NH), N.J. (NJ), N.M. (NM), N.Y. (NY), N.C. (NC), N.D. (ND), Okla. (OK), Ore. (OR), Pa. (PA), R.I. (RI), S.C. (SC), S.D. (SD), Tenn. (TN), Vt. (VT), Va. (VA), Wash. (WA) W.Va. (WV), Wis. (WI) and Wyo. (WY). (Note: Spell out the names of the 50 U.S. states when they stand alone in textual material; the names of the eight states that are never abbreviated are: Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas and Utah. Do not use the two-letter postal abbreviations except in tables or complete addresses, including street number, street and ZIP code. Specify New York state or New York City, as well as Washington state, to avoid confusion.)

Academic Degrees

When mentioning an academic degree to establish someone’s credentials, the preferred form is to use a phrase such as “doctorate in history,” “master’s degree in English” or bachelor’s degree in computer science.” Note: There is no possessive in Bachelor of Arts or Master of Science. Also, an associate degree is not possessive.

Academic Divisions at Le Moyne

College of Arts and Sciences
Kathy '66 and John '65 Purcell School of Professional Studies
Madden School of Business

Acronyms

Some acronyms such as FBI, IRS and NBA are highly familiar and should be used without spelling the entire name. For example: Le Moyne College junior Sara Smith completed an internship at the FBI this summer.

For others that are less familiar, spell out the entire name in the first reference, followed by the acronym in parentheses. For example: The Contemporary Catholic Trends (CCT) poll conducted last month asked respondents about their views on a number of subjects.

ACT
Use the initials only when referring to this college entrance exam.

Adobe Acrobat
Software for creating, displaying and printing PDF files.

Advisor
Not adviser

Afterward
Not afterwards

AJCU
Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. There are 28 members:Boston College, Canisius College, College of the Holy Cross, Creighton University, Fairfield University, Fordham University, Georgetown University, Gonzaga University, John Carroll University, Le Moyne College, Loyola College in Maryland, Loyola Marymount University, Loyola University Chicago, Loyola University New Orleans, Marquette University, Regis University, Rockhurst University, Saint Joseph's University, Saint Louis University, Saint Peter's College, Santa Clara University, Seattle College, Spring Hill College, University of Detroit Mercy, University of San Francisco, University of Scranton, Wheeling Jesuit University and Xavier University

Alphabetization

Complete lists of items – such as student groups, majors offered and parking lots on campus – should be listed alphabetically.

Alumnus, Alumni, Alumna, Alumnae

Use alumnus (alumni in the plural) when referring to a man who has attended a school. Use alumna (alumnae in the plural) for similar references to a woman. Use alumni when referring to a group of men and women.

Ampersand (&)

Use the ampersand when it is part of a company’s formal name or composition title: House & Garden, Procter & Gamble, etc. It is also used in Le Moyne department names. The ampersand should not otherwise be used in place of and.

a.m., p.m.

Lowercase, with periods. Avoid the redundant 10 a.m. this morning.

Annual Events

Commencement (capitalized). Typically the 3rd Sunday in May.

Reunion Weekend (capitalized). Typically two weeks after Commencement.

Deans’ Scholars Dinner (capitalized). Typically the Friday of Family Weekend.

Family Weekend (capitalized).

Founders’ Day (capitalized). Typically in mid-October

Young Alumni Weekend (capitalized).

Boards

Capitalize the Board of Trustees, Board of Regents and Alumni Board of Governors (an exception to the AP Style Guide)

Capitalization

Capitalize titles when they appear before a name, but not after.

Professor John E. Adams
John E. Adams, professor

Do not capitalize titles when they appear without a name:
The project is being coordinated by the College’s vice president.

Centers at Le Moyne College

Center for Peace & Global Studies
Center for the Study of Environmental Change (CSEC)
Center for Urban & Regional Applied Research (CURAR)
Tim and Kathleen '81 Keenan Center for Entrepreneurship
Donald J. Savage Sr. ’51 and Family Center for Reflective Leadership.

Class Years

An individual’s class year should be included whenever possible and should be noted in the following way: John Smith ’66. When referring to a couple who graduated during the same year, the class year only needs to be used once after their names. For example, John and Marie Smith ’66.

College

Capitalize College when referring to Le Moyne, even in cases where the word Le Moyne is not used.

Coursework

One word

Courtesy Titles

Refer to individuals by their first and last name: Ann Jones or William Jones. Use the courtesy titles of Mr., Miss, Ms. and Mrs. only in direct quotes and in certain situations such as: when it is necessary to distinguish between two people with the same last name.

Departments

Capitalize when using the proper name of an academic department, i.e., Department of Education; lowercase in informal references, i.e., education department.

FAFSA

Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

Fundraising/ fundraiser

One word in all cases.

FTP

File transfer protocol, a common procedure for transferring files on the Internet. The acronym is acceptable in the second reference.

Full time/ Full-time

Hyphenate when used as an adjective. She is a full-time student. She attends Le Moyne full time.

HTML

Hypertext markup language

HTTP

Hypertext transfer protocol

LSPB

Spell out Le Moyne Student Programming Board in the first reference, use acronym in references after that.

Majors

The names of majors are not capitalized, except in the cases of proper nouns such as English, Spanish, etc.

Mass

Capitalize

Middle Atlantic States

As defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, they are: New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

Names of Places on Campus

Campus Center:

Curtin Special Events Room

James Commons

LaCasse Dining Center

Panasci Family Chapel

Drescher Community Room

Shanahan Chapel

Reilly Hall

Reilley Room (note the extra ‘e’)

In the Thomas J. Niland Athletic Complex

Vincent J. Ryan, S.J. Pool

Grant Court

Dick Rockwell Field

Veterans House

W. Carroll Coyne Center for the Performing Arts

Northeast-10 Conference

The conference in which all of Le Moyne’s 14 Division II teams participate. Le Moyne’s baseball and women’s lacrosse teams are Division I.

Numerals

Spell out the numbers zero though nine. Numerals are appropriate for sums of 10 and greater. However, all numbers should be spelled out if they are at the beginning of a sentence. For example: 1946 was the year Le Moyne College was founded.

Online

It is one word in all cases for the computer connection term.

PDF

Portable Document Format, a file for Adobe Acrobat.

Programs

Do not capitalize the names of programs such as gender & women’s studies program.

Punctuation

Apostrophes

Years are written as follows: “the students of the ’80s ”

Follow these guidelines for possessives:

Plural nouns not ending in s: add ’s, i.e., the alumni’s contribution, women’s rights

Plural nouns ending in s: add only an apostrophe, i.e., states’ rights, the girls’ toys

Nouns that are the same singular and plural: treat them the same as plurals, i.e., the two deer’s tracks, one corps’ location

Singular nouns not ending in s: add ’s, i.e., the ship’s route, the horse’s food

Singular common nouns ending in s: add ’s unless the next word begins with s, i.e., the hostess’s invitation, the hostess’ seat, the witness’s answer, the witness’ story

Singular proper names ending in s: use only an apostrophe, i.e., Achilles’ heal, Dickens’ novels. (An exception is St. James’s Palace.)

Omitted letters: I’ve, it’s, don’t rock ’n roll

Omitted figures: The class of ’62, the Spirit of ’76

Colon

Use a comma to introduce a direct quotation of one sentence that remains within a paragraph. Use a color to introduce long quotations within a paragraph and to end all paragraphs that introduce a paragraph of quoted material.

Commas

Do not use a comma before the conjunction in a simple series. For example: She is studying calculus, English and history.

Do use a comma before the conjunction in a complex series: He ate toast, fruit, and ham and eggs for breakfast.

Dash

Use a dash to denote an abrupt change in thought in a sentence or an emphatic pause, i.e., We will fly to Paris in June – if I get a raise.

Use dashes when a phrase that would otherwise be set off by commas contains words that must be separated by commas, i.e., He listed the qualities – intelligence, humor, independence – that he admired in the executive.

Use dashes for attribution, i.e., “Who steals my purse steals trash.” – Shakespeare

Ellipsis

In general, treat an ellipsis as a three-letter word constructed of three periods and two spaces. Use an ellipsis to indicate the deletion of one or more words in condensing quotes, texts and documents. Be especially careful to avoid deletions that would distort the meaning. Example: I … tried to do what was best.

Periods

Should be used at the end of a complete sentence: The graduates picked up their caps and gowns.

Should be used in time designations such as 8 p.m.

Semicolon

In general, use the semicolon to indicate a greater separation of thought and information than a comma can convey but less than the separation by a period implies.

Use semicolons to separate elements of a series when the items in the series are long or when individual segments contain material that also must be set off by a comma, i.e., He is joined by a son, John Smith of Chicago; three daughters, Jane Smith, of Wichita, Kan., Mary Smith, of Denver, and Susan Smith, of Boston; and a sister, Martha Smith, of Omaha, Neb.

Religious Titles

Use the titles such as The Rev., The Most Rev., etc., before the names of vowed religious people. Do not use Rev. before the name of a member of the Society of Jesus. Instead, use the initials S.J. after their names, i.e., Jack Smith, S.J.

SAT

Use only the initials in referring to the previously designated Scholastic Aptitude Test.

Titles of Published Works and Titles of Addresses

Titles of books, computer games, Movies, operas, plays, poems, albums and songs should be italicized, i.e., The Catcher in the Rye. Titles of talks given on campus, however, should be in quotation marks. The titles of foreign works should be translated into English unless the work is known by the general public by its foreign name.