Editorial Style Guide

Welcome to the Arts & Sciences Style Guide. Using a style guide helps eliminate inconsistencies in spelling, punctuation and grammar. This style guide is based primarily on the Associated Press Stylebook, which is used by most American newspapers as well as many college and university communications offices. It works well for web audiences because, like newspaper readers, they tend to scan the text rather than read every word.

This reference page contains style guidelines specific to Arts & Sciences and addresses some frequently asked style questions.

General

• The South Lawn Project (not SLP)
• Official name: College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
• Arts & Sciences (not Arts and Sciences)
• U.Va. (not UVA or UVa)
• When listing major and graduation year: James Johnson (English '06)
• first-year, second-year, third-year, fourth-year student (not freshman, sophomore, junior, senior)
• Names of months are spelled out in text when NOT accompanied by a specific date: She graduated in May 2005. The following months are abbreviated when accompanied by a date: Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec.: The fall semester begins on Aug. 15.
• Time of day: 9 a.m., 7:45 a.m., 2:30 p.m.
• advisor (not adviser)
• professor (not prof.)
• Internet (not internet)
• website (not web site, Website, Web site)
• webpage (not web page, Web page, Webpage)
• African American; Native American; Asian American
• Do not use a comma before Jr., Sr., II, III, etc. For example: James Johnson Jr.; James Johnson III.
• On the web, URLs should always include the http:// prefix: For example: To obtain more information; visit the University’s website at http://www.virginia.edu. In print, you can drop the http://www prefix. For example: To obtain more information; visit the University’s website at virginia.edu.
• Use percent (not per cent; or %): The professor noted that 7 percent of his students had failed the test.
• No double spaces between sentences

Headers

• In headers, capitalize the first letter of every noun: For example: Completion of a Major
• If the header is a complete sentence, use down-style capitalization, where only the first word and any proper nouns are capitalized. For example: The registration deadline is Dec. 1.

Punctuation

• Use a comma to separate elements in a series, but do not put a comma before "and" and "or" in a simple series: The flag is red, white and blue.
• Periods and commas always appear inside the closing quotation mark: Sign your name wherever you see an "X." On the web, the period at the end of the sentence is currently outside the quotation marks: "X".
• Question marks can appear inside or outside quotation marks, depending on the meaning:
  Who wrote "Gone With the Wind"?
  He asked, "How long will it take?"
• The titles of published books are put in quotation marks: The title of his second collection of short stories, "I Got Somebody in Staunton," was recently honored as a 2006 finalist for the prestigious PEN/Faulkner Prize for Fiction.

Abbreviations

• U.Va. (no spaces) for University of Virginia
• B.A., B.S. (no space after first period) for bachelor of arts, bachelor of science.
• Ed.D., Ph.D. for doctor of education, doctor of philosophy. Exception: when listed in parentheses after a name. For example: James Johnson (PhD English ’06)

Capitalization

• Professional titles are not capitalized unless they precede the person’s name: Dean Ed Ayers; Ed Ayers, dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.
• Capitalize the name of university units when the official title is used: Corcoran Department of History. Lowercase other uses: the history department. Exception: capitalize the names of languages. For example: the English department; the French department.
• In informal references to the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences: College (not college). Graduate School (not graduate school).
• When referring to U.Va.: University (not university)
• Lowercase informal titles of degrees: She received her master’s degree in education from the Curry School.
• The names of endowed chairs are always capitalized, whether or not they are accompanied by a person’s name:
  Ed Ayers, Hugh P. Kelly Professor of History
  The Hugh P. Kelly Professor of History will teach this ongoing seminar
  

Hyphens

• email (lowercase, without a hyphen)
• In general, hyphenate compound modifiers: On-Grounds program
• Fundraising, fundraiser (preferred use is without a hyphen or a space)
• Nonprofit, postgraduate, preadmission

Dashes

• Use an "em dash" to set off parenthetical content that deserves emphasis (insert a space before and after the em dash): COM 110 ─ an introduction to college-level communication ─ is required of all students.
• Use an "en dash" to indicate time and number ranges: 2006−07; Monday−Friday.

Bullet Points

Avoid using bullet points for long chunks of text. Limit individual bulleted items to 3 lines or fewer of text. For example: Keep in mind the following expectation of you after admission:

• Of the 120 hours required for the B.A. degree in the College, you will have to complete a minimum of 30 credit hours and two semesters of full-time study in residence in the College.
• You will be expected to complete the B.A. degree in the remaining prorated full-time semesters, as determined by the Dean for Transfer Students, or in Summer Session. You will normally not be granted a ninth full-time semester.

Contact Information

• Mailing addresses should follow the following format:
  College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
  University of Virginia
  Garrett Hall
  P.O. Box 400133
  Charlottesville VA 22904-4133
• For addresses in running copy, use commas to separate elements:
  Please direct inquiries to the Office of Admission, University of Virginia, P.O. Box 400160, Charlottesville VA 22904.
• Telephone numbers should be listed as follows: (434) 243-0244 (always place the area code in parentheses). A "1" should not precede the area code.
• When listing an individual’s contact information, it should be in the following order:
  Scot French, associate professor
  
  Minor Hall 102
  (434) 924-3109

Numbers

• Use numerals for 10 and up: Nine students are enrolled in the course, down from 12 participants last year.
• Ages and percentages are always expressed as numerals: 1 percent
• Use commas in numbers greater than 1,000
• For dollar amounts, use the figure and a dollar sign: The book cost $10.
• Always use figures with "million" or "billion": The nation has 1 million citizens. I need $7 billion.

Image Naming Convention

This naming convention is for all A&S and ICMS images image files.

All image file names

Maximum 31 characters. If it is longer, shorten as needed while retaining the date and last name portions.

No spaces or symbols (Just numbers and letters)

Include TN at the end for Thumbnail images

Images of people

LastnameFirstnameYYMM
LastnameFirstnameYYMMTN (for thumbnails)
LastnameFirstnameYYMM01, LastnameFirstnameYYMM02 (if many images in same month)

Example: If multiple images of Ed Ayers are added March, 2006 save them as

• AyersEd060301
• AyersEd060302
• AyersEd060301TN
• AyersEd060302TN

If more than one person in the image, include both names from left to right names in order as they appear:

LastnameLastNameLastNameYYMM
LastnameLastNameLastNameYYMMTN

Example: An Image of Nancy Ryan and Ed Ayers would be saved as

• RyanNancyAyersEd0708
• RyanNancyAyersEd0708TN

Images of buildings, objects, non-people

NameOfObjectYYMM
NameOfObjectYYMMTN

Example:

The image would be saved as description of image followed by the date the image was created (if date created is unknown, use the date it was last modified)

• Frog0708
• Frog0708TN

Images of/with text, story titles

TextFromImageYYMM
TextFromImageYYMMTN

Example:
This image would be saved as:

• NewStudentGuide0708
• NewstudentGuide0708TN

Image from print Publication(Note: Use underscore and hyphen if image is of actual page)

NameofPublicationYYMMPageNumber
NameofPublicationYYMMPageNumberTN

Example:

An Image name for the Cover or image an of a Page of Arts & Sciences Magazine would contain the publication name, date, page number:

• ASMag0707Cover
• ASMag0707P1-2
• ASMag0707P1-2TN

Copyright Protection

• Permission is required for reprinting art, graphics and material from books, newspapers and magazines. Contact the source to obtain permission to reprint content or to link to the copyrighted material online.
• If photos are used on the website, credit must be given to the photographer.

Nondiscriminatory Language

• Avoid using he, him or his to refer to people in general. Recast the sentence in the plural so that ''they,'' them or ''their'' can be used.
• Use ''chair'' (not chairman, chairwoman).
• Use ''disabled'' (not handicapped).