�Ӱ�ר��

This information is intended as a style guide for Web writing and content development to help us create one voice for the �Ӱ�ר��.

If your question is not covered below, see the Associated Press Stylebook. For spelling issues not covered here, consult Webster�Ӱ�ר���s New Collegiate Dictionary.

The following are common style issues, specific exceptions for or explanations for AP Style, and UL Lafayette spellings:

Abbreviations and Acronyms

• Per AP Style: do not write out the full name, such as American Bar Association, and then place the abbreviation in parentheses (ABA). If the abbreviation isn�Ӱ�ר���t clear from its placement or the meaning of the sentence, don�Ӱ�ר���t use the abbreviation.
• In general, only use abbreviations or acronyms that the general public would quickly recognize, such as FBI, IRS, NATO
• States should be abbreviated as shown below. Eight states should not be abbreviated: Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas and Utah.
   

• Two-letter Postal Service abbreviations should only be used with full addresses that include ZIP codes.

Letters should be sent to: �Ӱ�ר��

                                                    104 �Ӱ�ר�� Circle

                                                   Lafayette, LA  70503

• Abbreviate Jr. and Sr. with full names. A comma should not precede Jr. or Sr.

Bill Smith Sr. and John Deaux Jr. will speak at the conference.

• Use �Ӱ�ר���&�Ӱ�ר��� rather than �Ӱ�ר���and�Ӱ�ר��� in navigational links to avoid text wrapping 

Academic Degrees

• Capitalize and spell out the main words in degrees and capitalize abbreviations of degrees. Abbreviation of a degree name is acceptable on first reference.
  • Bachelor of Arts or B.A.
  • Bachelor of Fine Arts or B.F.A.
  • Bachelor of Science or B.S.
  • Doctor of Philosophy or Ph.D.
  • Master of Arts or M.A.
  • Master of Fine Arts or M.F.A.
  • Master of Business Administration or M.B.A.
  • Master of Science or M.S.
  • Doctor of Education or Ed.D
  • Master�Ӱ�ר���s plus 30
• Do not capitalize academic degrees used in a general sense. Note that �Ӱ�ר���bachelor�Ӱ�ר���s�Ӱ�ר��� and �Ӱ�ר���master�Ӱ�ר���s�Ӱ�ר��� end in �Ӱ�ר����Ӱ�ר���s.�Ӱ�ר���
  • a bachelor�Ӱ�ר���s degree
  • a master�Ӱ�ר���s degree
  • a doctoral degree or doctorate
  • associate degree, not associate�Ӱ�ר���s degree
• In references to an academic degree, the word �Ӱ�ר���degree�Ӱ�ר��� should not be capitalized.
  • He earned a Bachelor of Science degree. 
• Add a lowercase �Ӱ�ר���s�Ӱ�ר��� to make a degree abbreviation plural.
  • M.A.s, Ph.D.s
• When following a person�Ӱ�ר���s name, a comma should precede a qualifier, such as Ph.D. A second comma follows the qualifier in running text.
  • John Smith, Ph.D.
  • John Smith, Ph.D., spoke at commencement.

Academic Departments and Centers

• Capitalize proper nouns, titles and acronyms, and use lowercase for informal, shortened or generic terms.
  • Center for Advanced Computer Studies
  • CACS
  • John Smith, chair of the Department of Mathematics
  • the dean of the college; John Smith, dean of the College of Engineering
• Official colleges, departments, offices, etc. of the �Ӱ�ר�� should be presented with their full official name to indicate they are part of this institution:
  • the College of Engineering, not the engineering college
  • the School of Music, not the music school
  • the Office of Admissions, not the admissions office
• Colleges, departments, offices, etc. at other institutions may be lowercased or shortened.

Academic Titles

• Capitalize titles and spell them out when they immediately precede a proper noun. Titles following a name or used alone are lowercase.
  • Professor John Smith will retire after the spring semester ends.
  • John Smith, professor of English, will retire after the spring semester ends.
  • John Smith is a professor.
• Capitalize full names of endowments, such as professorships or chairs.
  • John Smith, Heymann/BORSF Professorship in Music I

 See Titles

Athletic Team Names

• The lead athletic team name is Louisianas Ragin�Ӱ�ר��� Cajuns_®. Teams may also be referred to as Ragin�Ӱ�ר��� Cajuns_®. Ragin�Ӱ�ר��� Cajuns_® is a federally registered trademark. It should always appear with the registered trademark symbol ® directly following the �Ӱ�ר���s�Ӱ�ר��� in Cajuns as a subscript (see examples in previous sentence).

Bullets

• Capitalize the first word in all bulleted lists.
• Treat all items within a bulleted list consistently in terms of capitalization, punctuation and sentence structure
• Do not use periods after each item in a list if the items are not complete sentences:

UL Lafayette�Ӱ�ר���s mobile app includes:

• A virtual tour
• Course directory
• Wallpapers

When lists contain complete, stand-alone sentences, use periods after each and capitalize each item.

Capitalization

• The word �Ӱ�ר����Ӱ�ר���Ӱ�ר��� should be capitalized if it is used alone per the UL Lafayette name use policy.
• Do not capitalize titles when used in apposition to a name: John Jones, associate vice president of planning.
• Capitalize titles when the full and formal title precedes the name: UL Lafayette President Dr. Joseph E. Savoie, Associate Professor John Deaux.
• Capitalize all titles when used in an address or headline.
• Generally, lowercase references to proper names when not used in full: the program, the college.
• Capitalize the full and correct names of offices, such as the Office of Admissions. Do not capitalize shorthand for an office, such as the admissions office.
• Capitalize the full and correct name of events, courses, and programs.
• Do not capitalize �Ӱ�ר���class,�Ӱ�ר��� as in �Ӱ�ר���class of 1973.�Ӱ�ר���
• Do not capitalize seasons: spring, summer, fall, winter
• Capitalize all the major words in page or section titles, subtitles and anchors. Minor words include conjunctions, articles, and prepositions.
• Capitalize all major navigation links appearing in the sites structure

Composition Titles

• Italicize stand-alone works, including book titles, movie titles, academic journal titles, play titles, television show titles, names of newspapers, names of magazines, works of art and musical compositions: Mary read War and Peace on the long train ride.
• Titles of book chapters, articles in academic journals or magazines, episodes of television shows, and titles of songs should be placed in quotation marks:
  Led Zeppelin�Ӱ�ר���s �Ӱ�ר���Stairway to Heaven�Ӱ�ר��� won the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 2003.

Date

• When citing dates, always abbreviate the following months: Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec.
  • Jan. 1, 2011
• Use a comma after the year in a sentence. Also use a comma when day and date are used in a sentence.
  • On Sept. 10, 1999, the �Ӱ�ר�� changed its name.
  • The seminar will be held Friday, March 4, 2011.
• No comma is used when only the month and year are used.
  • He received a bachelor�Ӱ�ר���s degree in May 2010. 
• The word �Ӱ�ר���annual�Ӱ�ר��� should not be capitalized unless it is part of a proper noun.
  • The company conducted its Annual Run for a Cure last week.
  • The annual Downtown Fun Run draws about 500 people.
• An event should not be referred to as an �Ӱ�ר���annual event�Ӱ�ר��� until it has been held for at least two consecutive years.
  • The first Race for a Cure will be held tomorrow. Organizers hope it will become an annual event.

Graduation Years

• To avoid ambiguity in historical articles, use the full year: George Washington, class of 1772, is a distinguished alumnus
• For more contemporary alums: George Washington, �Ӱ�ר���72, is a distinguished alumnus
• A single, closed quotation mark replaces the first two digits of the year a person graduated. In a list, a comma should not separate the person�Ӱ�ר���s name and graduation year. However, commas should be used before and after a graduation year in a sentence.
  • John Smith �Ӱ�ר���60
  • John Smith, �Ӱ�ר���60, went to work for NASA in October.

Web Terms

• Capitalize Internet (proper noun) but not intranet.
• Use website, not Web site.
• If a website address appears at the end of a sentence, it should be followed by a period.
• No hyphen or capitalization of email.
• Online is one word. On-screen is hyphenated.
• Readability
• Scalability
• Usability

Numbers

• Spell out numbers one through nine and use figures for 10 and greater, except when used with �Ӱ�ר���percent�Ӱ�ר��� or �Ӱ�ר���million�Ӱ�ר���
• Spell out �Ӱ�ר���percent�Ӱ�ר��� expect in tables, where % is acceptable
• Avoid starting a sentence with a number. If a sentence cannot be rewritten, the number should be spelled out unless it is a date year.
• When referring to dollar amounts in millions, use the number and �Ӱ�ר���million,�Ӱ�ר��� rather than the number and six zeros: $16 million, not $16,000,000
• For numbers greater than 999, use commas: $1,500 
• Make sure number comparisons are parallel.
  • Acceptable:  The grants will range from $16 million to $18 million.
  • Unacceptable: The grants will range from $16 to $18 million.

 Punctuation

• Commas
  • Use commas before last item in a series: a, b, and c
  • Use commas to set off nonessential clauses and phrases
  • Use commas to set off names of states, countries, after city name: the Selma, Ala., group saw the governor
  • Use commas in numbers higher than 999: 1,000,000

see Graduation Years

• Ellipses (...)
  • Use an ellipsis to show the deletion of one or more words in condensing quotes. In general, treat it as a three-letter word. If the ellipsis occurs at the end of a sentence, place a period at the end of the last word before the ellipsis. Follow it with a regular space and an ellipsis: You are coming of age in unsettling times. ...
• Em dash (�Ӱ�ר���)
  • Use to indicate emphasis or explanation, to define an complimentary element, or to denote a sudden break in thought
  • Do not add spaces before or after em dashes
• En dash (�Ӱ�ר���)
  • Use an en dash to connect continuing or inclusive dates, times, or reference numbers
  • Do not add spaces before or after en dashes
• Hyphen
  • Compounds with well, ill, better, best, little, lesser, full, are hyphenated before the noun but not after: she is a full-time employee because she works full time
  • Compounds consisting of noun plus adjective or noun plus participle are also hyphenated before the noun and open after (unless the hyphen is required to prevent misreading): decision-making procedures are in place so that decision making will be a snap
  • An adverb ending in ly followed by a participle or adjective is always opened: highly intelligent students
• Italics
  • Use italics for titles of complete, independent works: newspapers, books, magazines, movies, plays, etc. Put quotation marks around titles of works that are contained within other works, such as articles, or songs:
    Led Zeppelin�Ӱ�ר���s �Ӱ�ר���Stairway to Heaven�Ӱ�ר��� off the album Led Zeppelin IV won the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 2003.
  • Use italics for the full title of courses, when they appear in text (but not in a course schedule or listing.
• Quotation marks
  • Commas, periods, and question marks should always go inside quotation marks.
  • He asked, �Ӱ�ר���How long will it take?�Ӱ�ר���
  • �Ӱ�ר���I am not a crook,�Ӱ�ר��� President Richard Nixon said.
• Dashes, semicolons, question marks, and exclamation points go within quotation marks when they apply to the quoted matter only. They go outside when they apply to the whole sentence: Did you know that she said, �Ӱ�ר���Vermilion is my favorite color�Ӱ�ר���?  

Spacing

• Use one space, not two, between sentences and after colons, semicolons, commas, etc.
• Do not put spaces around en dashes or em dashes.
• Do not put spaces between initials.
• Insert one line space before and after bulleted lists, but not before or after bullets within the lists

Spellings

Time

• Use numbers in all cases and omit zeros for on-the-hour times. Use periods for a.m. and p.m. To avoid confusion, use noon and midnight instead of 12 p.m. and 12 a.m.
  • 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
  • 7:30 a.m. until noon 

�Ӱ�ר�� Name

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