Editorial Style Guide: Purdue Marketing Communications
Note: If you have a style question that is not addressed in
this guide, please direct your question to Emily Hunteman or Melanie
Hahn.
addresses
In return addresses and in running text, use the following style:
Return address:
Pfendler Hall, Room 128
715 W. State Street
West Lafayette, IN 47907-2061
Running text:
Pfendler Hall, Room 128, 715 W. State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2061
This style takes addresses
from the "Search Campus Addresses" site (http://www2.itap.purdue.edu/printsvc/mds/search/search.cfm)
and adds punctuation where necessary, particularly after compass points.
Note: When addressing an envelope to someone for a bulk
mailing, use U.S. Postal Service style — all capital letters and
no punctuation.
advisor
Affirmative Action Statement
See Appendix A, "Legal Statements, Disclaimers, and Verbiage."
"All-American" Marching Band
Big Ten
In this phrase, Ten is always spelled out.
The Big Ten, established in January 1895, actually has 11 conference
members: University of Illinois, Indiana University, University of Iowa,
University of Michigan, Michigan State University, University of Minnesota,
Northwestern University, The Ohio State University, The Pennsylvania
State University, Purdue University, and University of Wisconsin.
Board of Trustees
Capitalize Board of Trustees on its first use; thereafter,
use the board or the trustees when referring to that specific
group.
Boilermaker Special
The Boilermaker Special, Purdue's official mascot, resembles
a train locomotive. The fifth version of the Boilermaker Special was
dedicated September 25, 1993.
Boilermakers
When including Purdue's nickname in text, use the term Boilermakers.
Intercollegiate Athletics discourages use of the shortened form, Boilers,
but understands that there are exceptions, such as headlines and
cheers.
building names
In mailing addresses and running text, it is acceptable to use short
forms of building names, e.g., "Beering Hall" instead of "Steven C.
Beering Hall of Liberal Arts and Education."
If your client voices a preference for listing the whole name or using
an alternate short form such as "Beering Hall of Liberal Arts and Education,"
defer to the client and be consistent in this usage across the client's
publications. See Appendix B for a list of building names.
campus
Per President Jischke, lowercase the c in campus whenever
referring to particular Purdue locations — e.g., "West Lafayette
campus," "North Central campus," etc.
campus names
The following are the full names of the University and its campuses.
department names
Use
capitalization only when listing a department's formal title —
e.g., Department of Physics. Use lowercase when making generic or successive
references — e.g., "physics department" or "the department."
For named departments, try to use short forms
as much as possible:
Rueff Department of Visual and Performing
Arts — used as a first reference in most contexts; "the department"
used thereafter.
Patti and Rusty Rueff Department of Visual
and Performing Arts — full title; only used in a minority of contexts,
such as in a formal invitation or in a first reference of a discussion
of the Rueffs' gift to the department.
disabilities
The wording is "students with disabilities" as specified by the
Office for Civil Rights. Place emphasis on the person, not the disability.
In certain contexts, "students with special needs" might be the best
verbiage.
disclaimer
See
Appendix A, "Legal Statements, Disclaimers, and Verbiage."
dorm/dormitory
Do
not use. The preferred terminology is residence hall or residence.
dot-com
Online
business, usually selling retail goods and/or services to individual
consumers.
Dr.
Use
the title Dr. only when referring to a doctor of medicine, dentistry,
or veterinary medicine.
e-
Words
that start with e- (such as e-mail) should be capitalized only
at the beginning of a sentence or in a title.
em dash
An
em dash (—) should be placed in text with a space before and after.
Note: To create an em dash in Microsoft Word, hold down the shift and
option keys, then press the hyphen (-) key.
equal opportunity statement
(Title IX/EO statement)
See Appendix
A, "Legal Statements, Disclaimers, and Verbiage."
freshman
The
phrase first-year student is preferred; however, freshman
is still used in cases where a distinction needs to be made between
a beginning college student and someone who has transferred but is in
his/her first year at Purdue. Freshman also is acceptable in
headlines and in phrases such as "freshman class."
fundraising
The
term fundraising is to be written as one word with no hyphenation.
graduation rates statement
See
Appendix A, "Legal Statements, Disclaimers, and Verbiage."
home page
The
term home page is to be written as two words in lowercase letters.
Intercollegiate Athletics
Refer
to this Purdue entity as Intercollegiate Athletics, NOT as Athletic
Department, Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, or Athletics. In
addition, leave out the words "Division of" in references to this area.
Example:
Neovision is the official eyecare provider for Intercollegiate Athletics.
Jischke, Martin C.
Purdue's
10th president is referred to in text as President Martin C. Jischke
on the first mention; thereafter, use President Jischke.
listserv
Mr., Mrs., Ms.
Omit
courtesy titles in most contexts, including journalistic articles. This
style extends to Patty Jischke, who prefers to be listed as Patty Jischke
in most contexts, not as Mrs. Jischke.
E.g., President Martin C. and Patty Jischke
names, possessives of
Add
's to the end of a name to form the possessive.
E.g., Mark Simons's photos and Tom Walsh's
animation
For exceptions, see 7.20—22
in The Chicago Manual of Style.
nondiscrimination policy statement
See Appendix A, "Legal Statements, Disclaimers, and Verbiage."
numbers
Follow
the alternative rule in CMS 9.6: "[spell] out only single-digit numbers
and [use] numerals for all others." Ages, however, are always listed
as numerals, regardless of their being over or under 10.
Octoberbreak
The
official spelling is Octoberbreak — all one word, with
a lowercase "b."
online
The
term online is written as one word in all uses.
orphans
A
single word alone on the last line of a paragraph must have five or
more letters.
phone numbers
Format
phone numbers as follows:
49-48745 for on-campus publications
(765) 494-8745 for publications going off campus
(800) 555-1212 for toll-free numbers
Note: The preferred style is to place parentheses
around the area code in long-distance numbers and leave a space between
the closing parenthesis and next digit.
postscript
When
adding a postscript to a letter, use capital letters and place a period
after each letter.
P.S. Your participation is crucial to our
goal of increasing participation in the Krannert Annual Fund by 500
alumni.
Produced by Purdue Marketing Communications
professor
When
referring to Purdue staff members, use the title or rank given to them
by the University. Apply the title professor only before the
name of a staff member of professorial rank: professor, associate professor,
or assistant professor — not before the name of an instructor,
teaching assistant, or staff member.
Do not qualify the title professor with associate
or assistant before a person's name, but do qualify it after
the name.
Prof. Samuel Brown, Professor Brown
Samuel Brown, associate professor of biology
Do not abbreviate assistant and associate
when used in a title.
assistant professor of bacteriology
After referring to an individual by full
name, use the spelled-out title and last name: e.g., Professor Smith,
only if the person has a professional title.
The title professor may be abbreviated
when it precedes the first name or initials; spell out titles when they
are used before the surname alone.
Prof. E. B. Smith
Professor Smith
Profs. E. B. Smith and J. T. Jones
Professors Smith and Jones
quotation marks
Use single quotation marks in headlines.
RSVP/R.s.v.p.
According to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary,
Eleventh Edition, the abbreviation should be treated with all capital
letters and no periods. Note, however, that in promoting events at Westwood,
the usage should be R.s.v.p.
To avoid redundancy, never use the word "please" before RSPV; the term
is an abbreviation of the French expression répondez s'il
vous plaît, which means "please reply."
schools and departments
Do not capitalize the words schools
and departments when referring to more than one individual
school or department.
schools of Veterinary Medicine and Chemical Engineering
schools of Liberal Arts and Management
In addition, do not capitalize the word school
or college in a second reference:
e.g., School of Education on first reference; school thereafter
When alphabetizing school and college names,
organize them by their discipline and not by the "School of" or "College
of" part of the name. Thus, the College of Engineering would still be
listed in between the School of Education and the School of Health Sciences.
schools/colleges: West Lafayette campus
See Appendix C for a
list of school and college names.
Social Security number policy
See Appendix A, "Legal Statements,
Disclaimers, and Verbiage."
spring break/Spring Vacation
The official term used by the Office of the Registrar is Spring
Vacation. However, spring break is acceptable as a generic
reference.
state names
Do not abbreviate names of states when following
names of cities and towns, except in footnotes and class notes.
E.g., West Lafayette, Indiana
When you do abbreviate, use U.S. Postal Service
abbreviations.
Always abbreviate the District of Columbia
to Washington, DC. Omit periods from DC and surround with commas where
necessary in running text.
E.g., Dave and Tim went to Washington, DC,
to help with an event.
system-wide
This term is perhaps the best adjective/adverb to
use when talking about things that span all Purdue campuses/locations.
The Campaign for Purdue
Note that the "t" is uppercase
times
The abbreviations a.m. and p.m. should be set in lowercase
type with periods.
University
The word University should be capitalized in
instances where it stands in for the longer phrase Purdue University:
E.g., "Several famous astronauts have graduated
from the University."
Note that such references to "University"
are always preceded by the word "the."
But:
Purdue is a land-grant university.
University-wide
When referring to Purdue University, capitalize University-wide
and hyphenate it in all uses.
URLs
URLs should be set in plain type, not underlined
or set in italics, etc.
Don't print the http:// portion of
a URL unless the URL won't work without it.
If a URL can't be listed on one line, never
break it with a hyphen; rather, break the URL after a period, slash,
or double slash.
U.S.
Use periods when abbreviating United States. Note, however,
that the abbreviated form is only acceptable as an adjective.
Usenet
Web
Web should be used with a capital W when it refers to a Web
page, site, or search engine.
West Lafayette
Do not abbreviate "West" in "West Lafayette."
West Lafayette campus
The "c" should be lowercase in running
text.
years
In cases where the century doesn't change, inclusive years
should be formatted as follows:
1998–99
2002–03
recommended reference works
The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th Edition
Merriam-Webster's
Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Second Edition
Note: Refer to Random House only when
a word isn't in Webster's. If there's a conflict, defer to Webster's.
Secondary references include The Associated
Press Stylebook and Libel Manual and Wired Style: Principles
of English Usage in the Digital Age.
