The following guidelines apply to all external, and most internal communications. By and large, they are culled from the "AP Style and Usage Guide" and "The Elements of Style." Questions/concerns regarding style (not fashion) should be addressed to Cody Pinkston, director of media and public relations: pinkstonc@ripon.edu.

A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  JKL  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  YZ

A-A-A

academic departments. Capitalize the names of departments except when used in a person's title: She's a professor in the Physics Department. "Newton had it wrong," said physics professor Vector Torque. Capitalize when "department" is omitted if the field used to mean the department: She holds the chair in Physics. Lowercase when used as a general field: She is a leader in physics.

academic titles. Capitalize and spell out formal titles such as professor or associate dean when they precede a name. Lowercase elsewhere: Dean Robert Brown; Fred Black, professor and department chair. Avoid using courtesy titles (Ms., Mr.).

ACM. Associated Colleges of the Midwest consortium consists of 14 liberal arts colleges: Beloit, Carleton College (Northfield, Minn.), Coe College (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), Colorado College (Colorado Springs, Colo.), Cornell College (Mt. Vernon, Iowa), Grinnell College (Grinnell, Iowa), Knox College (Galesburg, Ill.), Lake Forest College (Lake Forest, Ill.), Lawrence University (Appleton, Wis.), Macalester College (St. Paul, Minn.), Monmouth College (Monmouth, Ill.), Ripon College (Ripon, Wis.), St. Olaf College (Northfield, Minn.), and University of Chicago (Chicago, Ill.).

advisor. NOT adviser.

addresses. Use the abbreviations Ave., Blvd., Rd., St., and Dr., etc., only with a numbered address: 2212 10th St.; 202 N. Clifton Ave. Spell out and capitalize when they are part of a formal street name without a number: Kansas Street.

ages. Always use numerals: a 1-year-old child, but the child is 1 year old. The student, 19, has a brother. The student is in his 20s.

a.m., p.m. Always lowercase, with periods.

ampersand (&). Do not use in text unless part of a title, company name, chocolate treat with a candy shell, etc.

associate degree. Do not use an apostrophe when using the shortened form of the Associate of Arts, Associate of Applied Science, and Associate of Science degrees.

B-B-B

bachelor’s degree. Preferable as first reference to baccalaureate degree.

Board of Trustees. Uppercase when used as a phrase, or with Board or Trustee(s) on subsequent references. The Ripon College Board of Trustees approved the minutes from the June meeting. Jim is a Trustee. The Board approved the minutes. (NOTE: Differs from AP style rules.) The same convention does not hold for other councils, boards or committees, however.

bought. Serves as both past and past-participle of "buy": I bought the car. I have bought the car. Widespread incorrect usage has somewhat legitimized "boughten" as the past participle, to the detriment of all.

C-C-C

capitalization. Academic writing has a tendency to overcapitalize. Use capitalization sparingly.

catalog. This is the preferred spelling, not catalogue. Do not capitalize.

cat o' nine tails. Not actually a cat, as it turns out.

chair. Not chairman, chairwoman, chairperson. Capitalize before a name.

city. Capitalize when referring to the official title of city government, such as City of Ripon.

childcare. One word unless referring to the Child Care and Development Department.

college. Uppercase when referring to Ripon College as a noun: A richly personalized education is part of the College's mission. Lowercase when referring to any other college, or when used as an adjective: East Central Southwestern Wisconsin Tech said the college is on track to reach its enrollment target. The college campus is lovely. (NOTE: Differs from AP style rules.)

comma. Generally, the last element in a simple series does not require a comma before the "and": John, Paul, George and Ringo walked on stage. A comma should be used, however, if separating the last element from the one prior either eliminates confusion or sets it more obviously apart. Also add the comma if the second-to-last element also includes a conjunction: We walked into town, drank coffee and read magazines at the bookstore, and went to the museum.

committees. Capitalize full name of committee: Budget Committee, Health and Wellness Committee, but lowercase second references: The committee met today. Also: Student Senate, Administrative Council.

course titles. Capitalize when using a formal name. Lowercase when using the generic term. She signed up for History of Ripon to learn Ripon history. She also signed up for Botany because she was majoring in botany.

courtesy titles. Avoid using such titles as Mr., Mrs., Miss, and Ms. Dr. is acceptable, however.

currency. See money.

D-D-D

dates. Always use Arabic figures, without st, nd, rd, or th. Set off day and year with commas: He was born May 25, 1950, in Madison.

days of the week. Do not abbreviate days of the week unless necessary for a tabular format.

disabled, handicapped, impaired. In general, do not describe an individual as disabled or handicapped unless it is clearly pertinent to a story. When such words are used, never use them as modifiers before the noun.

• RIGHT: The person with disabilities was speaking.
• WRONG: The disabled person was speaking.

E-E-E

ellipsis (...). Use three dots (no spaces between them, but a space on each side) to signify that something has been left out of a direct quote or that the writer is leaping from one topic to another. A complete sentence will have its own period, followed by a space, then the three dots, space and next sentence.

e-mail. Go ahead and use the hyphen for now, though "email" is not technically incorrect. Lowercase "e," though.

emeritus. An honor sometimes earned upon retirement. Conforming to the rules of Latin, use this descriptor after the title. (Examples: Single person, by gender and placement: Professor Emeritus John Doe; President Emerita Martha Peterson; Jane Doe, professor emerita) Multiples by gender: professors emeriti (for all men or mixed group); professors emeritae (for all women). Reference to all the faculty and staff who hold emeritus status is, simply, "the emeriti."

extension. For telephone numbers, use "ext." followed by a space and the four-digit number.

F-F-F

fall, fall break, fall semester. No caps.

fiscal year. Ripon College’s fiscal year runs Aug 1 through July 31 and carries the numerical designation of the latter year, i.e., Aug. 1, 2006, through July. 31, 2007, constitutes FY07.

flier. NOT flyer when referring to a handbill.

flip side. A place where someone, at some point, will catch or meet you.

Founders Day. Celebrated Jan. 29 of each year, as Ripon College received its charter Jan. 29, 1851 (at the time it was called Ripon Lyceum). A second charter was adopted in 1855, as there was some question then as to the legality of the first (there isn't anymore -- 1851 is the official year of establishment). The name was changed to Ripon College in 1863.

full time/full-time. Hyphenate as a compound modifier. He is a full-time professor who works in the laboratory full time.

fund-raiser, fund-raising.

G-G-G

GED. Refers to the general educational development test, the examination to provide academic certification to those who did not complete high school.

grades. Use without quotation marks. The student earned an A in physics. Use an apostrophe in the plural form to avoid confusion: Peggy earned three A's this semester.

grease. Is the word.

H-H-H

healthcare. One word.

homepage. One word.

homies, all my. Word.

hyphen. In general, use a hyphen when making compound adjectives, especially when the meaning might otherwise be misinterpreted: He was awarded a long-term contact. EXCEPTIONS: Do not use a hyphen following adverbs that end in "-ly" or with "very."

I-I-I

ID. Identification. Do not use periods.

Internet. Capitalize when used as a noun, lowercase when used as a modifier: He loved the Internet. His internet skills were formidable.

italics. Use with magazine articles and newspaper headlines.

J-K-L

legislative titles. Use Rep., Reps., Sen., and Sens. as formal titles before one or more names in text. Spell out and lowercase representative and senator in other uses.

legislature. Capitalize when preceded by the name of a state: the Wisconsin Legislature. Retain capitalization when the state name is dropped but the reference is specifically to that state’s legislature. Lowercase legislature when used generically: No legislature has approved that amendment.

lifelong. One word, no hyphen.

M-M-M

magazines. Use quotation marks around magazine titles. Italicize magazine article titles.

money. Use the dollar sign: $10, $1,000, $90,000 (not $90 thousand) Use exact figures up to $1 million. On figures more than $1 million, use: $1 million, $2.7 million, $6.28 billion. With ranges of amounts, don’t drop designators such as million.

• RIGHT: $8 million to $10 million
• WRONG: $8 to $10 million

myriad. When used as an adjective meaning "an indefinitely great number of persons or things," it does not require the word "a" before it or "of" before the associated noun: There are myriad reasons to proceed. Its use as a noun is archaic, meaning ten thousand, and is almost never used.

N-N-N

names. On first reference, use the person’s full name first, last name, and title. On second reference, use only the last name, without title. (NOTE: For informal, internal documents, first names may be used on second references.)

No. Use as the abbreviation for number in conjunction with a figure to indicate position or rank: No. 3 choice.

no. See yes, opposite of.

numerals. Spell out whole numerals below 10; use figures for 10 and above. For ordinals, spell out first through ninth and use figures for 10th and above.

O-O-O

office. Capitalize office when it is used as part of a formal title: Office of Student Life. Lowercase all other uses, including phrases such as: the office that promotes the college.

online. One word, no hyphen.

orient, oriented. NOT orientate, orientated.

over. Use only as a preposition: You kids are lucky to have a roof over your heads. Why, when I was your age... When quantifying an amount, use more than.

P-P-P

part time/part-time. Hyphenate as a compound modifier. She works part time. He is a part-time employee.

percent. Always spell out; do not use the symbol (%) unless in a table or spreadsheet. When showing a range of percentages use the word with both numerals. For example, between 5 percent and 10 percent.

prior to. “Before” is preferred.

professional titles. Generally, titles are not capitalized unless used as part of a person's name, but departments are still capitalized: Vice President for Advancement Lyn Corder; Lyn Corder, vice president for Advancement.

pun. At first, I wasn't sure why the truck was getting larger. Then, suddenly, it hit me.

Q-Q-Q

Q. The old dude with all the gadgets in the James Bond movies.

quotation marks. Use quotation marks around magazine titles. Do not use quotation marks with

grades.

quoth the raven. Nevermore.

R-S

re-. Generally, no hyphen is necessary: redirect, restate. Unusual uses should add the hyphen: re-tape, re-fricasee.

school districts. Spell out the full name on first reference: School District of Ripon. When referring to more than one school district, use lowercase when spelling out independent school district: Markesan and Princeton school districts.

scat. Zubazu bop BOW! Zazeezabuda biddy boody bop bop doo WOW!

seasons. Do not capitalize winter, spring, summer, or fall unless it is part of a formal name: Winter Olympics.

semester. Lowercase, such as fall semester, spring semester, summer semester.

session. Periods during a semester that mark the beginning and end of a class. For example, 12-week session.

sexism. Current practice requires masculine pronouns not be used for generic references to non-gender-specific persons. Avoid the problem by pluralizing the reference or eliminating the pronoun whenever possible.

• RIGHT: Students may check their records. A student may check his/her record.
• WRONG: A student may check his record.

shout-out. To all my peeps up in North Central: Keep it real, y'all. Peace.

T-T-T

teacher. Preferred college style is to use the term faculty, instructor or, if applicable, professor.

telephone numbers. Use hyphens to separate parts of a phone number 920-555-5555.

time. Use figures: 11 a.m.; 3:30 p.m., except for noon and midnight. Omit “:00” following the hour. For a range of time: 10:15 a.m. - 1 p.m., 3-5 p.m.

they, their. Be careful when using as a pronoun, as these refer to groups of people and not individuals: The management team lost all their credibility. References to individuals should either be gender-specific (his gloves, her sunglasses) or gender neutral: One who ventures into the spooky house risks losing his/her mind.

titles. Italicize the names of magazines, books, and manuals. Use quotation marks around magazine article headlines and other report titles.

transfer, transferred, transferring.

Trustee. Capitalize when referencing a Ripon College Trustee. Lowercase in other instances. (NOTE: Differs from AP style rules.)

U-U-U

under. Prefeered use is as a preposition; use less than or fewer than to describe quantities.

United States. Spell out the name of the country when it stands alone; use U.S. when it is a modifier: U.S. Air Force.

URL. Capitalize and use without periods when referring to a Universal Resource Locator, the address of a website.

utilize. Use is strongly preferred.

V-V-V

vice. Use two words: vice chair, vice president. Do not capitalize unless preceding a name as part of a title: Vice President Agnew.

videoconferencing. One word. A video communications session among several people who are geographically separated.

W-W-W

WAICU. Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities

Web. Uppercase when used as a noun, otherwise lowercase: web, webmaster, website, webpage.

web addresses. Eliminate all extraneous portions of address, such as http:// and, often index.htm and forward slash at end of URL.

• Right: www.ripon.edu/admissions
• Wrong: http://www.ripon.edu/admissions/index.html

-wide. No hyphen: campuswide, citywide, collegewide, countrywide, statewide, worldwide

X-X-X

X-ray. The radiological term takes a capital X and a hyphen.

X-men. Fictitious mutants who, owing to a sudden leap in evolution, are born with latent superhuman abilities.

Y-Z

yes, opposite of. No.

ZIP codes. Use all-caps ZIP, but always lowercase the word code.

zowie. One of many onomatopoeic words used to describe a melee involving Batman. Interchangeable with "biff," "thwack," "kapow," "klonk," "zlonk" and "flrbbbbb."