Marketing and Communications

Style Guide

This guide supersedes other style guides. For items not listed here, please refer to the American Heritage Dictionary and the Associated Press style book.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

AACC: American Association of Community Colleges

AAWCC: American Association of Women in Community Colleges

Abbreviations and acronyms: Do not use an abbreviation or acronym on first reference. Do not put the acronym in parentheses after the name. If the reader would not recognize the acronym on second reference without the parentheses, do not use it. Instead, use the full name or a reference to it. (Ex. First reference: The Hospital Association of Rhode Island. Second reference: the association.) Acronyms often used at CCRI are listed alphabetically.

academic degrees: Avoid using abbreviations and use a phrase instead. (Ex. Jane Doe, who has a doctorate in physics) Use an apostrophe in bachelor's degree, master's degree and associate's degree
The types of degrees offered at CCRI are:

academic departments: Capitalize the name of the department and the word 'department' only when using the official name. (Ex. the Department of Allied Health, or the allied health department.)
The academic departments at CCRI are:

Department of

ACT Center: acceptable on first reference

ACHE: Association for Continuing Higher Education

administrative departments/offices: Capitalize the name of the department and the word 'department' or 'office' only when using the official name. Ex. the Department of Marketing and Communications, or the public relations department.
The administrative departments at CCRI are:

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

B

BASA: Black American Student Association

BOG: Board of Governors, use as an acronym for internal use only: see RIBGHE

C

campuses: Capitalize when using the formal name of the campus: Knight Campus or Warwick campus; Flanagan Campus or Lincoln campus; Liston Campus or Providence campus; Newport County Campus. But, use Flanagan and Knight campuses. If using the formal name in a communication to an audience that may not be familiar with it, be sure to state the location. (Ex. Flanagan Campus in Lincoln)
CCRI campus names are: Flanagan Campus, Knight Campus, Liston Campus, Newport County Campus, Quonset? Satellites?

campuswide: one word

CATC: Center for Advanced Technology Careers

CCRI: All capital letters. Use only after identifying the college by the full name, except in titles or headlines

CDL: commercial driver's license

chairman, chairwoman: use chair in all cases, also co-chair

classes, courses: lowercase when referring to courses in general, such as a science course, but capitalize when referring to a specific course, such as Computer Basics or COMI 1000

classroom: one word

CLEP: College Level Examination Program

CLT: clinical laboratory technology

CNA: certified nursing assistant

College and Community College: Lowercase unless part of the formal title. Community College of Rhode Island, but the college

commas: see punctuation

CO-OP: All capital letters. Or use cooperative education.

course work: two words, not hyphenated

D

database: one word

dates: Spell out days of the week. Spell out months without days, such as October 2004. Abbreviate months with days, such as Aug. 12, 2004 except for March, April, May, June and July. Do not use a comma between a month and a year when the day is not mentioned.

dean's list: lowercase in all uses

degrees: see academic degrees

Downcity: one word in reference to the Downcity Campus

DSS: Disability Services for Students

E

email: no hyphen, no capital

ensure vs. insure: use ensure unless referring to a paid insurance policy

EOC: Educational Opportunity Center

ESL: English as a second language

ETS: Educational Talent Search

F

FAFSA: Free Application for Federal Student Aid

FERPA: Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act

full time, full-time, part time, part-time: Hyphenate when used as a compound modifier. She works full time. She is a full-time employee.

Fundraising (noun), fundraiser, fund-raising (adj.)

G

GED: general equivalency diploma; GED acceptable on first reference

GEENA: Gender and Ethnic Equity Networking Assistance; GEENA Project acceptable on first reference

H

health care: two words

home page: two words, no caps; see Web page

hyphens: Use a hyphen to avoid confusion, such as recover or re-cover. Use as hyphen to connect numbers ending in a 'y', such as twenty-one. Use suspensive hyphenation, such as both full- and part-time students.

I

IAAP: International Association of Administrative Professionals

inner city, inner-city: hyphenate when used as an adjective ex. an inner-city school

instructor: always lowercase

insure: see ensure

international characters: go to http://www.mistupid.com/computers/internationalchar.htm

Internet: capitalize

IPEDS: Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System; IPEDS acceptable on first reference

IT: information technology

J

K

L

LASO: Latin American Student Organization

LRC: Learning Resources Center

M

MJSA: Manufacturing Jewelers and Suppliers of America

N

NEACRO: New England Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers

NEASC: New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Numbers: Spell out numbers one through nine, use numerals for numbers above nine. Do not use 'th' or 'st' for dates. (Ex. May 10, not May 10th). Use 's' without apostrophe when referring to decades. (Ex. the 1960s). Use apostrophe when referring to graduating class (class of '84).

O

OES: Office of Enrollment Services

OHE: Office of Higher Education

P

Phone numbers: Use area code for anything that may be circulated out of state. (401) 825-1000

Pipeline or CCRI Pipeline: either is acceptable but always capitalize

prerequisite

pre-register

President Ray Di Pasquale: on second reference President Di Pasquale or the president (not capitalized)

punctuation: use serial commas only to prevent confusion, ex. The departments of nursing, English, and engineering and technology ... or The departments of nursing, English and fine arts ...

Q

R

re-accreditation

REACH:

RIBGHE: Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education, (use BOG for internal reference only)

S

SCALE: Student Coalition for Action in Literacy Education

SEA: Students for Environmental Action

SECETAL: Spanish/English Center for Technology and Language

semester: use caps when using the term as a title, ex. Fall 2004 semester, or register for Fall 2004; do not capitalize when referring to the fall semester without a year

SNO: Student Nurses' Organization

SOL: Speakers of Other Languages

SPATE: Secondary/Post-secondary Articulation in Technology Education

T

TELUS: CCRI's automated telephone system; acronym is acceptable on first reference

time and date references: Use and en-dash (-) for "to" when describing a sequence of days, such as Register on campus April 4-8, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Use comma in place of 'from' before the time reference. Do not use spaces with dash.

Titles: Capitalize job titles if immediately preceding the name of the office holder.
(Ex. Professor of English Jane Smith and Professor Jane Smith, but Jane Smith, professor) Note: capitalize Acting when part of a title preceding the name)

U

URLs in text: do not use http://, do not break a line on a hyphen in the URL

V

vice president: no hyphen

W

Web: Capitalize in all cases when referring to the World Wide Web, (ex. Web site, or the Web)

Web site, Web page, home page: all are two words, Web is capitalized. A Web site is made up of a number of Web pages. The home page is the first page of a Web site.

Web site: Two words, Web is capitalized.

WIA: Workforce Investment Act

workforce, work force: one word when modifying a noun (such as workforce training), two words when referring to the labor force

X

Y

Z


 

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