Muhlenberg College Style Guidelines
With many departments producing their own publications and newsletters, it is important for the College to project and maintain an image of quality as well as remain consistent in the use of names, titles and capitalization. The office of communications has composed a brief "style guide" for campus constituents. With few exceptions, the College follows the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook and Libel Manual. When in doubt, please use the AP stylebook or reach out to the Office of Communications & Marketing ([email protected]). The basic guidelines are outlined below.
The following guidelines may help to clarify some common style misconceptions.
academic degrees If mention of degrees is necessary to establish someone's credentials, the preferred form is to avoid an abbreviation and use instead a phrase such as: John Smith, who has a doctorate in psychology.
Use an apostrophe in bachelor's degree, a master's, etc.
Use abbreviations such as B.A., M.A., LL.D. and Ph.D. only when the need to identify many individuals by degree on first reference would make the preferred form cumbersome. Use the abbreviations only after a full name - never after just a last name.
When used after a name, an academic abbreviation is set off by commas: Jane Doe, Ph.D., spoke. Do not precede a name with a courtesy title for an academic degree and follow it with the abbreviation for the degree in the same reference: Dr. Jane Doe, a chemistry professor, not Dr. Jane Doe, Ph.D.
academic departments Department and office names should be capitalized only when referring to that name in an official capacity, e.g. Department of History. Do not capitalize when referring to a field of study or the program or discipline name, e.g. She is a political science professor. They teach biology and chemistry.
academic titles See section on titles.
alum/alumni For most College communication and publications, use "alumni" to refer to multiple graduates and "alum" to refer to a single Muhlenberg graduate. Formal College functions (speeches, Commencement, committee reports, etc.) may retain the traditional Latin terminology (alumna/alumnae, alumnus/alumni), though graduate status with a specific class year is preferred whenever possible.
class years Students and alumni should have an apostrophe (which curves to the left) and their two-digit class year after their names (ex: John Smith ’22). For students and alumni in graduate programs, add a G (ex: John Smith G’22). For parents and grandparents, utilize a P or a GP with their child or grandchild's class year (ex: John Smith P’08). For individuals with multiple class year designations, do not use a comma to separate them (ex: John Smith ’70 P’95).
comma Associated Press style does not utilize the serial/Oxford comma. "First, second and third" is correct. "First, second, and third" is incorrect.
composition titles Apply the guidelines listed below to book titles, computer game titles (but not software titles), movie titles, opera titles, play titles, poem titles, song titles, television program titles and the titles of lectures, speeches and works of art.
• Capitalize the principal words, including prepositions and conjunctions of four or more letters.
• Capitalize an article - the, a, an - or words of fewer than four letters if it is the first or last word in a title.
• Italicize the names of all such works except the Bible and books that are primarily catalogs of reference material (almanacs, catalogs, directories, dictionaries, encyclopedias, gazetteers, handbooks and similar publications).
• Use quotation marks around a song title, article in a journal or other episodic parts of a larger work.
• Translate a foreign title into English unless the work is known to the American public by its foreign name.
course names Names of course and classes should have initial capitalization for all principal words. Do not place in quotes or italicize, and avoid abbreviations or course numbers as these can be confusing or vague for most readers.
magazine titles Italicize the names of magazines. Lowercase the word "magazine" and do not italicize unless it is part of the publication's formal title: Harper's Magazine, Newsweek magazine; Time magazine. Check the masthead if in doubt. Articles within magazines should be placed within quotation marks.
Muhlenberg College When referring to Muhlenberg College, capitalize the College when the word appears without "Muhlenberg." This is an exception to AP style.
names Students, faculty and staff are referred to by full name on first mention and by last name only with subsequent use. References to student names follow faculty and staff naming conventions.
Alumni names follow faculty and staff naming conventions. If an alumna/alumnus last name differs from the last name used while a student, best practices dictate enclosing a former last name between first and last name, e.g., First Maiden Last '09. Always consult with the alumna/alumnus in question to respect specific naming preferences.
When interviewing or writing about an individual, writers should ask what pronouns should be used for the person being interviewed.
newspaper names Italicize the names of newspapers. Capitalize "the" in newspaper names if that is the way the publication prefers to be known. Lowercase "the" before newspaper names if a story mentions several papers, some of which use the as part of the name and some do not. Where location is needed but is not part of the official name, use parentheses: The Huntsville Times (Alabama). Articles within magazines should be placed within quotation marks.
numerals Follow these guidelines in using numerals:
• Spell out a numeral at the beginning of a sentence. If necessary, recast the sentence. There is one exception - a numeral that identifies a calendar year: 1978 was a very good year.
• In general, spell out whole numbers below 10, and use figures for 10 and above. Typical examples: They had three sons and two daughters. They had a fleet of 10 station wagons and two buses.
• Do not use ordinal indicators for dates. For example, "January 4" is correct. "January 4th" or "January 4th" is incorrect.
• In a series, apply the appropriate guidelines: The had 10 dogs, six cats and 97 hamsters. They had four four-room houses, 10 three-room houses and 12 10-room houses.
• For ordinals, spell out first through ninth when they indicate sequence in time or location: first base, the First Amendment, he was first in line. Starting with 10th, use figures.
percent/% Use the adverb "percent" in long-form text, including speeches and print/website stories, news and College documents. The symbol % should be used in graphical elements and for abbreviated text, such as social media posts.
phone numbers/fax numbers Number sets should be separated by hyphens, not periods. This is designed to optimize legibility.
racial/ethnic identifiers Capitalize Black in a racial, ethnic or cultural sense, conveying an essential and shared sense of history, identity and community among people who identify as Black, including those in the African diaspora and within Africa. The lowercase black is a color, not a person. Capitalize Indigenous in reference to original inhabitants of a place.
says/said When relating a quote in a story or news article, the verb "says" should be used for attribution. The exception to this rule is when the writer is referring to an event in the past where someone had spoken, e.g. "At the event, Smith said, 'Balloons are fun."'
spacing Use one space after terminal punctuation. This is especially important in digital and online text.
state names Spell out the names of the 50 U.S. states in textual material.
time Morning and afternoon/evening should be designated by the use of "a.m." and "p.m.," not "am" or "pm." A space should be inserted between the number and the abbreviation. When possible, use "midnight" or "noon" instead of 12:00 a.m. or p.m., respectively.
titles Academic, department and professional titles are capitalized when proceeding a name and lower-case when following. Exceptions include:
• Proper nouns, e.g., professor of English literature, assistant professor of Africana studies, lecturer of Spanish, are always capitalized.
• Titles that are used as captions or other descriptive text, such as the explanation associated with a photograph.
• "Professor should always be spelled out. "Prof" is never used.
For consistency and legibility, we recommend academic and department titles follow a name whenever possible, e.g., "Rebekkah Brown, vice president of advancement, gave a speech."
Toast Heard Around the World (THAW) This annual alumni event should be spelled out on the first reference, with the acronym, THAW, spelled out immediately after in parentheses. Subsequent mentions of the event may use the acronym only. There are no periods between letters.
website URLs/links Users should always check a URL in a browser before including a link in digital or print publications. Whenever possible, users are encouraged to omit the preceding "http://" and "www" from a URL. These omissions increase legibility and conserve space.
