| Item | Style | Example |
| Academic Year | - Use four digits when referencing a single year.
- When referencing a span of years beginning in one specific century and ending in another, use four digits, followed by a hyphen, followed by four digits.
- When referencing a span of years beginning and ending in the same century, use four digits for the beginning year followed by a hyphen, followed by the last two digits of the ending year.
| - 2008
- 1977-2008
- 2001-08
|
| Academic Degrees, (abbreviated) | Use periods between letters, no spaces. Both letters of degree abbreviations are always capitalized. | A.A.
A.S.
B.A.
B.S.
M.A.
Ed.D.
Ph.D. |
| Academic Degrees, (spelled out) | | Associate in Arts
Associate in Science
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Science
Master of Arts
Doctorate in Education
Doctorate in Philosophy |
| Accept/Except | Accept is a verb meaning "receive." Except means "other than" or "but for." | I can accept all your suggestions except for the last one. |
Acronyms (common usage)
| Use the preferred acronyms for names/words that are more commonly known by them (VA, ELS, SAT, GED, etc.)
| I really
|
Add/Drop Period
| "Add" should always precede "drop" when referencing the Add/Drop Period each term.
| Add/Drop Period Not: Drop/Add Period |
| Adviser | Adviser should be spelled with an ER, not OR. | My academic adviser is Mr. Smith. |
| Affect/Effect | Affect is a verb, meaning to produce an effect. | Good written communication skills affect one's chances for a successful re-accreditation. One effect of this manual should be to enhance your awareness of the importance of accurate English. |
| Among/Between | Something occurs between just two people; it happens among three or more. | There is a strong bond between Alice and her mother.
There is a strong bond among family members. |
| Assistant to the President for Diversity and Equity | This should be capitalized every time it is used. | Assistant to the President for Diversity and Equity |
| Associate Vice President, College Relations and Marketing | This should be capitalized every time it is used with the name of the person who holds the title. | Associate Vice President, College Relations and Marketing |
| Associate Vice President, Community Campuses and Centers | This should be capitalized every time it is used with the name of the person who holds the title. | Associate Vice President, Community Campuses and Centers |
| Board of Trustees (abbreviation) | When using Board of Trustees for the first time in each section, spell it out. Thereafter, abbreviate it. | Board of Trustees/BOT |
Building Names on the Sanford/Lake Mary Campus
| The names of the buildings on the Sanford/Lake Mary Campus should be referred to by using "Building" and then its corresponding letter name (A-W).
| Students register in Building A on the Sanford/Lake Mary campus.
|
| Bullets | Use bullets before indented, unnumbered, small lists in the text. No terminal punctuation is used unless the items are sentences or more than one sentence. | |
| Campuswide | Should be one word, no hyphen. | Campuswide
Not: campus-wide |
| Capitalization (titles) | Titles should be capitalized when used before and lowercased if used after or not used with a person's name.
| |
| Catalog vs. Catalogue | Any use of "Catalog" should not be followed by the letters "ue" at the end (Catalogue). | Catalog |
| Catalog Year | All Catalog references should be to the current school year's Catalog. | Seminole State College Catalog 2005-06. |
Choose one:
| Use "Choose one:" when referencing courses that students can choose from to satisfy a program's course requirements in the College Catalog | Choose one: - AST1002 Introduction to Astronomy
- GLY1000 Introduction to Geology
- GLY1101 Fossils and the History of Life
|
| College | Capitalize "College" when referring to Seminole State College. | The College was established in 1965. |
| Collegewide | Should be one word, no hyphen. | Collegewide
Not: college wide or college-wide |
Commas in a series (serial commas)
| There is no comma before "and" in a series unless the sentence or series is complex or if a comma would help clarify an ambiguous statement. | The dean, student and instructor arrived. |
| Concise Language | Use simple, direct language whenever possible. | The registrar now uses cumulative data. Not: At this point in time, cumulative data is used by the registrar. |
| Coursework | Use "coursework" as one word - no spaces between "course" and "work." | Coursework |
| Data | Data is plural but is most often considered a unit (a collective noun) and should use a singular verb; however, in some cases, it does refer to individual items and should use a plural verb. | Your data is invalid.
The data was collected from all three campuses. |
| Database | Use "database" as one word - no spaces between "data" and "base." | Database. |
| Division | When referring to a specific division, the word "Division" should be capitalized. When referring to divisions generally, the word should be lowercase. | The Division of Student Services
Throughout the different divisions of the College. |
| Documentation | Put sources at the end of the sentence within parentheses. Separate sources with a semicolon. Put the period outside closing parenthesis. Do not use "See" or "Exhibit" as in (See College Catalog 1997-98). | ...showed that the students were generally satisfied (College Factbook 2000-01; College Catalog 2000-01). |
Dual Enrollment
| Capitalize Dual Enrollment in all instances because it is the formal name of a program.
| Dual Enrollment can help students get a head start on their college course load while they are still in high school.
|
E-business
E-mail | When used in the middle of a sentence, use lower-case "e," followed by a single hyphen, followed by the word "business" or "mail" in lowercase letters. When beginning a sentence, capitalize the "e." | E-business is a growing field.
She checked her e-mail. |
| Ensure | Use ensure to mean guarantee. | Follow these rules to ensure stylistic accuracy.
|
| Florida | - For the first reference in a major section, do not abbreviate.
- For further references within a section, abbreviate.
| - Florida
- Fla.
|
| Florida, State of | Formal references should be to the "state of Florida." Other references should be to the "state," and "state" should not be capitalized. | state of Florida
"The first state budgeting effort..." |
| Forward Slash "/" (also called solidus or virgule) | There is no space between the word and the / | Sanford/Lake Mary Campus Not: Sanford / Lake Mary Campus |
Full Term
| - In most instances, "full term" should be lowercased and written without a hyphen.
- Hyphenate "full term" if it is used as an adjective.
| - I will be in classes this summer for the full term.
- Full-term courses are primarily taken over the summer.
|
Full-Time Equivalent
(FTE) | For first reference in a section, use the full name; for further references, use the abbreviated version and do not use FTE with spaces. | Full-Time Equivalent
FTE |
| General Education Development (GED) | For first reference in a section, use the full name; for further references, use the abbreviated version. | General Education Development/GED |
Grade Point Average (GPA)
| In most references, use the abbreviated form of grade point average without periods.
| GPA/grade point average
|
| Height | When referencing a person's height as an adjective, use whole numbers with "foot" and "inch," separated by hyphens.
| The 7-foot-5-inch power forward was one of the tallest players the team ever had.
|
| Home Page | Two words, lowercase. | home page |
| Insure | Use insure for references to insurance. | The policy insures his home against flood damage. |
| Internet | Always capitalize. | Internet |
| Its/It's | - Its: Possessive
- It's: The contraction for "it is"
| - The committee reached its decision yesterday.
- It's going to be a close game.
|
| Is/Are | "Is" typically is associated with singular nouns; "are" with plural. | He is a baseball player.
They are part of the newspaper staff. |
Letter Grades
| When referencing a specific letter grade, capitalize the letter and put quotation marks around it.
| Students must pass this course with a "C" or higher to enter the program.
|
| Lower-Division, Lower-Level | Hyphenate lower-division, lower-level and upper-level when used as adjectives, but not in "The students were in the lower division." | Lower-division students |
| More Than vs. Over | - Use "more than" when referring to numerals.
- Use "over" when referencing spatial relationships.
| - I make more than $30,000 a year.
- The plane flew over the mountain.
|
| Numbers, 1-10 | Use words to express numbers one through nine and figures to express numbers 10 and above. | Approximately five weeks ago...
There are 23 majors... |
| Numbers with Text | - Ages: Use figure and hyphens between years old.
- Money: Use figures.
- Percentages: Use figures and spell out percent.
- Ratio: Use figures and hyphens.
- Fractions: Spell out.
| - A 5-year-old boy. The boy is 10 years old.
- 5 cents, $1.05, $2.3 million
- 0.6 percent, 1 percent, 50 percent
- A ratio of 3-to-1, a 3-1 ratio
- Two-thirds, one-half
|
| Numbers, Large | Put a comma in all whole numbers larger than 999. | $2,000
$253,345
3,456 FTE
$1.5 million |
| Offices | Office names should be used on a case-by-case basis as they are referred to in the College Catalog. | Office of the Registrar
Office of Student Services |
| online | Lowercase, no hyphen. | online |
Open Enrollment
| Capitalize "Open Enrollment" in all instances because it is the formal name of the period of time when students can enroll in classes for the next term.
| I cannot take "Introduction to Basket Weaving" this term because I was at home playing video games throughout Open Enrollment.
|
| Ordinal Numbers | Spell out first through ninth, 10th and above use figures. | He made it safely to first base.
She was 10th in line. |
| Percent | Use as one word - no space between "per" and "cent." Always spell out, do not use symbol %. | percent
The survey found 12 percent of students... |
| Phone numbers | Use periods between groups instead of dashes, and no parentheses. When listing an extension, abbreviate ext. | 407.708.2000
407.708.4722 ext. 3015 |
| Point of View | Avoid using first person (I, we, us) and second person (you). Instead use third person (he, she, it, they, the committee, etc.) to maintain an objective tone. | The committee finds the budgetary process at Seminole State to be adequate. |
| President | Capitalize when referring specifically to the President of Seminole State College. | President E. Ann McGee
The President |
| Professor | - No matter their tenure status, all Seminole State instructors are referred to as "professors."
- Capitalize "professor" if it precedes a name; lowercase it in all other instances.
| - Refer to all instructors at Seminole State as professors.
- Professor Smith wears thick glasses.
|
| Quotation Marks | - The period and the comma always go inside quotation marks.
- The dash, the semicolon, the question mark and the exclamation point go within the quotation marks when they apply to the quoted matter only.
- They go outside when they apply to the whole sentence.
| - The accountant said her firm could correct the "situation."
- The professor asked, "How many of you did the assigned reading for today?"
- Have you read "The Firm"?
|
Recommend vs. Recommended
| When referencing the varying classes that students can take to satisfy the requirements of a specific program in the College Catalog,
| Recommended Courses (choose 3):
|
| Seminole State College or Seminole State | On first reference spell out; thereafter, use the abbreviated version. | Seminole State College/Seminole State |
| Seasons | Capitalize the seasons when they refer to or seem to refer to a term. | "In Fall 2000, things were different from the Summer of 1999." |
| Sexist Language | Use gender-neutral terms when possible:
Chair (not Chairman or Chairperson).
Representative or member of Congress (not congressman).
Humans or people (not men or mankind).
When possible, use plural forms of pronouns. Instead of he or she, use they. | Faculty members must go to school for many years before they begin to teach. |
| Statewide | Should be one word, no hyphen. | statewide |
| They're, their, there | - "They're" means they are.
- "Their" denotes possession of something.
- "There" represents a location.
| - They're going to the store.
- Their presentation is scheduled for 3 p.m.
- I left my book over there.
|
| Times | - Use figures except for noon and midnight. Use a colon to separate hours from minutes.
- Always lowercase "a.m." and "p.m.," and separate them by a period.
- Do not use zeros unless you are citing a specific time between two whole hours.
| - Noon/Midnight
- 8 p.m.
- 6:20 a.m.
|
Titles (Dean, Director, Vice President, Manager, Coordinator, etc.)
| - Lowercase all titles if they stand alone in a sentence.
- Uppercase the first letter of each word of the title if it is used with a person's name in a sentence.
| - The dean will speak on issues that concern her college.
- President McGee attends many events in an effort to procure funding for the College.
|
| Upper-Division, Upper Level | Hyphenate lower-division, upper-division, lower-level, and upper-level when used as adjectives but not in "The students were in the upper division." | The lower-division engineering majors must take calculus before entering the upper level. |
| Vice President, Administrative Services/Chief Financial Officer | This should be capitalized every time it is used. | Vice President, Administrative Services/Chief Financial Officer |
| Vice President, Educational Programs/Chief Learning Officer | This should be capitalized every time it is used. | Vice President, Educational Programs/Chief Learning Officer |
| Vice President, Information Technology and Resources/Chief Information Officer | This should be capitalized every time it is used. | Vice President, Information Technology and Resources/Chief Information Officer |
| Vice President, Student Success/Chief Student Affairs Officer | This should be capitalized every time it is used. | Vice President, Student Success/Chief Student Affairs Officer |
| Voice | Use active voice rather than passive voice whenever possible. Passive voice is characterized by the use of a form of the verb "to be" (am, is, are, was, were, be, being, and been) followed by a past participle form of a verb (a verb form typically ending in -ed or -en, such as helped or broken). To avoid the use of the passive voice, state as clearly as possible who is responsible for the action in the sentence. | The committee found no discrepancies in the records. |
| Slang | Do not use. Think globally; what is understood in the United States is not always understood in other countries. | |
Veterans' Affairs (VA)
| Use the more familiar acronym, VA, in most instances, unless it would confuse the meaning of a sentence.
| My great-grandfather has to get his treatments performed at the VA hospital, but he dislikes having to wait all day to be seen. |
"W4s"
| Write "W4s" with quotation marks, no spaces, a capital "W" and a lowercase "s" for all plural references.
| Professors must submit their "W4s" no later than Friday at 4:30 p.m.
|
| Web site, Web page, the Web | Always capitalize Web when referencing the Internet; page and site are always lowercase and a separate word. | Web site, Web page, the Web |
| Who's/Whose | - Who's: The contraction for "who is."
- Whose: Possessive.
| - Who's buying lunch today?
- Whose turn is it to buy lunch?
|
