The Texas A&M University System

General Style Guidelines

Introduction
Every word you put on a page has a critically important job: to make a positive impact on the reader. It's not enough to write glowing statements about your university or agency. What you write has to be believable. These simple guidelines will help you achieve that.

Be straightforward. Directness not only builds trust, but also makes your message easier to understand. Your text should be simple and logically organized. This allows your audience to quickly find the information needed. Put the most important information at the beginning. The first paragraph may be the only thing your audience reads.

Many readers won't read your text word for word, so write for the skimmer. The following rules of thumb will help make this information accessible and clear.

Use bold headlines that have a positive slant and tell the story you are seeking to communicate.

• Write subheads that present the main points.
• Use provocative statements that intrigue the reader.
• Summarize your message with oversized introductions or callouts.
• Enumerate benefits with bulleted, concise statements.
• Reinforce important points with pictures and captions.

Above all, remember that it's more than what you say; it's how you say it that counts.

This style guide uses the Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual, Webster's Third New International Dictionary, and Strunk and White's The Elements of Style (fourth edition) as primary sources.

abbreviations
In general, do not use abbreviations or acronyms that the reader would not quickly recognize. Never abbreviate university, department or association.

Abbreviations of degrees, expressions of time and names of countries take periods with no space between the elements.

• M.F.A., a.m., U.S.A.

To prevent awkward line breaks, do not put a space between initials used as a first name.

• B.J. Crain

Most abbreviations are spelled without periods: CFO, CIA. Add an "s" but no apostrophe to plural forms of abbreviations:

• The committee was made up of CEOs and CFOs.

The first mention of organizations, firms, agencies, groups, etc., should be spelled out. In names that do not have commonly known abbreviations, the abbreviation should be in parenthesis after the spelled name. Thereafter, the abbreviation may be used.

• The Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) is the engineering research agency of the State of Texas. TEES was established in 1914.

academic degrees (also see doctoral, doctorate)
Readers may not be familiar with academic degrees. It usually is better to use a phrase instead of an abbreviation.

• John Jones, who has a doctorate in psychology, said the study was flawed.

Use an apostrophe: bachelor's degree, master's degree, and so on.

Uppercase: Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, Doctor of Philosophy, and so on.

Use abbreviations such as B.A., B.S., M.A., M.S. and Ph.D. (with no spaces between letters) only when needed to identify many individuals by degree on first reference or if usage would make the preferred form cumbersome. Spell out all others. Use these only after the person's full name, and set the abbreviation off by commas.

• John Wimberly, Ph.D., is president of the National Skydiving Association.

academic colleges/departments
Capitalize if referring to a specific department or other academic unit by its full proper name. Otherwise, use lower case.

• Mays Business School
• College of Science and Technology
• history department
• Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences
• She is a professor in the college.

academic titles
Lowercase and spell out titles when not used with an individual's name.

• The dean provided a list of students.
• The graduate assistant taught a class.
• The chancellor will speak today at noon.

Capitalize and spell out when a title precedes a name.

• Chancellor Mike McKinney met with Dean Jill Burk yesterday.

Very long titles are more readable when placed after a name.

• Terry Dickson, vice president for business and administration, nominated the work-study student for a national award.

adjunct
Adjunct refers to a temporary faculty appointment; lowercase.

adviser
Use the spelling that ends in -er (not advisor) unless the other spelling is part of an official title.

affect/effect
Affect is a verb that means to influence or produce a change. Effect is usually a noun that means the result.

• The power outage affected all departments.
• The director of utilities felt the effects of the power outage when Dean Smith called to complain.

African-American (also see ethnic designations)
The preferred term is black when referring to race. African-American refers to black individuals living in the United States who have African ancestry. The term African-American excludes blacks whose national origin is other than African and who are not American citizens. Hyphenate when used as a noun or adjective.

• The number of African-American students has increased in recent years.
• She enjoyed her class in African-American history.

ages
Always use figures.

• The 19-year-old student took graduate-level courses.
• The student, who switched his major 11 times, is 24 years old.
• The dean is in his 50s. (No apostrophe)

alumnus, alumna, alumni, alumnae
Alumnus (alumni in the plural) refers to a man who has graduated from a school. Alumna (alumnae in the plural, but rarely used) refers to a woman who has graduated from a school. Alumni refers to a group of men and women.

• Although she was an alumna of Texas Southern University, she gave $1 million to Prairie View A&M University.
• She joined a dating service for alumni of certain universities.

among/between
Use between to describe a direct relationship or comparison of two or more items that are equal in value or importance. Use among when the items are grouped together as a collective.

• Students could choose between six desserts at the university's cafeteria.
• Ice cream was among the desserts chosen.

annual
An event cannot be described as annual until it has been held for at least two successive years; there's no such thing as the "first annual" event. Instead, write that sponsors plan to hold the event annually.

baccalaureate
In most cases, the less formal bachelor's degree is preferred.

biannual/biennial/semiannual
Biannual and semiannual mean occurring twice per year. Biennial means occurring every two years.

bulleted lists
Use bulleted lists for three or more items. Introduce each list with a sentence or phrase. If the item is a simple word or phrase (not a complete sentence), do not punctuate and do not capitalize the first word. If the item is a complete sentence, punctuate the sentence and capitalize the first word. If any item on a list is punctuated, then punctuate every item. Do not use numbers unless the sequence of the items is important, such as directions that must be followed in a specific order. Bullets imply random order.

call letters
Capitalize, followed by a hyphen and either FM or AM.

• KPVU-FM

capitalization
Capitalize official names; do not capitalize unofficial, informal, shortened or generic names. Do not capitalize in phrases such as the center, the institute or the recently renovated museum. Do not capitalize seasons or semesters (Spring Break is an exception).

• The College of Engineering, but the engineering school
• Texas Task Force 1, but the task force
• Capitalize names of celebrations, such as Founders Day. Do not capitalize seasons, semesters or academic periods. (The exception is Spring Break.)
•  Dr. Ballard will teach the Philosophy and History of Adult Education class next semester. He will teach advanced geology.
• She enrolled in fall 2005 but decided to postpone graduate school after she won the lottery.

capital/capitol
Capital refers to the city; capitol refers to the building where the seat of government is housed. Capitalize when referring to the building. Capitol building is redundant.

• The Capitol is in Austin, which is the capital city of Texas.

century
Lowercase when used with a number. Do not use superscript letters.

• 20th century (not 20^th century)
• 21st century (not 21^st century)

chairman
Use chairman or chair in references to positions on the Board of Regents, even for female members.

• Wendy Gramm was chairman of the Committee on Academic and Student Affairs.
• She also was chair of an ad hoc committee.

class year
When referring to an alumnus in text, include the last two digits of his or her class year after the name with an apostrophe. When referring to an alumnus with multiple degrees, list the degrees in the order in which they were received. When referring to a couple who are both alumni of the same university, include the last two digits of the class year with an apostrophe after each person's name.

• Mays Business School is the namesake of Lowry Mays '57.
• "The campus has changed since I was a student," said John O'Reilly '44, '46 (MBA).
• Marvin '70 and Marlene Finkelstein Smith '70

commas
Do not use a comma before the and or other conjunctions in a series. Elsewhere, use commas only when the potential for confusion exists without them, such as complex sentences, or before the concluding conjunction of a series if one of the elements in the series contains a conjunction.

• She served on the committee to review scholarships, grants and financial aid.
• Texas A&M seeks students who have the skills to excel in a competitive academic environment, who bring a fresh perspective to their area of study, and who show a passion for ideas seen only in leaders.
• The lecture began with a discourse on the professor's breakfast, which consisted of orange juice, a decaf latte, and ham and eggs.

committee names
Capitalize the names of committees.

• The Academic Affairs Committee will meet tomorrow.

comprised/comprises
Comprised and comprises must always refer to a larger unit made up of smaller units. Do not use is comprised of.

• The faculty senate comprises members from each department. (Also see compose/comprise.)

compose/comprise
Compose means to make up or constitute. Comprise means to include, contain or consist of.

• Nine players compose a baseball team. A baseball team comprises one pitcher, one catcher, one shortstop and so on.

continuous(ly)/continual(ly)
Continuous(ly) means without interruption; continual(ly) means occurring again and again.

• The sound of the lawnmower droned outside her office continuously for two hours, continually interrupting her lecture.

course work
Two words.

credit hours
Use numerals to refer to credit hours.

• 3 credit hours

date
When referring to month and year, add a comma after the year unless it ends the sentence. However, do not add a comma following the month unless a date is used. Similarly, when referring to both a city and state, add a comma after the state.

• Your memo of July 28, 2005, summarized the issue perfectly.
• She graduated in May 2002.
• After three years, she started to consider Stephenville, Texas, home.

dean's list
Lowercase.

doctor
Use Dr. on first reference as a formal title before the name of an individual who holds a doctorate in a medical field of study.

• Dr. Nancy W. Dickey

If appropriate in the text, Dr. also may be used on first reference before the names of individuals who hold other types of doctoral degrees.Since most readers identify Dr. only with physicians, make sure that the individual's speciality is mentioned in the first or second reference. Do not use Dr. on subsequet references, but rather, use the individual's last name. Also, do not use Dr. before the names of people who hold only honorary degrees.

doctoral, doctorate (also see academic degrees)
Use doctoral as an adjective and doctorate as a noun.

• She received her doctoral degree last Saturday.
• She received her doctorate in English.

e.g.,/i.e.
The abbreviation e.g. means for example. The abbreviation i.e. means that is or in other words. Always follow e.g. and i.e. with a comma.

• The system administration, i.e., the chancellor and vice chancellors, attended a retreat last week.
• Several majors (e.g., physics, economics and chemistry) require strong mathematics backgrounds.

email
Lowercase, one word.

em dash
Put a space on both sides of the dash in all uses except the start of a paragraph.

• Integrity — a Texas A&M core value — is central to the character of the university.

emeritus/emerita/emeritae/emeriti
Honorary title bestowed on select retired faculty members. Use emeritus when referring to men, and emerita for women. Emeritae is the plural feminine form; emeriti is plural for a group of men, or a group of men and women.

ensure/insure
Ensure means to guarantee or assure. Insure means to provide or obtain insurance, to underwrite.

• We took precautions to ensure our safety.
• She insured her car before driving it off the dealer's lot.

ethnic designations (also see African-American)
When referring to ethnicity, not race, use Anglo rather than white in contexts in which there are also references to Hispanics, Latinos and others. The preferred designations are Anglo, African-American, Hispanic, Mexican American, Asian American, American Indian (or Native American) and Foreign.

extension agent
Uppercase extension agent when used as a title before a name. In other uses, uppercase Extension (because it refers to the agency name) and lowercase agent.

• Extension Agent Tasha Boggs is a 2005 graduate of Tarleton State University.
• She attended the annual meeting of all Extension agents in College Station.

faculty
When used as a collective noun, faculty is singular.

• The faculty at Texas A&M International University is known for preparing students for graduate school.

FAQ
Frequently asked questions. Spell it out in copy. If abbreviated in a headline, use all caps, with no apostrophe to make it plural.

• The student referred to the website's frequently asked questions page for guidance.
• FAQs

fax
Fax is short for facsimile; do not capitalize.

fiscal year
Do not capitalize when spelled out. When abbreviated, capitalize and put a space between FY and the year.

• She planned to give all of her lottery winnings to the university in fiscal year 2006.
• The university's FY 2007 budget will reflect her generous donation.

fundraising, fundraiser
One word in all cases.

general revenue
Lowercase.

• The item was funded through general revenue appropriations.

grade point average/GPA
GPA is an acceptable abbreviation in all references.

grade point ratio/GPR
GPR is an acceptable abbreviation in all references.

grades
Use a capital letter when referring to a grade. When pluralizing, use an apostrophe before the s.

• She made all A's last year.

half staff/half mast
Flags are lowered to half staff, not half mast.

health care
Two words, no hyphen, in all cases.

Hispanic (also see ethnic designations)
Use to refer to people of Spanish or Spanish-and-Portuguese ancestry or Spanish-speaking persons of Latin American origin living in the United States. Use an individual's country of ancestry, such as Cuban American, if such designation is pertinent.

hyphens
Do not hyphenate adverbial phrases ending in –ly. Do hyphenate compounds used as adjectives before a noun. Do not hyphenate "pre" unless an e follows.

• The department chose a radically different approach.
• A far-reaching decision, a much-needed vacation, a thought-provoking article, a university-related program.
• She pre-empted the professor's lecture on prehistoric mammals with her question.

international students
This phrase is preferred over foreign students.

Internet
Capitalize. Use Internet instead of 'Net or the Net.

land-grant university
Hyphenate when used as an adjective.

legislation
Refer to bills as House Bill 1 or Senate Bill 1, or as H.B. 1 or S.B. 1 (periods but no space between the letters, then a space between the letters and the number).

legislative
Do not capitalize this adjective unless it begins a sentence.

• That is a legislative matter, not a judicial one.

legislative special item
Do not capitalize.

• Texas AgriLife Research requested a new special item for research support.

Legislature
Capitalize in all references to a particular legislative body, such as the Texas Legislature or the Legislature. Do not capitalize when it is used as a generic term.

• The law-making body in a democracy is called a legislature.

matriculate
Matriculate means to enroll, not to graduate. Use this term sparingly in external communications since many readers outside academia may not be familiar with the term.

midnight
See noon/midnight.

multicultural
Do not hyphenate.

Nobel Prize
The correct designations are Nobel Prize in physics (as well as in physiology or medicine). But, it's the Nobel Peace Prize and Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics. A person who has received this prize is a Nobel laureate.

noon/midnight
Noon, not 12:00 noon. Do not capitalize unless it is the first word in the sentence. Use midnight instead of 12 a.m.

numbers
In most cases, use numerals for numbers 10 and above, but spell out numbers one through nine when they appear in a sentence by themselves. Use numerals with percents, ages and credit hours.

• He has finished four of the five chapters in his dissertation.
• Alumni giving was up 5 percent over last year.
• The 19-year-old student needed just 3 credit hours to graduate with a bachelor's degree.

online
One word.

percent
One word. Spell out in a sentence, but write as % in a table or graph.

• Enrollment climbed by 8 percent.
  

possessives
For plural nouns not ending in s, add an s. For plural nouns that end in s, and for proper names that end in s, add an apostrophe. The possessives hers, its, theirs, yours and oneself have no apostrophe.

• Alumni's contributions
• Universities' mission statements, football teams' rivalry, Texas' public schools, Regent Jones' suggestion

published works
Italicize the full title of published works, such as books.

• Her favorite book is Little Women.

punctuation
In general, follow the rules found in Webster's Third New International Dictionary or any standard grammar book, such as The Elements of Style (fourth edition) , and be consistent.

Punctuation marks go inside quotation marks. (This is not the case with British English.) Use only one space between punctuation ending a sentence and the beginning of the next sentence.

• The last thing she said to the department head that December was "happy holidays."

quotation marks
Use double quotation marks for direct quotations and for titles other than whole published works. Use single quotation marks to indicate a quote within a quote. Quotation marks go outside periods and commas.

• "Education is important for many reasons," he said. "It teaches you where to put quotation marks."
• Bob told his class, "A man once said to me, 'Education is the key to your success.'"

services
Offices' names ending in "services" take a plural verb.

• Computing Services assist students with online communications needs.

special item
See legislative special item.

Spring Break
Capitalize. (also see capitalization)

state/federal
Capitalize when referring to a governmental entity, but not when referring to geographical areas or systems/theories of government.

• The current State budget is the largest in history.
• The student is from the state of Virginia.
• The city is seeking federal aid to help with rebuilding costs.
• The Federal government is not always a supporter of the federal system.

state abbreviations
Do not use the two-letter ZIP code abbreviations in text. Use the abbreviations below, as outlined by the Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual. Do not abbreviate Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas and Utah. Use the two-letter U.S. Postal Service abbreviations only with full addresses, including ZIP code.

Alaska Ala. Ariz. Ark. Calif. Colo. Conn. Del. Fla. Ga. Hawaii Idaho Ill. Ind. Kan. Ky. La.

Maine Md. Mass. Mich. Minn. Miss. Mo. Mont. Neb. Nev. N.H. N.J. N.M. N.Y. N.C. N.D.

Ohio Okla. Ore. Pa. R.I. S.C. S.D. Tenn. Texas Utah Vt. Va. Wash. W.Va. Wis. Wyo.

technical terms, preferred usages:

Log in, log on, log off
Two words if used as a verb; one word if used as a noun or adjective.

• Please log on to our website.
• Enter your logon password now.
  

telephone numbers
Be consistent with usage throughout a document, however you choose to write the number.

• (979) 555-0000
• 979-555-0000
• 979.555.0000

that/which
See which/that.

time designations
Associated Press style is preferred.

• 8 p.m., 9:30 a.m., 10 o'clock.
• Not 8:00 a.m.

titles
Capitalize a person's title when it precedes the name. Do not capitalize when it follows a name or stands by itself.

• President Ray M. Keck III
• Governor John Doe Jr. attended the game with his father, John Doe Sr.
• Mike McKinney, chancellor of The Texas A&M University System, gave the author of this style guide a 20 percent raise.
• The president of the faculty senate was late, but the chairman of the Board of Regents was on time.

trademarks
For the first mention of any trademarked brand, use the trade name followed by ® or ™. After the first mention, use the trade name without the ® or ™.

United States
Spell out as a noun; abbreviate (with no space between the letters) as an adjective.

• The United States is a popular destination for Chinese students.
• The official U.S. policy has not changed.

Washington, D.C.
Put a comma after Washington. Also, add a comma after D.C. when it doesn't end a sentence.

• After attending the conference in Washington, D.C., they drove to Baltimore.

web/website
Do not capitalize when using this abbreviation for the World Wide Web. Website is one word, with no hyphen. This is the style preferred by Wired News. It's a break with AP style.

• Netscape is a web browser.
• She was responsible for designing the TEES website.

which/that
Which is correct for nonrestrictive phrases (phrases that add information but can be deleted without changing the meaning of the sentence) and is set off with commas. That is correct with restrictive phrases (those that are essential to the meaning of the sentence).

• The program that was accredited last year has become very popular.
• The program, which gives college credit for work experience, has become very popular.

-wide
Do not hyphenate systemwide when referring to the A&M System. Similarly, do not hyphenate statewide or nationwide. Hyphenate if the word preceding -wide is capitalized.

• His achievements once were known only systemwide; today they are known Texas-wide.

work-study
Lowercase and hyphenate.

years
In most cases, use the full four digits. Occasionally, the use of only the last two digits is preferred. Do not use an apostrophe to indicate spans of decades or centuries (e.g., 1980s, the 1900s).

• Enrollment for fall 2005 rose sharply.
• He graduated in the 1980s.
• The Legislature is working on appropriations for the 2005-2006 biennium.
• We have plenty of travel money for FY 2006.
• The banner read, "The Class of '72 welcomes you to Corpus Christi."