3 Style Rules for Proper Naming Conventions

1. Style Rules Style Rule #1 Capitalize formal titles (President Pope, Vice President) when they appear before a name. Lowercase if it appears after names. Ex: President Barack Obama; Barack Obama, president

2. Style Rules Style Rule #2 Do not use courtesy titles: Miss, Mrs., Ms. or Mr. Identify people by grade, occupation or relevance. Ex: journalism teacher Julie Fales, not Mrs. Fales

3. Style Rules Style Rule #3 Do not capitalize names of academic departments. Ex: history department, English department

4. Style Rules Style Rule #4 Capitalize a noun which precedes an Arabic numeral (1, 2, 3) or a capitalized Roman numeral. Ex: Room 96, Volume II, index ii

5. Style Rules Style Rule #5 Capitalize directions such as East, and West when definite regions are indicated, but not when used as true directions. Ex: We live in the Midwest. Turn west.

6. Style Rules Style Rule #6 Capitalize the names of days and months, but not seasons. Ex: fall, August, Thursday, winter

7. Style Rules Style Rule #7 Capitalize all proper names of organizations, but not their generic names. Ex. Pacesetters, drill team

8. Style Rules Style Rule #8 Do not capitalize the names of courses unless the proper name is different from the generic name. Exceptions are language course names. Ex: math, English, journalism, Advanced Journalism

9. Style Rules Style Rule #9 Do not capitalize abbreviations for morning and afternoon. 7 a.m. NOT 7 A.M.

10. Style Rules Style Rule #10 Dont capitalize senior, junior, sophomore, freshman except when used with the word class. Ex: junior Mary Smith, the Junior Class

11. Style Rules Style Rule #11 Abbreviate names of months with more than five letters if followed by a date. Ex: May 5, Dec. 5, December 2011

12. Style Rules Style Rule #12 Abreviate junior or senior when used in a family name. Note: No comma Ex: John Jones Sr.

13. Style Rules Style Rule #13 Dont abbreviate names of organizations at first reference. In subsequent references use the acronym. If the acronym is widely known, FBI, CIA, use it on first reference. Ex: First time: Raiders Against Drinking and Drugs; Second time: RADD

14. Style Rules Style Rule #14 Omit periods in acronyms of more than two letters. Ex: FBI, CIA

15. Style Rules Style Rule #15 If only two letters in an acronym, retain periods. Exceptions: JV and TV Ex: U.S., U.N.

16. Style Rules Style Rule #16 Dont abbreviate the word, percent, except in tabulation. Ex: Almost 90 percent of the students work.

17. Style Rules Style Rule #17 Numbers one through nine should be spelled out. Other numbers should be in figures unless at the beginning of a sentenc. Ex: We have two dogs. We have 10 dogs. Ten dogs is way too many.

18. Style Rules Style Rule #18 Use figures for all numbers which are used with standard units of measure. Ex: 5 feet 6 inches, 4-year-old

19. Style Rules Style Rule #19 Express money this way: $5 $4.24 5 cents

20. Style Rules Style Rule #20 Spell out numbers preceded by a or an. Ex: a million dollars

21. Style Rules Style Rule #21 Spell out fractions not used in tabulations. Ex: He pays one-fourth of his income for rent.

22. Style Rules Style Rule #22 Spell out ordinal numbers first through ninth, unless they are forming names usually geographic or military. Ex: A third of the student body has jobs. He lives on 3 rd Street He received 10 th place in the tournament.

23. Style Rules Style Rule #23 Capitalize titles such as coach when used alone, but not when preceded by a qualifier. Ex: Coach Mary Smith head coach Mary Smith

24. Style Rules Style Rule #24 Do not use the word on before days of the weeks or dates. Ex: The meeting was Friday.

25. Style Rules Style Rule #25 Never give the year for a story that occurs in the current year. Ex: NO: The 2012 football team will win this year. YES: The football team will win this year.

26. Style Rules Style Rule #26 Place a period inside parentheses if it is a complete sentence and outside if it is not. Ex: (An independent parenthetical sentence such as this one takes a period before the closing parenthesis.) If the material is not a sentence (such as this fragment).

27. Style Rules Style Rule #27 Use commas to set off an apposticive (a title or position following a name). Ex: Dr. Joe Gilhaus, principal, will speak.

28. Style Rules Style Rule #28 Use a comma to set off thousands in numbers except in dates, serial numbers and page numbers. Ex: 5,280 feet 1,345 students 2012

29. Style Rules Style Rule #29 Do not use commas when reporting heights or records of times. Ex: 6 feet 3 inches 3 minutes 12 seconds

30. Style Rules Style Rule #30 Use commas to separate elements in a series, but do not put a comma before the conjunction in a simple series. Ex: The flag is red, white and blue.

31. Style Rules Style Rule #31 Do not confuse possessive nouns and plural nouns used as adjectives. Ex: The boys basketball team lost the game. The boys basketball was lost.

32. Style Rules Style Rule #32 Dont use apostrophes to pluralize letters or numbers. Ex: ABCs the 1920s

33. Style Rules Style Rule #33 Use apostrophes in abbreviationsof years where the century has been left out. Ex: 12 yearbook

34. Style Rules Style Rule #34 Use quotation marks to set off all exact titles of compositions. Ex: Grapes of Wrath The Help

35. Style Rules Style Rule #35 A lot is two words.

36. Style Rules Style Rule #36 All right, not alright. Alright is alwrong.

37. Style Rules Style Rule #37 Use the whole phrase a couple of. The of is necessary. Ex: A couple of tomatoes were stolen.

38. Style Rules Style Rule #38 Use the phrase different from, not different than. Ex: He is different from me.

39. Style Rules Style Rule #39 Imply is used for the speaker. Infer is used for the listener. Ex: His class officer speech implied that he would make lunches longer. From his speech, I inferred that lunch would be longer.

40. Style Rules Style Rule #40 Fewer is used for countables items. Ex: He had five fewer apples. Less is used for quantity. Ex: There are less people here than last time.

41. Style Rules Style Rule #41 Over refers to spatial relationships. Ex: The plane flies over me. More Refers to figures. Ex: Ten is more than eight.

42. Style Rules Style Rule #42 Principal is your pal, first, dominant or leading. Ex: Principal Joe Gilhaus Principle is a guiding rule. Ex: Being honest is a good principle.

43. Style Rules Style Rule #43 In athletics, use the phrase set a record, not a new record which is redundant. Ex: The football kicker set a record with his first field goal.

44. Style Rules Style Rule #44 Under way is two words. NOT: underway

45. Style Rules Style Rule #45 Canon is a law. Ex: The British canon is different from ours. Cannon is a gun. (double nn = double barrel) Ex: The pirates has a cannon.

46. Style Rules Style Rule #46 Capitol is the building (domes are like os). Capital is the city. (state capital both use as). Ex: The state capital is Topeka. What a beautiful dome on the capitol.

47. Style Rules Style Rule #47 Use dived as the past tense of dive.

48. Style Rules Style Rule #48 Farther is for distance. Ex: He ran farther than me. Further is for time. Ex: She will look further into the mystery.

49. Style Rules Style Rule #49 Council is a group who makes decisions. Ex: the city council Counsel is to advise. Ex: Can you counsel me on this problem?

50. Style Rules Style Rule #50 A criminal is hanged. Clothes are hung.

51. Style Rules Style Rule #51 Ad is an advertisement. Add is to total numbers.

52. Style Rules Style Rule #52 Aid is to help. Aide is an assistant.

53. Style Rules Style Rule #53 Someone and somebody take singular verbs. Ex: Someone is here.

54. Style Rules Style Rule #54 Use OK, not Okay.