The following style guide serves as a quick reference for those producing correspondence, programs, and other texts in print or on the Web. It is based on the Modern Language Association’s Style Guide and The Associated Press (AP) Stylebook. For news releases, the AP guide should be followed.

FONT AND ALIGNMENT

• Use Times New Roman, 12 point font for letters and the body of programs and other texts.
• Use the tab key to align information. Do not use the space bar.
  

LINE BREAKS

Hyphenating words

• Do not use the automated hyphenation function of your word processor. Unless space is an important consideration, it is best not to hyphenate.

Breaks between pages

• At the end of a page, do not separate a title or subtitle from the text that follows it. A paragraph at the end of a page should cover at least two lines of print before the break; otherwise begin the paragraph on the next page. (the “widows and orphans” function of your word processor should do this automatically).
• Do not divide the names of persons, dates, and abbreviations. Do not separate titles, initials, and professional and scholastic degrees from the names. If initials are used in place of both a person’s first and middle names, include a space between them but do not divide them over a line. If necessary, you can break the name before the last name. (e.g.,Dr. U. R. Wellborn Dr. U. R. / Wellborn but not Dr. U. / R. Wellborn nor Dr. / U. R. Wellborn).
• Do not divide a day of the month from the name of the month (February 10 but not February / 10).

ABBREVIATIONS

• When in doubt, spell words out! Include an unfamiliar abbreviation in parentheses after a proper noun before using it on the second reference. (e.g., Board of Church Advocates (BCA))

Personal Names

• Some individuals are known primarily by initials in place of a first and/or middle name. Such initials should be followed by a period and a space.(e.g., Q. A. Black,John D. Rockefeller)

• Use a comma before abbreviations such as Sr. or Jr., but do not use one before II or III.(e.g., Frank Lyon, Sr. but not Homer D. Simpson, III)

• Use a comma after Sr. and Jr. if the sentence continues on past the name.(e.g., Frank Lyon, Sr., gave the College a water cooler;Frank Lyon, Sr.,’s first gift to the College was a water cooler.)

Social and professional titles

• Abbreviate these titles when they precede a name: Dr., and all military titles
• Omit the following prefixes when referring to an individual: Mr., Ms., Mrs.
• Spell out other professional titles, including Professor, President, Reverend, and Honorable, when followed immediately by a name. If a title is present with no name, (i.e. the president of the College) then the title should be lowercase. Never use Reverend or Honorable except with a full name, in which case the title should be preceded by the word “the.” For subsequent references use only the last name.(e.g., The Reverend Lotta Words, then Words;The Honorable Bill Walmsley, then Walmsley)
• Do not abbreviate professional titles when standing alone or in apposition to a name.(e.g., George Washington served as president;Dr. Deep Thinker, Assistant Professor of Philosophy)

Academic degrees

• Use abbreviations for the common academic degrees:bachelor of arts (B.A.);bachelor of science (B.S.); master of arts (M.A.); master of fine arts (M.F.A.); master of science (M.S.); doctor of philosophy (Ph.D.); doctor of education (Ed.D.)
• Note that no space is inserted after the periods unless the sentence continues on.
• Use an apostrophe inbachelor's degree,amaster's, etc. There is no possessive inBachelor of ArtsorMaster of Science
• When used after a name, academic abbreviation is set off by commas:John Snow, Ph.D., spoke.

Class standing

• Do not capitalize a class designation. (e.g., Several freshmen attended the workshop; Many seniors enroll in internships)
• Also note that the singular form of the class standing is always used for adjectives.(e.g., Three freshman team members;Seven senior women)

Geographical names

• In text, always spell out and capitalize the names of countries, states, counties, bodies of water, mountains, and the like. Use two-letter post office abbreviations only when ZIP codes are included in mailing addresses or in tables, figures, and citations. Always spell out United States when using it as a noun. When using it as an adjective, you may abbreviate it to U.S. with no space after the first period.
• Following are state abreviations (postal code abreviation in parentheses) that are used in conjuction with datelines, lists (i.e. diploma or award listings), and party affiliation (i.e. D-Ala, R-Mont)

Do Not Abbreviate Words

• Do not abbreviate words such as association, avenue, department, institute, or street, except in addresses. Use the ampersand (&) only if used by a company in its official name. (e.g., Procter & Gamble; Johnson & Johnson)
• Use the percent sign (%) only in scientific, technical, or statistical copy. If the percentage is less than one, precede the decimal point with a 0.(e.g., President Weatherman is right 99 percent of the time; The cost of living rose 0.6 percent.)

CAPITALIZATION

Names

• Proper nouns, or names, are always capitalized. Names of people, buildings, places, associations, and organizations are capitalized. (e.g., Joe Blow; Brown Chapel; Class of ’67; Student Government Association)
• Geographical regions are capitalized; directions and points of the compass are not. (e.g., Leaders of Western Europe studied the stars in the east;Many students go south for spring break; This book traces the development of the South after 1960)
• Names of ethnic and national groups are capitalized. (e.g., Arab Americans; Ming dynasty; Latinos)
• Terms denoting socioeconomic level are not capitalized. (e.g., blue-collar workers;the upper class)

Titles

• A professional title that immediately precedes a personal name is treated as part of the name and should be capitalized. If you use the title by itself or after the personal name, it becomes a generic term and should be lowercase. (e.g., President Chester Arthur announced;the president announced; Dean Ronald McDonald wrote; the dean wrote)
• The same principle applies to other generic terms that are part of place or organization names.(e.g., Department of Fine Arts but, the fine arts department; The Derby Center thereafter, the center; Board of Trustees thereafter, the board or the trustees)
• Exception: Lyon College; subsequently, the College. This is a traditional form of reference employed by an institution within its own literature. However, do not capitalize college when it is used as an adjective.
• Each element of a position title is capitalized, except for articles, prepositions, and conjunctions. Such titles are used in apposition to the name; they do not precede the name. (e.g., Dr. Roman Greco, Associate Professor of Language and Literature;Mrs. Willu Needajob, Director of Career Placement)

Academic Courses and Subjects

• Capitalize the names of specific courses but not of general subjects or fields of study, except for the names of languages. (e.g., She is majoring in Spanish and business; He met the English requirement; He graduated with a B.A. in fine arts; She is registered for International Business Practices.)

Events and Designations of Time

• Capitalize historic periods and events, holidays, and official names of Lyon College events: World War I; Memorial Day; the Industrial Revolution; Homecoming 2010; Groundhog Day; Arkansas Scottish Festival
• Do not capitalize informal terms such as baccalaureate, commencement, fall semester, summer school, or finals week.
• Capitalize days of the week and months, but not the seasons. (e.g., Sunday; April; spring)
• Do not capitalize a.m. or p.m. (Note that no space follows the first period.)

Titles of Works

• Capitalize the first letter of the first and last words (no matter the part of speech) of the title and subtitle and all other words, except articles, conjunctions, prepositions.
• Italicize titles of books, plays, journals, very long poems, long musical compositions, paintings, sculptures, movies, and television and radio programs.
• Enclose in quotation marks titles of shorter works, which may or may not be part of a longer work, such as chapters, short stories, poems, essays, articles, episodes of television programs, short musical compositions, photographs, lectures, papers, and theses.

PUNCTUATION

Apostrophe

• Form the possessive of most singular common and proper nouns, including those that end in s, x, or z, by adding an apostrophe and s. This also applies to letters and numerals used as singular nouns, and to abbreviations.(e.g., Charles Dickens’s writing;income tax’s effect; bachelor’s degree; 2010’s election; DVW’s speech)
• Form the possessive of most plural common and proper nouns by adding only an apostrophe. (e.g., dogs’ dinners; the Diazes’ house)
• Form the possessive of the following types of nouns with only an apostrophe:
  • Nouns that name a group or collective entity but are treated as grammatically singular (e.g., politics’ true meaning;the United States’ position)
  • Names that end in an unpronounced s: (e.g., Descartes’ philosophy; Arkansas’ weather)
• Punctuate the year of a graduating class with an apostrophe. (e.g., Class of ’76 Kurt Hummel, ’94)
• In making the plural of figures, do not use an apostrophe. (e.g., the late 1600s)

Comma

• Use a comma before the words “and” and “or” in a series (except in news releases). (e.g., Our flag is red, white, and blue.)
• Place a comma after digits signifying thousands, except when referring to years, page numbers, large serial numbers, house or building numbers, room numbers, ZIP codes, telephone numbers, heat units, or decimal parts of numbers. (e.g., 3,350 students; 4,600 degrees in the year 2001; 3.14159265)
• Place a comma before and after the state following a city.(e.g., The man from Tulsa, Oklahoma, was tall.)
• Always put a comma after the abbreviation (Janice loved her accessories, e.g., shoes, purses, hats, bracelets, and rings.)
• When writing dates, place a comma between the day and the year, and after the year.(e.g., July 4, 1776, was our nation’s birthday.)
• Do not place a comma between the month and the year when no day is mentioned. (e.g., July 1776 was very hot.)

Dash

• If your word processing program doesn’t have a dash, indicate a dash by typing two hyphens with no spacing. MS Word will automatically convert the hyphens to a dash. In no case should you use a single hyphen with spaces on each side to indicate a dash. (e.g., John--quite a conservative--always wore gray. But not John - quite a conservative - always wore gray.)

Ellipses

• Indicate an omission within a quotation with an ellipsis (three periods with spaces before, between, and after them). Since the dots stand for words omitted, they always go inside the quotation marks or block quotation. (e.g., “I . . . tried to do what was best.”)
• If the omission occurs at the end of a complete sentence, put a period in its usual position, followed by the three spaced periods indicating an ellipsis.(e.g., “He was tired at the end of the evening. . . .”)
• If the omission leaves out an entire sentence or more, follow the pattern above and start the second sentence after a space following the fourth period.(e.g., “He was tired at the end of the evening. . . . His wife still wanted to celebrate.”)

Quotation Marks

• Commas and periods are placed inside the closing quotation mark. (e.g., He said, “I am leaving.”)
• Colons and semicolons are placed outside of the closing quotation mark.(e.g., He spoke of his “little cottage in the country”; he might have called it a mansion.)
• The question mark, the dash, and the exclamation point are placed within the quotation mark when they refer to the quoted matter only.(e.g., He asked, “When did you leave?”)
• The question mark, the dash, and the exclamation point are placed outside the quotation mark when they refer to the whole sentence.(e.g., What is the meaning of “the open door”?)
• Use single quotation marks ONLY for quotations printed within other quotations. If several paragraphs are to be quoted, use quotation marks at the beginning of each paragraph, but at the end of the last paragraph only.

NUMBERS

• Use numerals for:

  • All exact numbers above ten, including ordinal numbers such as 101st
  • Statistical and tabular work
  • Decimals
  • Percentages, e.g., 6.5 percent, not 6 ½ percent
  • Latitude and longitude
  • Degrees of temperature
  • Dimensions
  • Measurements and proportions
• Spell out approximate numbers—that is, round numbers in even units. (e.g., Nearly three thousand people attended the inaugural football game.)
• If several numbers occur in a connected group within a sentence, write all numbers, including those under ten and round numbers, in figures. I have requisitioned 16 reams of paper, 120 tablets, and 8 boxes of pencils.
• Always spell out numbers that begin a sentence. Sixteen guests were present.
• However, if the numbers would require more than two words when spelled out, rearrange the wording of the sentence if possible. The exhibit was attended by 4,431 students. Not Four thousand four hundred thirty-one students attended.

Money

• Write all amounts of money in numerals. (e.g., $7;$10.50;$1,321; 20 cents)
• Do not include the decimal point or ciphers in even amounts of dollars that occur in the body of the text. (e.g., $124)
• When amounts under $1 appear in the body of the letter, write the word “cents” after the figures. (e.g., 20 cents)
• Write indefinite sums of money in words. a few million dollars

Time, ages, and pages

• Always separatea.m. and p.m. with periods (notam or pm)
• Do not include the minutes for exact hours. (e.g., 11:30 p.m.; 8 p.m., not 8:00 p.m.)
• Centuries and decades may be expressed in words or numerals. (e.g., the 1900s, not 1900’s; the twentieth century)
• Be sure to exclude number suffixes when writing dates (e.g.,June 9, not June 9th)
• Spans of years are written as follows: 1861-65, 2001-08;1996-2016.
• Similarly, a range of pages is written as follows: pp. 137-49;pp. 137-206.

Fractions

• Ordinarily, spell out a fraction that stands alone. Use figures, however, if the spelled-out form is long and awkward or if the fraction is used in a technical measurement or a computation. (e.g., A two-thirds majority is needed; You should multiply by 3/5)
• Two numbers together. If two numbers form one item, spell out one of them—usually the shorter— expressing the other in figures. (e.g., two 8-room houses; 300 five-page documents)

SPELLING AND USAGE TIPS

• Refer to Page 331 of theCollege Catalogfor the full names and descriptions of campus buildings and facilities. The following buildings have shortened references for use in publications or programs: Brown Fine Arts Building, Becknell Gymnasium.
• After initially identifying Lyon College in a text, in subsequent references, you may use the College (not the college). This capitalization is a traditional form of reference employed by an institution within its own literature. However, do not capitalize college when it is used as an adjective, e.g., the college campus.
• Lyon College or the College are both acceptable ways to refer to Lyon College in text. However, referring to the College as just Lyonisnot acceptable and can cause branding issues with outside media and audiences.
• When referencing to clubs or organizations, use it/its and not their/they are.
• When referring to endowed or honored rooms, use the full name of the room(i.e. Sloan Auditorium, Bevens Music Room, Nucor Auditorium).
• Alumni refers to two or more graduates; alumnus refers to a male graduate; alumna refers to a female graduate; alumnae, refers to two or more female graduates.
• Emeriti refers to two or more retired professors holding emeritus rank; emeritus refers to a male; emerita refers to a female.
• GPA: This abbreviation is acceptable on first reference for “grade point average.”
• Theatre is the spelling used at Lyon College in reference to its theatre department and programming.
• Graduate and officiate are intransitive verbs. That means they cannot have direct objects: Bob graduated from high school. Not Bob graduated high school. The ship’s captain officiated at the wedding. Not The captain officiated the wedding.
• Only: Make sure this modifier is placed next to the word you really intend it to modify: I only run for exercise. (It’s my only form of exercise.) I run only for exercise. (Otherwise, I never, ever run.)
• Among and between: Use “among” only for three or more. Use “between” only when there are just two.
• Amount and number: Use amount only with a singular noun. Use number with plural nouns. the amount of work the number of classes
• As and like: “As” is a conjunction. It should be followed by a clause containing a subject and a verb. “Like” is a preposition. It should be followed by an object to make a prepositional phrase. She sings like a screech owl. Not She sings like a screech owl does. She’s pretty as a picture. (is = understood verb) Not She’s pretty like a picture.
• Each other and one another: “Each other” is used when speaking of two people. “One another” is used when speaking of three or more.
• Unique: This word cannot be compared. Something either is or is not unique. It can’t be almost unique or very unique. One thing cannot be “more unique” than another. Nothing can be “most unique.” If it is one of a kind, it is unique. If it isn’t one of a kind, it isn’t unique.
• Data: This word is the plural of the Latin word “datum.” No one uses “datum” any more, but when “data” is used as the subject of a sentence or clause, the verb must be plural. The data prove that low-income students are most at risk of dropping out. Not The data proves . . .
• Media: This word is also plural. The singular form is “medium.” “Media” must always take plural verbs and pronouns. Television is a medium of communication. The media should try to be accurate with their usage.
• Alright, irregardless, and alot: These are not standard English words. The correct words are “all right,” “regardless,” and “a lot.”
• to/too/two
• your/you’re
• whose/who’s

MUSIC

• For all music style guidelines, Lyon College refers to "Writing about Music: A Style Sheet" by D. Kern Holoman.