STYLE GUIDELINES
from the Office of Campus Relations
University of Illiinois at Springfield

These guidelines are based on the Chicago Manual of Style, published by the University of Chicago Press, though some departures have been made that are specific to UIS.

The guidelines presented below are by no means exhaustive. They are intended only to address some of the most common questions that occur in all the kinds of writing that are done on campus every day.

A    B    C    D    E    F    G    H    I    J    K    L    M

N    O    P    Q    R    S    T    U   V    W    X    Y    Z  

ACADEMICS       

Degrees  Use periods in abbreviated academic degrees (B.A., M.B.A., Ph.D.). Use apostrophes when the degrees are spelled out (bachelor’s degree, master’s degree).     

Academic degrees are lowercased when they are spelled out following a person’s name (Harold P. Simpson, doctor of law) and when they are referred to in general terms (master of science, a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree in physics).     

Departments  Uppercase only the full proper name of an academic department (the Department of Cryogenics). Other references should be lowercased (the cryogenics department, the department).      Titles  Uppercase academic titles only when they precede a name and are used as part of it (Professor June Clemens; June Clemens, chair of the Department of  Anthropology and Archaeology; anthropology professor June Clemens).

ACKNOWLEDGMENT   Not acknowledgement

ACTIVE/PASSIVE VERBS  Whenever possible, choose the active voice (the board decided) rather than the passive (a decision was reached by the board).

ADDRESSES   Always spell out state names when used with a city (Boston, Massachusetts, not Boston, Mass.). The exceptions are lists or tabular material, and when a zipcode is used in a mailing address (Springfield, IL 62708).     

Compass points and terms like street, avenue, and boulevard may be abbreviated in mailing addresses (818 N. Main St.).     

Campus addresses should be given in this format:

Marcus Rydell
Zoology Program, HSB 555
University of Illinois at Springfield           
Springfield, IL 62794-9243

ADVISER   Not advisor

AFFECT / E FFECT  Affect means to influence. (Rising temperatures will affect the crops.)  Effect, as a verb, means to cause. (Rising temperatures effected a change in the crops.)  Effect, as a noun, means result. (Rising temperatures had an amazing effect on the crops. The effect the rising temperatures had on the crops was amazing.)

AFTERWARD/BACKWARD/FORWARD/TOWARD    No "s."

ALL RIGHT   Alright is all wrong. 

AUTHOR   It’s not a verb. (Dan wrote a book about his experiences.  Dan is the author of a book about his experiences.)

Back To Top

BREVITY   Don’t clutter your sentences with unneeded words. For example:

      These examples (only the tip of the iceberg) are reprinted from A Practical Guide to Writing (Barnet and Stubbs, 1975) and The Art of Editing (Baskette, Sissors, and Brooks, 1986).

Back To Top

CAMPUS/UNIVERSITY    Campus should be used to refer to each of the three locations within the University of Illinois individually.  (The campus has adequate parking. UIS has adequate parking.) Of course the word university is part of the proper names of the three campuses, but don’t use it alone in subsequent references to them.

      The U of I uses university to refer to the entire University of Illinois: University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), and the central administration. Capitalize references made in that sense (the University seal, the University president, the University’s third campus).

CAPITALIZATION   In general, lowercase is preferable to excessive capitalization.

      Do not capitalize any of the following: state in the phrase state of Illinois; center or auditorium  referring to campus units; the names of UIS’ (or other schools’) academic programs except those containing proper nouns, such as English, African-American studies, French, etc.; academic degrees (a bachelor’s degree in music, a master’s in physics); academic subjects, unless a full course name is given (BOT 555 Plants and You, the popular course Plants and You).

      Also use lowercase in these instances: the universities of Illinois and Pittsburgh; the 1995 spring semester; the city of Boston; the middle class; central Illinois.

      **Do capitalize the names of specific persons, places, or things. Capitalize university when used alone and referring to the University of Illinois (see “Campus/University” above); building when referring to UIS buildings named only by letter. (The gym is in SLB Building. The gym is in Building SLB. Send it to SLB, room 35.) Be careful about using the first two examples, however, as sometimes the “B” in the new building acronyms already stands for “building.” “SLB Building” says in effect “Student Life Building Building.”

      In titles, the first and last words, as well as all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and words like if, because, and that are capped. The words a, an, the, and, but, or,  for, nor, and prepositions of any length are lowercased (unless they’re the first or last word). The to in infinitives or the second part of a hyphenated word is also lowercased unless it is the last word in the title (A Long Way to Run, Planning Dinner Parties: Buffet and Sit-Down, Planning a Sit-down Dinner Party).

**This section has been revised since the first edition.

Note I : Despite what we said about lowercasing the names of UIS’ academic programs, sometimes it just seems more appropriate to uppercase them. (The event was sponsored by the Women’s Center, Sangamon Auditorium, the history program, and Minority Student Affairs.) In this case, we’d capitalize History Program, too.

Note II : The 14th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style devotes nearly 50 pages to examples of capitalization.

COMMAS   Use one before and in a series. (We ate toast, eggs, and ham.)

COMPOSE/COMPRISE/CONSTITUTE/INCLUDE   Compose means to create or put together and can be used in either the active or passive voice. (He composed one hit song a year.  The math test was composed of five easy problems and six difficult ones.)

      Comprise means to contain or include all and is best used in the active voice. (The math test comprises five easy problems and six difficult ones. The panel comprises people from all parts of campus.)

      You may want to use constitute, meaning to form or make up, if neither compose or comprise seems to work. (Eleven problems constitute the math test.  People from all parts of campus make up the panel.)

     Include should be used when what follows is only part of the total.  (The math test includes five easy problems.  The panel includes students from the theater department.)

COMPOUND WORDS   See “Is It One Word or Two?”

CONTINUAL/CONTINUOUS   Continual means repetitious, over and over.  (The continual beat of rain on the roof lulled him to sleep.) Continuous means steady and unbroken. (A continuous stream poured into the gutters.)

CONVENER   Not convenor

Back To Top

DATES   Days of the week and names of months should be spelled out except in tabular material.

      Use commas as

            He was born on Tuesday, January 23, 1939.

            He got married on Friday, January 30.

      Use: the 1990s, the ’90s, the nineties (NOT the 1990’s or 90’s)

      Centuries are spelled out (the twentieth century, not 20th) and are

hyphenated when used as an adjective (twentieth-century art). Also hyphenate phrases like mid-twentieth century fiction.

DEAN  UIS presently has five deans, one for each academic college and one presiding over the library. Capitalize the title as follows: Dean Olivia Gordon; Dean Gordon; Olivia Gordon, dean of the School of Architectural Science.

DR.   The public is inclined to identify “Dr.” with a member of a healing profession. Good style dictates that “Dr.” be confined to these groups and avoided when referring to an academic or cleric. As an academic institution, however, we understand that this title can lend prestige, credibility, and authority to the University and its faculty. We recommend using “Dr.” when you wish to emphasize those qualities and avoiding it at other times. If it’s necessary to say that a person holds a doctorate, do so parenthetically (Jacob Q. Anderson, Ph.D., or Jacob Anderson, who holds a doctorate in geology).

Back To Top

ENSURE/INSURE/ASSURE   Ensure and insure are not quite interchangeable, although they both mean “to make certain.” Ensure refers more to things. (Using this method will ensure success.)  Insure refers more to finances.  (Insure yourself against the cost of illness.)  Assure implies the removal of doubt or suspense. (I assure you that I mean no harm.)

ENTITLED   Entitled means to have a right to something. Don’t use it in reference to the name of a book, play, etc. (The presentation was titled “Learning the Personal Computer.”)

Back To Top

FARTHER/FURTHER   Farther refers to physical distance.  (Ted said he could run farther than Jake.) Further refers to time or degree.  (Jake’s mother said there would be no further discussions.)

FAX   It’s fax, not FAX.

FOREWORD A foreword is a preface or an introductory piece. Don’t confuse it with forward, which means “ahead” or “in front.”

FUND RAISER/FUND RAISING   Used as a noun, this is usually two words, not hyphenated.  (The spring fund raiser was a big success.  Note however: He is a professional fund-raiser.)  Used as an adjective, it’s hyphenated. (The spring fund-raising campaign was a big success.)

Back To Top

GRADE-POINT AVERAGE   Note hyphen.  Abbreviate GPA and give number with two decimal places (a GPA of 3.00 on a 4.00 scale).

HE/SHE/THEY   Do not use “they/them/their” as singular pronouns, even when you’re not sure if you’re referring to males or females. (A student must consult with his or her [NOT “their”] adviser. Students must consult with their advisers.) If the resulting sentence becomes awkward, rewrite it.  (“Tell your child what to do if he or she thinks someone is following him or her,” could be changed to “Make sure your child knows what to do if he or she is being followed.”)

HOPEFULLY  Hopefully is an adverb meaning in a hopeful manner.  (The dog looked hopefully at the pot roast.)  Don’t use it when you mean it is hoped.  (“I hope they give me some,” he thought.  NOT “Hopefully, they’ll give me some.”)

HYPHENATION   See “Is It One Word or Two?”

Back To Top

IMPACT   It’s not a verb. Use affect or influence instead.

INCLUSIVES    Don’t mix prepositions and dashes when you have an inclusive phrase. (He works from 9 to 5.  He works 9-5. NOT “He works from 9-5.” People between the ages of 18 and 25 will love this movie.  People aged 18-25 will love this movie. Everyone aged 18 through 25 will love this movie.) Through is preferred over thru, which should be used only in the most informal communications, or in tabular materials where space may be a consideration.

IRREGARDLESS   It’s not a word. Use regardless.

IS IT ONE WORD OR TWO ?   If the word in question is used as a noun or adjective, check the dictionary. The current trend is away from hyphenation and toward spelling a compound as one word as soon as it

 falls into common use (database for example). Another test is to read for clarity. Does “Her reply was thought provoking” mean that her reply was thought (considered) provoking or that it was thought-provoking (it made you stop and think)?

      Compound words formed with the following prefixes are almost always closed (one word):

       Some exceptions:  If the resulting word is difficult to pronounce or looks odd, hyphenate it (cochair/co-chair; coworker/co-worker). Also hyphenate the word if it can be mistaken for another word (co-op/coop; re-creation /recreation).

      Two words combined to make an adjective preceding a noun are hyphenated (It was a thought-provoking reply.)

      Ex is hyphenated when used to mean former (ex-wife).

      Full and part are hyphenated in compound modifiers preceding nouns. (He is a full-time student.  He attends class part-time.)

      The suffix wide, as in campuswide, is always closed unless the resulting word is long and cumbersome; then it’s hyphenated before the noun and open after. (It was a university-wide mailing.  The mailing was university wide.)

Back To Top

JUDGMENT   Not judgement

LISTS   Simple, short lists can be set up in a number of ways.

We need these things to go camping:

1. tent               or         a. tent               or         tent

2. sleeping bag              b. sleeping bag              sleeping bag

3. insect repellant          c. insect repellant          insect repellant

or

We need these things to go camping: (1) tent, (2) sleeping bag, and (3) insect repellant. [or (a) tent, (b) sleeping bag, and (c) insect repellant.]

More complex vertical lists may require additional punctuation.

Note: You may recast the first part of the sentence. (The things we need to go camping are a tent, sleeping bag, and insect repellant.) There is no colon after the verb in this case.

(Even simpler: We need a tent, sleeping bag, and insect repellant to go camping.)

Back To Top

MONEY   Omit the .00 except as needed in tabular materials ($5, not $5.00).   For amounts less than $1, use figures and spell out cents (5 cents, 75 cents). 

MORE THAN/OVER   Over is generally used when talking about spatial relationships  (The speech went right over my head). It can also be used with numbers (You’re over 21.  My son is over 6 feet tall.); however, it may be better to say more than. (The library charged me more than $6 for an overdue book.  More than a million people have rented this video.)  See what sounds better.

NUMBERS   As a general rule, spell out numbers one through nine and use figures for numbers 10 and higher.

      Exceptions are years, percentages, and numbers used as measures (9 feet, 3 degrees). Also, if you are using an inclusive number in which one is lower than 10 and one is higher, use figures for both. (Answer questions 4 through 74.)

      In this same vein, consistency dictates that numbers applied in the same category should be treated alike in the same context (a 103-story office building between apartment houses only 3 and 4 stories high; 4 students out of a group of 25 students).

Back To Top

OFFICE OF   The complete proper name of an entity should be capitalized. Other references should be lowercased (the Office of Financial Assistance, the financial assistance office).

PERCENT/PERCENTAGES   It’s percent not per cent.

      When writing percentages, use numerals and spell the word out, except in tabular material (1 percent, not one percent or 1%).  Use decimals, not fractions (0.5 percent, not ý percent or ý %).

**PHONE NUMBERS   Use parentheses ( ) to separate an area code from the body of the number [(217)555-1234].  Do not use a slash (/) or a dash (-).  Omit the prefix 1 in 800 numbers [(800)555-1234].

**This section has been revised since the first edition.

PLURALS   In general, plurals are not formed by using an apostrophe. However, when forming the plural of an abbreviation, use the apostrophe if there is more than one period (M.A.’s and Ph.D.’s); if there’s only one, don’t (vols. and yrs.).

      Proper names are never made plural by the use of an apostrophe: The Joneses (not Jones’s) left on vacation.  All the Sallys (not Sally’s) are here.

      A collective noun is the name of a group composed of individuals but considered as a unit -- audience, jury, or committee for example.  A collective noun takes a singular verb and pronoun when thought of as a whole (The family who lives next door is named Mulligan). These nouns take plural verbs and pronouns when members of the group are thought of as individuals. (As the curtain lowers, the audience rise from their seats and head for the exits.)

      Words like athletics and politics are generally considered singular. (Politics is a dirty business.)

POSSESSIVES   Form the possessive of proper nouns ending in s by adding an apostrophe only (Texas’ flag, the Joneses’ tickets, UIS’ football team).

      The following examples can be understood as descriptive rather than possessive, and so the ‘s or s’ can be omitted: consumers group, drivers license, veterans benefits.

      Possessive pronouns ending in s do not take an apostrophe. (My hand is cleaner than yours. Your hand is cleaner than hers.)  Don’t confuse it’s with its. (It’s [it is] time to go. The dog bit its master.)

PRIOR TO   Use before.

PROVED/PROVEN  Proved Proved is a verb. (He

Back To Top

QUALITY   Quality is a noun. Used alone, it’s not an adjective ("a quality faculty," for example, is incorrect). Quality can be used as a modifier, however, if it's combined with another word (a high-quality photograph).

THAT/WHICH   The choice of that or which really can make a difference in the sense of your sentence.  That is preferred when introducing an essential clause, one that can’t be eliminated without changing the meaning of the sentence.  Which should be used to introduce a nonessential clause, one that can be left out without changing the basic meaning of the sentence.  Which clauses are set off by commas. For example: Bob ate the apple, which was green. (The phrase “which was green” simply describes the apple. Note the comma.)  Bob ate the apple that was green. (By changing which to that you specify exactly which apple Bob ate ... the one that was green.)  If you aren’t sure, recast the sentence.  (Bob ate the green apple.)

THEY   See “He/She/They.”

THROUGH/THRU Thru is acceptable only in the most informal cases.  See also “Inclusives.”

TIME   Times should be designated by the use of A.M . or P.M ., with periods and small caps. (We recognize that not all typewriters or word processors can produce small caps.)

      Do not say “12 midnight” or “12 noon,”  say “midnight” or “noon.”  “Friday evening at 8P.M.” is redundant.  Say “Friday at 8 P.M .” or “Friday evening at eight o’clock.”

      Do not use :00 except as needed in tabular material.

TITLES   Personal titles are capitalized when they immediately precede the holder’s name and are used as part of the name (Chancellor Daniel Henderson). These titles are not capitalized if they follow the name (Daniel Henderson, chancellor) or if they are in apposition to (not part of) the name (American president Daniel Henderson). Titles should be abbreviated if they are used with a person’s full name, otherwise spell them out (Rev. Daniel Henderson, Reverend Henderson).

Books, movies, plays, etc .  Set the following in italics:
books  (Tom Sawyer)

periodicals  (TV Guide)

newspapers (the Chicago Tribune)

long poems  (The Iliad)

plays  (The Death of a Salesman)

movies  (Arsenic and Old Lace)

TV and radio series  (Seinfeld, A Prairie Home Companion)

operas and other long musical pieces  (The Marriage of Figaro)

record albums  (Billie Holiday’s Greatest Hits)

works of art  (Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, Rodin’s The Thinker)

Set these in quotation marks:

chapter titles  (chapter one of David Copperfield, “I Am Born”)

articles in magazines and

individual episodes in a TV series  (“The Trouble with Tribbles” episode of Star Trek)

dissertations and papers  (a paper titled “A Comparison of the Use of Credit Cards among Americans Age 16 to 30 and 40 to 65”)

short poems  (Alfred Noyes’ “The Highwayman”)

essays  (Germaine Greer’s essay on “Feminist Political Activism in the Twentieth Century”)

song titles  (Tina Turner’s version of “Proud Mary”)

Back To Top

UNIVERSITY/CAMPUS   See the “Campus” entry.

UTILIZE    Use use.

VICE CHANCELLOR   No hyphen. UIS presently has three.  The correct form of the title when referring to a UIS vice chancellor is “vice chancellor for” (not “of”)  (Michael Millroy, vice chancellor for human resource management, Vice Chancellor for Human Resource Management Michael Millroy, Vice Chancellor Millroy).

Back To Top

WHO/WHOM  Use who and whom instead of that to refer to people and to animals with names.  Use who when it is the subject of the sentence, clause, or phrase. (Lassie is the dog who saved Timmy.)  Use whom when it is the object of a verb or preposition. (Timmy is the boy whom Lassie saved.)

ZIPCODE   States accompanying zipcodes in mailing addresses should be given in the two-letter postal abbreviation (Mr. Roger Babock, 2443 S. Main St., Hibbing, MN 12345-6789).

      The word is zipcode, not ZIPcode.

Back To Top

Guide to Electronic Style

            As computers become more and more imbedded in our daily lives, they bring with them a whole new set of ways to be ungrammatical. We acknowledge that in questions of electronic style -- as in the world of grammar, style, and usage as a whole -- there are a great many experts and manuals offering often conflicting advice. The samples below represent the style we have adopted for this campus.

What's wrong with this web address?

http://www.uis.edu

1.  Like the “1” in 800 telephone numbers, the “http://”can (almost always) be safely omitted from web addresses. We qualify that statement because it ultimately depends on the system you're using. Older, less powerful ones still require you to enter the full address. Also, if you feel there's any chance of your audience becoming confused, by all means include the prefix.

2.  You don't have to underline web addresses, even though many programs read anything beginning with “ http:// ” or “ www. ” as hypertext, and automatically underline it.

3.  Opinions differ about putting a period at the end of a web address that concludes a sentence. Our preference is to punctuate the end of the sentence.

Note: Some knowledgeable folks leave a space between the address and the closing punctuation (www.uis.edu .).  The Chicago Manual of Style suggests enclosing web addresses in <<    >> and omitting the final period. Sentences requiring question marks or exclamation points would still have to be punctuated.

Also: Since word processing programs read most websites as a single word, they can lead to awkward line breaks and spacing, whether your text is set justified or ragged right. You can try to recast your sentence to arrive at a better spacing, or you may simply choose to accept the poor spacing as one more fact of modern life.

A Brief Guide to Electronic Style

CD-ROM    All caps. Short for “compact disk with a read-only memory.”

e-mail    All lower-case unless it starts the sentence or is present in a list set up with initial caps. Example: 
                       Name _____________________

                       Address ___________________

                       Phone _____________________

                       E-mail _____________________

                       Fax _______________________

The unhyphenated form “email” seems to be gaining popularity but, for now at least, we prefer to keep the hyphen. 

fax     All lower-case (see example above)

Internet    Almost always capital “I.” See below for a discussion of when it might

be lowercased.

online    It’s one word.

software    It’s one word.

web    All lower-case, unless it starts the sentence.

website    It’s one word.

World Wide Web    Initial caps.

Is the Internet the same as the web?

No. It’s sort of like they taught us in math class: All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares. The Internet is a group of interconnected computers by which applications such as shared mail services, file transfers, terminal emulation to servers, and shared bulletin boards are possible. The largest application made available through the Internet is the World Wide Web, where information is posted and viewable to anyone with a modem and appropriate browsing software. The “webbed” nature of these pages is possible through “hyperlinked” texts that transport you to another page with the click of a mouse.

Is it Internet or internet?

An internet is a network of networks; a group of networks interconnected via routers. The Internet is the world’s largest internet.

Thanks to Ray Schroeder, Shari McCurdy, and Computer Currents High Tech Dictionary, which you can visit at www.currents.net/resources/dictionary/index.html.

Back To Top

Guidelines for Using the UIS Logo

1.     Use  The UIS Logo must appear at least once on all printed materials intended for an external audience.

2.     Placement  The suggested position for the logo in print materials, such as brochures, flyers, posters, newsletters, and booklet covers, is the lower right of either the front or back panel or column.

However, actual placement should be one that best suits the overall look of your piece.

3.     Size  Any size is acceptable. Larger Logos should be accompanied by the campus’ name spelled out below.  However, if the logo is very small, it should be used without the name below.  In this case, “University of Illinois at Springfield” should appear elsewhere on the page, spelled out in Times Roman type.

4.     Grid  Older versions of the UIS logo included a gray grid. We no longer use the gray grid.

5.     Modification  The type face and the logo image itself may not be modified. Do not put any element on top of or underneath the UIS logo.

6.     Other logos  Some select campus entities have been granted special permission to have their own identifiable logo (i.e. Prairie Stars/athletics),which may be used in conjunction with the UIS logo, as appropriate. However, as a general rule, no departments or units should develop separate logos. One-time use "artwork" such as special logos for events or image awareness t-shirts are permitted. For questions, contact the Office of Campus Relations, phone 6-6716.

7.     Logo availability  Camera ready copies of the logo in various sizes are available from the Office of Campus Relations, PAC 574, phone 6-6716.  Or, click here to download a printable version of the official UIS Logo.
In addition, web-ready logos are also available. Click here to view and download logos for websites.

Back To Top

Use of the University Seal

            The Board of Trustees has registered the University of Illinois Seal as a servicemark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for services relating to education, research, and teaching.  The Seal has also been registered as a trademark with the office for various commercial uses.

Uses of the seal related to education, research, and public service missions of the University are monitored by the Office of the Board of Trustees.  Requests for such use should be made in writing to Dr. Michele M. Thompson, Secretary of the Board, 352 Henry Administration Building, 506 S. Wright St., Urbana, IL 61801.

###