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Editorial Style Guide
Consistency and accuracy in written Beloit College communications intended for external audiences
Beloit’s Style Guide is based on Associated Press (AP) style, with some exceptions.
- Write in an approachable, confident, and conversational tone. Sound informed and professional without sounding too formal or academic.
- Use active voice, concrete language, and examples instead of abstract explanations. Define any specialized terms if they must be included.
- Use short sentences and everyday words. Aim for an eighth grade reading level.
- Use language that welcomes all students. Avoid gendered or exclusionary terms (e.g. “he/she,” “mankind”) and examples that assume specific identities or backgrounds.
- Month are abbreviated according to AP style: Jan., Feb., March, April, May, June, July, Aug. Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec. (never abbreviate days of the week in prose.)
- Do not use “st,” “th,” or “rd” in dates (Sept. 16, not Sept. 16th).
- Use noon and midnight to avoid confusion about 12 a.m./p.m. (11 a.m. to noon).
- Spell out numbers one through nine; use numerals for numbers 10 and higher. Exceptions: ages, percentages, and measurements are represented in numerals, even if they are smaller than 10.
- In general, students should be listed by the year they will graduate rather than by description of first-year student, sophomore, etc. (First reference bold text) In subsequent references use last name without graduation year in a normal, non-bold typeface.
- Graduation years for alumni and current students are formatted with one space between last name and last two numbers of graduation year (John Smith ’45), with the apostrophe facing the left towards the missing numbers.
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In general, do not use courtesy titles such as Dr., Mrs., Mr., or Ms. in college publications, with the exception of Dr. for medical professionals. A written-out courtesy title that helps to put a person’s role in context (President Chapin, Dean Youngblood, Professor Majeed) may be used on first reference.
- Professor emeritus is the proper order. Bob Jones, professor emeritus of biology, was the keynote speaker. Professor Emeritus Bob Jones of the biology department was the keynote speaker.
- Formal titles before a name (in the absence of a comma) are generally capitalized. After a name and a comma, titles are lower case. Avoid putting long titles before individuals’ names.
- Capitalize the names of college offices, buildings, and rooms (named, not numbered). Second reference to the generic term should be lower case: Jeffris-Wood Campus Center becomes the campus center.
- When referring to offices, departments, and programs, always use the full official name in the first mention (e.g. “Center for Entrepreneurship in Liberal Education at Beloit”).
- Subsequent mentions may be shortened for readability, if feasible (e.g. “the Center for Entrepreneurship”).
- When an office, department, or program has a widely used and recognized acronym on campus, it may be appended to the first mention in parentheses to add context [e.g. Library & Information Technology Services (LITS)].
- Never use an acronym on its own, even if established in an earlier mention (e.g. “the Information Technology team”).
- Titles of departments, Schools, Centers, majors, and minors will use an ampersand in place of “and.” For example, School of Media & the Arts or Education & Youth Studies.
- University Of Wisconsin system schools use a hyphen (not dash, slash, or “at”): University of Wisconsin-Madison.
- Use one space after a period when preparing copy for printed and online communications.
- Items in a series should include a final serial comma before the “and” (Oxford comma).
- Attribution generally is in present tense (says, explains, etc.).
- Em-dashes have a space on either side.
- Periods and commas go inside quotation marks; placement of other punctuation depends upon the usage.
- Pearsons Hall has no apostrophe.
- Use “Jeffris-Wood Campus Center, Pearsons Hall,” in official presentations and fundraising materials.
- D.K.’s or D.K.’s Café or D.K.’s Snack Bar—in Pearsons Hall has an apostrophe.
- Hamiltons, dining location in the Powerhouse, has no apostrophe.
- Hendricks Center for the Arts has no apostrophe.
- Write naturally. Give readers, search engines, and AI what they expect.
- Repeat keywords where appropriate, but avoid overuse and awkward phrasing.
- Attempt to use diverse keywords wherever possible (e.g. “entomology”, “entomologist”, “insectology”, “study of insects”).
- Use “student-athlete”, not “student athlete” to refer to students who participate in intercollegiate varsity athletics. No hyphen would indicate that the student is studying to be an athlete.
- Use “college” not “College” —do not capitalize in isolation when referring specifically to Beloit College.
(Example: The college has two fine museums.)