Capitalize the proper names of individual courses: First-year students take Drawing I, a required art course.
Lowercase fields of study in general, unless they include a proper noun or adjective: She studies biology, but her brother is interested in American history and English.
Academic Degrees
When academic degrees follow a person's name in the middle of a sentence, the degree is set off by commas: Joseph Carroll, Ph.D., was the featured speaker.
Names of degrees, fellowships, and the like are lowercased when referred to generically. a master's degree (never bachelors and masters degrees); a doctorate; a fellowship; master of arts (M.A.)
Use bachelor's degree, master's degree, and doctorate, not B.S. or M.Ed. or Ph.D. when describing a person's degree.
If a person has more than one degree from the college, then place a comma and space between the class years. Anne Morrow Lindbergh '73, '75
Alumni
Identify with class year: Joe Wyman '92 is publishing a book. The apostrophe should slant to the right.
Dash
There are several types of dashes. The following are what the College prefers:
Hyphen (-): Use in compound words and names and in word division. A hyphen is also used to separate numbers, such as telephone numbers and social security numbers, as well as months, time, and days (8 p.m., Sat.-Sun., Sept. 9-Oct. 10). In this use it signifies up to and including (or through).
En dash (--): Use to set off an amplifying or explanatory element. (Commas, parentheses, or a colon may perform a similar function). Insert spaces before and after the dash: The people - the ones who were the most interested - made a special effort to attend the meeting.
Dates and Times
In the month-day-year style of dates, commas are used both before and after the year. In the day-month-year system no commas are needed. Where month and year only are given, neither system uses a comma. The ship sailed on Friday, October 6, 2006, for Southampton. In March 2003 she turned 70.
Abbreviate days and months when used in Campus News, flyers, posters, and the like where space is limited:
Days: Mon., Tues., Wed., Thurs., Fri., Sat., Sun.
Months: Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., May, June, July, Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec.
Spell out all days and months in narrative text and where space allows: Six films will be shown in September.
The order for posters, fliers, and invitations is time, day, date (8 p.m., Sat., Sept. 9).
Avoid "st" and "th" (March 1, not March 1st).
Use a.m. and p.m., not "o'clock," "in the morning or evening."
Use noon or midnight, instead of 12 a.m. or p.m.
Use "to" and "from" construction when separating times (from noon to 4 p.m.) in text. You may use a hyphen (1-3 p.m.) on posters, fliers, newsletters, and invitations.
Format
ONE space between sentences
One tab indent for paragraphs
Frequently Used Terms
Use Visa and MasterCard, not VISA and Mastercard.
Alumni Recital Hall, Redfern Arts Center on Brickyard Pond, Drenan Auditorium, Lloyd P. Young Student Center, Mabel Brown Room, Putnam Arts Lecture Hall, Spaulding Gymnasium, Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery.
Keene State Name
Use Keene State College on first reference.
On second reference, use KSC or Keene State, not Keene alone.
Capitalize "College" when referring to KSC; do not capitalize any other improper nouns.
Locations
Room, building, college (Markem Lecture Hall, Science Center, Keene State College). Think small to large.
In narrative text, spell out state names and words such as road, street, and avenue: He was born in Ellsworth, Maine, but moved to Boston at the age of 10. They found the buried treasure at the intersection of State and Main Streets.
Use state abbreviations, not postal codes - N.H., Conn., Pa. - in text where space is limited.
Numbers
Avoid unnecessary zeros (8 p.m. not 8:00 p.m., $4 not $4.00, 75 cents not $0.75).
Spell out numbers one through nine, use numerals for 10 and above, except for dates, times, prices.
Spell out any number at the beginning of a sentence or rewrite the sentence to avoid starting with a figure.
Telephone number with area codes: 800-KSC-0000 or 603-358-2102 (no parentheses).
Publications
Titles of books, journals, newspapers, and other freestanding publications as well as shorter works (stories), plays and films, radio and television programs, long poems (constituting a book), long musicals, and artworks are italicized. The Keene Sentinel
Campus News
Equinox
Keene State Today
KSC Newsline
Presentations and exhibitions, "The Simple Art," titles of articles and features in periodicals and newspapers, songs, chapter and part titles, titles of short stories, short poems, or essays, and individual selections in books are set in roman type and enclosed in quotation marks.
Punctuation
Use a comma before "and" in a series. The students, faculty, and staff of Keene State College ...
Use single quotes (for space) in headlines: HITCHCOCK'S 'VERTIGO.'
Ellipses: Separate the points from each other and from surrounding copy with spaces. Four points indicate the omission of the end of a sentence, the first part of the next sentence, or a whole sentence or more. Treat the first point as a period. Word shortcut key: option + ;
Periods and commas stay inside quote marks. ("We're proud of this achievement," said the president.)
Question marks may go inside or outside the quotes, depending on meaning. When is she going to "get a life"? Here is the answer to the question, "Where are students going on spring break?"
Staff Titles
Check the most recent catalog or directory for correct titles of faculty and staff.
Title normally goes after the name and is lower case. (Dr. Helen Giles-Gee, president of Keene State College).
Capitalize title if used before the name (President Helen Giles-Gee), but whenever possible, put long titles after names (Dr. Jay V. Kahn, vice president for Finance and Planning).
Using either Dr. or Professor before faculty names is acceptable, but avoid Professor Sara Hottinger, assistant professor of Women's Studies.
No comma before Jr. or Sr. (Sammy Davis Jr.)
Approved by the President's Cabinet, December 11, 2006.
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