Writing Conventions

academic degrees

Do not use periods in abbreviations of degrees:

Degree names:

• BA – Bachelor of Arts
• BM – Bachelor of Music
• BS – Bachelor of Science
• MBA – Master of Business Administration (note: some older graduates have an MM, master of management. Unless their donor profile specifies otherwise, update to the current terminology of MBA)
• MAT – Master of Arts in Teaching
• MEd – Master of Education
• JD – Doctor of Jurisprudence
• LLM – Master of Law

When using the specific name of the degree use caps: “Buzz was named an honorary Doctor of Science.” “Susie earned her Master of Business Administration at the Atkinson Graduate School of Management.”

When referring to a degree but not using the specific name, the degree is not capitalized: bachelor’s degree in music, master’s degree in chemistry, doctorate in English.

academic subjects

Lowercase except for words that are proper nouns or adjectives (e.g. English department, mathematics, psychology, etc.) or when the official and formal department name is used: Willamette University Department of History, Department of Athletics.

a cappella

Lowercase.

addresses

Use the abbreviation Ave., Blvd. and St. only with a numbered address: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Spell them out and capitalize when part of a formal street name without a number: Pennsylvania Avenue. Lowercase and spell out when used alone or with more than one street name: Massachusetts and Pennsylvania avenues.

All similar words (alley, drive, road, terrace, etc.) are always spelled out. Capitalize them when part of a formal name with or without a number; lowercase when used with two or more names.

Always use figures for an address number: 9 Morningside Circle.

Spell out and capitalize First through Ninth when used as street names; use figures with two letters for 10th and above: 7 Fifth Ave., 100 21st St.

Abbreviate compass points used to indicate directional ends of a street or quadrants of a city in a numbered address: 222 E. 42nd St., 600 K St. NW. No periods in quadrant abbreviations — NW, SW, NE, SE.

ages

Always use figures. His children are John, 5, and Sue, 8. John is a 5-year-old boy. Sue is 8 years old.

alumni

• Alumnus: One man
• Alumna: One woman
• Alumni: Group of men, or group of men and women
• Alumnae: Group of women
• Do not use “alum” or “alums.”

admission officer

Use admission officer rather than the terms “counselor” or “recruiter” to refer staff engaged in the process of encouraging students to consider Willamette.

archaeology

Spell with an “ae.”

couples

Avoid the construction, “The couple live in Des Moines, Iowa.” Use the pronoun “they” or use the couple’s last name (assuming they have the same last name). “The Smiths live in Des Moines, Iowa.”

course names

Use quotes around formal titles and capitalize the name of the class. Ex) Paul Dwyer teaches “Design Thinking” at the Atkinson Graduate School of Management.

class of ’year

Lowercase “class” except for formal invitations.

dates/times dates

dates: Spell out months when used alone or with a year only. “It can be very busy in November, and November 1992 was the busiest month of all.” But with a specific date, abbreviate these months: Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec. It’s Dec. 8, not Dec. 8th or December eighth. Never use the day of the week.

time: For even hours, drop the colon and zeros: “5 p.m.” Otherwise it’s “5:30 p.m.” The “a.m.” and “p.m.” should be lowercase with periods. For formal invitations use “five o’clock” or “five-thirty.” In all publications, use “noon” not “12 noon” or “12 p.m.” When listing a range of time, use an en dash, 6–8 p.m., 9 a.m.–6 p.m. If you can’t use an en dash, have spaces before and after the hyphen. 6 - 9 p.m.

together: List the date first, then the time. You can use the word “at” or just a comma between the two. March 1, 7:30 p.m. or March 1 at 7:30 p.m.

decision-makers, decision-making

Hyphenate in all uses.

decades

Use ’20s, ’30s, ’40s, etc. — no apostrophe before the “s.”

dimensions

Use figures and spell out inches, feet, yards, etc., to indicate depth, height, length and width. Hyphenate adjectival forms before nouns. Examples: He is 5 feet 6 inches tall, the 5-foot-6-inch man, the 5-foot man, the basketball team assigned a 7-footer. The car is 17 feet long, 6 feet wide and 5 feet tall. The rug is 9 feet by 12 feet. The building has 6,000 square feet of floor space.

Use an apostrophe to indicate feet and quote marks to indicate inches (5’6”) only in very technical contexts.

email

Lowercase and no hyphen.

emeritus professors

A retired professor, female or male, who has received emeritus status is a “professor emeritus.” For more than one, use “professors emeriti.”

faculty

Faculty is a collective noun that refers to an institution’s or academic unit’s entire instructional staff. Therefore, it takes a singular verb. The faculty likes long meetings. Its plural is faculties.

In referring to an individual, use the phrase faculty member. In referring to a group of individuals numbering less than the entire faculty, use the phrase faculty members.

fundraising

One word, no hyphen.

GPA

Do not spell it out. Use all caps, no periods.

graduation years

Put the last two digits of Willamette graduation dates after names of all students and alumni, on first reference only. The apostrophe before the date faces the left. No space between the degree name and the date. If the person holds two Willamette degrees, put a comma between them, unless it is a joint degree, when you use a “/.” This rule does NOT apply to media press releases.

• John Jones ’89 (for CLA or CAS graduates) (Don’t precede year with BA, BS, etc.)
• James Smith JD’03
• Sally Evans MBA’80
• Sara Jacobsen MBA/JD’91
• Ivan Hirt ’45, JD’50
• David Ellis MAT’00
• John Doe MEd’11

headlines

For Willamette publications, capitalize all verbs, modifiers, nouns, adjectives, words at the beginning of a line and prepositions with five or more letters. “Talking Across the Divide. Bringing the World to the Classroom.” “Willamette University Presents New Farce Written by Alumna.”

For media press releases and on the university website, only capitalize the word at the beginning of the line and proper names. Ex) Willamette University presents new farce written by alumna.

initials

Use periods and no space when an individual or location uses initials. Ex) M.L. Jones or U.S., L.A., D.C.

internet

Lowercase.

lu‘au

Not luau

majors/fields of study

Do not capitalize college studies, fields of study, major areas or major subjects, except languages, unless referring to a specific course. “He is a double major in art history and English. He is taking the American Art History course.”

nonprofit

No hyphen. (AGSM uses the term not-for-profit, which does include hyphens)

numbers

Spell out numbers one through nine, use numerals from 10 up, including ordinal numbers (ninth, 22nd). Exceptions: Never use numerals to start a sentence. When listing ages, use numerals throughout, i.e., their children are Joy, 13, Bill, 6, and Myron, 2 1/2. When it’s not a list, use “a 5-year-old,” “she’s in her 20s,” and “Jack’s 20-year-old son.” If you’re writing about a range or using two numbers that refer to the same group of things, where one is over 10 and one is under (ex. – There were 12 winners, and 2 were women) then use numerals for both, even if one normally would be spelled out.

OK or okay

Either spelling is OK, but O.K. is not okay.

online

Lowercase, one word, no hyphen.

percent

In print publications, don’t use the symbol % except in tables; spell it out as one word, and always make the number in front of it a numeral: 5 percent, 64.3 percent. Using the symbol % online is okay.

phone numbers

Use hyphens with phone numbers: 503-370-6014 and 1-800-370-6014.

Pow wow — or pow wow, not powwow.

Only capitalize if the word is part of an official title or at the beginning of a paragraph. Ex) Willamette University is celebrating its 10th annual Social Pow wow on April 26.

plurals

With rare exceptions we do not form plurals with apostrophes. Use s or es. Some examples: MBAs, the 1980s. There are occasional exceptions, such as single letters: Mind your p’s and q’s and she received all A’s.

races

Lowercase blacks and whites but capitalize identifications with geographic words: Asians, Native Americans, Indians, African-Americans. Only include if pertinent and more detailed description is unavailable.

room numbers

Capitalize. Ex) Room 301. If rooms have a specific name, add the room number if needed to clarify location. Ex) Paulus Lecture Hall in Room 201 at the College of Law.

says/said

Be consistent; use only “says” throughout the story for any Willamette publications. For media press releases, only use “said.” Always put the person’s name before “says” after a quote: “We can’t take the stability of our neighbors for granted,” Smith says. However, if you need to include the title of the person with the quote, then put the word “says” first: “You and I do not have the luxury of not getting along,” says John Smith, vice president of donor relations. “Said” is acceptable with event coverage, if the event already occurred.

semesters

Lowercase the names of semesters: summer, winter, spring, fall semester. Lowercase spring break, winter break.

spouses

We prefer the usage John and Mary Doe over such alternatives as John Doe and Mary. If the woman is an alumna and her husband is not, we suggest you use something like, Mary (Smith) Doe ’83 and her husband, John. If she has elected to retain her maiden name, make it Mary Smith ’83 and her husband, John Doe. With alumnae, we include their maiden name in parenthesis as needed.

state names

Stand-alone state names are spelled out: “Oregon is such a wonderful place to live, hundreds of people move here annually from California.” When a city name accompanies the state, use the standard abbreviation, as in: Susie was born in Wichita, Kan. Do not use the state with certain large cities; see “datelines” entry in AP Stylebook for a list. Only when giving a specific address that might be used on an envelope should you use the postal code abbreviation and ZIP without comma: “Send your ideas to Willamette University, 900 State St., Salem, OR 97301.”

Here is the list we follow, with the postal abbreviations listed first.

theatre/theater

• Theatre when referring to a live performance, and Willamette University theatre department, building or major. In press releases, follow AP style and use “theater” unless “theatre” is a part of a formal title.
• Theater when referring to film, cinema.

Tokyo International University of America

May be called TIUA after the first reference. Tokyo International University of America (TIUA) refers to the building on the east side of the Willamette campus. Tokyo International University (TIU) refers to the main school in Kawagoe, Japan.

that/which

Use “that” and “which” in referring to inanimate objects and to animals without a name. Use “that” for essential clauses, important to the meaning of a sentence, and without commas: “I remember the day that we met.” Use “which” for nonessential clauses, where the pronoun is less necessary, and use commas: “The team, which finished last a year ago, is in first place.”

Tip: If you can drop the clause and not lose the meaning of the sentence, use “which.” Otherwise, use “that.” A “which” clause is surrounded by commas; no commas are used with “that” clauses.

The United Methodist Church

All words, including The, should be capitalized when referring to the denomination as a whole. First United Methodist Church would be appropriate for that local church (and, in this case, if “the” is used before it, “the” does not need to be capitalized).

website

Also lowercase web.

website addresses

Do not set off by parenthesis. Do not use “www” when including a Willamette University website address in writing. Ex) The Office of Admission for the College of Arts & Sciences accepts applications online at willamette.edu/admission.” Never include the http://.

Willamette University

Due to the possible confusion with the Willamette Valley, or the Willamette River, or Willamette Industries, etc., external communications should use the university’s full name.

On first reference use Willamette University. On subsequent reference, it is often shortened to Willamette or the university in cases where it is being repeated often, for instance in a magazine article. Do not capitalize “university” when used on its own.

WU is for use on campus or with knowledgeable audiences only, e.g. alumni.

World War I, World War II, Vietnam War

(Not WWI, WWII and Vietnam Conflict)

WU

Capitalize, no periods. For use on campus or with knowledgeable audiences only, such as alumni.

Writing Tips

Use active voice when writing, not passive voice. (The subject does the action). Ex) Mary mailed the letter NOT, The letter was mailed by Mary.
Avoid “to be” verbs. Ex) Instead of saying, “John will be coming to the party,” simply say, “John plans to attend the party.”

Motto

“Not unto ourselves alone are we born” or “Non nobis solum nati sumus” — In narrative, use smart quotes and capitalize “Not” (both in English and Latin). Never italicize.