Editorial Style Guide

Capitalization rules

• Capitalize only when the full name of the degree is used.
  Example: Bachelor of Science
  • She earned an Associate of Applied Science degree in Architectural Technology.
  • He earned a Bachelor of Technology in Architectural Technology.
• Use lowercase for general references.
  Example: associate degree, bachelor's degree
  • She earned an associate degree.
  • He earned a bachelor's degree.
• Do not use the possessive in "associate degree." Use doctoral degree or doctorate.
• Do not use periods in degree abbreviations.
  Example: The correct way to write degree abbreviations is: AA, AAS, AS, BA, BTech, BArch, BFA, BSEd,
  MA, MS, and PhD.

City Tech Degrees
Degree	Abbreviation
Associate in Applied Science	AAS
Associate of Arts	AA
Associate of Science	AS
Bachelor of Architecture	BArch
Bachelor of Arts	BA
Bachelor of Fine Arts	BFA
Bachelor of Science	BS
Bachelor of Science in Education	BSEd
Bachelor of Technology	BTech

Terminology

Term	Definition	Singular / Plural
Alumna	Female graduate	Singular
Alumnae	Female graduates	Plural
Alumnus	Male graduate	Singular
Alumni	Male or mixed gender graduates	Plural
Alum	Gender-neutral informal term	Singular
Alums	Gender-neutral informal term	Plural

Formatting Graduation Years

The following is a list of the formal names of City Tech's buildings, their letter abbreviations and locations.

Building Name	Abbreviation	Address
Academic Complex	A	285 Jay St.
Environmental Center	E	172 Pearl St.
General Building	G	300 Jay St.
Library Building	L	300 Jay St.
Namm Hall	N	300 Jay St.
Pearl Building	P	300 Jay St.
Voorhees Hall	V	186 Jay St.
DNA Learning Center NYC	DNA	62 Tillary St.

Titles of People

Capitalize when a title precedes a name.

Use lowercase when it follows a name or stands alone.

Do not capitalize titles that serve primarily as occupational descriptions.

Formal Titles

Never use both a formal title and degree. Only use Dr. in the first reference.

Courtesy Titles

Refer to men and women by full name, without courtesy titles, on the first reference.

Example:

• Jane Johnson spoke at the convention.
• Steve Smith went out for dinner.

In all subsequent references, refer to men and women by last name, without courtesy titles.

The only time you should use courtesy titles such as Mr., Miss, Ms. and Mrs. is in direct quotations or when the subject being discussed specifically requests it. An example may be a woman who prefers to be known as Ms. Blake or Mrs. Blake.

Faculty/Staff

Use "faculty" or "staff" when referring to a collective entity.

Example:

• Thirty percent of the faculty agreed.

Use "faculty member" or "staff member" when referring to an individual.

Example:

• Each faculty member should complete the survey.

City Tech Academic Departments

Below is a list of the College's academic departments. Capitalize official department names and offices; lowercase informal references.

Example:

• Department of Hospitality Management
• hospitality management department
• Office of the Provost
• provost's office

Do Capitalize

• Principal words in headlines/titles, including prepositions and conjunctions of four or more letters.
• An article (the, a, an) or words of fewer than four letters if they appear as the first or last word in a title.
• First word of a quotation that forms a sentence.
• Formal titles that immediately precede a name.
  Example: I will introduce Chairman Spiers.
• Geographic regions: Midwest, Northeast.

Do Not Capitalize

• Formal titles that are not used directly before an individual's name or are set off from a name by commas.
  Example: She worked for the president, Jimmy Carter. Lincoln was president during the Civil War.
• Compass directions: She drove west. The cold front is moving east.
• Seasons, unless part of a formal name.
  Example: The conference was held in the spring. We love the Winter Olympics.

Titles of Works and Sources

All words are capitalized in titles except articles (a, an, the), conjunctions (and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet), and prepositions (at, by, in, to, etc.) of fewer than four letters, except when they appear at the beginning or end of a title.

As a rule, the title of a work that is part of a larger work is placed in quotation marks while the title of the complete work itself is italicized.

• Italics for books, movies, plays, magazines, journals, podcasts, blogs, and websites.
• "Quotation marks" for chapters, articles, poems, or TV show titles.
  Example: Her article, "The Tao of Stress," was published in Psychology Today.

Capitalize the "D" in "Downtown Brooklyn" when referring to City Tech's location as well as other neighborhoods in the five boroughs including Midtown Manhattan, South Bronx, etc.

Time Format

Note:

• Omit "00" when writing full-hour times.
• If giving a range of time, and both the beginning and end times are in "a.m." or "p.m.," use one once.

Use figures except for noon and midnight: 4 p.m., 9 a.m.

In formal invitations, all the words regarding time, including "o'clock," may be spelled out.

Correct:

• Your presence is requested at seven o'clock in the evening.

Do not use dashes in place of "to" or "through" or "and" or "until" with times of day or days of the week.

Exceptions

An en dash may be used with dates (e.g., July 18–21) and should always be used with dates when both days of the week and dates are included.

Example:

• The play runs Monday through Thursday, July 18–21.

In general, spell out numbers one through nine; for 10 and up, use numerals.

For ages and percentages, always use numerals, even for numbers less than 10.

Spell out numerals that start a sentence; if the result is awkward, recast the sentence.

Example:

• Twenty-seven members attended the conference. Yesterday, 993 protesters demonstrated in front of the Capitol.

For percentages, use the % sign paired with a number. In casual instances, use words instead.

Example:

• He had a zero percent chance of winning.

Date Format

Do not use ordinals (-st, -nd, -rd, -th) following numerals such as 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.

Do not use ordinals in dates when the month is also indicated.

Do not insert a comma between the month and year unless a day is given, and insert a comma after listing the day of the week.

Do not use an apostrophe when writing decades.

Numbers

Spell out whole numbers one through nine.

Exception: In headlines, use numerals. All others should be expressed in figures.

Apostrophe

In general, follow words that end in "s" with only an apostrophe to form the possessive.

Commas

Do not use the serial or Oxford comma unless needed for clarity. Use the comma only when it is necessary to avoid confusion or misinterpretation. In such instances, use the serial comma after the penultimate item in a list of three or more items, and before "and" or "or."

Commas and periods always go inside quotes.

Dashes

The em dash (—) sets off parenthetical phrases, clauses, denotes abrupt changes in thought, an emphatic pause, explanation or a series within a phrase more dramatically than a comma. It is also used when a phrase contains a series of words that are separated by commas. Insert a space on both sides of an em dash in all uses.

Example:

• She listed the qualities — intelligence, humor and independence — that she liked in an employee.

The slightly shorter en dash (–) is used as a substitute for the word "to" in number ranges (May 12–14).

A hyphen is used within a compound modifier (two or more words that express a single concept) when that modifier precedes a noun. However, it is not used after the adverb "very" or after any adverb that ends in "ly."

Use a hyphen in the following situations:

• With prefixes to proper names: un-American, anti-Catholic.
• To connect a phrase that has become a modifier: The insurance is up-to-date.
• In the abbreviation op-ed.

If a name or word is in a foreign language, include all of its accent marks and symbols. Foreign words that appear without them are considered misspelled.

Period

Use a single space after the period at the end of a sentence.

Do not put a space between initials: C.L. Lewis.

Use periods and a commas for Washington, D.C.

Semicolon

Use when independent clauses are not joined by a conjunction and the ideas are closely linked.

Example:

• We cannot depend on him; we must get a trustworthy person.
  

However, if you are in doubt about whether two ideas are intimately linked, break the ideas into two sentences.

Use a semicolon to break up a group of words or phrases separated by commas in a series.

Example:

• Kelli Roland, president and CEO; Kerry Washington, vice president.

Ampersand

Use the ampersand when it is part of a company's formal name or composition title like Procter & Gamble. Ampersands should not otherwise be used in place of "and."

Example:

• reading and writing vs reading & writing

URLs and Email

Do not include the www for URLs; the web address is sufficient.

Other

Example	Rules
Co-sponsor	Hyphenated.
African American	Not hyphenated.
Black	Capitalized when used in a racial, ethnic, or cultural sense.
Black people/ white people	Do not use Black(s), white(s), Jew(s), etc., as singular or plural nouns. Use "Black people," "white people," etc.
Policymaker	Write as one word.
COVID-19	All caps; referring to simply "the coronavirus" is also acceptable.
Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders	Stands alone; do not follow with "Americans."
Headlines / Preview Text	Use title case in headlines and sentence case for preview text.