Item

Style

Example

Academic Year

Use four digits, followed by a hyphen, followed by four digits.

2010-2011

Academic Degrees, abbreviated

Both letters of degree abbreviations are always capitalized.

AA
AS

AAS
BAS

BA
BS
MA
Ed.D.
Ph.D.

Academic Degrees, spelled out

Associate of Arts
Associate of Science
Associate of Applied Science

Bachelor of Applied Science

Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Science
Master of Arts
Doctorate in Education
Doctorate in Philosophy

Accept/Except

Accept is a verb meaning "receive." Except means "other than" or "but for."

I can accept all your suggestions except for the last one.

Affect/Effect

Affect is a verb, meaning to produce an effect.

The game will affect the standings.

He will effect many changes in the company.

Among/Between

Something occurs between just two people; it happens among three or more.

The funds were divided among Ford, Carter and McCarthy.

Negotiations on a debate format are under way between the network and Ford, Carter and McCarthy committees.

 Assure

Use assure to mean to make sure or give confidence

She assured us the statement was accurate.

Board of Trustees (abbreviation)

When using Board of Trustees for the first time in each section, spell it out. Thereafter, abbreviate it.

Board of Trustees BOT

Bullets

Use bullets before indented, unnumbered, small lists in the text. No terminal punctuation is used unless the items are sentences or more than one sentence.

Campuswide

Should be one word, no hyphen.

Campuswide
Not: campus-wide

Catalog vs. Catalogue

Any use of "Catalog" should not be followed by the letters "ue" at the end (Catalogue).

Catalog

Catalog Year

All Catalog references should be to the current school year's Catalog.

Daytona State College Catalog 2010-11

College

Capitalize "College" when referring to Daytona State College.

The College was established in 1957.

Collegewide

Should be one word, no hyphen.

Collegewide
Not: college-wide

Comma in a series

There is no comma before "and" in a series. There are exceptions to this rule, such as in legal documents.

The dean, the student and the instructor arrived.

Concise Language

Use simple, direct language whenever possible.

The Registrar now uses cumulative data. NOT: At this point in time, cumulative data is used by the Registrar.

Coursework

Use "coursework" as one word - no spaces between "course" and "work."

Coursework

Data

Data is plural, however is most often considered a unit (a collective noun) and should use a singular verb. However, in some cases it does refer to individual items and should use a plural verb.

Your data is invalid.
The data were collected from all three campuses.

Database

Use "database" as one word - no spaces between "data" and "base."

Database.

Daytona State Collge

On first reference spell out, thereafter, use the abbreviated version.

Daytona State College
Daytona State

Department

When referring to a specific department, the word "Department" should be capitalized. When referring to departments generally, the word should be lowercase.

The Department of Nursing

Throughout the different departments of the College.

email

Acceptable in all references for electronic mail. Many email or Internet addresses use symbols such as the at symbol (@), or the tilde (~) that cannot be transmitted correctly by some computers. When needed, spell them out and provide an explanatory editor's note. Use a hyphen with other e- terms: e-book, e-business, e-commerce.

She checked her email.

E-business is a growing field.

ensure

Use ensure to mean guarantee. 

Steps were taken to ensure accuracy.

Florida

For the first reference in a major section, do not abbreviate.
For further references within a section, abbreviate.

Florida
Fla.

Florida, State of

Formal references should be to the "state of Florida." Other references should be to the "state," and "state" should not be capitalized.

state of Florida
"The first state budgeting effort..."

Full Time Equivalent
(FTE)

For first reference in a section, use full name; for further references, use abbreviated version and do not use FTE with spaces.

Full Time Equivalent
FTE

General Education Development(GED)

For first reference in a section, use full name; for further references, use abbreviated version.

General Education Development

GED

homepage

All one word, lowercase.

homepage

insure

Use insure for references to insurance.  

The policy insures his life. 

Internet

Always capitalize.

Internet

Its/It's

Its: Possessive
It's: The contraction for "it is"

The lost its assets.
It's been a long time.

Is/are

"Is" typically is associated with singular nouns; "are" with plural.

He is a baseball player.
They are part of the newspaper staff.

Lower-Division, Lower-Level

Hyphenate lower-division, lower-level and upper-level when used as adjectives, but not in "The students were in the lower division."

Lower-division students

More than vs. over

Use more than when referring to numerals. Use over when referencing spacial relationships.

More than 2,000 students attended commencement.

The plane flew over the ocean.

Numbers, 1-10

The AP style rule on numbers is to use words to express the numbers one through nine and figures to express 10 and above.

A four-day work-week...
There are more than 100 programs...

Numbers with text

Ages: Use figure and hyphens between years old.
Money: Use figures.
Percentages: Use figures and spell out percent.
Ratio: Use figures and hyphens.
Fractions: Spell out.

A 5-year-old boy. The boy is 10 years old.
5 cents, $1.05, $2.3 million
0.6 percent, 1 percent, 50 percent
A ratio of 3-to-1, a 3-1 ratio
Two-thirds, one-half

Numbers, Large

Put a comma in all dollar amounts more than 1,000.

$2,000
$123,456
11,000 FTE
$1.5 million

Numbered list

Use only for a sequence of steps.

1. step one
2. step two
3. step three

Offices

Office names should be used on a case-by-case basis as they are referred to in the Catalog.

Office of Student Accounts
Office of the Executive Vice President

online

Lowercase, no hyphen.

online

Ordinal Numbers

Spell out first through ninth, 10th and above use figures.

He made it safely to first base.
She was 10th in line.

Over vs. more than

Use more than when referring to numerals. Use over when referencing spacial relationships.

More than 2,000 students attended commencement.

The plane flew over the ocean.

Percent

Use as one word - no space between "per" and "cent." Always spell out, do not use symbol %.

percent
The survey found 12 percent of students...

Phone numbers

Show area code in parenthesis, space before next set of numbers, hyphen between set of three and set of four. When listing an extension, abbreviate ext.

(386) 506-3222
(386) 506-3000, ext. 4588

President

Capitalize when referring specifically to the President of Daytona State College.

Interim President Frank Lombardo 
The President

Quotation Marks

The period and the comma always go inside quotation marks.


The dash, the semicolon, the question mark and the exclamation point go within the quotation marks when they apply to the quoted matter only.

They go outside when they apply to the whole sentence.

The accountant said her firm could correct the "situation."


The professor asked, "How many of you did the assigned reading for today?"


Have you read "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"?

Seasons

Capitalize the seasons when they refer to or seem to refer to a term.

Fall 2008 semester

Sexist Language

Use gender-neutral terms when possible:
Chair (not Chairman or Chairperson).
Representative or member of Congress (not congressman).
Humans or people (not men or mankind).
When possible, use plural forms of pronouns. Instead of he or she, use they.

Faculty members must go to school for many years before they begin to teach.

Statewide

Should be one word, no hyphen.

statewide

They're, their, there

"They're" means they are.

"Their" denotes possession of something.

"There" represents a location.

They're going to the store.
Their presentation is scheduled for 3 p.m.

I left my book over there.

Times

Use figures except for noon and midnight. Use a colon to separate hours from minutes. a.m. and p.m. are always lowercase and separated by a period. Do not use zeros.

8 p.m.
9 a.m.
Noon
Midnight

Titles

In general, confine capitalization to formal titles used directly before an individual's name.

Toward

Not towards.

Upper-Division, Upper Level

Hyphenate lower-division, upper-division, lower-level, and upper-level when used as adjectives, but not in "The students were in the upper division."

The lower-division engineering majors must take calculus before entering the upper level.

Website, Web page, the Web

Always capitalize Web; page and site are always lowercase and a separate word.

website, webpage, the Web

Who's/Whose

Who's: The contraction for "who is."
Whose: Possessive.

Who's buying lunch today?
Whose turn is it to buy lunch?

Your/You're

Your: Possessive

You're: the contraction for "you are."

This is your coffee.

Whether you're here to prepare for a technical career...