Guidelines

Headlines

Captions

Style

Assistance

Style

C

campus—Lowercase except when writing Red Campus or White Campus.

• Do not use Columbia campus to refer to the University of Missouri.
  
• See University identification.
  

campuswide

Carnahan Quadrangle—Formerly South Quadrangle, renamed for the late Gov. Mel Carnahan in 2003. The area is bordered by Conley Avenue on the north, Rollins Street on the south, Cornell Hall and the Reynolds Alumni Center on the west, and Missouri Avenue on the east.

Carnegie Foundation classification—The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching classifies MU as comprehensive doctoral with medical/veterinary.

• See University identification.
  

CEO—Acceptable as an abbreviation for chief executive officer in all uses. Spell out the less-familiar chief financial officer, chief information officer and chief operating officer.

chair—In all publications, whether for internal or external audiences, use chair rather than chairman or chairwoman, as in Sally Ray, chair of political science. An exception: Use chairman of the board if the title is used by a corporation.

• Use chairs as a plural for either chairmen or chairwomen, as in Bill Doe and Sally Ray are co-chairs of the subcommittee.
  
• Do not use chair as a verb and as a synonym for such words as led, directed, headed or was in charge of, as in Bill Doe and Sally Ray chaired a panel at the annual meeting.
• Capitalize only as a formal title before a name: Company Chair Sally Ray spoke at the event.
  

chancellor, MU—First reference: Chancellor Bill Doe or Bill Doe, chancellor. The context determines whether you identify the University along with his or her name and title. Second reference: chancellor or Doe.

chancellor's residence—Do not use when referring to the house on Francis Quadrangle. Write Residence on Francis Quadrangle. Second reference: residence.

Christopher S. Bond Life Sciences Center—Opened in 2004 on Rollins Street and College Avenue and named for the senator in 2005. First reference: Christopher S. Bond Life Sciences Center or Bond Life Sciences Center. Second reference: center.

citywide

classes—Lowercase names of classes: senior, junior, sophomore, freshman, graduate.

collective nouns—Nouns singular in form but meaning a group of things: board, class, committee, crowd, family, faculty, team.

• Use singular verb or pronoun if the noun is being used in the sense of a single unit operating together in agreement: The jury reached its (not their) verdict; The committee set its (not their) agenda. Use plural pronoun or verb if the noun is used to name a group operating as individuals or in disagreement: The faculty (acting separately) have written books; The faculty (acting at same time) meets regularly. Note: Check with your story’s source when collective nouns are used and it’s not clear whether the group acted individually or as a unit.
  

Columbia Missourian—On first reference, write Columbia Missourian; thereafter, use newspaper or Missourian.

• Uppercase sections of the paper: Sports, Taste, Faith.
  

Columns—Capitalize when referring to those on Francis Quadrangle.

commencement—Lowercase in all uses.

committees—Uppercase only if the committee has a proper name: Faculty-Alumni Awards Committee. Lowercase on second reference or for more generic names: awards committee.

community adviser (CA)—An advanced undergraduate who serves as adviser for residence hall learning communities.

company, companies—Use the abbreviation Co. or Cos. when a business uses either word at the end of its proper name, such as Ford Motor Co. or Shelter Insurance Cos. Spell out in other uses such as Aluminum Company of America. Spell out company or companies when used alone.

• Possessives: Ford Motor Co.’s profits; Shelter Insurance Cos.’ profits.
  
• See incorporated.

composition titles—See italics and quotation marks.

Coordinating Board for Higher Education— Not Coordinating Board of Higher Education.

course work—Two words.

curators—Do not capitalize when used alone.

• See Board of Curators.

Curators' Professor—Capitalize preceding and after the name of faculty members holding the title or when standing alone. For consistency, also capitalize the academic unit that follows: Curators Professor of Animal Sciences.

Curators Scholar—Do not use an apostrophe. Capitalize preceding and after the name of student holding the title or when standing alone. Second reference: scholar (the person) or scholarship (the award).

cutting edge, leading edge—Trite, vague phrases that tell the readers nothing. Be more specific in your writing.

• See state of the art.

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D

dad—Uppercase only when the noun substitutes for a name: Hi, Dad but her dad. Use this approach for other family names, too.

dashes—When using a long dash (em dash) in text, add a space before and after the dash: Sally Ray will buy a house — if she gets a raise. The en dash (medium dash, between a hyphen and a long dash) does not require such spaces: 2006–07.

• The keystrokes for an em dash (long dash): shift + option + hyphen on a Mac; control + alt + hyphen (on the number pad) on a PC in most cases.
  
• The keystrokes for an en dash (medium dash): option + hyphen on a Mac; control + hyphen (on the number pad) on a PC in most cases.

database—One word.

day care (noun)—Bill Doe placed his children in day care.

day-care (adjective)—Bill Doe chose a day-care facility carefully.

daylong, daytime

dean's list—Lowercase in all uses.

decade-long

decision-making (adjective)

degree abbreviations—Here are the degrees awarded at this campus and
how to abbreviate them, some with spaces, all without periods.

• bachelor of arts, BA
  (not AB, as previously written)
  
• bachelor of educational studies, BES
• bachelor of fine arts, BFA
• bachelor of general studies, BGS
• bachelor of health science, BHS
• bachelor of journalism, BJ
• bachelor of music, BM
• bachelor of science, BS
• bachelor of science in accountancy, BS Acc
  
• bachelor of science in agriculture, BS
  (The BS Ag was discontinued in 1998, and only students then enrolled in the degree could complete it after that date. However, use BS Ag for previous students who earned that degree.)
  
• bachelor of science in biological engineering, BS BE
  (Degrees awarded before July 1996 are bachelor of science in agricultural engineering, BS AgE.)
  
• bachelor of science in business administration, BS BA
• bachelor of science in chemical engineering, BS ChE
• bachelor of science in civil engineering, BS CiE
• bachelor of science in computer engineering, BS CoE
• bachelor of science in education, BS Ed
• bachelor of science in electrical engineering, BS EE
• bachelor of science in fisheries and wildlife, BS FW
• bachelor of science in forestry, BSF
• bachelor of science in human environmental sciences, BS HES
  (When referring to a bachelor’s in home economics, write BS HE.)
• bachelor of science in industrial engineering, BS IE
• bachelor of science in mechanical engineering, BS ME
  
• bachelor of science in medicine, BS Med (offered before 1957)
• bachelor of science in nursing, BSN
• bachelor of science in public administration, BS PA
  (This degree has been discontinued.)
  
• bachelor of social work, BSW
  (The diploma in community development has been discontinued. When writing about alumni who have received the degree, write Dip CD.)
  
• doctor of veterinary medicine, DVM
  
• doctor of education, EdD
  
• doctor of medicine, MD
  
• doctor of nursing, ND
  
• doctor of philosophy, PhD
  
• education specialist, EdSp
  
• juris doctor, JD
  
• master of accountancy, M Acc
  
• master of arts, MA
  (The master of arts in physical education changed to the master of arts in exercise sciences, MA ES. The program is now inactive.)
  
• master of business administration, MBA
  
• master of education, M Ed
  
• master of engineering, ME
  
• master of fine arts, MFA
  
• master of health administration, MHA
  
• master of health science, MHS
  
• master of laws, LLM
  
• master of music, MM
  
• master of occupational therapy, MOT
  
• master of physical therapy, MPT
• master of public administration, MPA
  
• master of science, MS
• master of science for teachers, MST
• master of social work, MSW
  

Write: a master’s, not an master’s.
See academic degrees.
See honorary degrees and nongraduates.

Development Fund—Capitalize in all uses about fundraising at MU. The Office of Development is located in the Donald W. Reynolds Alumni Center, with various offices in schools and colleges around campus.

dilemma—Not a synonym for predicament, jam, trouble or problem. The word means that someone faces two alternative courses of action, both of which are likely to be unpleasant — such as the devil or the deep blue sea, or getting stuck between a rock and a hard place. Avoid the word in uses such as Professor Doe’s dilemma is finding time to publish papers or The dilemma our department faces is not having enough money.

disabled—A pamphlet, Guidelines for Reporting and Writing about Disabilities,
is available from the Research and Training Center on Independent Living at the University of Kansas. Visit www.rtcil.org for more information.

• In general, do not describe an individual as disabled unless it is clearly pertinent. If a description must be used, identify the disability and how much the person’s physical or mental performance is affected. Instead of writing Professor Doe is disabled, write Professor Doe is visually impaired, hearing-impaired or has cerebral palsy, a partial hearing loss, a speech impairment. Do not use handicapped when referring to a person with a disability; the word is offensive. Also avoid using crippled.
  
• Do not sensationalize by saying a person is afflicted with, is crippled with, suffers from, is a victim of.
  
• Put people first, not their disability, as in children with autism (rather than autistic children), people who have arthritis, children who cannot hear or people with disabilities.
  
• Do not use the term wheelchair-bound or variations. Consider writing uses a wheelchair, walks with crutches.
  
• Use the description interpreter for people who are hearing-impaired instead of something such as Bill Doe is a signer or Bill Doe used American Sign Language during commencement.
  
• If necessary for clarity, refer to people without disabilities as nondisabled. Also, write typically developing children, not normal children.
  

doctoral/doctorate—A person is a doctoral candidate in a program and is working on a doctoral degree or doctorate.

• Don’t write doctorate degree because doctorate is a degree. Write Bill Doe has a doctorate from MU or a doctoral degree from MU.
  
• Don’t write Bill Doe has a PhD from MU.
  

dot-com (noun or adjective)—Sally Ray started a dot-com and hoped the dot-com bubble wouldn’t burst.

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