Guidelines

Headlines

Captions

Style

Assistance

Style

N

National Institutes of Health (NIH)—Note the plural Institutes. When multiple references are necessary, write out first with acronym in parentheses, then use the acronym on subsequent references.

National Science Foundation (NSF)—When multiple references are necessary, write out first with acronym in parentheses, then use the acronym on subsequent references.

Native American—See American Indian.

nicknames—Put in quotes, not parentheses: William “Bill” Doe, John “Jack” Doe.

non—In general, do not hyphenate words that begin with this prefix. Use a hyphen, however, before proper nouns or in awkward combinations, such as non-nuclear.

nongraduates—Use the abbreviations below when writing about people who attended MU but did not graduate (those who attended MU even for a semester are alumni). For example, for someone who attended the School of Journalism through 1956 but did not graduate, use this form: Sally Ray, Jour ’56.

• Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, AFNR
  
• Arts and Science, A&S
  
• Business, Bus
  
• Education, Educ
  
• Engineering, Engr
  
• Master’s or doctoral student, Grad
  
• Human Environmental Sciences, HES
  
• Home Economics, HE
  
• Health Related Professions (now Health Professions), HRP
  
• Health Professions, HP
  
• Journalism, Jour
  
• Law, Law
  
• Medicine, Med
  
• Nursing, Nur
  

noon—Not 12 noon.

nouns—Avoid using the following nouns as verbs: author, critique, debut, headquarter, impact, interface, jet, pastor, pen, premier, target or gift.

numerals—Use figures for the following: addresses; ages; aircraft, spacecraft; clothes size; dates; dimensions; highways; before the words millions, billions or trillions; money (starting with million, write as $12 million, not $12,000,000); number (No.1, No.2); percentages (except at the beginning of a sentence); recipes; speeds; sports; temperatures (except spell out zero; below zero spell out minus); time; weights; and years.

• Numbers with suffixes -nd, -rd, -st and -th are used for political divisions (1st Ward); military sequences courts (2nd District Court); streets after Ninth; and amendments to the Constitution after Ninth.
• Use words instead of figures for numbers less than 10; any number starting a sentence except for a year; casual numbers — about a hundred or so; and fractions less than one: one-half
  
• Use mixed numbers for fractions greater than one: 1 1/2, 2 5/8, 3 3/4. See fractions.
  
• Use Roman numerals for a man who is the second or later in his family to bear a name, for a king, queen, pope or world war, as in John D. Rockefeller III, Pope John Paul II, Queen Elizabeth II, World War I.
  
• Note: Do not insert commas between last word and Roman numeral.
  

Nursing, School of—Official name is Sinclair School of Nursing. Write MU Sinclair School of Nursing for clarity when writing for external audiences.

O

office—Capitalize when used formally: Office of the President, Office of the Provost. Preference for first reference: president’s office, provost’s office.

ongoing— Means in process or continuing. Do not use ongoing as a modifier, as it is usually redundant or superfluous.

online

open-minded

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