General Rules

Use abbreviations and acronyms only when they are familiar to your readers.

Use the full version in the first reference and follow it with the abbreviated form or acronym in parentheses. Subsequent references should be the abbreviated form or acronym.

Capitalize and hyphenate abbreviations based on the source word. No space should appear after internal periods. Use periods sparingly, such as when the abbreviation could be mistaken for a word if periods are omitted.

In text, the first reference to the school should be: The Unquowa School.

Acceptable second references include: Unquowa

Do not capitalize “school” when the word appears by itself as a noun or an adjective.

Correct: The Unquowa School is a world-class school. The school is one of the best schools in Connecticut.

Names and Titles

Abbreviate social titles Mr., Ms., Mrs., and Dr. when the titles appear before a name.

Use the abbreviations Jr., Sr., II, and III as part of a person’s full name. Examples: Everett McKinley Dirksen, Jr. The abbreviations Jr. and Sr. should appear with commas before and after the element.

There is no need to use commas to set off II and III when used as a part of a name. Example: Everett McKinley Dirksen III is not a real person.

Use periods after both first initials if the first name is hyphenated (J.-P. Mathy).

Use periods with no space if the initials are used instead of a first name. Example: E.B. Jones.

Don’t use periods or spaces when initials are used to refer to a person. Examples: JFK (John Fitzgerald Kennedy) or FDR (Franklin Delano Roosevelt)

Spell out civil or military titles when the title appears with a surname. Example: Lieutenant Colonel Blake. Abbreviate the title with a full name. Examples: Lt. Col. Henry Blake.

Time

Use abbreviations for the time of day in body copy, tables, and footnotes. Do not use capital letters. Example: 2 a.m. or 3 p.m.

Titles of Academic Degrees

Academic degrees generally should not be abbreviated. The following abbreviations for common degrees may be used when space is limited, such as a business card: B.A., bachelor of arts; B.S., bachelor of science; M.A., master of arts; M.S., master of science; Ph.D., philosophiae doctor (doctor of philosophy)

Use lowercase when spelling out degrees. Examples: bachelor of science, bachelor of arts, master’s degree.

Upper School, Lower School

Capitalize both

Grade/Classes

Use lowercase as a general rule. Examples: grade 4, fourth grade, kindergarten, preschool. Capitalize only if abbreviating. Examples: PreK-4, K, Gr. 4

Headlines

Capitalize the initial letters of each word, with the exception of articles, prepositions, and conjunctions with fewer than four letters.

Academic Degrees, Departments, Majors, and Programs

Use lowercase as a general rule. Capitalize proper nouns, titles, and acronyms and use lowercase for informal, shortened, or generic terms.

Examples

1. the head of school; Sharon Lauer, Head of School; the head
2. the Development Office; the director of the department
3. Lisa Haseltine, chair of the Department of Mathematics; the chair

Use initial capitals for the names of academic degrees. Example: Bachelor of Arts in Dance. Use lowercase if the use is generic (bachelor’s degree in dance). Use periods in abbreviations. Examples: B.A., Ph.D.

Personal Names and Titles

Capitalize titles only when they appear before a name. Examples: President Mark Greenawalt, Governor Dan Malloy.

Lowercase a descriptive title when it precedes a name. Examples: history teacher, admissions director.

Do not capitalize titles when used alone in place of a name. Examples: the president and vice-president of the board, the governor of Connecticut.

Geographical and Related Terms

Capitalize geographical terms accepted as proper names. If a geographical term applies to more than one entity or is not regarded as a proper name, it is not capitalized. Regions are capitalized but compass directions are not.

Examples: the South, southern, southwestern (direction), the Southwest (U.S.), the West, western Europe, the West Coast, the Middle East, the Midwest (U.S.), west, western, westerner.

Time Periods

Numerical designations of a time period are not capitalized unless they are part of a proper noun. Example: the fifties.

Do not use an apostrophe to refer to multiple years in a decade. An apostrophe may be substituted for the 20th century. Example: the ’50s.

Calendar and Time Designations

Days of the week, months of the year, and religious and secular holidays are capitalized. Examples: Christmas Eve, Fourth of July, Labor Day.

Names of seasons or academic terms, or descriptive names for days (unless it is with the year) are not capitalized. Examples: spring, fall semester, summer session, election day, Fall 2003.

Religious Names and Terms

Names of religious bodies and their members are capitalized. Capitalize terms such as church and temple when part of an official name but not when the terms are used descriptively. Examples: Buddhist, Orthodox, Judaism, Roman Catholic Church (faith), A Roman Catholic church (building).

Commas

Commas should be used before a conjunction joining two independent clauses in a compound sentence. Example: She wanted to go swimming, but her mom told her to wait.

Use commas to separate two or more adjectives that modify a single noun. Example: She bought a pink, fuzzy sweater.

Commas should be placed inside quotation marks but outside of brackets and parentheses.

In a series of three or more phrases or words, separate all parts of the series with commas. Example: Jessica, Caitlin, and Stephanie went to the store.

Semicolons

Semicolons should be used in lists whose items include commas. Semicolons should separate closely related clauses.

Colons

Use colons to introduce a series or a list. Text following a colon only should be capitalized if it is a complete sentence.

Periods

Use periods to end:

1. a declarative sentence;
2. a quoted passage that also ends a sentence;
3. a list of vertical items if some or all of the list items are complete sentences;
4. a vertical list that is punctuated with commas at the end of each item.

Exclamation Points

Use sparingly, to indicate emphatic or emotional statements.

Apostrophe

Use apostrophes to show omitted letters, such as in contractions.

When referring to class year, use an apostrophe. class of ’89.

Use an apostrophe followed by an s when indicating the possessive for names, even when the person’s name ends in s. Example: The Stevens’s dog

An apostrophe and s should be added when forming the possessive of a singular common noun. The possessive of a plural common noun is formed by the addition of an apostrophe only. Example: the dog’s tail, the puppies’ tails.

Parentheses

Use for explanatory information that doesn’t relate to the rest of the sentence.

Brackets

Use brackets to enclose editorial comments, corrections, explanations, phonetic spellings, and the phrases To be continued and Continued from.

Hyphens and Compound Words

Compounds, or a combination of words regarded as a unit, take three forms: spelled as separate words (open compound); joined by a hyphen(s) (hyphenated compound); and spelled as one word (solid compound).

Telephone Numbers

Place the area code in parentheses: (217) 333-1000. If the area code appears in parenthetical text, use hyphens: 217-333-1000.

Italics and Quotation Marks

URLs in Running Text

When there is a need for emphasis, set off URLS in running text by using italics or boldface. Drop the “http://” element for websites with a URL that includes “www” for brevity’s sake. If the URL has no “www,” such as http://unquowa.org, the “http://” element should be dropped: unquowa.org.

Do not drop the “https://” element used to indicate a secure site.

Do not break a line on a hyphen or insert a hyphen; it can be misleading. Try to break the URL before or after the discrete units of the URL. If the URL is at the end of a sentence, it is acceptable to add a period.

Commas and Periods

Place commas and periods inside quotation marks. Colons and semicolons should be placed outside the quotation marks.

All other punctuation: If the punctuation is part of the quotation, put it inside the quotation marks. If it’s not, put it outside.

Use one space after periods.

Quotation Marks

Quotation marks should be used:

1. to indicate the exact words spoken or published by a person
2. the first time a reference is made to a nickname
3. the first time an ironic or sarcastic phrase is used.

General rules

Advisor/Adviser

Advisor is preferred, although adviser is acceptable.

Online

Spell closed. Example: an online form.

“Pre” words

Spelled closed (prelaw, preprofessional) except pre-Columbian or other such compound words in which the second half is a proper noun.

“Re” words

Spell closed (reentry, reenroll).

Plurals

Plurals of proper nouns are formed by adding s. If the name ends in s, add es.

The plurals of numbers, multiple letters used as words, and words used as words are formed by adding s alone.

Apostrophes should not be used to form the plural of a proper noun unless it is to indicate possession.

Possessives

To form the possessive of a singular noun, add an apostrophe and an s. Example: the dog’s bone.

Email Addresses in Running Text

When there is a need for emphasis, set off by using italics or boldface; do not use angle brackets (<>).

Do not break a line on a hyphen or insert a hyphen; it can be misleading. Generally, try to break before a punctuation mark, moving the “@” or “.” to the next line: publicaffairs
@unquowa.org

If the email address is at the end of a sentence, it is acceptable to add a period.

Numbers

Spell out the numbers one through nine and use numerals for 10 and up.

Exceptions:

Spell out numbers at the beginning of a sentence.

Use numerals in percentages (4 percent, not four percent).

If more than one number is used in a sentence, spell them out unless all are 10 and over.

Ranges: use numerals and an en-dash: 1–10, not one through ten.

Addresses and Phone Numbers

Spell out words in an address unless space is in short supply. If so, use the following abbreviations: Ave., Blvd., Bldg., Ct., Dr., La./Ln., Pkwy., Pl., Rd., Sq., St., Terr.

The directions N.W., S.W., and S.E are abbreviated in an address. North, South, East, and West are not abbreviated.

As part of a name, spell out the word street, or avenue. Example: Green Street Coffee House.

Dates

The U.S. preference for styling dates is: month, day, and year without the ordinal letters. Example: January 1, 2006 and not January 1st, 2006.

The year may be abbreviated in informal contexts. Example: class of ’49.

Time of Day

To indicate specific times, use numerals with a.m. and p.m.

Delete the zeroes if the time of day is on the hour. Example: 5 p.m. not 5:00 p.m.

Use noon and midnight and do not use 12:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m.

Spell out the time of day in text unless referring to a precise time. Example: She’s home from class by four.

Money

Delete cents when you have a round dollar amount. Example: $20 instead of $20.00.

Figures should be used for monetary amounts.

Use the word “cents” for amounts less than a dollar and the dollar sign for amounts of more than a dollar.

If the monetary amount is more than a million dollars, use the dollar sign and spell out million, billion, etc.

Decimals and Percentages

Figures should be used for percentages unless they start a sentence.

Percent should be spelled out in text. Example: She received a score of 82 percent on her exam.

Zeros can be used before decimal points, but not after, unless they are needed to show exact measurement. Grade point average, however, should always include two decimal places. 3.00 GPA (not 3.0 GPA)

School Name = The Unquowa School

PreK-3, PreK-4

Alumna/Alumnae/Alumni/Alumnus

Alumnus is the singular form for a man who has attended a school. The plural is alumni.

Alumna is the singular for a woman who has attended a school. The plural is alumnae.

Use alumni as the plural when referring to both men and women who have attended a school.

Emeritus/Emerita

Use emeritus when referring to male professors. Use emerita when referring to female professors. Note that this term should not be substituted for “retired.” Emeritus/emerita is a special status that must be officially approved by the school.

Nonsexist Language

Take reasonable steps to avoid unnecessary gender-specific language.

Avoid using a generic masculine pronoun when the antecedent includes both men and women.

Use substitutions for words with masculine markers when possible and logical. Example: firefighter instead of fireman.

Females over the age of 18 should be referred to as women and males over the age of 18 should be referred to as men.

Parallel terms should be used for men and women. Examples: ladies and gentlemen, wife and husband.

Women and men should not be referred to by their roles as wife and husband, mother and father, brother and sister, or son and daughter unless it aids in the comprehension of the content.

Take reasonable steps to avoid unnecessary use of the words “feminine” or “woman” as modifiers. Examples: woman doctor, feminine logic.

Format

Do not use fancy borders or backgrounds. E-mail should be simple and business-like.

Use Sans Serif font. You may use bold or italics for emphasis, but remember that due to individual e-mail programs, not everyone will “see” these options.

Make sure you use spell check.

Signature

Always included your name, position, The Unquowa School, the website, and phone number & your extension.

Example:

—
Your Name
Job Title/Position
The Unquowa School
(203) 336-3801 x 210
www.unquowa.org

Blogs

Faculty are responsible for regular blog post to the bulletin board on their classroom page. Once you have completed your blog for the bulletin board, checked the spelling and grammar and added any photos or links, chose the “Pending Review” option under Publish Status. Then email the Review Team, review@unquowa.org. Once the team has reviewed the post, they will publish it.

Photos/Videos

Not required for a website post but media of some type (photos, video or audio) is certainly preferred. Media should be inserted first followed by text/narrative comment. Images should be of good quality and uploaded at full size with 1024px wide and 768px high as minimum requirements. Insert images as galleries even if there is only one image uploaded.

If your text is very short (a sentence or 2) and you want to use photos, include them in a gallery rather than 1 large photo which will overpower the text.

Links to Other Webpages

Links to other webpages should be masked. Highlight the word or phrase which will become the link. Paste the link into the Link URL box. Click on Target to change if from “Not set” to “Open target in new window.” Click Insert. The text you have selected will now be blue underlined text. It should also be made bold and italic.

To include an email link, follow the steps above and in the Link URL box type in mailto:email@wherever.com (no spaces)

File Formats

These different file formats allow the Unquowa graphics to be reproduced correctly in print and on-screen.

EPS Files

The encapsulated PostScript (EPS) files are for use in professional page layout and illustration programs such as Adobe’s InDesign and Illustrator and Quark XPress. Such programs are used to create documents suitable for reproduction via digital or offset printing processes at a professional printer. PC Adobe software users should set their screen display to high quality to correctly render the transparency of the EPS files. The EPS files were created using Adobe Illustrator CS 2.

PNG files

Use these files to quickly obtain the best rendering results for the Web and in PowerPoint. These files have a transparent background.

JPEG files

These files are 300dpi and are suitable for print if a professional page layout and illustration programs such as Adobe’s InDesign and Illustrator and Quark XPressis not available. Care should be taken as the background is white (except for the WhiteOnGreen versions) and will appear as a rectangle or square on any color other than white.

Recommendations

Resizing the Logo

To maintain the correct proportions when resizing the EPS file used to create the Unquowa logos, use Adobe Illustrator CS 2 and follow this process.

1. Select the grouped objects in the file.
2. Select “Object” in the pulldown menu and drag to “Transform” and then “Scale.”
3. Check the boxes labeled “Uniform,” “Objects,” and “Scale Strokes & Effects.”
4. Change the size by typing in a percentage in the “Scale” field or click “Okay” and resize the grouped objects with the selection tool.

Program Types

Microsoft Word should not be used for professional page layout or desktop publishing and is best suited for processing text that will be imported into professional layout programs. While Word contains templates for print, its ability to perform layout tasks is limited and a professional printer may have problems outputting the resulting files. For the best results, use Adobe’s InDesign and Illustrator or Quark XPress.