Trevecca Brand Manual

Abbreviations

• Acceptable if part of a formal name (Morgan Stanley & Co.)
• U.S. is acceptable as an adjective (the U.S. senate), but always use United States as a noun (correct: We live in the United States. Incorrect: We live in the U.S.)
• Avoid in running text (Professor Adams, not Prof. Adams)

Acronyms

• Acceptable on second reference and subsequent references. Type out the full name on first use.
• Acceptable on first reference if widely recognized (e.g. NCAA, NASA, FBI)

Addresses

• In running text, spell out North, West, South, and East before a street name. Also spell out Avenue, Boulevard, Street, Road, Drive, etc.
• Use official names of offices (Office of Financial Sevices rather than financial services office)

Adviser/advisor

• In general usage, follow AP Stylebook guidelines and use "adviser." When referring to academic advisors employed by Trevecca, use "advisor" to match their official titles. 

Alumni

• Alumni status is sometimes granted to people who didn’t leave Trevecca with a degree. To denote alumni status, the year of graduation/withdrawing from the University is placed in parentheses after the person’s name: John Smith, (’78)
• For clarification, it may sometimes be necessary to list both the person’s degree (or degrees) and year of graduation. These should be set apart in parenthesis after the person’s name, degree first: John Smith (MOL ’78).
• When typing the graduation/withdrawal year, use only the last two numbers of the graduation year unless it could be confusing (e.g. 1915 or ’15, meaning 2015). Always use an apostrophe to denote the missing numbers.

Ampersand &

• Do not use in running text to replace and.
• Use only when it is part of a company or organization’s formal name.
• May sometimes be used in graphic design, display text, headlines or subheads, but should never be used in running text.

Apostrophes

• Don’t use to form plurals (1940s, mid-80s) unless it would be confusing (She earned all A’s, rather than As.
• Use apostrophes for master’s and bachelor’s degrees. Use doctorate or doctoral rather than doctor’s.

Associate degree

• It is always associate degree, no possessive. (Correct: She has an associate degree. Incorrect: She has an associate’s degree.)
• Do not capitalize.

Bachelor’s degree

• A bachelor’s degree or bachelor’s is acceptable in any reference (example: She earned a bachelor’s degree in biology.)
• Use an apostrophe in bachelor’s degree, but there is no possessive in Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, etc.

Biblical

• Always use lowercase on all references (the biblical standard)

Capitalization

• Official names are capitalized (Department of Music but music department)
• Capitalize:
• Board of Trustees when referring to Trevecca’s
• Commencement, when referring to Trevecca’s
• Geographical areas (Southeast, the Midwest)
• Church of Nazarene organizational terms (General Assembly; General Superintendent; General Board; District Superintendent, etc.)
• Names of conferences (Issues in Therapy, etc.)
• Course titles
• Homecoming, when referring to Trevecca’s but lowercase in general use
• Names referring to God (Jehovah, Father, Jesus, Christ, Christians); pronouns referring to God (He, His, Him); adjectives vary (Christ-like, but godly)
• University when referring to Trevecca
• Registered trademarks
• Words denoting family relationship used in place of someone’s name (Mom Perry)
• the Hill when using in reference to Trevecca

Chair

• Use instead of chairman. (Example: He is the chair of the department.)

Church

• Do not capitalize church unless appearing in the official name of the church.

Class of XXXX

• When referring to someone as a member of the "Class of XXXX," capitalize the word "class" and use the full year, rather than just the last two numbers. 

Comma

• Don’t use a comma before and or or in a series unless it is confusing not to. In other words, do not use the Oxford comma unless it is confusing not to.
• Use commas before and after state names when they appear with cities.
• If using a day of the month, use commas before and after the year (by the September 9, 2015, deadline)

Degrees

• Use periods in Ph.D., Ed.D. but NOT in MBA.
• Capitalize Bachelor of Science, Master of Arts, etc.
• Do not capitalize the field unless it is a proper noun (Bachelor of Arts in English is correct; Bachelor of Science in Biology is not.
• Use an apostrophe in master’s degree and bachelor’s degree. Do not use doctor’s degree. Use doctorate or doctoral instead.

Departments

• Full formal names of departments and programs are capitalized (Department of Music)
• Informal or shortened names are not (music department)

Dorm

• Do not use dorm when referring to Trevecca’s residence halls. Residence halls is the preferred term.

Ellipses

• An ellipses is three periods with no spaces in between (…). A space should precede and follow the ellipses. (Example: He didn’t know what to say … but he kept talking anyway.)

Em dash

• Do not use spaces around an em dash.

Email

• One word, lowercase, no hyphen. Correct: email; Incorrect: E-mail
• Do not break email addresses across lines of text in a document, printed piece, or in online copy.
• Italicize email addresses in copy to set them apart.

Gender language

• Avoid whenever possible (chair, police officer, etc.)
• Do not use “he” to refer to all students. Avoid the confusion of using he/she as much as possible by making sentences plural. (Example: Each student should bring his or her notes to class. Compare to: Students should bring their notes to class.)
• Avoid referring to the University as “her” as much as possible. Use terms that are inclusive and invite readers/alumni to feel that they are part of the University, i.e. “our University” or “our.”

Godly

• Always use lowercase.

G-MAC

• Always use Great Midwest Athletic Conference on first reference to the athletic conference of which Trevecca is a member.
• On second reference, use G-MAC.

Gospel

• Do not capitalize unless referring to the four Gospels of the New Testament.

Healthcare

• In all instances, format as a single word, not 'health care.' Trevecca departs from AP style in this phrasing.

The Hill

• Reference to Trevecca. Always capitalize “Hill.” The article should not be capitalized.

Internet

• Lowercase unless at the beginning of a sentence.

Jr., sr., III in names

• Do not set off by commas.

Line breaks

• Do not end a column with a hyphen or allow more than two consecutive lines to end in a hyphen.

Master’s degree

• A master’s degree or master’s is acceptable in any reference.
• There is an apostrophe in master’s degree, but not Master of Arts or Master of Science, etc.
• When using abbreviations, it is M.A., M.S., but MBA.

Myriad

• Trevecca breaks with AP Style on this point. Please use "of" following the adjective "myriad." 
• Ex: Students can find a myriad of books in the library.

Names

• No spaces between initials (J.O. McClurkan)
• No comma before Jr., Sr., or III in names.

Nineteen|01

• Coffee shops located on Trevecca’s campus. Always use Nineteen|01 in running text, invitations or posters.

Numbers

• One through nine are spelled out; 10 and above in numerals.
• Use numerals with percent (3 percent); dollar signs ($2); temperature (9 degrees), etc.
• Numbers beginning a sentence are always spelled out.
• Use commas in numbers greater than 1,000.

Over/More than

• More than is preferred. (Example: More than 500 students enrolled in undergraduate courses.)

Percent

• Spell out percent rather than using the percent sign. 72 percent rather than 72% (Exceptions may be made in display text on posters or slides)

Quotation marks

• Use to denote direct quotes.
• Use around the names of songs.

The Quad

• Capitalize "Quad" when referring to Trevecca's Quad in the center of campus, bounded by the McClurkan Building, Wakefield Fine Arts Building, Mackey and Hart Street.

Smart quotes/straight quotes

• Smart (curved) quotation marks are typographically correct.
• Straight quotes are often carried into text when the text is copied and pasted from a webpage. Please change to smart quotes.

States

• States should not be abbreviated when standing alone in the text. (Example: She was from Tennessee, not She was from Tenn.)
• Use the following abbreviations for states in running text.
• Ala.
• Fla.
• La.
• N.C.
• Ohio
• Texas
• Alaska
• Ga.
• Maine
• N.D.
• Okla.
• Utah
• Ariz.
• Hawaii
• Mass.
• Neb.
• Ore.
• Va.
• Ark.
• Idaho
• Md.
• Nev.
• Pa.
• Vt.
• Calif.
• Ill.
• Mich.
• N.H.
• R.I.
• Wash.
• Colo.
• Ind.
• Minn.
• N.J.
• S.C.
• W. Va.
• Conn.
• Iowa
• Miss.
• N. M.
• S.D.
• Wis.
• D.C.
• Kan.
• Mo.
• N.Y.
• Tenn.
• Wyo.
• Del.
• Ky.
• Mont.

Scripture

• Always capitalize Scripture, but use lowercase for scriptural.

Theatre

• Trevecca uses “theatre” when referring to theatrical productions on campus. We also offer a Bachelor’s in theatre education as a collaborative effort between the communication studies department and the School of Education.

Times

• Do not use :00 with a time. (Example: 6 p.m. is correct; 6:00 p.m. is not.) If an event begins or ends on the half or quarter hour, 6:30 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. are fine.
• Lowercase a.m. and p.m. Do not remove the periods.
• Use noon or midnight rather than 12 p.m. or 12 a.m. in running text. If creating a list of times, it is fine to use 12 in that format to make it easier for readers to quickly understand.
• Do not use o’clock unless in a quotation.

Title (classes)

• The formal title of the class should be capitalized.
• The informal title is not capitalized.
• Examples: Correct: Introduction to Marketing; correct: my marketing class; Incorrect: I have to go to my Marketing class.

Title (person)

• Only capitalize a title if it appears before the person’s name. (Example: correct: Associate Professor Thomas Jones; correct: Thomas Jones, assistant professor of English; incorrect: Thomas Jones, Assistant Professor of English)
• See entry for departments for capitalization rules for formal and informal names of departments within the University.

Title (publications and creative works)

• Italicize the titles of books, periodicals (including online magazines), movies, plays, works of art, musical compositions, collections of poetry and long poems published separately.

University

• Always capitalize when using the word university in place of the proper name Trevecca.
• When used in a more general sense, lowercase university.

Ultimate Frisbee

• In accordance with AP Style, "Ultimate" and "Frisbee" are both capitalized in every reference. 
• It follows that "Ultimate" will be capitalized when used to refer to the sport. 
• Ultimate Frisbee is currently a club sport at Trevecca.

Web address

• If a web address does not fit on one line, do not break it with a hyphen. Attempt to keep web addresses on one line.