| Item | Style | Example |
| Academic Year | Use four digits, followed by a hyphen, followed by four digits. | 2005-2006 |
| Academic Degrees, abbreviated | Use periods between letters, no spaces. Both letters of degree abbreviations are always capitalized. | A.A.
A.S.
B.A.
B.S.
M.A.
Ed.D.
Ph.D. |
| Academic Degrees, spelled out | | Associate in Arts
Associate in 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. |
| Adviser | Adviser should be spelled with an ER, not OR. | My academic adviser is Mr. Smith. |
| Affect/Effect | Affect is a verb, meaning to produce an effect. | Good written communication skills affect one's chances for a successful re-accreditation. One effect of this manual should be to enhance your awareness of the importance of accurate English. |
| Among/Between | Something occurs between just two people; it happens among three or more. | There is a strong bond between Alice and her mother.
There is a strong bond among family members. |
| Assistant to the President for Diversity and Equity | This should be capitalized every time it is used. | Assistant to the President for Diversity and Equity |
| Associate Vice President, College Relations and Marketing | This should be capitalized every time it is used. | Associate Vice President, College Relations and Marketing |
| Associate Vice President, Community Campuses and Centers | This should be capitalized every time it is used. | Associate Vice President, Community Campuses and Centers |
| 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. | Seminole Community College Catalog 2005-06. |
| College | Capitalize "College" when referring to Seminole Community College. | The College was established in 1965. |
| Collegewide | Should be one word, no hyphen. | Collegewide
Not: college-wide |
| Comma in a series | There is no comma before "and" in a series. | 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. |
| Division | When referring to a specific division, the word "Division" should be capitalized. When referring to divisions generally, the word should be lowercase. | The Division of Student Services
Throughout the different divisions of the College. |
| Documentation | Put sources at the end of the sentence within parentheses. Separate sources with a semicolon. Put the period outside closing parenthesis. Do not use "See" or "Exhibit" as in (See College Catalog 1997-98). | ...showed that the students were generally satisfied (College Factbook 2000-01; College Catalog 2000-01). |
e-business
e-mail | When used in the middle of a sentence, use lower-case "e," followed by a single hyphen, followed by the word "business" or "mail" in lowercase letters. When beginning a sentence, capitalize the "e." | E-business is a growing field.
She checked her e-mail. |
| ensure | Use ensure to mean guarantee. | Follow these rules to ensure stylistic 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..." |
| Forward Slash / (also called solidus or virgule) | There is no space between the word and the / | Sanford/Lake Mary Campus
Sanford/Lake Mary Campus Not: Sanford / Lake Mary Campus |
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 home against flood damage. |
| Internet | Always capitalize. | Internet |
| Its/It's | Its: Possessive
It's: The contraction for "it is" | The committee reached its decision yesterday.
It's going to be a close game. |
| 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. | I make more than $30,000 a year.
The plane flew over the mountain. |
| 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. | Approximately five weeks ago...
There are 23 majors... |
| 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
$253,345
3,456 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 the Registrar
Office of Student Services |
| 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. | I make more than $30,000 a year.
The plane flew over the mountain. |
| 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 | Use periods between groups instead of dashes, and no parentheses. When listing an extension, abbreviate ext. | 407.708.2000
407.708.4722 ext. 3015 |
| Point of View | Avoid using first person (I, we, us) and second person (you). Instead use third person (he, she, it, they, the committee, etc.) to maintain an objective tone. | The committee finds the budgetary process at SCC to be adequate. |
| President | Capitalize when referring specifically to the President of Seminole Community College. | President E. Ann McGee
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 "The Firm"? |
| Seminole Community College or SCC | On first reference spell out, thereafter, use the abbreviated version. | Seminole Community College
SCC |
| Seasons | Capitalize the seasons when they refer to or seem to refer to a term. | "In Fall 2000, things were different from the Summer of 1999." |
| 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 |
| 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. |
| Vice President, Administrative Services/Chief Financial Officer | This should be capitalized every time it is used. | Vice President, Administrative Services/Chief Financial Officer |
| Vice President, Educational Programs/Chief Learning Officer | This should be capitalized every time it is used. | Vice President, Educational Programs/Chief Learning Officer |
| Vice President, Information Technology and Resources/Chief Information Officer | This should be capitalized every time it is used. | Vice President, Information Technology and Resources/Chief Information Officer |
| Vice President, Student Success/Chief Student Affairs Officer | This should be capitalized every time it is used. | Vice President, Student Success/Chief Student Affairs Officer |
| Voice | Use active voice rather than passive voice whenever possible. Passive voice is characterized by the use of a form of the verb "to be" (am, is, are, was, were, be, being, and been) followed by a past participle form of a verb (a verb form typically ending in -ed or -en such as helped or broken).
To avoid the use of the passive voice, state as clearly as possible who is responsible for the action in the sentence. | The committee found no discrepancies in the records. |
| Slang | Do not use. Think globally, what is understood in U.S. is not always understood in other countries. | |
| Web site, Web page, the Web | Always capitalize Web; page and site are always lowercase and a separate word. | Web site, Web page, 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? |
