Editorial Style Guide
We've created the Northeastern University Office of Creative Services Editorial Style Guide to give novices and experienced writers and editors at Northeastern concrete guidelines to follow, in a single easy-to-use source.
As an institution, Northeastern strives to project a cohesive, identifiable, and professional image through all its communications. Whether attracting new students, explaining co-op to other academic institutions, describing educational programs to the Boston community, or promoting arts events on campus, the University's communications must be clear, consistent, and error-free.
This guide does not aim to be completely comprehensive. Use it in conjunction with more exhaustive style references,
such as the Chicago Manual of Style. It also does not seek
to impose a rigid set of rules on writers and editors, but simply to
outline a stylistic standard.
1.0 Writing Effective
Documents
1.1.0 Initial planning
1.2.0 Addressing general editorial concerns
1.2.1 Accuracy
1.2.2 Organization
1.2.3 Point of view
1.2.4 Clarity
1.2.5 Variety
1.2.6 Style
1.3.0 Recommended reading
2.0 Abbreviations and
Shortened Forms
2.1. General guidelines
2.2.0 Letterspacing within abbreviations
2.3.0 Acronyms
2.4.0 Latin terms
2.5.0 Units of measurement
2.6.0 Addresses
2.7.0 Social titles
2.8.0 Family names
2.9.0 Times and dates
2.10 Days of the week and months
2.11 Company names
2.12 Generic forms of proper nouns
2.13 Northeastern University
2.14 Northeastern University building names
3.0 Academic Terminology
3.1.0 Academic and professional degrees
3.1.1 Abbreviating degrees
3.1.2 Punctuating degrees
3.1.3 Capitalizing degrees
3.2.0 Academic and professional titles
3.2.1 Abbreviating titles
3.2.2 Punctuating titles
3.2.3 Capitalizing titles
3.3.0 Placement of degrees and titles
3.4.0 Fellowships and professorships
3.5.0 Academic status and periods
3.6.0 Class years
3.7.0 Northeastern alumni
3.8 Names of colleges and schools at Northeastern
4.0 Biased Language
4.1 . Avoiding gender-specific language
4.1.1 Generic he
4.1.2 Generic man
4.1.3 Universal or neutral terms
4.1.4 Alumni vs. alumnae
4.1.5 Academic status
4.2.0 Racial and ethnic diversity
5.0 Capitalization
5.1.0 First word of quoted material
5.2.0 First word following a colon
5.3.0 Words derived from proper nouns
5.4.0 Seasons
5.5.0 Trademarks
5.6.0 Parts of a book
5.7.0 Academic subjects and course titles
5.8.0 Names of companies and institutions
5.9.0 Northeastern departments, schools, and colleges
5.10 Official names of awards, scholarships, and prizes
5.11 Names of loan programs
5.12 Generic terms at Northeastern
6.0 Grammar
6.1.0 Subject-verb agreement
6.1.1 With words separating the subject and verb
6.1.2 With certain phrases
6.1.3 With compound subjects
6.1.4 With indefinite pronouns
6.1.5 With collective nouns
6.1.6 With singular nouns that include plural elements
6.1.7 With here is/there is constructions
6.1.8 With measurements
6.1.9 With a subject that follows a verb
6.2.0 Parallelism
6.3.0 Misplaced or dangling modifiers
6.4.0 Consistent point of view
6.5.0 Consistent verb tense
7.0 Lists and Displayed Information
7.1.0 Run-in vs. displayed lists
7.2.0 Bullets, numbers, or letters
7.3.0 Complete sentences vs. sentence fragments
7.4.0 Introducing and punctuating run-in lists
7.5.0 Introducing and punctuating displayed lists
7.5.1 With lead-in text
7.5.2 Without lead-in text
7.6.0 Equations
7.7.0 Event information
8.0 Numbers
8.1.0 Words vs. numerals
8.1.2 In technical text or measurements
8.2.0 More than one number in a sentence
8.3.0 Adjacent numbers
8.5.0 Forming plurals of numerals
8.6.0 Commas in numerals
8.7.0 Symbols with quantities and measurements
8.8.0 Dates
8.9.0 Centuries and decades
8.10 Fractions
8.11 Money
8.12 Ordinals
8.13 Percentages
8.14 Scores and ratios
8.15 Ages
8.16 Time
8.17 Telephone numbers
9.0 Punctuation
9.1.0 Commas
9.1.1 With items in a series
9.1.2 With coordinating conjunctions
9.1.3 With nonrestrictive elements
9.1.4 With introductory words, phrases, and clauses
9.1.5 With dates, addresses, titles, degrees, and numerals
9.1.6 With adverbial clauses
9.1.7 With coordinate adjectives
9.1.8 With other punctuation marks
9.2.0 Semicolons
9.2.1 With independent clauses
9.2.2 With items in a series
9.2.3 With other punctuation marks
9.3.0 Colons
9.3.1 With explanations and quotations
9.4.0 Periods
9.4.1 In abbreviations
9.4.2 With ellipses
9.4.3 With other punctuation marks
9.5.0 Quotation marks
9.5.1 To indicate direct quotations
9.5.2 To indicate quotations within quotations
9.5.3 To indicate words used as words
9.5.4 With other punctuation marks
9.6.0 Italics
9.6.1 To indicate foreign words
9.6.2 To indicate words used as words
9.6.3 To indicate emphasis
9.6.4 With punctuation marks
9.6.5 Forming plurals and possessives of italicized words
9.7.0 Apostrophes
9.7.1 To form possessives
9.7.2 To indicate omission of letters and numbers
9.8.0 Ellipses
9.9.0 Dashes
9.9.1 Em dashes
9.9.2 En dashes
9.10 Parentheses
10.0 Quoted Material
10.1 Run-in vs. displayed quoted material
10.2 Punctuating lead-in text
10.3 Capitalizing quoted material
10.4 Ellipses within quoted material
10.5 Using "said" to introduce
11.0 Spelling and Hyphenation
11.1 Prefixes
11.2 Compound nouns and verbs
11.3 Compound modifiers
11.4 Line breaks in printed text
11.5 Preferred spellings at Northeastern
12.0 Titles and Headings
12.1.. Referring to existing titles and headings
12.1.1 Italics vs. quotation marks
12.1.2 Capitalizing titles and headings
12.2 Creating titles and headings
13.0 Usage
13.1 Active and passive voices
13.2 Commonly misused words
13.3 Contractions vs. possessive pronouns
13.4 Plural nouns from Latin roots
13.5 Avoiding wordiness
13.6 Avoiding clichés
14.0 Web/Interactive Style
14.1 Abbreviations
14.2 Numerals
14.3 Punctuation
14.4 Miscellaneous
14.5 Terminology
Appendix
Disability information and symbols
Stationery standards
Legal boilerplate
Songs