This is just a general guide taken from the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook, Webster’s New World Dictionary, and local usage. When conflict occurs, ORU’s Style Guide supersedes the AP Stylebook, and the AP supersedes Webster’s.
abbreviations and acronyms In general avoid alphabet soup. Do not use abbreviations or acronyms that the reader would not quickly recognize.
General rules:
Before a name: Abbreviate titles when used before a full name: Dr., Gov., Lt. Gov., Mr., Mrs., Rep., the Rev., Sen.
After a name: Abbreviate junior or senior after an individual’s name. Abbreviate company, corporation, incorporated and limited when used after the name of a corporate entity.
Caps, periods: Generally, omit periods in acronyms unless the result would spell an unrelated word. But use periods in two-letter abbreviations: U.S., U.N., B.A., B.C. Use all caps, but no periods, in longer abbreviations and acronyms when the individual letters are pronounced: ABC, CIA, FBI.
ORU rules:
Below is a list of approved acronyms that may be used in any reference in internal correspondence and on second reference in external correspondence. All other slang and nicknames for places on campus should not be used in external communications and only when absolutely sure the meaning is clear in internal materials.
Internal: You can obtain your Eagle card on the 3 rd floor of the LRC.
External: ORU students can obtain their Eagle cards on the 3 rd floor of the Learning Resources Center (LRC). The LRC also contains the library and bookstore.
Approved acronyms, abbreviations, and correct spelling for campus buildings and offices:
AC – Aerobics Center.
CAC – Comprehensive Advisement Center.
Christ’s Chapel – Don’t forget the ’s on Christ’s.
CityPlex – This should always be one word with a capital C and a capital P.
Claudius – Claudius Priscilla Roberts Hall.
CPO – Campus Post Office.
EMR – Ellis Melvin Roberts Hall.
Frances – Frances Cardone Hall.
Gabrielle – Gabrielle Christian Salem Hall.
GC – Graduate Center.
LRC – Learning Resources Center.
Michael – Michael Cardone, Sr., Hall.
SLLE – The School of LifeLong Education. Notice that LifeLong is one word with two capital L’s.
Susie – Susie Vinson Hall.
academic degrees Use an apostrophe in bachelor’s degree, a master’s, etc., but there is no possessive in Bachelor of Arts or Master of Science.
When used after a name, an academic abbreviation is set off by commas: Bob Jones, Ph.D. spoke. Do not precede a name with a courtesy title for an academic degree and follow it with the abbreviation for the degree in the same reference:
Wrong: Dr. Cindy Hollinsworth, Ph.D.
Right: Dr. Cindy Hollinsworth, a noted children’s author.
academic departments Use lowercase except for words that are proper nouns or adjectives: the department of history, the history department, the department of English, the English department, or when department is part of the official and formal name: University of Connecticut Department of Medicine.
academic majors Use lowercase unless the name includes a proper noun or adjective: music major, German major.
academic titles Capitalize and spell out formal titles such as chancellor, chair, etc., when they precede a name. Lowercase elsewhere. Lowercase modifiers such as department in department Chair Jerome Wiesner.
ACT, SAT Always capitalized, no periods, and never spelled out.
addresses Use the abbreviations Ave., Blvd. and St. only with a numbered address: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Spell them out and capitalize when part of a formal street name without a number: Pennsylvania Avenue. Lowercase and spell out when used alone or with more than one street name: Massachusetts and Pennsylvania avenues.
All similar words (alley, drive, road, terrace, etc.) always are spelled out. Capitalize them when part of a formal name without a number; lowercase when used alone or with two or more names.
Always use figures for an address number: 9 Morningside Circle.
Spell out and capitalize First through Ninth when used as street names; use figures with two letters for 10 th and above: 7 Fifth Ave., 100 21 st St.
Abbreviate compass points used to indicate directional ends of a street or quadrants of a city in a numbered address: 222 E. 42 nd St., 562 W. 43 rd St., 600 K St., N.W . Do not abbreviate if the number is omitted: East 42 nd Street, West 43 rd Street, K Street Northwest.
Use periods in the abbreviation P.O. and capitalize Box for P.O. Box numbers.
adviser Not advisor.
all right Never alright.
already and all ready Already, an adverb, means by, or before this time; all ready, two words, means entirely ready, or that everyone is ready. The war had already started. The men were all ready to go.
alumna, alumnae (female); alumnus, alumni (male) Use alumni when referring to a group of men and women. Many people avoid the masculine and feminine confusion by using alum for singular and alums for plural.
ampersand Use when part of a formal name: Procter & Gamble
a.m., p.m. Lowercase, with periods. Avoid the redundant 10 a.m. this morning; say 10 o’clock this morning.
capitalization Common terms to capitalize: Apostles’ Creed, Apostolic Age, Bible, Body of Christ, Christian, Early Church, Gospel, Holy Spirit, Honor Code, Internet, Lord’s Supper, Middle Ages, Founding Vision, Pentecostal (denomination), Reformation, Reformed Theology.
Common terms that should not be capitalized: apocrypha, charismatic, evangelical, fall, spring, summer, winter, freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, intertestamental, missions, rabbinical literature, salvation, university.
chairman, chairwoman Capitalize as a formal title before a name: company Chairman Henry Ford, committee Chairwoman Margaret Chase Smith.
Do not capitalize as a casual, temporary position: meeting chairman Robert Jones.
In most cases at ORU, the term chair is used. This should only be capitalized when used as a formal title directly before a name; English department Chair Susie Smith.
commas Use commas to separate elements in a series, but do not put a comma before the conjunction in a simple series: The flag is red, white and blue.
Put a comma before the concluding conjunction in a series, however, if an integral element of the series requires a conjunction: I had orange juice, toast, and ham and eggs for breakfast.
Use a comma also before the concluding conjunction in a complex series of phrases: The main points to consider are whether the athletes are skillful enough to compete, whether they have the stamina to endure the training, and whether they have the proper mental attitude.
course numbers Use Arabic numerals and capitalize the subject when used with a numeral: History 402, Philosophy 209.
dates Always use Arabic figures, without st, nd, rd, or th. See months for examples. Put commas after the year if the sentence continues. October 12, 1996, is the deadline.
days of the week Capitalize them. Do not abbreviate.
e-mail Always lowercase and with a dash.
hyphens Always use hyphens, not em dashes.
international students Not foreign students.
its/it’s It’s is the contraction for it is, and its shows possession. Its’ is never correct.
Honor Code Not Code of Honor.
Internet Always capitalized.
italics and quotation marks Use italics for scientific terms and foreign words. Also italicize book titles, magazines, movies, and journals, and put quotation marks around journal and magazine articles.
months Capitalize the names of months in all uses. When a month is used with a specific date, abbreviate only Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec. Spell out when using alone, or with a year alone. Do not use a comma when a date is a year and month only; right: October 2007, wrong: October, 2007.
numbers Numbers are written in figures for numbers beyond 9 except when starting a sentence. There are 732 students in one classroom. Fourteen students have been chosen.
Never make suffixes superscript. Correct: 1st, 3rd, 5th Incorrect: 1 st, 3 rd, 5 th
online Always one word.
Oral Roberts University ORU is acceptable upon second reference and for internal communication.
percent One word. Always written out and used with figures: 1 percent, 2.5 percent, 10 percent.
p.m., a.m. see a.m., p.m.
Prayer Tower Always capitalized.
quotation marks Put all periods and commas before closing quotation marks. The dash, semicolon, question mark, and 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. See also italics and quotation marks.
SAT, ACT See ACT, SAT
spaces between sentences Just one space between sentences.
Vice president Always two words and only capitalized before a name. Vice President Cheney. The vice president is speaking.
Vice provost Always two words and only capitalized before a name. Vice Provost Ogle. The vice provost is speaking.
