If the answer is not found in the CEHD style guide, use The Chicago Manual of Style to get an answer. For spelling decisions, use the first entry in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.

• CEHD editorial style guide [PDF]
• University Relations editorial style
  

College designation

Capitalize the full name of the college but not when using just the word “college.”

Committees, work groups

Spell out and capitalize the full names of committees and workgroups: The Student Scholastic Standing Committee. Use the committee on later references.

Departments, office names

Only capitalize the department or office name when written in full: Department of Educational Psychology or Office of Communications and Marketing; educational psychology student or communications office.

Events

Capitalize events such as Homecoming, Minnesota State Fair, Spring Jam.

Fields of study

Do not capitalize fields of study or majors.
• business and marketing education
• master of education, professional studies
• MEd/professional studies
• the Department of Educational Psychology’s school psychology program

Headings

Use sentence case. Capitalize the first word and proper nouns only. This includes Connect magazine and the news blog.

Job titles, descriptions

Uppercase official titles that precede names or function as a part of the name (President Eric Kaler, Professor Masten). Lowercase after the name (Karen Hanson, executive vice president and provost; Marvin Martian, anthropology professor) and in titles that are more descriptive rather than name-based (kinesiology professor Mary Jo Kane).

Exceptions, before and after name: regents professors and holders of endowed chairs or professorships (Regents Professor of Ecology and Behavioral Biology Margaret Davis; Christopher Uggen, Regents Professor of Sociology).

Organizational bodies: Board of Regents. But: the board, the regents.

Buildings: Uppercase Building or Hall if part of a formal name.

Abbreviate political titles in running text (Gov. Mark Dayton visited campus with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, U.S. Rep. Betty McCollumn, and State Rep. Jim Davnie.) After name: Mark Dayton, governor of Minnesota. If you can’t abbreviate, a long title may look better after the name: The governor visited with Jim Davnie, a Minnesota state representative.

Projects and plans

Capitalize the full name of official projects or plans. Always lowercase the project or plan when the word stands alone or when using only part of the formal name. We worked on the 2014 Mental Health Project for Children. We worked on the mental
health project.

Semesters

Title case only for specific semesters: fall semester; Fall Semester 2014

Titles of works

Capitalize the principal words. Use italics for titles of books, newspapers, and other media. Use quotation marks for articles, chapters of publications, and any smaller pieces of larger works. The New York Times published the article “Study Links Autism and Somalis in Minneapolis.”

University of Minnesota

Use University of Minnesota on first reference.
U of M and the U are OK on second reference. Avoid UMN in most communications. Capitalize University when referring to the University of Minnesota.

(“The University provided what I was looking for.”)

Hyphens, dashes, and compound words

Notes: Consult Merriam-Webster for most one-word compounds. Consult the Chicago Manual of Style’s hyphenation table for more specific guidance.

Compound nouns are usually written as one word, compound verbs are generally written as two, and compound adjectives are often written with a hyphen.

Chicago style requires hyphens in a modifying phrase that appears before a noun, but no hyphen if the phrase appears after or is not connected to a noun. (They are employed on a part-time basis. They work part-time.)

Use a hyphen when a prefix is used with a capitalized word (ex: non-University).

Adverbs are not hyphenated to subsequent adjectives.

Common compounds, no hyphens

changemaker, collegewide, coursework, noncredit, nonprofit, nonresident, online, email, policymaker, postsecondary, statewide, schoolwide, systemwide, yearlong, caregiver, dropout, youthwork, smartphone, preschool

Common hyphenated compounds

at-risk, first-year (students, experience), follow-up (adj.), long-term, social-emotional, start-up, student-athlete, university-wide, well-being

En dash

The en dash ( – ) connects things related to each other by distance or time, often used in ranges. (Teacher-student connection, May–September issue)

Em dash

The em dash ( — ) allows an additional thought to be added to or within a sentence.

Punctuation

Ampersands (&)

Use ampersands when they are part of an official title. Generally, ampersands cannot be used in place of the word and to save space or time.

Campus designation

The preferred way of listing campus locations with the University system is to list the campus directly after the University (no comma or hyphen): the University of Minnesota Twin Cities

Commas

Use the serial (or Oxford) comma (students, schools, and communities). Do not use a comma with names that include Jr. or Sr.

Do not use a comma before a title of a work when it functions as an essential part of the sentence (Tom Rademacher, ’07, wrote It Won’t Be Easy.)

Use a comma when the title of the work isn’t essential to the construction of the sentence. (The researchers won an award for their article, “Examining alphabet writing fluency in kindergarten.”)

Ellipses

When an ellipsis links two complete sentences, use a period followed by three dots with spaces at the beginning, end, and in between each dot.
(“What you see is what you get. . . . They have never forgotten who they are and where they came from,” said Whalen.)

When an ellipsis links two parts of one sentence, use 3 dots with spaces at the beginning, end, and in between each dot. (“We were having conversations around mental health, promotion, early intervention . . . but we really didn’t have dedicated research.”)

Exclamation points

Use exclamation points sparingly. They indicate emphatic or emotional statements; do not use them to provide routine emphasis.

Punctuation in quotations

Periods, commas, and other ending punctuation belong inside quotation marks.

Numbers

Numerals

In non-scientific writing, spell out exact numbers of less than 10. Use figures for numbers of 10 or more.

Always use figures with a.m. and p.m.

Always spell out zero.

Use figures for numbers through the thousands. 1,543; 150,000. For larger numbers, use a figure and million or billion (etc.): The collection includes more than 4 million volumes

Dates

Use figures for dates: Classes begin September 4, 2007. Do not use th, st, rd, or other ordinal indicators after a date.

Spell out days and months. Readers from different countries could read 4/5/14 as April 5 or May 4.

In running text, connect a range of dates with from and to.
(The workshop runs from April 15 to 17.)

In shorter event listings, use an en-dash to connect a range of dates.
(April 15–17)

Add a comma after a full date if the date is followed by more text. (We met on September 4, 2015, in an English class.)

Times

Do not include :00 or o’clock (4 p.m., 7:30 a.m.).

In running text, connect a range of times with to. In shorter event listings, use an endash to connect a range of times. If both the start and end times fall in the same half of the day, only use a.m. or p.m. once, at the end.
(The 2017 Chase Lecture runs from 7 to 9 p.m. or 2018 Chase Lecture, 7–9 p.m.)

Include periods in a.m. and p.m.

Use noon and midnight rather than 12 p.m. or 12 a.m. when possible.

Plurals

Names and proper nouns

Form the plurals of proper nouns by adding s. If a name ends in s, add es.

Other

Add an s, no apostrophe to words and phrases like ABCs, the 1970s, and PhDs except if it’s confusing to do so.

Possessives

Common errors

Do not use an apostrophe with plurals that are descriptive rather than possessive
(teachers union, farmers market).

Proper nouns

Add an apostrophe and an s.

Language and Usage

Spelling

Common spelling errors

advisor, OK

Common two-word phrases

all right, a lot, childcare, health care

Quote vs. quotation

Quote is a verb, while quotation is a noun.
(The professor quoted John Dewey in his lecture. The lecture included a quotation from John Dewey.)

Technology

3D printing (noun), 3D-print (verb), 3D-printed (adjective) cc’d, email, emoji (singular), emojis (plural), Flipgrid, internet, IT, newsfeed, online, onscreen, retweet, screentime, timeline, touchscreen, username, voicemail, web page, website

University- and CEHD-specific language

Alumni/Emeriti

alumna (female); alumnus (male); alumnae (plural female); alumni (plural male, mixed)

Alum is acceptable as a gender-neutral single term.

Degree information should be set in commas, with or without the degree type. (Brenda Hartman, MSW ’89, conducts a therapy practice for people with cancer. OR Jennifer Eik, ’13, remembers her first year of teaching as one of the most stressful in her life.) It is not required to mention the major or degree program in the same sentence.

emerita (female); emeritus (male); emeriti faculty (plural)

Collegewide centers and affiliated initiatives

Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement (CAREI)
Center for Open Education
Educational Technology Innovations (ETI)
Institute on Community Integration (ICI)
Institute for Translational Research in Children’s Mental Health (ITR)
Research Methodology Consulting Center (RMCC)
University of Minnesota Autism Initiative (UMAI)
University of Minnesota Child Development Center (UMCDC)
Use of initializations depends on publication and audience. Always use
the center’s full name on first reference.

College units

Department of Educational Psychology (Ed Psych)
School of Social Work (SSW)
Department of Family Social Science (FSoS)
Department of Curriculum and Instruction (C&I)
Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development (OLPD)
School of Kinesiology (KIN)
Institute of Child Development (ICD)
Use of initializations depends on publication and audience. Always use
the unit’s full name on first reference.

College titles

Official course names should be capitalized. In running text, use the full course name, not the numbered abbreviation. (He teaches the course ArtsBased Research in Education each fall.)

Neighborhoods

Cedar-Riverside, Como, Dinkytown, Marcy-Holmes, North Minneapolis, Northeast Minneapolis, Saint Anthony Park, South Minneapolis.

Note: The University of Minnesota St. Paul campus is located in Falcon Heights, which is a city and not a neighborhood of St. Paul.

Northrop

Spelled -op, not -up. Style as Northrop, not Northrop Auditorium.

University of Minnesota

Use University of Minnesota on first reference.

U of M and the U are OK on second reference. Avoid UMN in most
communications.

Captialize University when referring to the University of Minnesota.
(“The University provided what I was looking for.”)

Language regarding identity and culture

Race and Nationality

African American

No hyphen. Same rule applies to all descriptions of nationalities, including Somali American, Asian American, etc.

Black and White

Capitalize Black or White when referring to race. Avoid using Caucasian unless referencing research or other text that uses the term.

Hmong

The word Hmong can describe people, language, and culture.

Indigenous identities

Indigenous (capitalized), Native American, Native, and American Indian are all terms that refer to native tribal groups in the United States. First Nations and First Peoples are terms generally used in Canadian culture and media. Do not capitalize tribal when used to refer to Native groups or practices.

In Minnesota, there are seven Anishinaabe and four Dakota communities. Anishinaabe is sometimes listed as Chippewa or Ojibwe. Dakota is sometimes listed as Sioux or Dakota Sioux. However, the name Sioux can refer to a number of groups in the Midwest, Canada, Nebraska, and Montana.

The Lakota tribe’s current lands are in North and South Dakota.

Different individuals may have different preferences on naming and/or capitalizing their own identities. It is worthwhile to ask a person how they identify and respect the answer they give.

Islamic vs. Muslim

Islamic is an adjective used to describe things related to the religion of Islam. Islamic should never be used to describe a person. (Islamic art)

A Muslim is a person who practices the religion of Islam. Muslim can also be an adjective referring to people (my Muslim neighbor) but not objects.

Latino/Latina

Latino (male or mixed-gender group) and Latina (female) can be used to describe people of Latin American descent. Latinx is a word some use as a gender-neutral alternative.

Hispanic is an adjective referring to a person from a Spanish-speaking country. In some contexts it may carry a negative connotation.

If possible, it is worthwhile to ask a person how they identify before choosing a term.

Note: Chicano and Chicana are nouns or adjectives used by some Mexican Americans to describe a person of Mexican descent in the United States. It is not interchangeable with Latino or Latina.

People of color

Preferable to nonwhites or minorities. Use diverse only to describe groups with many different types of members. Don’t apply the term to an individual.

Somali

Somalian is incorrect. Somali describes the people, language, and culture of Somalia. Oromo refers to a separate East African ethnic group and language.

Gender and sexuality

Gender vs. sex

Gender is not synonymous with sex. Gender refers to a person’s social identity while sex refers to biological characteristics (Associated Press).

LGBTQ+

Stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning.
Use the abbreviation with a plus sign, without periods.

Many individuals might use the term queer to describe a sexual orientation or identity. Use the term if the individual in question uses it. In general, ask before applying the term queer or any label.

Nonbinary identities

Gender nonconforming may be used to describe a person whose gender expression does not conform to stereotypical expectations.

Nonbinary refers to a person whose gender identity is not exclusively masculine or feminine. Some people who identify as nonbinary may use they/them/theirs pronouns rather than she/her/hers or he/him/his.

Singular they

Per the University, it is acceptable to use they, them, or their as a singular, gender-neutral alternative to he or she, him or her, and his or her. The singular they is acceptable in any case, not just if the subject identifies as nonbinary.
(Each student took their seat before class began.
A young reader needs a book that is right for them.)

The singular they is still conjugated as a plural pronoun, even when referring to one real or hypothetical person. (They are, not they is).

Transgender

Transgender is an adjective used to describe people whose gender identity differs from their sex assigned at birth. Cite a person’s transgender status only when it is pertinent and its pertinence is clear to the reader. Unless a former name is newsworthy or pertinent, use the name and pronouns (he/him/his, she/her/hers) preferred by the transgender person. If no preference is known, use the pronouns consistent with the way the subject lives publicly, or ask. Transgender (never transgendered) is preferable to the older transsexual. (adapted from the New York Times)

Note: Transgender describes gender identity, not sexual orientation.