In most instances, the College follows the Associated Press Stylebook (AP Style) which is used by journalists. Our style guide includes some commonly used entries from the AP Stylebook, as well as entries that are unique to K.
Style Guide Items, Listed Alphabetically
A
Abbreviations: Do not use periods in most abbreviations (U.S., U.N. and U.K. are notable exceptions, but it is EU, not E.U., UAE, not U.A.E., LGBTQ+, not L.G.B.T.Q.+, etc.).
Academic degrees: Use periods: B.A., M.A., Ph.D., M.B.A., M.F.A., J.D.; however, avoid using courtesy titles, except “Dr.” for people holding medical degrees. Lowercase and apostrophe terms like bachelor’s degree, a master’s, etc.; capitalize and do not use a possessive in Bachelor of Arts or Master of Science.
Acronyms: Capitalize most acronyms (AIDS, not Aids). Use an organization’s full name in the first reference unless it is a universally recognized acronym (like YMCA).
Admission: The College uses “Office of Admission,” not Admissions plural.
Alumni: Use alumni, plural, for both male and female • alumnus, male singular • alumna, female singular • alumnae, female plural • alum or graduate, gender neutral.
Ampersand: In body text, use the ampersand only when it is part of a company or department’s formal name or a composition title: Swimming & Diving. Do not use in place of “and.” The ampersand may be used for website menus where character space is at a premium.
B
Board of Trustees: Capitalize Board of Trustees when the full name is used.
Bullets: Use periods to end bulleted items in text, per AP Stylebook. Do not use semicolons. In presentations or postcards, the period may be omitted if the bullets are very short and not complete sentences.
C
Class Years: Following name, use a backwards apostrophe (’) and the last two numerals of the graduation year—’73 for 1973. Do not use a K in front of the class year (K’73): Jim VanSweden ’73. References between the 1800s and 100 years before the present year should include the entire year: Sarah DeWaters 1900 or Sarah DeWaters (Class of 1900).
College address: Spell out the word “Street” in the College’s address. The state can be spelled out or abbreviated: Michigan, Mich., or MI. Do not use periods in USA. Often, bullets with spaces are used instead of commas.
D
Dates: Personal choice to abbreviate or spell out months or abbreviate when full dates are used. When a phrase refers to a month, day and year, set off the year with commas. Example: Friday, May 29, 2020, was the Day of Gracious Living. Use numerals without st, nd, rd or th.
Dashes: Em and en dashes are used without spaces before or after. En dash is used between time and numbers: 4–5 p.m. and 6–9 items. Em dash is used to set off parenthetical information.
Decades: Do not use an apostrophe before the s: 1800s or ’60s.
Departments: Use capitals only when referring to the official name of the department as indicated on the department’s unit stamp (Department of English, Division of College Business and Finance). Otherwise, use lowercase: the English department, the biology department, the business office.
E
Ellipses: Ellipses are single spaced with no spaces before or after.
F
First-year: First-year student is preferred over freshman. Use a hyphen in this context (first-year student, a program for first-years).
H
Headlines: In headlines, use full quotes around quoted material. Use single quotes around the titles of works that would normally be italicized. Headlines can be all uppercase, all lower case or a combination of upper and lower case.
I
Inclusive language: Avoid gender where it’s not relevant. Example: chair instead of chairman
J
Job Titles: Capitalize formal titles even for people who no longer hold that position (former President Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran). Titles are only capitalized when they directly precede names, with one exception: endowed professorships, such as the James A.B. Stone Professor of Theatre Arts.
K
Kalamazoo College: Use Kalamazoo College on first reference. Subsequent references may refer to the institution as K or the College (capitalized) in formal writing. K College may be used informally and should not be hyphenated.
K-Plan: K-Plan stands for the Kalamazoo Plan, though the full name is rarely used. It is always italicized. If K-Plan is surrounded by text that is set in an italic font face, use Roman for the title only.
N
Names of people: First reference to a person use first and last name. Add the class year, if an alumnus/alumna. Personal choice, on second reference—use either first name only (more friendly) or last name only (more formal), no matter if they are a child or adult. Use the first and last names of a nation’s president on first reference.
Numbers: In general, follow AP Stylebook for numerals and dates.
- Spell out whole numbers smaller than 10: One, two, three…nine, 10, 11, 12… However, use numbers when typing a range of numbers: 6–9.
- Do not use superscript fractions: 51/2. Use full-size numbers and letters: 5 1/2.
- Ordinals: Spell out first through ninth; use numerals starting at 10th.
- Using the % sign for percentages is acceptable except for headlines and the start of a sentence (spell out numeral the and the word percent at the start of a sentence).
O
Oxford comma: We do not use a comma before the final item in a series unless needed for clarity. Examples: She bought pencils, pens and paper. She triple majored in English, anthropology and sociology, and biology.
P
Phone numbers: Use periods in phone numbers: 269.337.7291.
Possessives: Use s’ for the possessive form of words or names ending in s (not s’s).
R
Race: K follows the AP Stylebook guidance for race-related coverage. Examples: Capitalize “Black”; no hyphen when referring to dual heritage (Asian American). Where possible, follow someone’s preference when describing a person’s heritage or culture. Please note guidance on this topic is continually evolving.
S
Senior Integrated Project (SIP): Prior to the 2021-22 academic year, SIP stood for Senior Individualized Project. Use the new name in published pieces starting in fall of 2021, even when referring to past SIPs, unless in a quotation. Spell out on first reference.
Spacing: Use one space after a colon and after a period that ends a sentence, including end stop punctuation marks.
States: Personal choice to abbreviate or spell out.
T
Theatre/Theater: Use “theatre” unless the formal name of a venue is “theater.”
Time: Use an en dash between time and numbers. Use lower case and periods on a.m. and p.m., and a space between the number and letters: 4 p.m., 4–5 p.m., 4–5:30 p.m., 11:30 a.m.–5 p.m. Do not use :00.
Titles of Works: Italicize all titles for books, movies, songs, plays and TV shows. If a title is a subset of a larger work, use quotes. Example: We studied the poem “Loneliness” from Mary Oliver’s book Devotions. Do not italicize titles of magazines, newspapers or journals. Use bi-caps, lowercase and no-spaces in: LuxEsto, BeLight and K-Plan. If the title is surrounded by text that is set in an italic font face, use Roman for the title only. See “Headlines” entry for title format within headlines.
U
Underlining: Do not underline words/sentences unless referring to a link. Use boldface to emphasize.
Upperclass students: This term refers to students in the sophomore, junior and senior classes. However, it can be mistakenly interpreted as referring to students from higher socioeconomic classes. Avoid using it except when necessary.
W
Websites: When referencing College websites in print materials, use the abbreviated form: Visit kzoo.edu, not http://www.kzoo.edu/. In electronic messages or text, use hyperlinks with key phrases rather than full websites: Visit the alumni Calendar of Events for more information.